Tewligans was a famous live music venue in Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville, Kentucky

Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...

. The venue operated between 1981 and 1996 at 1047 Bardstown Road in the Highlands

The Highlands (Louisville)

The Highlands is an area of Louisville, Kentucky which contains a high density of nightclubs, eclectic businesses, and many upscale and fast food restaurants. It is centered along a three-mile stretch of Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue and is so named because it sits atop a ridge between the...

 neighborhood. Tewligans changed ownership a number of times, being known for a short time by the name "Snagilwet," which is "Tewligans" spelled backwards.

Tewligans provided a local stage for local, regional and national acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...

, Smashing Pumpkins, Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo

Yo La Tengo, sometimes abbreviated as YLT, is an American alternative rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan , Georgia Hubley , and James McNew .Despite achieving limited mainstream success, Yo La Tengo has been called "the quintessential...

, Slint

Slint

Slint was an American rock band consisting of Brian McMahan , David Pajo , Britt Walford , Todd Brashear and Ethan Buckler...

, Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic

Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...

, Squirrel Bait

Squirrel Bait

Squirrel Bait was an American punk band from Louisville, Kentucky. They were in existence from 1983 to 1988. Squirrel Bait's dense, moody, melodic hardcore sound, featuring pronounced tempo shifts, foreshadowed the grunge sound of the late 1980s as well as math rock...

, Love Jones

Love Jones (band)

Love Jones is an American band, formed in Louisville, Kentucky in spring 1990 by Ben Daughtrey and Barry Thomas , with Chris Hawpe , Stuart Johnson and Jonathan Palmer . According to Entertainment Weekly, Love Jones was the leader of the "cocktail nation" groups of the early 1990s...

, NRBQ

NRBQ

NRBQ is an American rock band founded in 1967. It is known for its live performances, containing a high degree of spontaneity and levity, and blending rock, pop, jazz, blues and Tin Pan Alley styles. Its best known line-up is the 1974–1994 quartet of pianist Terry Adams, bassist Joey Spampinato,...

, Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Michael Richman is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. In 1970 he founded The Modern Lovers, an influential proto-punk band. Since the mid-1970s, Richman has worked either solo or with low-key, generally acoustic backing...

, R.E.M.

R.E.M.

R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...

, Steve Forbert

Steve Forbert

Steve Forbert is an American pop music singer-songwriter. He is best known for his song "Romeo's Tune", which reached #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1980....

, Kentucky Headhunters, A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls

A Flock of Seagulls are an English New Wave band originally formed by brothers Michael "Mike" Score and Alister "Ali" James Score , with Frank Maudsley , Michael Kuby , H.J...

, Bo Diddley

Bo Diddley

Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...

, Guadalcanal Diary

Guadalcanal Diary (band)

Guadalcanal Diary is an alternative jangle pop group. They originated in Marietta, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, but they were often billed as being "from Athens, Georgia" in the early 1980s. The band formed in 1981 and disbanded in 1989. They reformed in 1997, but never recorded any new material...

, Miracle Legion

Miracle Legion

Miracle Legion was an American college rock band formed in 1983 in New Haven, Connecticut. They earned modest renown, especially in their native New England region. The original lineup consisted of singer/guitarist Mark Mulcahy, lead guitarist Mr. Ray Neal, drummer Jeff Wiederschall, and bassist...

, U2

U2

U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...

, Fugazi

Fugazi (band)

Fugazi is an American post-hardcore band that formed in Washington, D.C. in 1987. The band's continual members are guitarists and vocalists Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto, bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty....

, Rollins Band

Rollins Band

Rollins Band was an American rock band led by singer and songwriter Henry Rollins.They are best known for the songs "Low Self Opinion" and "Liar", which both earned heavy airplay on MTV in the early 1990s...

, TSOL

TSOL

TSOL is an American punk rock band which formed in 1978 in Long Beach, California. TSOL is short for True Sounds of Liberty although they are rarely referred to by their full name....

, Blue Rodeo

Blue Rodeo

Blue Rodeo is a Canadian pop and country rock band, which was formed in 1984 in Toronto, Ontario. They have been signed with Warner Music Group since their debut album Outskirts in March 1987...

, Royal Crescent Mob

Royal Crescent Mob

Royal Crescent Mob was a four-person punk-funk band from Columbus, Ohio, that was formed in 1985. Also known to their fans as the R.C. Mob the band members included "Brian Emch" , David Ellison , Harold "Happy" Chichester and Carlton Smith . The band released five albums of material and one ep in...

, Afghan Whigs, Mojo Nixon

Mojo Nixon

Mojo Nixon is an American musician, known for playing psychobilly music...

, Hasil Adkins

Hasil Adkins

Hasil Adkins was an Appalachian country, rock and roll, and blues musician, though he was frequently considered rockabilly and sometimes primitive jazz...

, Government Cheese (featuring Tommy Womack

Tommy Womack

Tommy Womack is an American Singer-songwriter, musician and author.Womack has a long history as a songwriter and as a musician with many bands and recording artists/acts, both defunct and active. His recordings span multiple genres: folk, rock, country, alt-country, and indie music all being...

), Kinghorse, Crown of Thorns, Brain Dead, Folks on Fire, Mrs. Frazier, Drunk Monkey, Hopscotch Army, Bodeco

Bodeco

Bodeco is a rock and roll band out of Louisville, Kentucky, formed in 1984 by guitarist, singer and songwriter Ricky Feather and drummer Brian Burkett. It later grew into a full band, with its most famous line-up featuring Feather, Burkett, guitarist Wink O'Bannon, bassist Jimmy Brown and...

 and many others.

The original plywood stage was demolished ca. 1991 and a new stage constructed using unfinished oak pallet lumber purchased from Hillerich & Bradsby

Hillerich & Bradsby

Hillerich & Bradsby Company is a company located in Louisville, Kentucky that produces the famous Louisville Slugger baseball bat. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory in downtown Louisville features a retrospective of the product and its use throughout baseball history...

.

Tewligans often hosted (illegal) afterhours parties for regular patrons who would drink free until whatever keg was in service had run dry. On other nights, patrons could walk the short distance to the infamous Hepburn House, wherein an afterhours speakeasy

Speakeasy

A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...

 operated.
Probably one of Tewligan's best known figures was prominent Louisville attorney and Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

 nominee, Thomas E. Roma Jr. Tom was part owner, co-manager and dedicated "beer-tender", night after night, from 1981 to 1987. A former member of Deep Purple

Deep Purple

Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in Hertford in 1968. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock, although some band members believe that their music cannot be categorised as belonging to any one genre...

, Tom never recorded, but did front the band on tour between oustings of lead singers Ian Gillan

Ian Gillan

Ian Gillan is an English rock music vocalist and songwriter, best known as the lead singer and lyricist for Deep Purple. During his career Gillan also fronted his own band, had a year-long stint as the vocalist for Black Sabbath, and sang the role of Jesus in the original recording of Andrew Lloyd...

 and David Coverdale

David Coverdale

David 'Jack' Coverdale is an English rock singer, most famous for his work with the his own hard rock band Whitesnake which achieved massive commercial success.-Early life:...

. Contrary to the popular local lore, Tom denies ever dating Natalie Merchant

Natalie Merchant

Natalie Anne Merchant is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She joined the alternative rock band 10,000 Maniacs in 1981 and left it to begin her solo career in 1993.-Early life:...

.

The space reopened as "The Cherokee," which also operated as a live music venue. As of 2006, the location is operated as "Cahoots" and frequently features the same kinds of hardcore, punk rock and indie rock bands that used to grace the stage of Tewligans.

According to The Courier-Journal

The Courier-Journal

The Courier-Journal, locally called "The C-J", is the main newspaper for the city of Louisville, Kentucky, USA. According to the 1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook, the paper is the 48th largest daily paper in the United States and the single largest in Kentucky.- Origins :The...

, '"Tewligans was a lifestyle."