The Bottom Line (venue)
40°43′44″N 73°59′43″W / 40.729007°N 73.995162°W
Address | 15 West 4th Street Manhattan, New York City |
---|---|
Location | Greenwich Village |
Capacity | 400 |
Opened | February 12, 1974 |
Closed | 2004 |
The Bottom Line was a music venue at 15 West 4th Street between Mercer Street and Greene Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. During the 1970s and 1980s the club was a major space for small-scale popular music performances. It opened on Feb 11, 1974.
History
For three decades the two club owners, Allan Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, presented major musical acts and premiered new talent. Bruce Springsteen played showcase gigs at the club and Lou Reed recorded the album Live: Take No Prisoners there. Harry Chapin held his 2000th concert at the Bottom Line in January 1981.
The Bottom Line hosted an extremely wide variety of music and musicians. Among the thousands who performed on its stage were
The live parts of Derek and Clive (Live), a spoken word and music comedy album recorded by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in late 1973 under their guises of Derek and Clive were recorded at The Bottom Line.
The club seated 400 people and had a no smoking policy long before that restriction became New York City law.
In later years the club hosted In Their Own Words: A Bunch Of Songwriters Sittin' Around Singing, a series of performances with commentary organized and initially hosted by radio personality
In 2003, due to rent increases from its landlord New York University, the club owed $190,000 in back rent, plus several hundred thousand dollars in other expenses, and was threatened with eviction. Fans started a petition on a "Save the Bottom" website in support of the club.[1][2] Bruce Springsteen offered to pay the club's back rent if NYU and the owners could settle on a lease. Sirius Satellite Radio offered the same, but rather than risk a takeover, Pepper and Snadowsky closed the club before they could be kicked out.[3] The last Bottom Line show was on January 22, 2004, just shy of the club's 30th anniversary. The building now houses NYU classrooms.
Pepper and Snadowsky attempted to find another venue to carry the Bottom Line name. The club continued to maintain a website with its official history. From 2005 through 2013, the site was updated annually on February 12 (the anniversary of the club's opening), with a letter detailing their current progress. In February 2007 they announced plans to release a box set of archival recordings on
See also
References
- ^ Kohen, Joe (October 23, 2003). "N.Y.'s famous Bottom Line gets reprieve". USA Today.
- ^ Anderson, Lincoln (October 29, 2003). "The Bottom Line tries to avoid end of the line". The Villager. Archived from the original on January 8, 2004.
- ^ Pareles, Jon (January 26, 2004). "The Bottom Line, a Place Where the Music Always Came First". The New York Times.
- ^ Vitiello, Paul (March 2, 2013). "Stanley Snadowsky, Nightclub Founder, Dies at 70". The New York Times.
- ^ Lustig, Jay (April 25, 2015). "Tenafly resident has recordings of Bottom Line shows". NorthJersey.com. Archived from the original on October 14, 2015.
- ^ "NEW FROM THE BOTTOM LINE ARCHIVE SERIES... THE ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME PAIRING OF TWO SONGWRITING LEGENDS, LOU REED AND KRIS KRISTOFFERSON". The Bottom Line Archive. Archived from the original on June 14, 2019.
External links
- Official website – Archived from the original on 2018-12-05, Retrieved 2022-12-22.
- Bottom Line archive