Best Vancouver Bars and Clubs: A History
Charles Campbell
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September 5, 2011
Image by Dan Scott / The Vancouver Sun
Oil Can Harry's
From 1966 to 1977, Danny Baceda and Frank Hook's three-room club on Thurlow Street was home to R&B, lounge music and jazz. Its cartoon-villain branding and playboy ethos made it the place to be, until it collapsed under the weight of its own excess.
Oreste's
Sure, it was just a restaurant with belly dancers, but partner Blaine Culling, on his way from the 1960s Retinal Circus to the 1990s Roxy, helped to create a scene in the 1970s and 80s where forbidden things happened.
Image by BC Archives / Gassy Jack
The Globe Saloon
Former steamship operator John Gassy Jack Deighton ran a bar in New Westminster until 1867, when he came to Burrard Inlet and established the future Vancouver's first bar, the Globe Saloon, by Edward Stamp's sawmill. For his trouble, he got a statue in his namesake Gastown.
Image by Jack Lindsay / Vancouver Archives
The Cave
Along with the Palomar and the Hotel Vancouver's Panorama Roof, the Cave and its tacky stalactites defined Vancouver's supper club era in the 1950s and 60s, hosting acts from Duke Ellington to Diana Ross and the Supremes, and providing an annual staging ground for Mitzi Gaynor's Las Vegas shows.
Image by John Denniston / The Province
The Penthouse
Bottle club, late-night refuge, hooker hangout, stripper joint, film set. The Penthouse, which has featured the likes of Sammy Davis, Jr. on its stage, has rolled with all the changes, including the 1984 murder of patriarch Joe (above), because the Phillipone family has owned the club and the real estate since 1947.
Image by Arlene Redekop / The Province
The Commodore
On the verge of the 1970s, Drew Burns obtained the 40-year-old, 1,000-seat ballroom's first regular liquor licence and built its reputation as one of the world's great nightclubs. Although Burns maintains he spent the right 27 years at the Commodore, its importance persists: Billboard just named it one of North America's 10 most influential clubs.
Image by George Diack / The Vancouver Sun
The Pink Pussycat
In the 1960s, Danny Baceda, Harvey Eisen and then Roger Gibson ran the city's first disco, where Water Street meets Cordova. Before Luv-A-Fair, before Graceland, before Republic, this was where the city came to dance.
Image by Brian Kent / The Vancouver Sun
The Smilin' Buddha
Every action has a reaction, and this Hastings Street dive, which in its R&B days once played host to an unknown Jimi Hendrix, in the late 70s was the centre of Vancouver's explosion of DIY punk culture.
Rohan's Rockpile
In the 1970s, Fred Xavier's club hosted eclectic hometown bands who performed for love instead of money. And then there was the night The Who came to play after an arena show.
The Body Shop
From the Pink Pussycat to the Shark Club, no Vancouver nightclub entrepreneur has been as smartly versatile as Roger Gibson. In the mid-70s, his Body Shop gave Vancouver radio rock acts like Prism a local home as the city's musicians began stepping onto the international stage.
The Town Pump
If you loved music and came of age in Vancouver in the 80s and 90s, Bob Burrows's Town Pump is where you saw all those great bands before they either became huge or flamed out.
GandyDancer
Before it became Bar None in 1992, this Yaletown club was the 80s gay hotspot cool, camp and also a great place for girls to dance without the annoyance of being groped by strange men with base ambitions.
Image by Ian Lindsay / The Province
The Roxy
White kids still line up down the block in front of the Roxy for what's left of nightclub rock and perhaps a chance to see a puck bunny flash a Chicago Blackhawk.
Image by Michael Loccisano / Getty
River Rock Show Theatre
Once, Vancouver had the Cave. Now casinos siphon many veteran acts into bloodless suburban theatres. Will we one day wax nostalgic about their heyday?
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VANCOUVER BARS AND CLUBS
Submitted by V. Camarena on Thu, 2011-12-08 18:36.In regards to your article on bars and clubs in Vancouver
we would ask how old was the writer who did this article?
Vancouver was a liquor prohibited Province and liquor was sold in Hotels Only,until Danny Baceda entered the scene. It was Danny who opened the doors of entertainment in Vancouver in the early 60's and late 70's but your article seems to slight him. Danny brought life to would be entertainers and bands and the entertainment business in general. Vancouver entertainment exploded under Danny's rule of the entertainment industry in Vancouver. Try talking to older entertainers and they will set your writer straight. We saw your artical posted in the net.
V. Camarena