xxximagesxxx

going down to the basement floor in front of stage so thats history, i have it on good authority that in spite on numerous rumors flying hither and yon that CB’s is not going to open in vegas, at least as of now there is no specific plan… played the show on the next to the last night… Patti did a good job of closing the thing by actually playing on the actual last night… apparently she played ‘tide is high’ in her homage set of material from the ramones, television etc. she really should have done in the flesh but i guess that was as close to doing one of our songs as possible and you got to give her credit… we decided to not play with the whole band due to the complications of doing our full loud-ass show on that little stage… the next day i went to the club in the afternoon to take pictures of which these are two, i have my own version of the bathroom shot that we will be seeing for the next ten years, that is the same pic by this and that photographer the landscape around CB’s is by now so filled with expensive high rise condo’s as to make the club itself look like some missing teeth in an open mouth, that is surrounded by these big ugly new buildings… despite what one hears about the homeless shelter upstairs its only about the money involved in the property, that is the club closing about thirty years ago on Greenwich street near Northmoore street there was built a complex of high rises intended as very luxury housing but at that time no one wanted to live in what is now fucking Tribeca the cities maybe second wealthiest area… well one person we knew did move into these towers, Eric Emerson the singer and Warhol film star… Eric and i had been very close for years before that and he was instrumental in introducing me to the NYC music scene… a funny note is that before i knew him, one night in maybe 1972, before i’d met Debbie, i staggered into CBGB’s one late night and watched him playing… this was back when it was still a Hells Angels bar (the now famous CBGB letters are written in the same font as the angels logo) so one night Debbie and i went to visit him down on Greenwich street, he had a huge apartment there that he shared with his rich girlfriend, in later years the places were much smaller having been divided up (another note that i lived on Greenwich street myself for almost fifteen years not that far away from the place i’m talking about, ‘no exit’ was recorded partly in the basement of that loft of mine) Eric was getting all fucked up on smack and turning gray, sleeping while standing up, so we left… early the next morning the first call we got was from his girlfriend who told me “Eric is dead, he got hit by a truck.” we knew about the truck, everyone did but everyone left it alone… it was a tragedy… if he had lived just a few more years (this was maybe ’75) he would have achieved the success he wanted with the rest of us… living with the rich girlfriend was too much for him, though it wasnt her fault he was better off when he was still hungry… so five ten years after that and still no one wanting to live in those buildings, the city takes them over and makes them into lower-middle, lower income subsidized housing… they fill up andby the 90’s there is a ten year waiting list for an apartment in them… now of course the city has pulled that subsidizing saying the twenty year leases are up and the rents are gonna go through the roofs… i had been waiting for this to happen as the neighborhood went nuts the places that no one wanted to live in became more and more valuable… same as the bowery, as CBGB’s the last times i was in the UK i suffered and was fascinated by big brother with the trannie etc… i didnt pay much attention so it was just the other day that i first discovered this Pete guy and like all those in the UK i couldnt help but love him… he is sooo much cooler than Johnny Rotten (who he reminds me of a bit) its just great, he’s an inspiration