CBGB to Close Next Year

New York's legendary music venue CBGB will remain at its current East Village location for one more year after reaching an agreement with its landlords on Wednesday. The punk rock club -- known for launching the careers of the Ramones, Blondie, the Talking Heads and others -- had been fighting eviction by the Bowery Residents' Committee, the club's landlord, which refused to renew CBGB's lease on August 31st after a series of disputes over back rent.

Now the famed venue will have a year to look for another location. The agreement calls for CBGB to close its doors on the Bowery by October 31, 2006. CBGB owner Hilly Kristal has been scouting other New York locations and may launch a Las Vegas club of the same name.

"Back in the day you had to play CBGB," B-52's singer Fred Schneider told Rolling Stone in August. "It was just chaotic fun -- a smoky, boozy rock & roll joint . . . with the worst toilet in the world."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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