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Steve Heller
Posts:366
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| 08/31/2007 4:36 AM |
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Just the other day I saw Hilly Kristal, the legendary founder of CBGB, in Union
Square. He still looked like a lumberjack - tall, hairy, imposing - but
he moved too quickly for me to reach him and say hello. It had been
over 30 years since I last talked to him.
I knew Hilly before he founded the punk mecca, when he ran a bar on
13th Street called "Hilly's." It was not anything like his earlier 9th
street jazz club - this one had no live music, just booze, food, and
hangers-on. I was one of them. I used to drink rye and ginger ale,
mixed for me by my girl friend, the bartender. My friends, who all
worked for underground newspapers, drank beer and wine.
Hilly was a warm, wonderful man. We loved him for no particular reason
other than he opened his bar to us as a second home. We loved him so much we
decided to publish "Hilly's Gazette," a four page monthly newsletter,
which I designed, full of tidbits of bar lore and incidental news. I
think we came out with two or three issues before learning Hilly had to
close up owing to a spike in rent.
A year or so passed and we learned he had opened up a new place on the
Bowery called CBGB. Although somewhat out of the way, we all went down
that first week it was opened.
Whereas Hilly's was a relatively clean though dark tavern, CBGB was a
decided dump (even then the bathroom was a wreck). Whereas Hilly's was
relatively quiet, CBGB was loud with live music. It was also kinda
meanacing.
A few of my friends stayed. But having just gotten my job at the New
York Times, I decided this was not the place to be. After one watered
down rye and ginger I left and never returned.
I had worked with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye at Rock Magazine (both
were writers). A year after leaving CBGBs for good, I learned that
Patti and Lenny were playing music there.
The rest is history.
I'm sorry I never got a chance to say hello to Hilly in Union Square. He died yesterday of lung cancer.
The rest is history.
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turneround
Posts:1
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| 09/04/2007 2:46 PM |
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I, too, was sad to read about Mr. Kristal's death. May he rest in peace.
Did you save any copies of Hilly's Gazette, Steve? If so, it would be interesting to see them here on the Daily Heller. I wish I would have kept all the different 'zines and self-publications I designed in my youth. |
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Steve Heller
Posts:366
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| 09/05/2007 6:38 AM |
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Sadly I cannot find the Gazette. I know one exists, but getting to it will have to wait for a major archeological dig.
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