KEVIN McCORRY, HOST: I’m Kevin McCorry and this is ‘Jukebox Journey.’
[PAUL MCCARTNEY TALKING TO AUDIENCE AT CONVENTION HALL: “Thank you! Thank you very much and good evening, how are ya?”
KM: This week, part two of our look at Philly’s glorious bygone music venues, highlighting ones that closed after 1990.
I have this vivid memory from 25 years ago: I was a production assistant on an independent film. We were using the old Civic Center in University City as a soundstage. But most of the place was abandoned, and you could just wander around the empty hall feeling connected to the history of what was.
[ANNOUNCER VOICE: “May I present: The Beatles!”]
KM: It was there in what was known as Convention Hall that The Beatles played their first show in Philadelphia in 1964.
[MUSIC: “You Can’t Do That” by The Beatles, live at Convention Hall, 1964]
KM: The last event happened in the space in the mid ‘90s and the wrecking ball toppled it in 2007.
[MUSIC: “Overture” by The Who, live at The Electric Factory 1969]
KM: The Electric Factory has existed as an idea for generations. The original venue at 22nd and Arch only lasted a few years, but hosted shows including The Who on its “Tommy” tour in 1969.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: The idea resurfaced in the 1990s at 7th and Willow in an old G.E. switchgear plant. It hosted the likes of Green Day, who recorded an album at the Factory in 1997 that wasn’t released until 2023.
[MUSIC: “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” by Green Day, live at The Electric Factory 1997]
KM: By then, the venue changed ownership and names, and ‘Electric Factory’ exists again as an idea without a building.
[FRANK SINATRA PATTER WITH AUDIENCE IN DEVON]
KM: The Valley Forge Music Fair started as a tent in 1955 in Devon, before being built up as a theatre-in-the-round for top acts.
[MUSIC: “My Way” by Frank Sinatra, live at the Valley Forge Music Fair 1979]
KM: Sinatra played it in 1979. Ray Charles in ‘94.
[MUSIC: “How Long Has This Been Going On” by Ray Charles, live at the Valley Forge Music Fair 1994]
KM: It closed in ‘96. Today on the space: A ‘Floor and Decor.’ So it goes.
[MUSIC: “Captain Jack” by Billy Joel, live at The Spectrum from “Songs in the Attic,” 1980]
KM: For decades, The Spectrum was THE major spot in the city for big concerts. Billy Joel played there 25 times and put the song that Philly helped kickstart his career on his 1980 live album.
[MUSIC SWELL]
[MUSIC: “Yellow Ledbetter” by Pearl Jam, live at The Spectrum 2009]
KM: It was Pearl Jam, though, that closed the arena down with a run of shows in 2009, culminating with the national anthem.
[MUSIC: “The National Anthem” as played live by Pearl Jam at The Spectrum 2009]
KM: Personally, it’s the cozier clubs that I miss the most. Boot and Saddle on South Broad. The Tin Angel in Old City. The North Star Bar in Fairmount.
Maybe it was your friend’s band playing. Maybe it was yours. Maybe it was The White Stripes before they made it big. That was the charm, like here at The North Star in 2001.
[MUSIC: “Little People” by The White Stripes, live at the North Star Bar, 2001]
[MUSIC: “Let Me Clear My Throat” by DJ Kool, live at the Bahama Bay Club 1996]
KM: It’s not often that a live version of a song becomes THE version of a song. And of all Philly venues in history, it’s the Bahama Bay Club on Delaware Ave that perhaps best can make that claim.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: That’s where DJ Kool recorded this hip-hop anthem in 1996 that went platinum.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: So where does that leave me with the list? Well, there’s two vacant legendary venues that I don’t want to accept have seen their last shows.
The Tower Theatre in Upper Darby opened in 1927 as a vaudeville and movie house, and in the ‘70s morphed into a rock venue.
David Bowie recorded a live album there in 1974:
[MUSIC: “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie, live from The Tower Theatre 1974]
KM: And Paul Simon did a concert film there in 1980.
[MUSIC: “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” by Paul Simon, live from the Tower Theatre 1980]
KM: By 2022, it was mothballed.
The Trocadero opened in 1870 as The Arch St. Opera House, then went burlesque before becoming a mainstay in the music scene until closing in 2019.
[MUSIC: “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn, live at The Trocadero 2011]
KM: But the wrecking balls haven’t come yet. And for those of us who believe there’s something magic in these halls — something that offers us communal catharsis — there’s joy in the idea that even when we’re singing and dancing about isolation, we have a holy place to be present together.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: Robyn, live at the Troc in 2011.
I’m Kevin McCorry and this has been a Jukebox Journey on WHYY.