The Deaf Club
Encyclopedia
The Deaf Club was a notable music venue
located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18 month period. Its main attraction was punk music
. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally began as a deaf people's clubhouse
in the 1930s.
discovered the San Francisco Club for the Deaf, and was able to rent it on a nightly basis.
The first show as the Deaf Club on 9 December 1978 featured the Offs, The Mutants
and On The Rag. Over 100 bands such as Northern California
's The Units
, The Zeros, Crime
, The Dils
, Flipper
and Southern California
's The Bags
, Alleycats, The Germs
, X and Dinettes would play this small underground club.
Given the unique nature of the venue and its location in the Mission District near 16th Street and the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk and arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters
and occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department and the alcohol and beverage control until it closed.
The house DJs
were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine
; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager and chef at the Zuni); BBC
celebrity Johnnie Walker
; and Robert Hanrahan.
About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants
comments:
released by Optional Record distribution of Berkeley, CA
on the Walking Dead label: "Can You Hear Me? Music From the Deaf Club." It was recorded on a mobile 8 track by Jim Keylor (also of Army Street Studios), DJ'ed by Johnnie Walker http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/walker/, produced by Robert Hanrahan who also managed and booked the Club, and coordinated by Peter Worrall. The photos selected for the album were taken by Sue Brisk, the album art was by Diana Miami (aka Diana Stumbo) and the liner notes
were written by V. Vale of RE/Search
/Search & Destroy. It was recorded live at the club during early 1979 and is a testament to the authentic underground punk and "new wave
" scene during that period in San Francisco's music history. The album featured The Mutants
' "Tribute to Russ Meyer" and "Monster of Love" and performances from other first and second generation San Francisco Punk bands like:
From the Deaf Club, Walking Dead also produced, with William Passerelli, Dirk Dirksen (Mabuhay Gardens
), Paul Rat Bachavich (Temple Beautiful) & Goody Thompson: the Western Front Festival. The festival engaged the Deaf Club and every venue, (including the "art clubs": A.R.E., Taget Video, Valencia Tool & Die
, Club Foot, the A-hole and Club Generic) in the San Francisco Bay Area that embraced punk culture and music for a week long event.
, Joel Selvin
the music critic for the SF Chronicle
who was attracted by the energy surrounding the punk scene promised to "put the scene on the map." Selvin authored an extensive article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 1979 on page 6 entitled "S.F. Goes Punk." It documented the scene during that time and included interviews with Dirk Dirksen, Joe Rees, Robert Hanrahan, Johnnie Walker and Paul Rat Bachavich. He also mentioned the Deaf Club in a subsequent publication: "San Francisco: The Musical History Tour : A Guide to over 200 of the Bay Area's Most Memorable Music Sites" where he disparages the Club as "one of the stranger scenes on the punk rock scene."
Tono Rondone, a member of the Frank Hymng Band, which featured Fritz Fox of The Mutants
, remembers a humorous sideline to the history of The Deaf Club: "At one point, there was a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle which told of the temporary closing of The Deaf Club whose headline read 'Deaf Club Closed Due to Excessive Noise Levels.'"
Herb Caen in his daily San Francisco Chronicle column dated Monday August 13, 1979 "Have a Weird Day" said: "I don't know about you, but I find it slightly bizarre that The Deaf Club at 530 Valencia – indeed a social hangout for deaf people – features punk rock groups, such as Zen, Off, The Pink Section, Blow Driers and Mutants. "The louder the better!" beams Edward Juaregui, executive director of Deaf Self Help. "We all like to dance, and we can feel the vibrations." How about the neighbors? "Oh," continued Edward, "they're going crazy. They keep calling the cops, complaining the noise is deafening. Isn't that rich?"
.
The club had a history of being closed for various reasons, such as by the fire marshal for the lack of sprinklers. Holding private parties with a closed door policy was a way of it continuing to run.
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...
located on Valencia Street in San Francisco which remained open for an 18 month period. Its main attraction was punk music
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. The name comes from the fact the building it was in originally began as a deaf people's clubhouse
Community centre
Community centres or community centers or jumping recreation centers are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole community or for a specialised group within...
in the 1930s.
Founding
Robert Hanrahan, manager of the The OffsThe Offs
The Offs are a punk/ska band from San Francisco, started by guitarist Billy Hawk and singer Don Vinil, and later joined by former Hot Tuna drummer Bob Steeler and a rotation of horn players including Bob Roberts, Richard Edson and Roland Young...
discovered the San Francisco Club for the Deaf, and was able to rent it on a nightly basis.
The first show as the Deaf Club on 9 December 1978 featured the Offs, The Mutants
The Mutants (San Francisco)
The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics...
and On The Rag. Over 100 bands such as Northern California
Northern California
Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...
's The Units
The Units
The Units are a defunct, early electronic music/punk rock/New Wave/synthpunk band founded in San Francisco in 1978 and active until 1984.One of America's first electronic New Wave bands, they are widely cited as pioneers of a genre now known as "synthpunk." The Units were notable for their use of...
, The Zeros, Crime
Crime (band)
Crime was an early American punk band from San Francisco. The band was formed in 1976 by Johnny Strike , Frankie Fix , Ron "The Ripper" Greco , and Ricky Tractor...
, The Dils
The Dils
The Dils were an American punk rock band of the late 1970s, originally from Carlsbad, California, and fronted by brothers Chip Kinman and Tony Kinman...
, Flipper
Flipper (band)
Flipper is a punk band formed in San Francisco, California in 1979, continuing in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. The band influenced a number of grunge,, punk rock and noise rock bands...
and Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
's The Bags
The Bags
The Bags were an American rock band formed in 1977. They were one of the first generation of punk rock bands to emerge out of Los Angeles, California.-Career:...
, Alleycats, The Germs
The Germs
The Germs are an American punk rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1977 to 1980. The band's early lineup consisted of singer Darby Crash, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Lorna Doom, and their most consistent drummer Don Bolles. Germs have since reformed in 2005 with Shane...
, X and Dinettes would play this small underground club.
Given the unique nature of the venue and its location in the Mission District near 16th Street and the Roxie Theater, it was enthusiastically supported by the punk and arts community, visited by film greats like John Waters
John Waters (filmmaker)
John Samuel Waters, Jr. is an American filmmaker, actor, stand-up comedian, writer, journalist, visual artist, and art collector, who rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films...
and occasionally challenged by the officials of the San Francisco noise abatement patrol, the police, fire department, health department and the alcohol and beverage control until it closed.
The house DJs
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
were Enrico Chandoha who worked on the editorial staff of the early Thrasher Magazine
Thrasher magazine
Thrasher is a monthly skateboarding magazine founded in 1981 by Kevin Thatcher, Eric Swenson, and Fausto Vitello. It regularly publishes articles , skateboard photography, interviews with professional skateboarders, interviews with and reviews of musical groups, skatepark reviews, and miscellaneous...
; Jack Fan (an Offs road manager and chef at the Zuni); BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
celebrity Johnnie Walker
Johnnie Walker (DJ)
Johnnie Walker MBE is a popular British veteran radio disc jockey and broadcaster....
; and Robert Hanrahan.
About such venues, Brendan Earley of The Mutants
The Mutants (San Francisco)
The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics...
comments:
"The earthiness, I guess, of playing places like the Deaf Club seemed to have a lot more energy to them. You know the crowd that started coming to this music in '77, it was maybe a peak of their scene, or the scene at that time. They were not normal kinds of clubs, they weren't places like the Stone, or even the Mabuhay, really. They were neat places to play; often good audiences, and good energy going on."
Walking Dead Records compilation albums
The four partners in Walking Dead Records developed a live compilation project that resulted in an albumCompilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
released by Optional Record distribution of Berkeley, CA
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
on the Walking Dead label: "Can You Hear Me? Music From the Deaf Club." It was recorded on a mobile 8 track by Jim Keylor (also of Army Street Studios), DJ'ed by Johnnie Walker http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/shows/walker/, produced by Robert Hanrahan who also managed and booked the Club, and coordinated by Peter Worrall. The photos selected for the album were taken by Sue Brisk, the album art was by Diana Miami (aka Diana Stumbo) and the liner notes
Liner notes
Liner notes are the writings found in booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for vinyl records and cassettes.-Origin:...
were written by V. Vale of RE/Search
RE/Search
RE/Search Publications is an American magazine and book publisher, based in San Francisco, founded and edited by Andrea Juno and V. Vale in 1980. It was the successor to Vale's earlier punk rock fanzine Search & Destroy , and was started with $100 from Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti...
/Search & Destroy. It was recorded live at the club during early 1979 and is a testament to the authentic underground punk and "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...
" scene during that period in San Francisco's music history. The album featured The Mutants
The Mutants (San Francisco)
The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics...
' "Tribute to Russ Meyer" and "Monster of Love" and performances from other first and second generation San Francisco Punk bands like:
- Offs – "Hundred Dollar Limo", "Die Babylon", "I've Got the Handle" (Offs were: Don Vinyl, Billy Hawk, Bob Roberts now of Spotlight Tattoo in Los Angeles, Bob Steeler and Denny Boredom who also played with Hot Tuna)
- Pink Section – "Jane Blank", Francine's List" & "Been In The Basement 30 Years"
- Tuxedo Moon – "19th Nervous Breakdown", courtesy of The Rolling StonesThe Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
and "Heaven" from the film EraserheadEraserheadEraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist film and the first feature film of David Lynch, who wrote, produced and directed. Lynch began working on the film at the AFI Conservatory, which gave him a $10,000 grant to make the film after he had begun working there following his 1971 move to Los Angeles... - KGB – "Dying in the USA" & "Picture Frame Seduction"
- Dead KennedysDead KennedysDead Kennedys are an American punk rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1978. The band became part of the American hardcore punk movement of the early 1980s. They gained a large underground fanbase in the international punk music scene....
with "Police Truck", "Short Songs" & "Straight A's". Raymond Pepperell, Jr., better known as East Bay Ray of the Dead Kennedy's used the original two track safety masters from that live eight track recording to release their recent 2004 "live at the Deaf Club" CD.
From the Deaf Club, Walking Dead also produced, with William Passerelli, Dirk Dirksen (Mabuhay Gardens
Mabuhay Gardens
The Mabuhay Gardens was a San Francisco nightclub located at , on the Broadway strip of North Beach, an area best known for its strip clubs....
), Paul Rat Bachavich (Temple Beautiful) & Goody Thompson: the Western Front Festival. The festival engaged the Deaf Club and every venue, (including the "art clubs": A.R.E., Taget Video, Valencia Tool & Die
Valencia Tool & Die
Valencia Tool & Die, abbreviated as VT&D, was a 1980s San Francisco music venue and art gallery that presented punk, new wave, and new music performances, as well as performance art, film, and visual art shows from 1980 through 1983....
, Club Foot, the A-hole and Club Generic) in the San Francisco Bay Area that embraced punk culture and music for a week long event.
Reviews
In a conversation at the Deaf Club during a show during the Western Front by the Dinettes of San DiegoSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
, Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin
Joel Selvin is a San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the San Francisco Chronicle which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of pop music and has interviewed a large number of musical artists...
the music critic for the SF Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
who was attracted by the energy surrounding the punk scene promised to "put the scene on the map." Selvin authored an extensive article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, October 22, 1979 on page 6 entitled "S.F. Goes Punk." It documented the scene during that time and included interviews with Dirk Dirksen, Joe Rees, Robert Hanrahan, Johnnie Walker and Paul Rat Bachavich. He also mentioned the Deaf Club in a subsequent publication: "San Francisco: The Musical History Tour : A Guide to over 200 of the Bay Area's Most Memorable Music Sites" where he disparages the Club as "one of the stranger scenes on the punk rock scene."
Tono Rondone, a member of the Frank Hymng Band, which featured Fritz Fox of The Mutants
The Mutants (San Francisco)
The Mutants are an important band in the history of San Francisco punk rock and new wave music. They are known for their theatrical performances which often include elaborate props, projections, and comical antics...
, remembers a humorous sideline to the history of The Deaf Club: "At one point, there was a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle which told of the temporary closing of The Deaf Club whose headline read 'Deaf Club Closed Due to Excessive Noise Levels.'"
Herb Caen in his daily San Francisco Chronicle column dated Monday August 13, 1979 "Have a Weird Day" said: "I don't know about you, but I find it slightly bizarre that The Deaf Club at 530 Valencia – indeed a social hangout for deaf people – features punk rock groups, such as Zen, Off, The Pink Section, Blow Driers and Mutants. "The louder the better!" beams Edward Juaregui, executive director of Deaf Self Help. "We all like to dance, and we can feel the vibrations." How about the neighbors? "Oh," continued Edward, "they're going crazy. They keep calling the cops, complaining the noise is deafening. Isn't that rich?"
Closing
The club closed with a party hosted by the artist and filmmaker Bruce ConnerBruce Conner
Bruce Conner was an American artist renowned for his work in assemblage, film, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, and photography, among other disciplines.-Early life:...
.
The club had a history of being closed for various reasons, such as by the fire marshal for the lack of sprinklers. Holding private parties with a closed door policy was a way of it continuing to run.