Closing of Seminal Punk Rock Club CBGB Triggers Memories

As CBGB's closes its doors in NYC at the end of September 2006, it only seems fitting to tip our hat to this legendary rock club. This venue has played host to the greatest artists of punk and progressive rock, and has spawned a unique cultural experience that few musical venues can lay claim to. The stories and experiences are as varied as the artists themselves; love it or hate it, the grit and grime inspired generations of musicians to express themselves in such a ways that they went for it on stage - full tilt. Some of Indie-Music.com's readers sound off on their CBGB experiences…

"As a founding member and bass player of surf-punk pioneers Agent Orange (1979-88) I got to experience CBGB's as a 17 year old on the road for the first time. Now this was the early 80's when New York was a much different place than it is today. I heard about CBGB's for the first time listening to Rodney Bingenheimer's radio show on KROQ in Los Angeles. He played new bands such as the New York Dolls, Television, Richard Hell, The Ramones, and Blondie, that he mentioned were frequent performer's at this New York 'punk club' called CBGB's." - James C. Levesque, Agent Orange

"My first time at CBGB’s, sometime around the mid 70s, was as an innocent, wide-eyed young rocker. New to NYC, I was introduced to the then just-exploding live punk scene by gay music industry mover-and-shaker Danny Fields, whom I'd recently met. Fields was, at the time, both manager of The Ramones and editor of 16 Magazine." - Robert Urban, The Tempted

"I have been a professional music photographer for the past 35 years. I have done many of my shoots at CBGB's and was sad to hear of its closing. I wanted to give some photos for this article on the club, so what I did was to pick one date where I was shooting what was happening at the club on that date. I chose April 4, 1975 from the hours of 8 PM to midnight. I was hired to shoot Television for the record label - they were the headliner band. The opening act was Patti Smith." - Richard E. Aaron

Visit http://www.indie-music.com for more feedback and remembrances of CBGB.

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