NEWS: R.I.P. Hilly Kristal

holy shit - I was born in NY, raised in Jersey was in and out of that place and had no idea that CBGB was an acronym. if it weren't for Hilly, who knows what music would have been like for the last 30 years

I remember reading, in a CBGB art book, an article written by someone who I cannot remember that they thought that CBGB would be around for ages...this was sadly right after it closed...I thought about buying the book but wasn't able to part with the 60 or 70 bucks at the time. It's really a fascinating place for me, having been big into that era of punk long after most of it was overtaken by Blink 182 and their analogs. I see kids wearing CBGB t-shirts from hot topic and they are so young the probably weren't even reading when Joey Ramone died...it freaks me out.

It will be some time before we see his like, or the like of CBGB again.

CBGB Before It Died

I had the opportunity to meet with the man and even work with him on this project momentarily, and it's odd to see this now. Strange year indeed... RIP. It's better that the club live on in memory, than in Vegas/Tokyo or other cities that had interest in "reviving" it. Toward the end, he only wanted to stay in NYC, but couldn't. I wish he lived to see the club still living...

Bad News Indeed. I wonder if he would have stuck around longer if CB's still existed. They will both be missed. R.I.P.

RIP. You helped make music awesome.

(PS: I read the title too quickly and accidently thought Billy Crystal died for second)

he left us with a lot.

RIP. This really has been a sad month for music history.

I played on the audition night back in 91 i think. We played with a metal band from Jersey called Toxic Shock, who took 40 minutes to set up and got to play two shitty songs.
I also got punched in the face at an Alice Donut show there around the same time. Ahh...memories.

oh shit also, does anyone remember what the omfug stands for, I forgot.

I had my nose broken by a stage diving bouncer at CBs. Still haven't gotten it fixed.

feenie beat me to it

Didn't OMFUG stand for Original Music From Unknown Groups?

I take it back. I looked it up. It stood for 'Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers'. I've been saying it wrong for years.

While the influence and importance of CBGB's can't be denied - before we all wax too nostalgic about the club, realize that it wasn't closed because of gentrification, it was closed because Kristal was skimping on his rent. And it wasn't to a greedy corporate landlord, it was to the Bowery Residents' Committee, a homeless shelter that runs outreach and addiction programs and owns the club space.

I truly appreciate everything that Kristal did for punk music and regret his death, I just wish it all hadn't ended on a sour note.

I'm not big into punk music, but this is a great loss. What he did for music is and will be remembered as legendary.

As I said in my blog, through High School and College, I hung out at CBGB's seeing some of the best punk bands of the 80s there, including The Ramones, The Dead Kennedy's, The Circle Jerks, Agnostic Front, Cause for Alarm, The Exploited, GBH, Murphy's Law, MDC, Channel 3, The Bad Brains and even The Beastie Boys. The closing of CBs last October, and the death of Hilly now, leave a hole in the hearts of those kids like me that grew up going to the all-age matinee shows or later to marathon shows that went through 4 AM. Many bands like Television, NY Dolls, Blondie, the Talking Heads and the Ramones owe much of their success to Hilly. All the acts that followed and were influenced by them, from the Sex Pistols to Green Day, have of course benefitted as well. RIP, Hilly!

The tee shirt emporium is closed.

(Was that a dick thing to say?)

I'm really sad. As mentioned in the article, Hilly Crystal and Tony Wilson were cut from the same cloth - wanting to take risks on new, burgoning talent; creating a scene when the one they wanted didn't exist.

It's even sadder that we'll never see their likes again due to everything being ran by money not passion.

I guess God needed both of them to run venues for Hendrix, Morrison, Curtis, et al to play!

It's sad to see CB's gone each time I go by there, and sad to read that Hilly's gone now too.