New York's CBGBs: The Punk Side of Club Culture

"There were lots off muggers hanging around on the Bowery preying on the old or incapacitated men. When people were let out of jail or institutions they were very often housed in one of these flophouses by the city, so we had to deal with these crazies. Mostly, knives were the weapon of choice."

While the Paradise Garage and Danceteria were catalysts behind New York then the world's dancing disco culture, downtown rock venue CBGBs was key to the music, spawning US punk and seminal dance pioneers including Talking Heads and the B-52s. The tiny, sweat soaked venue based beneath Manhattan's biggest flop house (homeless hotel) the Palace first opened in 1973, when The Bowery was America's most infamous Skid Row, run by larger than life character Hilly Krystal.

By insisting bands play their own tunes at the venue, he happened to lay down one of the central tenets of punk rock, the DIY principle, which inspired much of the creativity that saw New York becoming the centre of the arts and alternative culture by the late 70s. Another factor, nowadays long absent from the Manhattan mix, was related to the decay all around Bowery; New York was cheap, both to live in and hang out.

30 years on, Hilly's just turned 70, the Bowery's been gentrified beyond recognition, though CBGBs remains there, a landmark though still active venue for upcoming New York bands. Speaking over the phone to Jonty Adderley on a recent sunny Manhattan morning, he's both lucid and articulate, reflecting the upside of a life spent lost in music.


Skrufff: Why are you releasing this album now in particular-

CBGBs: "It was the label's idea and they asked me but I think it's a good time. I think they felt the pulse of what's happening and from our perspective as a club, there seems to be a resurgence in punk. A local guy just came in ten minutes ago, a plumber and he told me his 15 year old cousin in Upstate New York has leukaemia and all she wants is a CBGBs T shirt. I don't know why but that's just an example. She's never been here, she's just heard about it. I think there's a mystique about the scene, not CBGBs but the punk scene in general."

Skrufff: How much is the club's music still dominated by punk-

CBGBs: "We've never booked just punk. Everybody calls music different things but I never considered Talking Heads as punk. Blondie started out like that then changed. Unlike the UK, we have all kinds of music within rock and my interest is in booking whatever is good. Truthfully even years ago Mink De Ville and the B52s weren't punk, though they called then New Wave. We used to call groups like Talking Heads 'art rock'."

Skrufff: Back in the 80s, CBGBs fitted into the club culture alongside venues like Danceteria, Area and Pyramid-

CBGBs: "We never catered to dance, we didn't eliminate dance though we did have bands like Talking Heads and the B 52s. The B 52s were even discovered here by Warners. We had danceable bands but we were never a dance club where people came to dance. Some people did move around but they came to listen to the music. I didn't want to cater to just one kind of music and with dance music when certain trends or hits happen a certain sameness seems to follow. Even hip hop seems to be like that now. It's calculated."

Skrufff: CBGBs used to be surrounded by homeless people's shelters…

CBGBs: "We used to have a flop house directly above us, we still do though they've changed it. An organisation that rehabilitates people who are lost on drugs, alcohol or life in general is based there. But there used to be 500 to 600 people living there whereas now they're down to 30."

Skrufff: Taxis in the 80s wouldn't even go to areas like the Bowery and Alphabet City (Avenues A-D), how much has the area changed since then-

CBGBs: "The Bowery now has normal, what I call 'real' people living on it. When the club started (1973) there were lots of artists, musicians and writers living around here and there was an interming Tags

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