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Have you ever worked a rough Club (Page 2)
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The Steel Guitar Forum
Bar Chatter Archive
Have you ever worked a rough Club (Page 2)
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| This topic is 2 pages long: 1 2 This topic was originally posted in this forum: Wanted To Buy |
| Author | Topic: Have you ever worked a rough Club |
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Vern Kendrick Member Posts: 442 |
posted 17 April 2001 07:10 PM
Damn !!I've got to remember that |
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Harry Hess Member Posts: 1131 |
posted 17 April 2001 07:16 PM
I played a gig once at the Alpine Lodge in Alpine, New Hampshire when a motorcycle gang came in and seriously beat the living daylights out of every patron in the place. Didn't touch the band though. We were all six footers and we just kinda stood and formed a barrier to keep the brawl off the stage and our gear. I remember seeing a cop come in and look really scared and runnin' out, hoping that nobody saw him. Another time in the early 70's, I took a house gig at Tony's Bar in Miami. Six and a half sets a night, six nights a week. One night a patron was tellin' me that I had done a good job replacing the previous guitarist when he added that what had happened to him was a shame. I asked what happened and he said, "Oh, you know.... the stray bullet". I actually left that gig about a month later. As I was screechin' out of the parking lot, the club owner came charging out with his shot gun. But he was too drunk and I was too young and fast for him. Several years later a club owner in L.A. kicked my butt with the help of his six bouncers for being the guy in the band who gave him a rash of **** about his refusal to pay us. I remember one of the guys saying, "Gee Harry, now he'll never have us back". Regards, |
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Chick Donner Member Posts: 681 |
posted 17 April 2001 07:49 PM
Like Earl Erb, I too worked the Whisk-a-GoGo in Mason City Iowa, but it was tame. Most of us who worked that 'circuit,' also worked The Crystal Pistol in Fairborn, Ohio (pretty rough at times), Cannon's Nightclub in Quincy, Ill, (could be real rough), the Whisk, a joint in Rochester Minn whose name escapes me right now (help me, Earl), and another joint in Chester PA. These were all on a circuit played by guys like Willie Samples (deceased) who I worked it with, and Wyatt Webb and "many others." Had a lot of fun working those joints; didn't make any money to speak of, but it was good music, good pickers, etc. Also worked the Cow Palace in Colo Springs . . . could get rough. But for REALLY ROUGH, I started in the Anchor Bar on Hotel Street in Honolulu... that was bad news. THey'd check you at the door for a gun or knife . . . if you didn't have one, they'd GIVE you one. Also worked Johnnie's Lounge in Chicago in the late sixties . . . 1509 W. Madison St., right off the loop. Had 4 killed in there one weekend. Not a particularly unusual happening. Can't remember names, but worked behind chicken wire in Charleston, SC . . . Lotsa fun when young. Don't know I'd care to go it again, but who knows? |
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Mike Perlowin Member Posts: 6731 |
posted 18 April 2001 03:09 AM
I worked for a singer named Jerry Eugene for 7 or 8 years, but the eventually broke up, as bands do. The leasd guitarist and I joined another, and Jerry became a solo act. A few years later, he was working in a place in Long Beach, and apparently some folks didn't care for his singing. Three guys got up and left, and were waiting for him with a shotgun at closing time. The murderers have never been caught. The police said that robbery was the motive. (the killers also stole his truck) but those of us who knew Jerry think he said something offensive on the bandstand (as he often did) and the guys who killed him were so angry they decided to kill him. |
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Vern Kendrick Member Posts: 442 |
posted 18 April 2001 09:40 AM
I worked Cannons in Quincy with Jay Lee Webb,They had a waitress there who weighed about 62 pounds,I called her Olive Oyl,after about a week ol' Olive Oyl got to looking pretty good, |
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Gene Jones Member Posts: 5796 |
posted 18 April 2001 09:58 AM
This is a story that isn't on my web-site...when I was working for Merl Lindsay, he had a friend that owned a local (OKC) club, and sometimes we (the band) would go out there and jam between tours out of town. I might add that this was one of those after-hours "just outside the OKC limits" places, and it was rough. One night while we were jammin' there, a text-book fight started and continued to escalate until the entire club was involved. I was trying my best to stay out of it, when the owner of the club (the friend of Merls) while trying to stop the fight, ended up on he floor with two big cowboys on top of him, pounding away. Merl, who was frail from cancer at the time, yelled "get 'em Gene" and my better judgement failed when I grabbed those two guys from behind and threw them off of Merls friend. To make matters worse, the girl-friend of one of the guys that I pulled off of Merls friend, jumped me from behind, and when I whirled around not knowing who it was, slammed my elbow into her mouth which resulted in blood and teeth everywhere. Someone yelled "he hit that girl" and 3 or 4 guys grabbed poolcues and started for me. I was trapped in a corner of the bar, when the club owner I had pulled those guys off of, grabbed a JAX beer sign that had a fake plastic pistol on it, and started waving it around and threatening to shoot anyone who started for me. He yelled at Merl and the rest of the band to get out of there, which we did. We made a wild drive through city streets with two or three cars chasing us,and Merl handed me a screwdriver he found under the seat, and said use this, they are gona kill us. We finally pulled up in front of the Midwest City, OK, police Department, where they finally gave up the chase. We went back to the club the next day to retrieve our instruments, so we could leave town on another tour, and couldn't believe we were still alive. Of all of my close experiences, this was the worst. |
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dlayne Member Posts: 398 |
posted 20 April 2001 02:48 PM
Here in the Wild and Wonderful there are no other kinds of clubs,I played them all in the southern part of the state for 15yrs,more bad experiences than I care to remember. ------------------ |
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Steve Allison Member Posts: 396 |
posted 21 April 2001 05:38 AM
OH yeah been there & done that!! It always amazes me that these real rough clubs have got a pool table in the same room with the dancin' & drinkin'. |
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John Russell Member Posts: 455 |
posted 21 April 2001 07:59 AM
No violence here but an interesting story. One of the first bands I played in here in Austin was playing down on 6th Street before it was the tourist attraction it is now. It was basically a skid row. The joint was the JJJ Tavern, we were playing and a man walks in with two tall gorgeous black women wearing fur coats. Next think I see is these two gals walking up to the stage and beginning to dance with us onstage. Pretty soon they take off their fur coats and are wearing nothing but g-strings begin dancing seductively with the audience going crazy. I'll never forget, the song was "Folsum Prison Blues" talk about culture contrast. Then I called the next song: "Honky Tonk Women." Everybody loved it. JR |
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Paul Graupp Member Posts: 3199 |
posted 21 April 2001 08:25 AM
At the Briarhopper club just outside of Raleigh, NC: when I first started there one of the regulars had a nickname of " NY ". He did a solo dance that was not recognized in the south. He sort of semi squatted and then would jump in time with the music. I suppose I was a smart a&& in those days but I simply couldn't help myself so one night when he hopped over my way, I leaned down and hollered: "Have you tried Ex-Lax?" He totally flipped out and was still trying to throw chairs at me as they dragged him out. He was back the next weekend and still The Briarhopper was a hugh dance hall with lots of customers and lots of stories. Regards, Paul |
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Geoff Brown Member Posts: 394 |
posted 22 April 2001 06:10 AM
Several years ago I played guitar w/ a 2-bit cover band in upstate NY. We played a gig at a place called The Wooden Nickel, I believe...somewhere in the hills of NE PA. The PA wasn't right during the first set, w/ a nasty 60-cycle hum. We fixed that between sets. The second set, some guy shootin pool started yellin "play some some f&%king Charlie Daniels". Unable to ignore his persistent heckling, our singer (a female)apologized and told the crowd we didn't do any Charlie Daniels tunes. This was a small joint, packed w/ bikers and assorted local yahoos. The place grew silent, and someone said,"the last band that said that didn't get out alive". My mind flashed to the chicken wire scene from the Blues Brothers movie. We played a quick 2nd set. Afterwards, the owner cursed us out and offered us 15.00 each to pack up and get out. Seemed like the proper thing to do, and we wasted no time. Our manager, who didn't make the gig was the subject of much abuse on the long ride home thru a snowstorm. The "Cameron Hilton" in Cameron, NY (near my hometown of Canisteo) was notorious for beating up bands, and anyone else who looked like they needed some impromptu dental work. I never played there, and have all my teeth to prove it. The place was in the middle of a friggin cornfield. |
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Lefty Member Posts: 742 |
posted 22 April 2001 09:08 AM
A place called "The Boom-Boom Room" for me, next to a bowling ally. The first night I went to the bathroom , and there was a full house at the comode, urinal, one guy going in the sink, and one guy going into a hole in the wall someone had put there with their fist. I almost got in a fight over tuning my steel while the jukebox was playing. The bass player got a bullet hole in his car door from a fight that happened when we were playing. My car window was broken out, and my 9mm was stolen. Turned up later, a swimmer found it in lake Lanier. A foul place, man. Lefty |
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Jody Carver Member Posts: 7455 |
posted 02 May 2001 06:12 PM
Hi ,,,I worked at what you would call a rough club,,,it was really a nice quiet place in a residential area of Queens NY. It was a quiet "family type club" however it was owned by people in one of New Yorks Five Families...I am thinking here,,,I think I will save this for my Fender book,,,,this will blow peoples minds,,this was a hangout |
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Vern Kendrick Member Posts: 442 |
posted 02 May 2001 07:15 PM
I was'nt even going to mention "the guy's"we all know theres no such thing as the Mafia,..The best clubs I've worked were "well organized", |
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Jim Smith Member Posts: 6399 |
posted 02 May 2001 07:26 PM
Jody, to prevent double posts only click the submit button ONCE! I see a lot of people that double-click everything from habit. Icons on your screen and files in Explorer need to be double-clicked to run, but buttons should never be double-clicked.  |
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Jody Carver Member Posts: 7455 |
posted 02 May 2001 07:45 PM
Vern ,,,,thank you,,,,I think Sammy The Bull Gravano put an end to that "cosa nostra rumor" You are correct there is no mafia,,,Joe Valachi proved that years ago,,,,Too bad that Paul Castellano fell ill to a blast of bullets a few years back in Manhattan outside of Spark"s restuarant,,,,must have been road rage over a "parking space" these NY guys are something else,,,now I can breathe easier,,,,,good night [This message was edited by Jody Carver on 02 May 2001 at 07:47 PM.] |
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bill mitchell Member Posts: 72 |
posted 02 May 2001 07:54 PM
Don't think I can top that one Paul just told, but during the few years I got the chance to moonlight with a real band we played a club on the main drag coming out of Ft. Bliss. Yep, Dyer steet for those of you who spent some time in El Paso. Lee Lucas was the leader and we were whatever he decided to call us that week..(we thought "Detoxicated Cowboys" fit).The crowd was sparce..it was a club that had re-opened and wanted somebody to make noise on a Saturday night. It was a big dance floor, looked sorta like a gym floor that had a big, odd-size blot out in the middle. Lee finally asked about it and they said..Oh that's where those five guys got shot and killed a few months ago. It was a Latino club back then..and I had forgotten all about that incident. And, I really never saw anything worse than two women pulling hair for the the whole three years I worked there, and the other Dyer street places like the Muleshoe, Lariate, The Hideout and other joints where we played weekends. |
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Jeff Coffell Member Posts: 1094 |
posted 03 May 2001 04:41 AM
You know, bacck in the 60-70's a lot of the bars were rough. In my memory, most every night a fight or two broke out. As a matter of fact, if we didn't have 3-4 fights break out, it was a pretty dull night. Times are a changin I recon, I remember the chicken wire thing too. Was thankful for it being there on several jobs. Don't know how but never got any equipment broken in all those brawls in all the years I've played. Jeff |
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Paul Graupp Member Posts: 3199 |
posted 03 May 2001 05:32 AM
Since this has come back, let's go back to the Briarhopper club. When I first started there, the bass player asked me if I had met Snuffy yet ? I replied, No, who was he ? "You'll find out." A few weeks later a girl with jet black hair and a shiny red dress with a wide black belt I asked the lead guitarist on break and the bass man piped in: "Oh, you've met Snuffy!!" [This message was edited by Paul Graupp on 03 May 2001 at 05:56 AM.] |
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randy Member Posts: 702 |
posted 03 May 2001 09:39 AM
When I was a senior in highschool, a friend of mine talked me into sitting in with their band at bar called the "Dew Drop Inn", (no kidding), somewhere south of Taylorville. There was a fight going on in the parking lot when we got there and I think a "lady" was escorting guys to her car as fast as she could transact. The really good news was that our backup singer was an animal. They had me sing a couple of old standards and then made the fatal mistake. They announced that I was going to do a medly of Elvis songs. This was 1965 and evidentally these boys didn't think that was "country". They sat there with "that" look through "Hound Dog" and "Don't be Cruel", but "That's all Right Momma" was too much to ask. I started feeling peanuts hit me it seemed like the room got real small. Finally one guy, (the shortest in the room) decided to come up and put me out of my misery. I'm 6'4" but 17 years old. I guess he wanted to show his buddies what a stud he was. Just as he hopped up on the stage, this backup guy pushed me aside and just flattened the guy. Things got quiet after that but the owner called the cops to help us get to the econoline. I didn't even ask about my pay.
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