Mudd Club
Encyclopedia
The Mudd Club was a TriBeCa
nightclub
that was opened in October 1978 by Steve Mass, art curator Diego Cortez and Anya Phillips, a figure in the downtown punk scene. The Mudd Club, located at 77 White Street in downtown Manhattan
, quickly became a major fixture in the city's underground music
and counterculture
scene, until it closed in 1983.
in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln
's assassination. It closed in New York in 1983.
In order to secure the space for the Mudd Club (a loft owned by artist Ross Bleckner
), Steve Mass described the future venue
as cabaret
. Mass claimed to have started the nightclub on a budget of only $15,000.
The club featured a bar, gender-neutral bathrooms, and a rotating gallery curated by Keith Haring
on the fourth floor. Live performances included new wave
, experimental music
, literary icons Allen Ginsberg
and William Burroughs, and catwalk exhibitions for emerging fashion designers Anna Sui
and Jasper Conran
.
From the start it functioned as an “amazing antidote to the uptown glitz of Studio 54
in the '70s”. But as it became more frequented by downtown celebrities and a door policy was established it acquired a chic, often elitist reputation.
The Mudd Club was frequented by many of Manhattan's up-and-coming cult celebrities. Individuals associated with the venue included musicians Lou Reed
, Johnny Thunders
, David Byrne
, Debbie Harry
, Arto Lindsay
, John Lurie
, Nico
with Jim Tisdall, Lydia Lunch
, and The Bongos
; artists Jean-Michel Basquiat
and (later) Keith Haring; performers Klaus Nomi
and John Sex
; Designers Betsey Johnson
, Maripol
, and Marisol
; underground filmmaker Amos Poe
; Vincent Gallo
, Kathy Acker
, and Glenn O'Brien
.
Its live music policy was best known for New York "No Wave
" bands like DNA
, The Contortions, and Basquiat's band Gray. The B-52's
did their first New York concert at the Mudd Club; the group the Talking Heads
performed songs from their new album Fear of Music there to a packed crowd of punk rockers. Tim Page (music critic)
produced several concerts at the Mudd Club in 1981, in an attempt to meld contemporary classical music with rock and pop. On the dance floor, DJ Anita Sarko played a unique mixture of punk, funk, and curiosities.
Six months after it opened it was in People Magazine: “New York’s fly-by-night crowd of punks, posers and the ultra-hip has discovered new turf on which to flaunt its manic chic. It is the Mudd Club.... For sheer kinkiness, there has been nothing like it since the cabaret scene in 1920s Berlin
.”
After its first few years, the Studio 54
celebrities like Andy Warhol
and David Bowie
began to show up. In 1981, The Mudd Club's Steve Mass began showing up at the more informal Club 57
on St. Mark's Place, and began hiring Club 57 crowd (including Keith Haring) to help acquire part of that downtown scene.
The Mudd Club was closed in 1983, when some regulars felt "at the end, it was not much fun anymore. I mean, it had just become--kind of like the hangers-on to the hangers-on at the Mudd Club."
The club is mentioned by the Talking Heads
in their 1979 song "Life During Wartime
", by the Ramones
in "The Return of Jackie and Judy", by Nina Hagen
in her 1983 song "New York / N.Y.
" and by Elliott Murphy
(who performed at the Mudd Club) in his 1983 song "Off The Shelf". Frank Zappa
poked fun at it in a song named for the club on his album You Are What You Is
.
Steve Mass has since moved on to open the Mudd club in Berlin
in 2001 (located at Grosse Hamburger Strasse 17); this Berlin club was considered an intimate venue for touring bands.
In 2007, the arts organization Creative Time
placed a plaque on the NYC building to commemorate the club's existence.
On October 28–29, 2010, there was a 30 year reunion of Mudd Club artists and regulars was held at the Delancy Lounge nightclub. Many bands and performers from the Mud Club and Club 57 performed, including The Bush Tetras
, Three Teens Kill Four, The Comateens
, and Walter Steading. A crowd of 40 and 50 something regulars re-met for the first time in years.
TriBeCa
Tribeca is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York in the United States. Its name is an acronym based on the words "Triangle below Canal Street", and is properly bounded by Canal Street, West Street, Broadway, and Vesey Street...
nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
that was opened in October 1978 by Steve Mass, art curator Diego Cortez and Anya Phillips, a figure in the downtown punk scene. The Mudd Club, located at 77 White Street in downtown Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, quickly became a major fixture in the city's underground music
Underground music
Underground music comprises a range of different musical genres that operate outside of mainstream culture. Such music can typically share common values, such as the valuing of sincerity and intimacy; an emphasis on freedom of creative expression; an appreciation of artistic creativity...
and counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
scene, until it closed in 1983.
History
The Mudd Club was named after Samuel Alexander Mudd, a doctor who treated John Wilkes BoothJohn Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth was an American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre, in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. Booth was a member of the prominent 19th century Booth theatrical family from Maryland and, by the 1860s, was a well-known actor...
in the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
's assassination. It closed in New York in 1983.
In order to secure the space for the Mudd Club (a loft owned by artist Ross Bleckner
Ross Bleckner
-Life and work:"'I always absolutely thought there was a difference between being a young artist and an important young artist,' said Mr. Bleckner, who grew up in Hewlett, L.I., graduated in 1971 from New York University and earned an M.F.A...
), Steve Mass described the future venue
Music venue
A music venue is any location used for a concert or musical performance. Music venues range in size and location, from an outdoor bandshell or bandstand or a concert hall to an indoor sports stadium. Typically, different types of venues host different genres of music...
as cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
. Mass claimed to have started the nightclub on a budget of only $15,000.
The club featured a bar, gender-neutral bathrooms, and a rotating gallery curated by Keith Haring
Keith Haring
Keith Haring was an artist and social activist whose work responded to the New York City street culture of the 1980s.-Early life:...
on the fourth floor. Live performances included new wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, literary icons Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg
Irwin Allen Ginsberg was an American poet and one of the leading figures of the Beat Generation in the 1950s. He vigorously opposed militarism, materialism and sexual repression...
and William Burroughs, and catwalk exhibitions for emerging fashion designers Anna Sui
Anna Sui
Anna Sui is an American fashion designer. Her luxury brand retails globally in the Americas, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Her clothing, fragrance, cosmetic, and accessories lines sell at Anna Sui stores in over 50 countries and are also widely distributed at leading department stores...
and Jasper Conran
Jasper Conran
Jasper Alexander Thirlby Conran OBE is an English fashion designer. He is the son of the designer Sir Terence Conran and the author Shirley Conran.-Education:He was educated at Port Regis School and Bryanston School in the 1970s...
.
From the start it functioned as an “amazing antidote to the uptown glitz of Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
in the '70s”. But as it became more frequented by downtown celebrities and a door policy was established it acquired a chic, often elitist reputation.
The Mudd Club was frequented by many of Manhattan's up-and-coming cult celebrities. Individuals associated with the venue included musicians Lou Reed
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, Johnny Thunders
Johnny Thunders
Johnny Thunders, born John Anthony Genzale, Jr. , was an American protopunk guitarist, singer and songwriter.He came to prominence in the early '70s as a member of the New York Dolls...
, David Byrne
David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer*David Byrne , English footballer...
, Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...
, Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
, John Lurie
John Lurie
John Lurie is an American actor, musician, painter and producer. He is co-founder of The Lounge Lizards, a jazz ensemble. Lurie has acted in 19 films including Stranger than Paradise and Down by Law, composed and performed music for 20 television and film works, and he produced and starred in...
, Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
with Jim Tisdall, Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch
Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...
, and The Bongos
The Bongos
The Bongos were a rock band from Hoboken, New Jersey, primarily active in the 1980s. With a unique blend of British Invasion-flavored power pop, jangly guitars, and dance beats they made the leap to national recognition with the advent of MTV.-Biography:...
; artists Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist. His career in art began as a graffiti artist in New York City in the late 1970s, and in the 1980s produced Neo-expressionist painting.-Early life:...
and (later) Keith Haring; performers Klaus Nomi
Klaus Nomi
Klaus Sperber , better known as Klaus Nomi, was a German countertenor noted for his wide vocal range and an unusual, otherworldly stage persona....
and John Sex
John Sex
John McLaughlin , better known as "John Sex" was a cabaret singer and performance artist in New York City from the late 1970s until his death.-Early life:...
; Designers Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson
Betsey Johnson is an American fashion designer best known for her feminine and whimsical designs. Many of her designs are considered "over the top" and embellished...
, Maripol
Maripol
Maripol was brought up in France before moving to New York, USA in 1976. She is an artist, film producer, fashion designer and stylist who has had an influence on the looks of many influential artists, including Grace Jones, Deborah Harry, and Madonna. Maripol is also a Polaroid artist...
, and Marisol
Marisol
Marisol is a Spanish name. Two Spanish words: Mar and Sol make Mar y Sol .Many argue, however, that it's also a combination of other names, such as María Soledad or María del Sol.Marisol can refer to:...
; underground filmmaker Amos Poe
Amos Poe
Amos Poe is a New York City director and screenwriter, described by The New York Times as a "pioneering indie filmmaker."-Career:Amos Poe is one of the first punk filmmakers and his film The Blank Generation —co-directed with Ivan Kral— is one of the earliest punk films...
; Vincent Gallo
Vincent Gallo
Vincent Gallo is an Italian-American film director and actor. Though he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, did the music for and starred in; The Brown Bunny, which he also...
, Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker
Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S...
, and Glenn O'Brien
Glenn O'Brien
Glenn O'Brien is primarily a writer, largely on the subjects of art, music and fashion. He's featured as "The Style Guy" at GQ magazine, and has published a book with that title....
.
Its live music policy was best known for New York "No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
" bands like DNA
DNA (band)
DNA was a No Wave band formed in 1978 by guitarist Arto Lindsay and keyboardist Robin Crutchfield. Rather than playing their instruments in a traditional manner, they instead focused on making unique and unusual sounds...
, The Contortions, and Basquiat's band Gray. The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
did their first New York concert at the Mudd Club; the group the Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
performed songs from their new album Fear of Music there to a packed crowd of punk rockers. Tim Page (music critic)
Tim Page (music critic)
Tim Page is a writer, editor, music critic, producer and professor. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for the Washington Post and also played an essential role in the revival of American author Dawn Powell.-Career:Page grew up in Storrs, Connecticut, where his father, Ellis B...
produced several concerts at the Mudd Club in 1981, in an attempt to meld contemporary classical music with rock and pop. On the dance floor, DJ Anita Sarko played a unique mixture of punk, funk, and curiosities.
Six months after it opened it was in People Magazine: “New York’s fly-by-night crowd of punks, posers and the ultra-hip has discovered new turf on which to flaunt its manic chic. It is the Mudd Club.... For sheer kinkiness, there has been nothing like it since the cabaret scene in 1920s Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.”
After its first few years, the Studio 54
Studio 54
Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
celebrities like Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
began to show up. In 1981, The Mudd Club's Steve Mass began showing up at the more informal Club 57
Club 57
Club 57 was a nightclub located at 57 St. Mark's Place in the East Village, New York City during the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was a hangout and venue for performance- and visual-artists and musicians, including Madonna, Keith Haring, Cyndi Lauper, Charles Busch, Klaus Nomi, The B-52s, Futura...
on St. Mark's Place, and began hiring Club 57 crowd (including Keith Haring) to help acquire part of that downtown scene.
The Mudd Club was closed in 1983, when some regulars felt "at the end, it was not much fun anymore. I mean, it had just become--kind of like the hangers-on to the hangers-on at the Mudd Club."
The club is mentioned by the Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
in their 1979 song "Life During Wartime
Life During Wartime (song)
"Life During Wartime" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads, released as the first single from their 1979 album Fear of Music in 1979. It peaked at #80 on the US Billboard Pop Singles Chart....
", by the Ramones
Ramones
The Ramones were an American rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first punk rock group...
in "The Return of Jackie and Judy", by Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen
Nina Hagen is a German singer and actress.-Early years:Hagen was born as Catharina Hagen in the former East Berlin, East Germany, the daughter of Hans Hagen , a scriptwriter, and Eva-Maria Hagen, an actress and singer...
in her 1983 song "New York / N.Y.
New York / N.Y.
"New York / N.Y." is a song by German recording artist Nina Hagen from her album Angstlos. Co-written by Hagen, Karl Rucker and Steve Schiff, it was released as the album's lead single in 1983...
" and by Elliott Murphy
Elliott Murphy
Elliott James Murphy is an American rock singer-songwriter, novelist, producer and journalist living in Paris.-Biography:Elliott James Murphy, Jr. was born in Rockville Centre, New York to a show business family...
(who performed at the Mudd Club) in his 1983 song "Off The Shelf". Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
poked fun at it in a song named for the club on his album You Are What You Is
You Are What You Is
You Are What You Is is a double album by Frank Zappa. It was originally released as a two-record set in 1981 and later by Rykodisc as a 20-song CD. The album relies on a heavy use of overdubbing. This album was the first one to feature material recorded using Zappa's home studio Utility Muffin...
.
Steve Mass has since moved on to open the Mudd club in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 2001 (located at Grosse Hamburger Strasse 17); this Berlin club was considered an intimate venue for touring bands.
In 2007, the arts organization Creative Time
Creative Time
Creative Time is a New York-based nonprofit arts organization. It was founded in 1973 to support the creation of innovative, site-specific, socially engaged works in the public realm, especially in vacant spaces of historical and architectural interest...
placed a plaque on the NYC building to commemorate the club's existence.
On October 28–29, 2010, there was a 30 year reunion of Mudd Club artists and regulars was held at the Delancy Lounge nightclub. Many bands and performers from the Mud Club and Club 57 performed, including The Bush Tetras
Bush Tetras
Bush Tetras are an American post-punk band from New York City, popular in the Manhattan club scene in the early 1980s but never achieving much mainstream success. Their music combined funk rhythms and dissonant guitar riffs.-History:...
, Three Teens Kill Four, The Comateens
Comateens
The Comateens were originally a New Wave duo formed in 1978 in New York City by bassist/vocalist Nic North and guitarist Ramona Jan. Soon after, Lyn Byrd joined on vocals and synthesiser, and the duo became a trio...
, and Walter Steading. A crowd of 40 and 50 something regulars re-met for the first time in years.
External links
- Mudd Club in Berlin
- "Why Are Lines Shorter for Gas Than the Mudd Club in New York? Because Every Night Is Odd There", PeoplePeople (magazine)In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine, v.12, n.3, July 16, 1979 - Linda Dawn Hammond, Photos from the Mudd Club, 1979.