CBGB's

The New York club that propelled American rock into the 1970s by launching unsigned and untried bands such as Television, Talking Heads and The Ramones, was started by a classically trained pop singer, called Hilly Kristal, as an outlet for country, bluegrass and blues performers - hence the name - CBGB (Country BlueGrass Blues). Having managed Greenwich Village's Village Vanguard club during its innovative 60s jazz/folk heyday, Kristal finally started booking rock bands too, insisting that they should play nothing but their own music. The resulting explosion of talent spawned two musical hierarchies - Punk and New Wave - and transformed the decade.

CBGB's opened on 10 December 1973. It had previously been the largest flophouse on the Bowery and (until Kristal had it fumigated) it stank of dirty old men, vomit and urine.

Fast-forward to 31 March 1974 and Television are making their CBGB debut. By all reports they were pretty dreadful. Hilly Kristal said "No more" but their manager Terry Ork assured Kristal that they were "going to practice really hard", and in the meantime he had another band from Queens - called The Ramones.  Hilly said The Ramones were even worse than Television -  but it cost him nothing to let them play on Sunday's (because he was usually closed on the sabbath anyway).

By April 1974 another new band was appearing at CBGB's - The Stilettos. The group had three girls up front, one of whom was Debbie Harry. She left the group and formed a band called Angel with her boyfriend Chris Stein - A band that would shortly turn into Blondie.

KEY GIGS