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NY Punk Venue CBGB Faces Closure Over Unpaid Rent
Reuters via yahoo ^ | Mon Mar 7, 4:20 PM ET

Posted on 03/08/2005 6:36:50 AM PST by itsamelman

Reuters
NY Punk Venue CBGB Faces Closure Over Unpaid Rent

Mon Mar 7, 4:20 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's legendary rock club CBGB, which helped launch everybody from Blondie to the Ramones, faces closure if it does not resolve a dispute over unpaid rent with the homeless charity that owns the building.

Photo
AP Photo
 

Club owner Hilly Kristal said the dispute dated from 2001, when the landlord presented a $300,000 bill for unpaid rent.

Though most of that has now been repaid, the club was handed another bill earlier this year for $76,000 which CBGB has not paid. The club's lease comes to an end in August and talks on renewal are stalled.

"The real thing is they don't want me back," Kristal said, adding that there had been a series of disagreements over renovations and building certificates in recent years.

CBGB, which stands for "country, bluegrass and blues" even though it is most famous for punk music, rents its downtown space from the Bowery Residents' Committee -- a non-profit organization that runs a homeless shelter above the premises.

"I am not going to subsidize CBGB at the expense of homeless people," Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director for the organization, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.

MTV's Web site quoted him as saying CBGB had not met its obligations on safety.

The Committee wants to double the rent and negotiations over a new lease have ground to a halt amid legal wrangling that will result in a court hearing later this month.

Kristal, who founded the club in 1973, converting what had been a Hell's Angels hangout into one of the most famous venues for live music in the city, said he would fight closure of what he called a New York City institution.

"We've established something here. ... This is a kind of symbol of helping young musicians and new artists," he said, recalling early gigs by the likes of Pearl Jam.

"I think we do a nice thing for a lot of people; maybe it's not quite as wonderful as helping the homeless but it has its benefits," Kristal said.

Rosenblatt could be immediately reached for comment.

 

 




TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: punkmusic
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To: itsamelman

"I am not going to subsidize CBGB at the expense of homeless people," Muzzy Rosenblatt, executive director for the organization, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.

I get it, tax paying, beer buying frequenters be damned. Your money is no good here. We only give stuff away to homeless people.


21 posted on 03/08/2005 12:31:59 PM PST by clarissaexplainsitall (stewed tomatoes are just plain gross)
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To: JerseyHighlander
"Broke a finger that night too, but don't remember how. Do remember Jesus Lizard."

Ah, to be young.... A guy I know jumped off the balcony at a PiL show at the Palladium in Hollywood. Everyone cleared out and he slammed into the floor. After about a minute he pulled himself up and walked back to the bar. Next morning he asked "What the hell happened to my head and ribs?"

22 posted on 03/08/2005 12:43:57 PM PST by itsamelman (“Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh.” -- Al Swearengen)
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To: Dad yer funny
The Bowery is vanishing

What will happen to all those bums who looked like they'd just beamed-in from the 5th dimension?

Hollywood couldn't possibly create a better Bowery bum than the Bowery itself.

23 posted on 03/08/2005 1:47:07 PM PST by angkor
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To: itsamelman

And the Talking Heads.


24 posted on 03/08/2005 1:48:45 PM PST by KC_Conspirator (This space outsourced to India)
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To: The Toll
The truth is CBGB's is the best sounding dive I have ever seen

Amen! My old band played there a few times and even recorded a live LP there. Great sound, great soundmen. Long may CB's wave!
25 posted on 03/08/2005 1:49:48 PM PST by GodBlessRonaldReagan (Count Petofi will not be denied!)
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To: itsamelman
A guy I know jumped off the balcony at a PiL show at the Palladium in Hollywood

A friend caught the last U.S. Pistols show at the Cow Palace, said it was disgusting with Rotten spitting and (etc etc) on the audience. I later saw PiL several times in Boston, he'd calmed down a great deal.

The Pistols did have good taste staying at the (then-Westin) Hotel Miyako in San Francisco (where Sid V. broke the lobby window in a temper tantrum). For years I stayed there on business, always getting a corner room on a high floor. Two corner walls of solid glass with sliding Japanese rice-paper shutters. IMO the best hotel in SF at a very reasonable price.

The Chelsea however leaves a great deal to be desired.

26 posted on 03/08/2005 2:10:47 PM PST by angkor
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To: KC_Conspirator
And the Talking Heads.

I sometimes think of the Heads as a DC band, a bunch of Navy brats with Byrne from Annapolis, Franz a Pentagon admiral's son. They used to play the Corcoran Gallery in DC when not in NYC.

Franz's younger brother was in a band called the Urban Verbs, they were good but Franz (the lead singer) couldn't sing and the producer completely ruined their one and only LP, mainly because he let Franz's horrible voice stand front and center with no effects whatsoever, completely raw and unbearable.

27 posted on 03/08/2005 2:23:23 PM PST by angkor
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To: dennisw
So was Max's which I never got to.

I couldn't understand Max's. The Ritz made sense.

28 posted on 03/08/2005 2:29:14 PM PST by angkor
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To: itsamelman

"Rosenblatt went on to state, 'This ain't no Mud Club, no CBGB, I ain't got time for that now.'"


29 posted on 03/08/2005 2:35:09 PM PST by Billthedrill
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To: itsamelman

What depressing news.....

Thanks for the ping.


30 posted on 03/08/2005 3:29:43 PM PST by Tx Angel
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To: angkor
Two albums of the Talking Heads are among my favorite ever made by American rock groups. 

Remain In Light, though considered to be the Talking Heads' best album, probably stunned people back in 1980....

You best believe it

 

3. Great Curve Music ListenMusic ListenMusic
4. Once in a Lifetime Music ListenMusic ListenMusic

31 posted on 03/08/2005 4:18:39 PM PST by dennisw (Seeing as how this is a .44 magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world .........)
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To: angkor

I always thought Byrne was from Arbutus. There's a big difference between Arbutus (blue collar, just south of Balto.) and Annapolis. I never had the idea that Byrne had a privileged background, but I could be wrong.


32 posted on 03/09/2005 5:01:50 AM PST by KevinB
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To: angkor

Only visited once....the uh washroom was memorable. Also visited Max's Kansas City. It was odd being in a place where there was a song playing about it. Still closing over a rent dispute is a fitting end. :)


33 posted on 03/09/2005 5:13:19 AM PST by xp38
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To: itsamelman

CBGBs, Max's, Mudd Club, Ritz, Studio 54, Palladium, Danceteria, Lone Star, Limelight, Cat Club, Area, Roxy, Tramps, Peppermint Lounge, Maxwell's...

Anybody remember the Left Bank, a club in Mt. Vernon (in Westchester County)? All the bands of the era (Gang of Four, Echo & the Bunnymen, Ramones, Stranglers) played there, right near home in the suburbs, around 1980-82.


34 posted on 03/09/2005 5:49:59 AM PST by Jhensy
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To: KevinB
Byrne was from Arbutus.

Come to think of it, you're probably right. I have a few wires crossed about the geneaology of the Heads.

35 posted on 03/09/2005 2:42:41 PM PST by angkor
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To: Jhensy; RepoGirl
Looks like we frequented the same clubs at around the same era!  I just came through the Holland Tunnel to do it!

I took a friend of mine from Footville Wisconsin to Danceateria one night the week before Christmas 1984.  At around midnight there were a bunch of punkers in full regalia on the stage on the first floor singing Christmas carols.  She couldn't get over it.  That topped Guru guy in the white robe on roller skates playing his sitar around Washington Square Park.  I used to frequent Danceateria and the Cat Club frequently in those days but never ran into Madonna.  Being a Jersey guy, I went to Maxwell's in Hoboken a lot too.

I only went to CBGBs a couple of times.  Once for a no-name band and another time to see Henry Rollins shortly after Black Flag broke up.  I was into the music but I had a normal haircut and was clean shaven and no piercings which got me odd looks there.

36 posted on 03/09/2005 5:14:53 PM PST by Incorrigible (immanentizing the eschaton)
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To: Incorrigible
Nope! I was born in Jersey, but spent all of my formative years in South Florida. The punk scene was ... memorable... to say the least. I only dreamt about the early 80s scene in New York.

Once I finally made it to New York City, it was the early 90s and the place seemed so tame compared to what I'd heard about.

37 posted on 03/09/2005 7:12:18 PM PST by RepoGirl (Rottweilers are republican; all cats vote nader.)
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To: KC_Conspirator

The only band I regret not getting to see live.


38 posted on 03/09/2005 7:19:25 PM PST by Walkingfeather (q)
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To: itsamelman
RIP to the birthplace of the GREATEST ROCK AND ROLL BAND OF ALL TIME.

Great, now as part of the "kinder, gentler" East Village it will either become a sushi bar for the Japanese trustafarians in that neighborhood or maybe a Subway (the stupid sandwich shop that is).

In all honesty, CB's has been living on nostalgia for the past 15 years. It hasn't been relavent since the NY harcore scene of the mid-late 1980s. Anyone here remember Agnostic Front?

39 posted on 03/09/2005 7:30:47 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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To: dennisw

My dad saw Bruce at the Stone Pony in 1969. He told me that Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were a bigger deal back then.


40 posted on 03/09/2005 7:32:38 PM PST by Clemenza (Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms: The Other Holy Trinity)
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