Legendary New York Concert Venue Webster Hall To Close

Webster Hall. Image courtesy of Webster Hall

Legendary New York rock music venue, the 131-year-old Webster Hall is set to close. The announcement came on Facebook from director of operations Gerard McNamee. The venue had already been sold by the Ballinger family, who have owned it since 1989, to AEG and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE).

It will hold a final concert, one of its Gotham club nights, on 5 August, before it will be closed for an “undisclosed period of time” before being demolished, renovated, reopened. It was initially thought that when the sale went ahead back in April that it was going to be reopened soon but now that doesn’t appear to be the case.

According to Billboard AEG and BSE were going to “spend about $10 million renovating Webster Hall’s Grand Ballroom, The Studio and The Marlin Room spaces to bring them up to contemporary standards and add a few more customer features.” The renovation means it will no longer be the hallowed, independent venue of old, and will instead be under corporate management.

Green Day backstage at Madison Square Gardens in 1994. © Catherine McGann

On his Facebook post McNamee said, “Ladies and Gentlemen/Friends and Family: Sad but true, the legendary and world-famous Webster Hall has been sold and will close as we know it for its final club night on Saturday August 5th, 2017, which just so happens to be my birthday, which is certainly somehow apropos. It will be closed for an undisclosed period of time for demo, reno and transition to corporate ownership under Barclays/AEG/Bowery Presents. I highly recommend that you all stop by before the end of this era to pay your respects to the Ballingers and the building for providing us with a lifetimes worth of memories. There are only 12 club nights left. Please come celebrate our rich 25 year history of being the biggest, baddest and longest running nightclub in the history of New York City.”

Frank Sinatra on the film set of the Sidney J. Furie film 'The Naked Runner' in 1967. © Allan Ballard

It was initially built in 1886 by architect Charles Rentz and was used as a social hall for locals. It then became a music hall and in the 1953 was bought by RCA Records. They rebuilt it in art deco style and gave it an acoustically treated ballroom and it became the label’s east coast recording studio.

According to Webster Hall’s website, “Full orchestras were recorded live from the stage, and stereophonic recording technology was largely invented in these studios in the subsequent years.” Artists who recorded there included Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, with the former recording “Hound Dog” at Webster Hall. Bob Dylan did his first recording there in 1962.

B.B. King headlines the venue at the Rainbow Theatre in 1973. © Jill Furmanovsky

Then in the 1980s The Ritz nightclub opened in the building and various rock acts played there securing it as the best live rock venue in New York. These included Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Prince, Sting, U2, B.B. King, Guns N’ Roses, Sonic Youth, Green Day, the Beastie Boys and many more. As a live music venue at this time it’s thought it was one of the first venues to feature a video component for live gigs and meant that even way up on the balconies the audience could see what was going on down on stage.

Bono and The Edge of U2 performing live in Cork, Ireland in February 1980. © David Corio

Eric Clapton performing at the Rainbow Theatre in London, 1973. © Jill Furmanovsky

Over the years it had always been a centre for hedonism, long before the days of Keith Richards, Tina Turner, and David Bowie partying their together. Artists and writers like Man Ray and F. Scott Fitzgerald gravitated towards there when it was a music hall in the 1920s. It became known as the Devil’s Playhouse.

Since the announcement on Facebook some of the people who work at Webster Hall have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary about the last month of the venue’s history. “On August 9th, 2017 Webster will be closing its doors for renovations. In 2018 it will reopen under corporate management. The Producers of this short wish to make a feature length film documenting the last month of Webster’s current incarnation in an attempt to preserve its vibe.”

You can support that here.

Prince performing live on stage in London in 1981. © Tony Mottram

Rockarchive is delighted to be able to offer all these images for sale as limited edition photographic prints, along with many other photos of The Rolling Stones, Prince, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton, Sting, U2, B.B. King, Guns N’ Roses, Sonic Youth, and more.