With twenty-nine days to go on their lease, CBGB announced a month-long effort to save the legendary punk club, whose rent will double in September. CBGB alumni Tommy Ramone, Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye and Handsome Dick Manitoba stood alongside owner Hilly Kristal and Steven Van Zandt at a packed press conference held at the club to announce details of the campaign, before Debbie Harry took the stage to perform the Blondie classic "Call Me."
The club building is owned by the Bowery Residents Community, a non-profit organization that helps the homeless, and the group is now claiming tens of thousands of dollars in back rent that they claim Kristal has neglected to pay. To aid with these and legal fees, benefit concerts will be held throughout August, featuring the reunited Dead Boys, Chevelle, Living Colour, the Misfits and others. On August 31st, this show of support will culminate in a rally to be held at downtown Washington Square Park.
"CBGB is the last rock & roll club left," Van Zandt at the conference. "The genre of punk was invented here. There is a real practical reason for keeping it. It is an enormous economic provider for New York. Hundreds of tourists come by every day . . . Hilly hasn't changed his polices all these years, still willing to help bands who need it."
Ramone, the last surviving original member of the Ramones, told Rolling Stone, "It would really be a shame to see it disappear. I think this whole neighborhood would lose a lot of its vitality if it goes. It would just be one big dorm . . . I come here several times a year to check out a band. This is a unique club."
Unless an agreement is reached with the Bowery Residents Community, CBGB will close its doors on September 1st.