Installment Vol.1 Page 5

THE CITY WAS IN DECAY!

No club would let you play original rock and roll unless you had a recording contract. There were so many bands around that could only practice in their lofts and basements. They had not many places to play in public. So I decided not only to have rock bands and let them play their own music, I made it policy that the only way to play CBGB was to perform only your own music.
That seemed to turn things around and soon bands were flocking to CBGB so they could do their own thing. It was quite an experience. Musicians literally came out of the woodwork. We even started to develop fans and regular paying customers who hung out to see and hear what was going on.

What is CBGB - and has been for over 26 years- was an old derelict bar from the turn of the last century. It was called "The Palace Bar" because it was right under "The Palace Hotel (some hotel, a real palace!). It was actually the largest flophouse on the Bowery. For over a century the Bowery has been a street of lost souls. The derelicts and alcoholic bums would line up only to stagger into the Palace Bar at 8am for their eye opener, their first drink of white port or muscatel.
The Bowery had over sixty flophouses and about forty or fifty bars of which
The Palace Bar (CBGB) was the largest. Over 165 feet long and 25 feet wide, just a big old bar with beer signs lighting the overhead. The "Palace" stank from dirty old men, vomit, and urine. When I took over the place I had to fumigate as we reinforced the old bar so you couldn't see the warp. The first stage we built we made out of scrap wood. We had no sound system of our own at that time, so the bands supplied the P.A. Eventually we bought our own, and supplemented it with rented equipment. Now we can boast the best rock and roll P.A. in New York City.

Old CBGB Board

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