This Must Be The Place

An Architectural History of Popular Music Performance Venues

Robert Kronenburg

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781501319280
• eBook ISBN: 9781501319303
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: History of Architecture

This Must Be The Place is the first architectural history of popular music performance space, describing its beginnings, its different typologies, and its development into a distinctive genre of building design. It examines the design and form of popular music architecture and charts how it has been developed in ad-hoc ways by non-professionals such as building owners, promoters, and the musicians themselves as well as professionally by architects, designers, and construction specialists. With a primary focus on Europe and North America (and excursions to Australia, the Far East and South America), it explores audience experience and how venues have influenced the development of different musical scenes.

From music halls and Vaudeville in the 1800s, via the seminal clubs and theatres of the 20th century, to the large-scale multi-million-dollar arena concerts of today, this book explores the impact that the use of private and public space for performance has on our cities' urban identity, and, to a lesser extent, how rural space is perceived and used. Like architecture, popular music is neither static nor standardized; it continuously develops and has multiple strands. This Must Be The Place describes the factors that have determined the development of music venue architecture, focusing on both famous and less well-known examples from the smallest bar room music space to the largest stadium-filling rock set.

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction: Popular Music, Architecture and the Home

Music has always been important to human beings. As the musician, music producer and psychologist Daniel Levitin states, it is ‘unusual among all human activities for both its ubiquity and its antiquity. No known human culture now or anytime in the recorded past lacked music … Throughout most of the world and for most of human history, music making was as natural an activity as breathing and walking, and everyone participated.’¹ However, although an all-pervading activity, there are surprising areas of conflict in terms of its understanding. In industrialized cultures, there is a distinct split between performer and audience (the skilled and talented versus those who are supposedly not) and between classical and popular music (music of value and music of commerce). These splits occurred comparatively recently in the history of human development, within the last few hundred years, and, it can be argued, are paralleled alongside the development of specific buildings for music performance such as concert halls, which have elevated both performer and specific music types into places of higher status. The idea that classical music is serious and has greater merit compared to popular music is because of its history of control and patronage by the social elite. Although also used for popular music dissemination, it is also, at least in part, due to the development of musical notation that enabled its detailed recording by those with formal education.² A similar situation occurs in terms of the places of classical music performance – these are the celebrated buildings of the city, erected by those with power and resources at great expense and designed by the most well-known architects. A prime reason for undertaking this study was the fact that the architectural history of classical concert halls is well recorded (in books), but the architecture of popular music is not.

The debate regarding what can be defined as popular music is entangled with this demarcation between experience and type, engaging history, society, geography, technology and commerce. Musical styles are therefore best identified within discourses rather than types, as this accommodates the complex interactions that take place across boundaries between composers, musicians and audiences.³ Sociologist Simon Frith has proposed that these discourses can be classified as folk, drawing from social function and tradition; art, deriving from an elitist stance where appreciation is formally taught; and pop, where musical experience becomes a commodity.⁴ For this study, popular music is characterized as that which appeals to a wide range of people, encompassing a large variety of musical genres that has been disseminated via the media as a commodity through publication, recording and broadcasting. However, although the philosopher Theodore Adorno (1903–69) viewed the products of popular culture as a means to distract people from important social issues by the provision of pleasure, it is now recognized as a sphere of activity in which the public is actively involved in its critical appreciation, sponsorship and creation and is an art form that has real meaning in their lives.⁵

Girouard has pointed out that medieval cities were on the whole hard-working places, and for the vast majority, entertainment happened on the rare religious and civic holidays and as part of events such as fairs. Although music for pleasure might be performed at these times, a dedicated building was not required.⁶ The focus of this study therefore begins in earnest in the eighteenth century when the first dedicated popular music entertainment buildings appeared, as did the availability of inexpensive sheet music tied into popular performers and songs. This research will not be restricted to specific music genres, for example folk, jazz, pop, rock ‘n’ roll, soul, rock or hip-hop, as there are many crossovers between musical movements that often, consecutively and simultaneously, occupy the same venue; however, the gestation of specific music scenes will be a part of the study as the character of the space and place they occupy is frequently part of the sphere of influence that has generated the building form. Music scenes are the subcultures or communities around which a particular cluster of musicians, audiences and other people active in music practice and the industry socialize and operate.⁷ As a performance art, popular music necessitates places for events to occur and scenes to develop: ‘Every artwork has to be someplace. Physical works, like paintings and sculptures, have to be housed someplace: a museum, a gallery, a home, a public square. Music and dance and theatre have to be performed someplace: a court, a theatre or concert hall, a private home, a public square or street.’⁸ Popular music may begin in informal spaces, for example in the home or on the street, but its eventual success and widespread popularity depend on its migration to recognizable venues. This is because its popularity also leads inevitably to the commercial need to formalize a revenue process (initially to pay performers and composers, but as audiences grow, the many others engaged in enabling the performance), such as ticket sales for admission to the event.

As popular music performance became more formalized through the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, small venues in drinking and eating houses became identified as concert rooms and nightclubs and larger buildings included music halls, variety and vaudeville theatres, ballrooms and dance halls. However, the buildings in which popular music performance has taken place are diverse. Many venues were created in spaces originally built for other uses, sometimes hastily converted by non-building industry professionals including the musicians and venue operators themselves. Despite their ad hoc creation, they may nevertheless be important in cultural terms, if not for their architectural qualities, then for the sometimes-unique activities and events that have taken place there. External spaces such as pleasure gardens and parks featured bandstands and amphitheatres, but also made use of more peripatetic facilities with floating and rolling stages. The large-scale touring arena and stadium stage set of today is a continuation of this development. Popular music also inspired famous festivals such as Monterey (1967), Woodstock (1969) and Isle of Wight (1970) that have a historical and developmental importance that is at least as relevant as permanent buildings. These events were powerful vehicles for communicating non-commercial ideals, demonstrating that popular music artists and audiences are not homogenous and are frequently fractured and rebellious, instinctively resisting rather than accommodating big business ambitions. There is a cultural and political commentary that invests the manifestation of popular music architecture that is expressive of important changes that have taken place in society, particularly since the end of the Second World War: ‘It has always been through the live – public – experience of making and listening to music that it has been most deeply embedded in people’s everyday lives and their understanding of their personal and social identities.’⁹

Live popular music performance can best be described as an authentic experience: every gig is unique; every individual’s experience of it is personal, as musician David Byrne states: ‘Music resonates in so many parts of the brain that we can’t conceive of it being an isolated thing. It’s whom you were with, how old you were, and what was happening that day.’¹⁰ Music performance is an art form that is both experiential and transient. Memories that individuals have of attending a particular performance can be incredibly powerful, and there is a special kudos that individuals gain from having ‘been there’ when it took place. The power of the experience extends beyond the actual musicians’ performance to the circumstances of the event, about which the most important factor is often the venue or location. The recorded memories of those who experienced them are especially valuable (made much more accessible in recent years via online forums and reviews), not only in describing the physical presence of the place but also the ambience that was created during the event.¹¹ Such reminiscences have been crucial for a study like this where so many of the buildings examined no longer exist or have been changed dramatically.

Popular music’s relationship to architecture

The design and creation of venues are driven by both functional and non-functional requirements. Their character and form profoundly influence the performances they host and consequently how these performances are received by audiences, obviously because of the acoustics and view but also because of other environmental factors that shape human experience, such as air quality, temperature and smell. Venues are also part of the physical and cultural image of their settings – usually urban – from the street to the neighbourhood, city and region, and so these buildings fit into a city’s urban morphology and influence its character and image. Venue activity is an important component in the creation of a scene, representing a coming together of people within specific social groups as well as differentiation from others. In her autobiographical book Just Kids, Patti Smith describes the importance of the New York Bowery venue CBGB: ‘CBGB was the ideal place to sound a clarion call. It was a club in the street of the downtrodden that drew a strange breed who welcomed artists yet unsung. The only thing Hilly Krystal required from those who played there was to be new.’¹² Such venues are an embodiment of the diversity of the city and encompass all walks of life: social, economic and cultural. The number of venues varies over time, signifying economic and cultural changes, and although they are not immune to national or international influence, for the vast majority their impact is local. This is not to say that there aren’t buildings whose influence in musical and cultural terms has not been wide and profound. Venues like the Cavern in Liverpool, UK, to the Apollo Theater in New York, USA, are internationally known for the crucial part they have played in the history of popular music development. It is important that venues like these are examined in this book, but there is also a place for lesser-known places, which may be important locally or archetypal in their design.

Why is this book needed now? Because the economics of live popular music are in transition, with large international promoters like AEG Live and Live Nation Entertainment (which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010) taking a much greater share of the business at all levels. On the positive side this has led to greater investment in higher-quality buildings (e.g. AEG owns and operates over ninety arenas globally, including the O2, Greenwich, London), but on the negative side this has had a significant adverse effect on independent spaces, now not only in competition with these ‘branded’ chains, but also frequently unable to book the most popular artists, who regularly sign exclusive deals with the promoter for both venues and ticketing. Recent studies have shown that grassroots venues are under threat from increased legislative and economic pressures: ‘facing a “perfect storm” of issues which is affecting their long-term viability and sustainability’.¹³ Although there have been positive signs that local and national governments are realizing the commercial and cultural value that live music brings to cities (sometimes called the night-time economy), historic venues are frequently still threatened with closure, and unless things change, it may soon be too late to save this disappearing legacy as a working, active musical scene that still supports the influential musicians of tomorrow.

Popular music in the home

Although this book is about live popular music performance venues – those buildings and spaces that have usually been designed or adapted for live music to be performed – there are other settings that have significant cultural and social influence on popular music’s development. This happens even though it is perhaps only infrequently that live music performance before an audience occurs in them, for example clubs and events where the music played is from recorded sources (see Chapter 11). Perhaps the root from which all public performance begins is one of these non-venue places – the home – and as a primer to how the architecture of the space is an important element in the development of the music that takes place there, it is useful to examine it in this general introduction. Before radio or recorded music became commercially available, if people wanted to experience music at home they generally had to make it themselves, and amateur musicianship was seen not only as a mode of entertainment but also as an enjoyable pastime and a worthwhile, self-improving accomplishment. Middle-class families would gather around the parlour piano to sing, children would learn an instrument and entertain their parents at parties and groups of relatives and neighbours would form ensembles for their own pleasure. Individuals would be known for their skills and be persuaded to perform in and outside the home at celebrations and gatherings for entertainment or to accompany dancing. Music making in the home has ‘played a significant but relatively unacknowledged part in the development of musicianship and local music cultures and communities’.¹⁴

Home-made music was encouraged and commercially exploited by the manufacture and sale of affordable instruments and sheet music. In the nineteenth-century music hall, variety and vaudeville stars sponsored particular songs during their tours, their names and pictures featuring prominently on the front of the sheet music, which made its way into the homes of thousands of amateur musicians. The advent of radio broadcasting in the 1920s enhanced home performance, providing the opportunity for listeners to hear particular stars more often and thereby enabling them to copy what they heard rather than having to read music. For example the first radio stations in the United States (such as WSB Atlanta, which first broadcast on 16 March 1922): ‘More than phonograph records or movies … showcased country music to millions of listeners and provided hundreds of performers the chance to make a living from playing it. In the process radio profoundly shaped country music.’¹⁵ Cheaper, easier-to-learn instruments such as the banjo and guitar accentuated the notion that anyone could become a performer, and even perhaps emulate the artists they heard on the radio by also becoming a professional musician. Technological developments have changed the format upon which people listen: the Dansette Bermuda record player in the 1960s, the Sony Walkman in the 1980s, the MP3 player at the beginning of the twenty-first century and streamed music and videos via Spotify and YouTube today: but young people still make music in their bedroom, be it rapping along to a beat box, strumming a guitar with a few newly learnt chords or manipulating a software program on a laptop. This may be a familiar trope, but it is a real activity that many well-known artists have practised on their road to success.

However, the home can also be a place for public performance, something that has been enhanced in the twenty-first century through the internet and social media, and elsewhere in this book the way that domestic rooms used for social gatherings evolved into public places for performance is examined: rent parties spawning blues clubs (Chapter 3) and ballrooms inspiring dance halls (Chapter 6). The informal parties in homes sometimes led to parts of houses being converted to a readily available party space so that events could be held instantaneously, it being only a step away from becoming a formal, semi-commercial gathering place. One of the most famous of these is the Casbah in Liverpool, created in the basement of a Victorian villa at 8 Haymans Green, West Derby, Liverpool, by Mona Best, the mother of The Beatles’ first drummer.

Created below the family home, the Casbah was inspired by the 2i’s coffee bar in London with which the early British rock ‘n’ roll groups like Cliff Richards and the Shadows were associated (see Chapter 10). This unpromising space was just five narrow, mostly windowless rooms with bare brick walls and some plywood panelling, entered from the rear garden. Opening on 29 August 1959, Mona intended the place to be a safe, local hangout for the young friends of her son, although it was also a commercial enterprise from the start with membership cards and soft drinks for sale. The opening night saw a performance by the early Beatles incarnation, The Quarrymen (featuring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ken Brown – Pete had not yet joined, and Ringo was years away). Paul, George, and John and his girlfriend Cynthia (later his wife) had helped decorate the space, painting stars, a spider’s web and a silhouette of John playing a guitar on the walls. The entrance room was where the tickets were sold and visitors left their coats, and inside, one of the rooms had an opening through which the soft drinks and snacks were sold. The band would play here throughout their time in Liverpool, including the last night it was open on 24 June 1962. Since 2009, the Casbah has reopened as a heritage venue for visitors and occasional performances, the interior still largely as it was when used in the 1960s.

FIGURE 1.1 Location of the Casbah, which occupies the basement of a suburban house at No. 8 Haymans Green, West Derby, Liverpool. The entrance is at the rear – the door to the right in this photo. Source: Robert Kronenburg.

Home spaces are also used as temporary venues by artists who want to perform but have no venue, instigating ‘house concerts’. The 1950s–60s folk music scene was primarily based around informal gatherings at small venues, often organized peripateti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Contents 
• List of Plates
• List of Figures
• Preface
• 1. Introduction: Popular Music, Architecture and the Home
• 2. Music Halls, Variety and Vaudeville
• 3. Honky-Tonks and Juke Joints
• 4. Jazz Clubs, Social Clubs and Riverboats
• 5. Cabaret, Speakeasies and Supper Clubs
• 6. Pleasure Gardens, Ballrooms and Dance Halls
• 7. Pubs, Barrooms and Coffee Bars
• 8. Theatres, Halls and Auditoria
• 9. Festival Stages and Travelling Sets
• 10. Arenas
• 11. Record Scenes
• 12. Conclusion: The Significance and Value of Popular Music Venues
• Appendix I
• Appendix II
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint