There are a variety of qualities which lead to a venue going down in history as a legendary one.
Sometimes, it was the local hot spot — the place where everyone wanted to be seen. Other times, it was something specific about the place, musically — like the sound in there or the quality of acts they featured. And then, it could be that the place just seemed to be of the moment. Where it was happening. Where the next big thing was going to dawn. When the stars align and the universe blesses us with a place that features several of these qualities, you end up with a legendary venue. Usually, these places are associated with one act in particular, at the threshold of their career.
It’s these venues and their associated acts I’ll be featuring today. I’m going to identify them, describe each at its peak, list the associated bands who stood on its shoulders, and illustrate what — if anything — remains of the place now. We’ll start with one everybody should know…
The Cavern, Liverpool
Originally a jazz club, The Cavern opened on Matthew Street in Liverpool in January 1957, modelled after the basement clubs in Paris — specifically, Le Caveau de la Huchette. The Cavern had been a summertime fruit warehouse and, during the Second World War, an air raid shelter. The jazz club began featuring more and more local skiffle groups, which were gaining popularity. The Beatles began as one of these, The Quarrymen, and first played The Cavern on Aug. 7, 1957. Only John Lennon was a member of the group at that time. Paul McCartney joined in 1958 and George Harrison in 1960. McCartney’s first Cavern gig was in ’58 and Harrison’s was in 1961.
After The Cavern changed hands in 1959, it began to feature more and more blues and beat groups. Prominently among those was Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, featuring Ringo Starr on drums. The Beatles performed there on Feb. 9th, 1961 — the first of 292 appearances at The Cavern, right up until two weeks before the release of their fourth single, the record-breaking She Loves You. Then it all exploded. Since that day The Cavern has remained a key part of the band’s history and the two will be forever associated. The Cavern hosted a slew of up-and-coming bands over the next decade and was referenced in songs and the title of Beatles manager Brian Epstein‘s memoir, A Cellarful of Noise.
Due to the publicity which came from being associated with the band, The Cavern enjoyed a decade of success before it finally closed in May 1973. As part of infrastructure work for Liverpool’s underground railway, it was filled in and became a parking lot. A new Cavern Club was opened a few doors down and remains in business. There is a historical storyboard marking the entrance of the original location.
CBGB, New York City
Hilly Kristal opened CBGB in Manhattan’s East Village in 1973. Previously known as Hilly’s On The Bowery, it had been a dive bar and a biker joint. Kristal relaunched it, intending it to be a venue being for roots music — the initials name stood for Country, BlueGrass and Blues.
Instead, thanks to the closure of the Mercer Arts Center in August ’73, CBGB quickly became the venue for local punk and new wave bands who would have previously played at Mercer, which was set up as a non-profit space for experimental music and unsigned acts. Among those Mercer orphans were Jayne County and Suicide. Eventually, CBGB fully replaced Mercer as a key home-ice gig space, and became a launchpad for Ramones, Blondie, Television, Patti Smith, Richard Hell & The Voidoids, Talking Heads and more.
A quarter-century later, the legendary venue started having cash-flow issues and ran into disputes over unpaid rent. It closed in mid-October 2006 following a special performance by Patti Smith. Kristal died of lung cancer the following year. The place is now a storefront for fashion designer John Varvatos, who opted to preserve the famous graffiti in the bathroom, the band stickers still stuck to the walls and several artifacts and playbills found onsite.
The 100 Club, London
Unlike the previous two, London’s famous 100 Club is still open in its original location on Oxford Street, where it has been since 1942. For the first 22 years, it was known as the Feldman Swing Club — initially, in a restaurant called Macks. Feldman Swing Club was popular with American GIs in England during the Second World War. It hosted a slew of famous jazz musicians as both featured performers and patrons. The 1964 transition to The 100 Club was meant to capitalize on the popularity of beat music.
A decade later, like CBGB in New York, The 100 Club became a key venue for Britain’s burgeoning punk scene. It was the site of the first International Punk Festival in September 1976. At that gig alone, you could have seen The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, Buzzcocks, Siouxsie & The Banshees, The Jam and The Stranglers. It became THE venue for punk and hardcore bands through the ’80s. It doesn’t really host these acts anymore, but remains open — with the decor virtually unchanged since the 1970s.
The Apollo Theatre, Harlem
The facade of The Apollo Theatre in Upper Manhattan is a national landmark and historic site. It’s doubtful any of its original whites-only clientele would have ever envisioned this when the place opened as a burlesque venue in 1913. Previous to the 1920s, the Harlem neighbourhood had been primarily home to upper-middle-class whites, but the arrival of New York’s first subway and the development of affordable row housing attracted more and more black families to the area. The Apollo started admitting black patrons in the 1920s and changed hands a few times before being acquired by Sydney Coden in 1934; he re-launched it as a venue for black performers with an all-black staff. Burlesque theatres in the area mostly migrated to Times Square.
The Apollo Theatre started attracting working-class and younger audiences. There was a wide variety of jazz, R&B, blues and gospel performances by artists who often were forbidden from appearing at other venues due to their colour. Vaudeville-like revues were frequently staged at the venue featuring comedians, dancers, musicians and singers. It was a place of pride in the community and, as such, was undamaged in the riots of 1935, 1943, or 1964.
In terms of being a launchpad for new talent, and becoming synonymous with particular stars, The Apollo first hosted its famous Amateur Night in 1934. This happened continually through the end of the 60s and from 1985 to present. The vast majority of Amateur Night performers have been young black performers, and are credited with the discovery of Pearl Bailey, Ella Fitzgerald, The Jackson 5, Sarah Vaughan, King Curtis, Wilson Pickett, Gladys Knight, Smokey Robinson, The Ronettes, The Isley Brothers, Sammy Davis Jr., Billie Holiday and Dionne Warwick — most of whom likely would never have had a breakthrough opportunity.
UFO Club, London
Quite unlike The Apollo, UFO Club‘s era was brief — but impactful. It was started by John “Hoppy” Hopkins and producer Joe Boyd in a basement dancehall called The Blarney Club at 31 Tottenham Court Rd. under the old Gala Berkeley Cinema. They opened UFO two days before Xmas, 1966. Intended as a hub space for swinging London’s underground, experimental music scene, the pre-fame Pink Floyd served as the house band — performing amidst a sea of psychedelic liquid slide-projection light shows. Even during the short lifetime of the club, Pink Floyd rose to such prominence that they were no longer affordable and were replaced with fellow Cambridge band Soft Machine. Boyd produced Floyd’s first two singles, Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, before the band was paired up with producer Norman Smith for their debut album, The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn.
By the summer of 1967, thanks to an unflattering news feature, Boyd and the UFO got kicked out of the space and relocated to the now-famous Roundhouse. UFO operated there for just under two months before shutting down entirely. It was at the Tottenham location for seven months, and then two more at The Roundhouse. There were a total of 32 gigs at the former and just eight at the latter. Of those, Pink Floyd played 12 times — but only once at The Roundhouse.
The block of Tottenham Court Road where Gala Berkeley Cinema was located was redeveloped in 1976. The businesses were closed, demolished and replaced with a new three-screen complex in 1981, which still stands as the Odeon Tottenham Court Road.
Ryman Auditorium, Nashville
Originally opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892, a project spearheaded by local businessman Thomas Ryman. It served as a place of worship, but also as a venue, to help them pay the bills. Within a decade, it began attracting bigger and bigger shows — Harry Houdini, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope and others. But the first person to sell out the 2,000-seat venue was Helen Keller.
The Grand Ole Opry was already a popular radio program since the mid-’20s, when it got kicked out of the War Memorial complex due to its rowdy crowds. The first Opry broadcast from the Ryman was in 1943. WSM radio bought the building in 1963 and renamed it The Grand Ole Opry House. A new Opry House was constructed and opened in 1974, the official venue for broadcasts. The Ryman quietly reverted back to its old name and — despite gaining historic designation and averting demolition — it remained pretty much dormant for 20 years before it was renovated and re-opened as a museum and performance space.
During its run at the main stage of the Grand Ole Opry, from June 5, 1943 to March 15, 1974, the Ryman saw the birth of bluegrass music in December 1945, debuts by Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn and Patsy Cline, the six-encore debut of Hank Williams, the staging of every Country Music Awards broadcast from 1968 to 1973, most episodes of The Johnny Cash Show — which itself featured the only televised performance of Derek & The Dominoes. The Ryman stage also hosted one of the final public appearances of Louis Armstrong, during an episode of Cash’s show.
Whisky A Go Go, Los Angeles
The Whisky A Go Go gets its name from the French dance club of the same name, which opened in 1947. L.A.’s Whisky A Go Go was actually the second one in America; the first opened in Chicago in 1958. A third in Washington, D.C., opened in 1966.
There’s no question the one on Sunset Strip is the most famous, and most critical in the history of rock ’n’ roll. Opened in January 1964, the Whisky was founded by Elmer Valentine, Phil Tanzini, Shelly Davis and Theodore Flier. Two years later, Valentine, Lou Adler, and others founded the neighbouring Roxy Theatre. Further increasing their grip on the Strip‘s entertainment scene, in 1972 the two men — along with Mario Maglieri and others — started the nearby Rainbow Bar & Grill.
The Whisky was critical in the development, discovery and success of countless SoCal bands. In those first years, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and Love were regulars, and for a time, The Doors were the house band. They got to open for Them (featuring Van Morrison) during the group’s June 1966 residency. Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention were offered a record deal with Verve based on a gig at the Whisky. Heck, even decades later, Metallica recruited bassist Cliff Burton after watching him play there.
The Troubadour, Los Angeles
Even more than the Whisky, West Hollywood’s Troubadour nightclub was a major proving ground for aspiring singer-songwriters. Doug Weston opened the place in 1957, and shortly after it relocated to its current location on Santa Monica Boulevard. Randy Newman debuted there. Elton John’s first American gig was there, and gigs at the Troubadour ended up being hugely important to the careers of Hoyt Axton, Jackson Browne, Neil Diamond, Eagles, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, James Taylor, Tom Waits, Steve Earle and Fiona Apple.
What’s often overlooked is the fact that the Troubadour was also an important venue for fresh punk and new wave bands, trying to make a name for themselves — offering shows to Bad Religion, Meat Puppets and Napalm Death. In the ’80s, the club also supported L.A.’s hair metal scene, becoming closely associated with Guns N’ Roses, who played their first show there and were discovered there by David Geffen. There were also critical shows at the Troubadour by Cinderella, L.A. Guns, Mötley Crüe, Poison, Ratt, Warrant and W.A.S.P. During the grunge era, and after, acts including Melvins, Mudhoney, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Silverchair, Radiohead and Incubus got a major boost from early shows at Weston’s famous room.
The Fillmore, San Francisco
There was a Fillmore East in New York and a Fillmore West in San Francisco, and the original — which somehow was reborn in the ’90s and remains in operation. The building at 1805 Geary Blvd. was built in 1912 as the Majestic Hall and Academy of Dancing. It stayed this way for nearly 25 years before being rechristened the Ambassador Dance Hall for two decades. From the start of the Second World War until 1952, it was the Ambassador Roller Skating Rink and then sat dilapidated for two years before businessman Charles Sullivan bought it and renamed it The Fillmore.
Sullivan was monumentally successful. He was the first to allow black audiences and booked the biggest black acts in the business — Louis Armstrong, Ike & Tina Turner, James Brown, Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix and many others. Sullivan started working with Graham in late 1965, allowing the promoter to book The Fillmore on nights it wasn’t in use. The two men had an agreement that Graham would take over Sullivan’s affairs should anything happen to him. Sadly, something did. On Aug. 2, 1966, Sullivan was found shot to death — a homicide which remains unsolved.
Under Graham’s leadership, The Fillmore became centre stage for the San Francisco psychedelic music scene. Some of the first shows by The Velvet Underground were there during Andy Warhol‘s Exploding Plastic Inevitable multimedia show. Danny Williams, who did lighting for the show, built the revolutionary lighting system at The Fillmore. In the ensuing years, the venue boasted shows by the most important and influential acts of the era, especially Grateful Dead, who played there more than 50 times between 1965 and 1969. Other major acts to grace the stage included the first show by The Steve Miller Band, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Moby Grape, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Byrds, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Santana, The Mothers of Invention, B.B. King, Miles Davis, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, The Who, Cream and Pink Floyd, during their first American tour.
Graham decided to abandon The Fillmore, and its rough neighbourhood, in the summer of 1968. In July he took over operation of the Carousel Ballroom, just five minutes away, renaming it The Fillmore West to pair it with his Fillmore East, opened four months earlier. The Fillmore West was in operation until 1971.
Meantime, the original Fillmore venue started being run by different management for a year or two as “the New Old Fillmore.” It was put back in action as The Elite Club in the early ’80s, hosting punk, new wave and hardcore acts including Fear, D.O.A, Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, Gang of Four and Public Image Ltd. before Graham took over again in the mid-’80s. The venue was badly damaged in the 1989 earthquake and then Graham died in a helicopter crash in 1991. His wish was for the original building to be renovated and re-opened, which it was in 1994 featuring an inaugural show by Smashing Pumpkins. It remains in operation.
Crocodile Café, Seattle
The legendary grunge venue, The Crocodile Café, was opened by Stephanie Dorgan at the end of April in 1991 at 2200 2nd Avenue in Seattle. Almost instantly, it became a fixture — as a venue for all the next big grunge acts. It was named in 2013 by Rolling Stone magazine as the 7th best club in America. It opened and closed several times, shortened its name to The Crocodile in 2007, was expanded and changed hands — and then in 2020, it relocated altogether to the 30,000-square foot site of the former Sailors’ Union of the Pacific Lodge at the intersection of 1st Ave and Wall Street. Seems like it will be safe there for some time, as owners managed to negotiate a 20-year lease.
The Crocodile opened in its new location on Dec. 1, 2021. The old location appears to be vacant — but there’s loads of footage from its glory days, including scenes in the 1992 film Singles. Among the bands who got their start or had important shows at The Crocodile Café were Mudhoney, Tad, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Sunny Day Real Estate, Everclear, Mad Season, Green Day, The Strokes, Joanna Newsom, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater-Kinney, Built to Spill, Neutral Milk Hotel and The Presidents of the United States of America.
• • •
Area Resident is an Ottawa-based journalist, recording artist, music collector and re-seller. Hear (and buy) his music on Bandcamp, email him HERE, follow him on Instagram and check him out on Discogs.
