Past Glories

9 December 2005



CBGB’s to Move Next Halloween

The East Village of New York has come up in the world in the last 30 years. It was where the artistes moved when Greenwich Village became too expensive. Now, they’ve all moved to Williamsburg, Brooklyn for the same reason. As the district changes, so do the landmarks, and the legendary nightclub CBGB will be leaving under the terms of a deal agreed earlier this week. Although it will be the end of an era, the club’s best days are long gone. One hopes management will give it a dignified death.

Hilly Kristal, owner and founder of CBGB, started the club at 315 Bowery, between 1st and 2nd Avenues in 1973. This is the same neighborhood, more or less, where “Gangs of New York” took place. Mr. Kristal opened the club there, under a flophouse (no kidding!) because the rent was cheap and the neighborhood wasn’t very residential so noise complaints wouldn’t be an issue. CBGB stands for “Country, Blue Grass and Blues,” which gives one an idea of how fate plays tricks on everyone.

The club didn’t open on Sundays back in the old days, so Terry Ork (manager of the band Television) got his band a gig there one Sunday for $1 a head. Sunday became open mike night, and soon enough, local garage bands turned up. In the lead were some kids from Forest Hills in black leather jackets, white T-shirts, torn jeans and sneakers – the world knows them as The Ramones. The rest is history: Blondie, the Talking Heads, Patti Smith Group. Now, CBGB is largely history. Other clubs have become more cutting edge, while CBGB has had the tourist trade. This has been the case for at least 15 years, and fame has been part of the problem.

Because the neighborhood has come up a bit, the landlord (Bowery Residents Committee, a homeless advocacy group that owns the lease on the property) wanted to raise the rent, and Mr. Kristal has been fighting them in court. The new deal ends litigation and gets the BRC $35,000 a month instead of $19,000. It also requires CBGB to leave by Halloween next year.

That should be the end of it, but Mr. Kristal may not leave well enough alone. He’s looked at other space in Lower Manhattan, and worse, Las Vegas. “Things are different all the time -- look at the ‘70s, the ‘80s, the ‘90s,” he told the press recently. “The most important thing is we’re keeping the integrity of CBGB’s. It won’t be exactly the same, but it will have the same ingredients.” House of Blues, Planet Hollywood and the Hard Rock Café all can say that, and they are all pale imitations of the real thing. One hopes Mr. Kristal will take a final bow and depart gracefully.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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