[Deathwatch] Hilly Kristal, rock club founder, 75

[Deathwatch Central <cdw@slick.org>]

Hilly Kristal, 75; founded N.Y. rock club

August 31, 2007

Hilly Kristal, whose dank New York Bowery rock club CBGB served as the
birthplace of the punk rock movement and a launching pad for bands such
as Blondie, the Ramones and the Talking Heads, has died after a battle
with lung cancer. He was 75.

Kristal, who lost a bitter fight last year to stop the club's eviction
from its New York home of 33 years, died Tuesday at a Manhattan
hospice, his family announced.

"He created a club that started on a small, out-of-the-way skid row,
and saw it go around the world," said Lenny Kaye, a longtime member of
the Patti Smith Group, which played the club's final show in October.
"Everywhere you travel around the world, you saw somebody wearing a
CBGB T-shirt."

Although the club's glory days were long past when it shut down, its
name transcended the venue and become synonymous with the three-chord
thrash of punk.

Kristal started the club in 1973 with the hope of making it a mecca of
country, bluegrass and blues -- thus the name, CBGB & OMFUG, for "Other
Music For Uplifting Gourmandisers" -- but found few bands to book. It
instead became the epicenter of the mid-1970s punk movement.

In addition to the Ramones and the Talking Heads, many of the other
sonically defiant bands that found frenzied crowds at CBGB during those
years became legendary -- including Blondie, Smith and Television.

"In an era when disco was the mainstream, Hilly took a chance and
gambled," Mark Ramone said in a statement. "The gamble paid off for
both him and for us. We are all grateful to him and will miss him."

Throughout the years, CBGB had rented its space from the building's
owner, the Bowery Residents' Committee, an agency that houses homeless
people.

In the early 2000s, a feud broke out between the two entities when the
committee went to court to collect more than $300,000 in back rent from
the club, then later successfully sought to evict it.

Kristal was born in 1931 and grew up on a farm in Hightstown, N.J.

He moved to New York City at 18 to pursue a singing career.

Kristal later became the manager of the Village Vanguard, the legendary
jazz club in Greenwich Village, where he booked acts such as Miles
Davis.

In 1970, he decided to open his own place featuring bluegrass, called
Hilly's on the Bowery, which became CBGB.

Kristal is survived by a son, Mark Dana Kristal; a daughter, Lisa
Kristal Burgman; and two grandchildren.

A private funeral service was planned, with a public memorial service
expected later.

Many thanks to Deathwatch Central for posting this obituary