Sticker plastered, dark, sweaty, beer swilled, smoke filled, and that was just going down the stairs to CBGB's !
The club had started in 73 on New York's East Side and promised in it's title Country, Bluegrass and Blues, by 1977 it become the home of Punk. In it's 70's heyday it inspired the first punk club in the UK, The Roxy. Malcolm McLaren had nicked most of the CBGB bands visual ideas and fed the early Sex Pistols with the results.
The Ramones, Television, Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, The Voidoids, Cramps, Blondie, The Shirts, and Talking Heads all began their less than big break in the place. The breaks for these bands came later but CBGB's is where the reputation was earned. Some were good musicians and artists. Some just weren't. It didn't matter though, it was owned as much by the audience as it was by anyone. Freaks, misfits, dropouts, bums and rock and roll fans had made the club their own. In later years it mainly become known for just hardcore punk and metal.
CBGB's closed in October 2006 with the owner Hilly Kristal in a mountain of debt. He tried to move it to another location but died before he could open.
It seems only fitting then, that one day after the anniversary of Joey Ramone's death on April 15 2001, to show a film of the club in 1977 with The Ramones, resplendent against a backdrop of Marshall stacks.
