The Roxy Theatre
Encyclopedia
The Roxy Theatre is a famous nightclub
, on the Sunset Strip
, in West Hollywood, California
. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler
and Adler's son, Nic, who operates the club.
and Lou Adler
, along with original partners David Geffen
, Elliot Roberts and Peter Asher. They took over the building previously occupied by a strip club
owned by Chuck Landis called the Largo. (Adler was also responsible for bringing the stage play The Rocky Horror Show
to the United States
, and it opened its first American run at The Roxy Theatre in 1974, before it was made into the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show
the next year.)
Neil Young
and his band The Santa Monica Flyers played the Roxy for the first week it was open. Only three months later, the original Genesis
lineup with Peter Gabriel
played several consecutive days at the Roxy, a run that some band members and many fans consider to be amongst their finest performances (due partially to the intimate atmosphere and good acoustics of the venue, as well as the legendary reputation of "Hollywood" amongst performers around the world).
Paul Reubens
, then a struggling comedian, introduced his Pee-wee Herman
character in a raunchy revue here in 1981 that included other aspiring comics including Phil Hartman
and Elayne Boosler
.
The small On The Rox bar above the club has hosted a wide variety of debauchery in its history. The bar was a regular hangout for John Lennon
, Harry Nilsson
, Alice Cooper
and Keith Moon
during Lennon's "lost weekend" in 1973-74 and hosted parties arranged by Heidi Fleiss
in the 1980s.
According to LA.com, On The Rox "may be forever known as the club where John Belushi
partied before fatally overdosing". That may sound like a sordid reason for the club's fame, but it only underscores the hard-partying reputation that befits a room equipped with two stripper poles.
& The Mothers of Invention
recorded most of their celebrated Roxy and Elsewhere album during December 1973 at The Roxy.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
recorded Live at the Roxy
here on May 26, 1976.
Van Morrison
recorded a radio show in November 1978 that was released as a promo LP Live At The Roxy.
The concert scene for the 1979 movie "Rock N Roll High School", featuring a performance by The Ramones, was filmed at the Roxy in December 1978.
9 songs from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's
"Live/1975-85
" album were recorded at the Roxy in the mid-late 1970's.
Warren Zevon
's live album, Stand in the Fire
, was recorded during five shows he played at The Roxy in 1980.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers
played their first show with drummer Chad Smith
, at the venue on January 22, 1989.
NOFX
's live album I Heard They Suck Live!!
was recorded here on January 8–9, 1995.
Michel Polnareff
's live album, Live at the Roxy, was recorded in 1995 and released in 1996.
Social Distortion
released a live album, entitled Live At The Roxy
on June 30, 1998, that contained material recorded on April 7–9, 1998.
The CD/DVD album Collision Course
by Linkin Park
and Jay-Z
, comes with a DVD that contains behind the scene footage and the second take of all the Collision Course's songs at the Roxy Theatreon July 18, 2004.
The Mighty Boosh
performed their second stint of American shows at The Roxy Theatre in July 2009.
The Roxy Theatre is featured in the 2008 video game, Midnight Club: Los Angeles
.
Sum 41
shot the video for their song Screaming Bloody Murder
at the Roxy on April 3, 2011.
The Royal Pirates
held their fourth public Californian showcase at the Roxy on August 5-6, 2011.
Fuse TV
taped the live performance of Red Hot Chili Peppers
for “Fuse Presents: Red Hot Chili Peppers Live from the Roxy” on August 22, 2011.
KoRn
shot the performance part of the video for their song Narcissistic Cannibal
at the Roxy on September 27th, 2011.
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
, on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
, in West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, California
West Hollywood, a city of Los Angeles County, California, was incorporated on November 29, 1984, with a population of 34,399 at the 2010 census. 41% of the city's population is made up of gay men according to a 2002 demographic analysis by Sara Kocher Consulting for the City of West Hollywood...
. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler
Lou Adler
Lou Adler is an American record producer, manager, and director.-Life and career:Adler was born in Chicago, Illinois in December 1933, and raised in East Los Angeles. In 1964, Adler founded and co-owned Dunhill Records. He was President of the label as well as the chief record producer from 1964...
and Adler's son, Nic, who operates the club.
History
The Roxy was opened on September 23, 1973, by Elmer ValentineElmer Valentine
Elmer Valentine was the co-founder of two famous nightclubs on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California: the Whisky a Go Go and The Roxy Theatre.-Early life:Elmer Valentine was born in Chicago on June 16, 1923...
and Lou Adler
Lou Adler
Lou Adler is an American record producer, manager, and director.-Life and career:Adler was born in Chicago, Illinois in December 1933, and raised in East Los Angeles. In 1964, Adler founded and co-owned Dunhill Records. He was President of the label as well as the chief record producer from 1964...
, along with original partners David Geffen
David Geffen
David Geffen is an American record executive, film producer, theatrical producer and philanthropist. Geffen is noted for creating Asylum Records in 1970, Geffen Records in 1980, and DGC Records in 1990...
, Elliot Roberts and Peter Asher. They took over the building previously occupied by a strip club
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
owned by Chuck Landis called the Largo. (Adler was also responsible for bringing the stage play The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and it opened its first American run at The Roxy Theatre in 1974, before it was made into the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is the 1975 film adaptation of the British rock musical stageplay, The Rocky Horror Show, written by Richard O'Brien. The film is a parody of B-movie, science fiction and horror films of the late 1940s through early 1970s. Director Jim Sharman collaborated on the...
the next year.)
Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...
and his band The Santa Monica Flyers played the Roxy for the first week it was open. Only three months later, the original Genesis
Genesis (band)
Genesis are an English rock band that formed in 1967. The band currently comprises the longest-tenured members Tony Banks , Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins . Past members Peter Gabriel , Steve Hackett and Anthony Phillips , also played major roles in the band in its early years...
lineup with Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
played several consecutive days at the Roxy, a run that some band members and many fans consider to be amongst their finest performances (due partially to the intimate atmosphere and good acoustics of the venue, as well as the legendary reputation of "Hollywood" amongst performers around the world).
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens
Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. Reubens joined the Los Angeles troupe The Groundlings in the 1970s and started his career as an improvisational comedian and stage actor...
, then a struggling comedian, introduced his Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman
Pee-wee Herman is a comic fictional character created and portrayed by American comedian Paul Reubens. He is best known for his two television series and film series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981...
character in a raunchy revue here in 1981 that included other aspiring comics including Phil Hartman
Phil Hartman
Philip Edward "Phil" Hartman was a Canadian-American actor, comedian, screenwriter, and graphic artist. Born in Brantford, Ontario, Hartman and his family moved to the United States when he was 10...
and Elayne Boosler
Elayne Boosler
Elayne Boosler is an American comedian.Boosler was born and raised in Brooklyn, the youngest child and only daughter of a Russian-acrobat father and a Romanian-ballerina mother...
.
The small On The Rox bar above the club has hosted a wide variety of debauchery in its history. The bar was a regular hangout for John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, Harry Nilsson
Harry Nilsson
Harry Edward Nilsson III was an American singer-songwriter who achieved the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. On all but his earliest recordings he is credited as Nilsson...
, Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...
and Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...
during Lennon's "lost weekend" in 1973-74 and hosted parties arranged by Heidi Fleiss
Heidi Fleiss
Heidi Lynne Fleiss is an American former madam, and also a columnist and television personality regularly featured in the 1990s in American media. She is often referred to as the "Hollywood Madam"....
in the 1980s.
According to LA.com, On The Rox "may be forever known as the club where John Belushi
John Belushi
John Adam Belushi was an American comedian, actor, and musician, best known as one of the original cast members of the NBC sketch comedy show Saturday Night Live, The Star of the Films National Lampoon's Animal House and the The Blues Brothers and for fronting the American blues and soul...
partied before fatally overdosing". That may sound like a sordid reason for the club's fame, but it only underscores the hard-partying reputation that befits a room equipped with two stripper poles.
Recordings and performances
Frank ZappaFrank 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...
& The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention
The Mothers of Invention were an American band active from 1964 to 1969, and again from 1970 to 1975.They mainly performed works by, and were the original recording group of, US composer and guitarist Frank Zappa , although other members have had the occasional writing credit...
recorded most of their celebrated Roxy and Elsewhere album during December 1973 at The Roxy.
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Bob Marley & The Wailers were a Jamaican reggae, ska and rocksteady band formed by Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer in 1963. Additional members were Junior Braithwaite, Beverley Kelso, Cherry Smith and Aston and Carlton Barrett...
recorded Live at the Roxy
Live at the Roxy (Bob Marley & The Wailers album)
Live at the Roxy is a two-disc live album by Bob Marley & The Wailers, released in 2003. The album contains a complete concert, recorded on May 26, 1976 at The Roxy in West Hollywood California, during the Rastaman Vibration tour....
here on May 26, 1976.
Van Morrison
Van Morrison
Van Morrison, OBE is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and musician. His live performances at their best are regarded as transcendental and inspired; while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are widely...
recorded a radio show in November 1978 that was released as a promo LP Live At The Roxy.
The concert scene for the 1979 movie "Rock N Roll High School", featuring a performance by The Ramones, was filmed at the Roxy in December 1978.
9 songs from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
"Live/1975-85
Live/1975-85
Live/1975–85 is a live album by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band. It consists of 40 tracks recorded at various concerts between 1975 and 1985. It was released as a box set with either five vinyl records, three cassettes, or three CDs...
" album were recorded at the Roxy in the mid-late 1970's.
Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
's live album, Stand in the Fire
Stand in the Fire
Stand in the Fire is a live album by American singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, released Dec. 26, 1980. It was recorded during a series of performances at The Roxy Theatre in West Hollywood, California and featured two new original songs and one new cover . The album was dedicated to Martin Scorsese...
, was recorded during five shows he played at The Roxy in 1980.
The 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...
played their first show with drummer Chad Smith
Chad Smith
Chad Smith is an American musician, best known as the longtime and current drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Smith is also the drummer of the hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot which includes Sammy Hagar, Joe Satriani, and Michael Anthony, former Deep Purple vocalist Glenn Hughes' backing band and...
, at the venue on January 22, 1989.
NOFX
NOFX
NOFX is an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California .The band was formed in 1983 by vocalist/bassist Fat Mike and guitarist Eric Melvin. Drummer Erik Sandin joined NOFX shortly after. In 1991 El Hefe joined to play lead guitar and trumpet, rounding out the current line-up...
's live album I Heard They Suck Live!!
I Heard They Suck Live!!
I Heard They Suck Live!! is a live album by NOFX. It was recorded January 8 and 9, 1995 in a Hollywood, CA club. The name or exact location of the club was, at the time, unknown. This was for royalty reasons...
was recorded here on January 8–9, 1995.
Michel Polnareff
Michel Polnareff
Michel Polnareff, born in Nérac on 3 July 1944, is a French singer-songwriter who was very popular from the mid-1960s until the early 1980s...
's live album, Live at the Roxy, was recorded in 1995 and released in 1996.
Social Distortion
Social Distortion
Social Distortion is an American punk rock band formed in 1978 in Fullerton, California. The band currently consists of Mike Ness , Jonny Wickersham , Brent Harding and David Hidalgo, Jr...
released a live album, entitled Live At The Roxy
Live at the Roxy (Social Distortion album)
Live at the Roxy is a live album by the Southern California punk rock group Social Distortion. It was released on June 30, 1998, on their own Time Bomb label...
on June 30, 1998, that contained material recorded on April 7–9, 1998.
The CD/DVD album Collision Course
Collision Course (album)
Critics were divided over Collision Course, with some praising the album, while others negatively received it.David Jeffries of allmusic praised the album, calling it "awesomely fun". K.B...
by Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
and Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
, comes with a DVD that contains behind the scene footage and the second take of all the Collision Course's songs at the Roxy Theatreon July 18, 2004.
The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh
The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy troupe featuring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. Developed from three stage shows and a six episode radio series, it has since spawned a total of twenty television episodes for BBC Three and two live tours of the UK, as well as two live shows in the...
performed their second stint of American shows at The Roxy Theatre in July 2009.
The Roxy Theatre is featured in the 2008 video game, Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Midnight Club: Los Angeles
Midnight Club: Los Angeles is the fourth video game in the Midnight Club series of racing video games, not including Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition Remix. It was officially announced for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on January 11, 2008 by Rockstar Games. The game was developed by Rockstar San Diego...
.
Sum 41
Sum 41
Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of members Deryck Whibley , Tom Thacker , Jason McCaslin and Steve Jocz .In 1999, the band signed an international record deal with Island Records...
shot the video for their song Screaming Bloody Murder
Screaming Bloody Murder (song)
-Charts:-Release history:...
at the Roxy on April 3, 2011.
The Royal Pirates
Royal Pirates
Royal Pirates is a Korean-American rock band currently living in Southern California. The band was formerly known as Fading From Dawn with the members: Moonchul, Sooyoon, and Richard. Richard, Moonchul's brother, the bassist in the band, died in 2008 in a car accident...
held their fourth public Californian showcase at the Roxy on August 5-6, 2011.
Fuse TV
Fuse TV
Fuse is an American national television network dedicated exclusively to music. It features original series and specials, exclusive interviews, live concerts and video blocks....
taped the live performance of 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...
for “Fuse Presents: Red Hot Chili Peppers Live from the Roxy” on August 22, 2011.
KoRn
Korn
Korn is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The current band line up includes four members: Jonathan Davis, James "Munky" Shaffer, Reginald "Fieldy" Arvizu, and Ray Luzier. The band was formed as an expansion of L.A.P.D.The band released their first demo album,...
shot the performance part of the video for their song Narcissistic Cannibal
Narcissistic Cannibal
"Narcissistic Cannibal" is a song and second single from Korn's tenth studio album, The Path of Totality. The single was released to active rock and mainstream rock radio stations on October 18, followed by a digital release on October 24...
at the Roxy on September 27th, 2011.
See also
- Rainbow Bar and GrillRainbow Bar and GrillThe Rainbow Bar and Grill is a bar and restaurant on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California, United States adjacent to the border of Beverly Hills, California. Its address is 9015 Sunset Boulevard....
- Whisky a Go GoWhisky a Go GoThe Whisky a Go Go is a nightclub in West Hollywood, California, United States. It is located at 8901 Sunset Boulevard, on the Sunset Strip.-History:...
- Sunset StripSunset StripThe Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
- Troubadour
- Viper RoomViper RoomThe Viper Room is a nightclub located on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California. It was opened in 1993 and was partly owned by actor Johnny Depp until 2004. The club became known for being a hangout of Hollywood elite, and was the site where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on...