Regular readers will know that features come few and far between on Too Much Rock, but after recently reading No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History of the Legendary City Gardens, I knew that this was something that I had to share.
The book tells the story of City Gardens – a long-running, and long-suffering club, in the roughest part of Trenton, NJ. The book begins with the birth of the club in the late-'70s, and carries the reader forward to the club's mid-'90s destruction. It's a tale of punk rock bands, hardcore hooligans, new wave dance nights, and all-out riots. It's also the story of how a building owner and a dedicated promoter created a scene that gave a home to the outcasts, inspired countless musicians and writers, and welcomed everyone – well, until it didn't, and everything fell apart. Having spent more Sunday mornings stapling gig flyers to phone polls than sitting in church pews, the stories told in No Slam Dancing were immediately familiar despite my Midwestern locale. And because this is an oral history, the book is nothing but stories – the show-by-show recollections of the promoter who lost money, the band that got spit on, the bouncer that bled, and the kid that slipped in the backdoor when no one was looking.
Author Amy Yates Wuelfing (then Amy Yates) was one of those
rule-breaking kids when she attended her first City Gardens concert in
1983. Now, 31 years later, with the help of her co-author Steven
DiLodovico, she has written the definitive history of the club by
assembling interviews with the bands that played the notorious club, the
staff that worked there (including bartender Jon Stewart), and, often
most importantly, sharing the stories of the regulars who spent several
nights a week in the smelly, cinderblock building. I had a chance to
talk to Amy about her book earlier this week.
interview,
book review
TMR: When did you decide that you wanted to do this book?
A: I started it 15+ years ago. I stayed friends with promoter Randy Now and he talked about writing a book of his experiences. I told him I'd help, but then it grew to be not just about him, but about the club as a whole. I love oral histories – Please Kill Me [Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil] is one of my favorite books – so I decided on that format. It was very labor intensive. Had I known, I might have stuck with an editorial, narrative-type format! But in the end, I think it turned out really good. A lot of people get to tell their stories.
TMR: Because so many of those stories are contradictory, could this story have been told in any way but an oral history?
A: It could, but I like oral histories – you're left to draw your own conclusion. I could do a narrative, but then I would probably end up presenting it with some bias. What I thought really happened, and so on. I like just throwing different people's accounts out there, and the reader decides.
TMR: Some of those accounts are fairly damning, and don't paint people or groups in a very positive light? Was that a concern of yours?
A: It's all their own words. I'm not concerned with how they receive it, really. We just printed what they said. We hid the identities of people who didn't want to talk. Ivo [a serious antagonist throughout much of the book] being a prime example. His real name isn't mentioned. They brought the demise of the club with their actions, as far as I am concerned.
TMR: Throughout the book, and especially in that violent era, virtually no stories are told to you with any regret (no matter how out-of-hand things were), and only a few seem to have applied any sort of hindsight to their actions. Why do you suppose that is?
A: I don't know. Really. People who caused the most damage, the people who basically closed the club, don't seem to see a relationship between actions and consequences.
TMR: There are lots of bits throughout the book that involve you interviewing (or trying to interview) bands for Hard Times and other magazines that were just a step above zines. Was this self-published book a similar DIY affair, or has it required a more professional approach?
A: It wasn't a step above zines – it was zines! But I was a teenager and that was fine with me. I got to go to shows, see bands, talk to them, so I was in heaven. There were a lot of zines then, so it was a community of people who did them. The book is totally DIY. We have/had a book agent who tried to get us a deal, but they always wanted to make changes. I didn't want to change the title, limit the page count, etc. so in the end it worked out fine. The logistical side is a pain – finding distribution, etc. – but I am enjoying the learning experience of it.
TMR: When you began writing about the scene, there was little barrier between bands and fans, when you reached out to bands for the book had things changed?
A: It depended on the person. Most people we could reach directly. Some people you have to go through management or PR people. For example, Glenn Danzig – we were never able to get through his layers of "people." Jon Stewart was much easier! But most people were very willing to talk and generous with their time.
TMR: Did you know which shows you wanted to highlight from the beginning, or did you try to talk to bands/fans for each show and see which had interesting bits you wanted to share?
A: First I went to the Aquarian [the local long-running and still independent alternative weekly] offices, and paged through every issue from 1980-1995 to put together the gig calendar. That took two solid days. Then I went through and highlighted what I thought were the most important shows and tried to get a story for each one. Some we couldn't. Some shows had nothing really that memorable about them.
TMR: So do you have a complete listing of gigs for the venue? Why wasn't that included as an appendix?
A: I do have a complete list – it is on the website (http://www.citygardensnj.com/) and will be included in the e-book. It would have added over 150+ pages to the book, which was already 400+ pages. It would have been too expensive to print.
TMR: When you began to put this book together, was it for those that were there to remember the times, or did you imagine another audience?
A: It was for the people who went there, mostly. But I have found that younger people really like the book. It gives them a sense of what they missed out on.
TMR: Was the scene better then?
A: I don't know that it was better – it was just different. The world before the internets. People have an easier time finding kindred souls now – all you have to do is a Google search. Back then, you had to leave your house and take a chance. So, maybe people don't feel so alone now or marginalized for being "different." But, maybe the relationships we make now aren't quite as lasting.
TMR: Is there another project in the works? Has this one invigorated you or killed you?
A: A little of both. Yes, we are already working on another oral history. We didn't learn our lesson, I guess. It's the history of record stores.
TMR: Stores in your area, or like the important ones in each city (e.g. Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis or Ear X-tacy in Louisville)?
A: Overall, how they started, etc. And then the bigger ones in major cities. We are still fleshing this out, we just started. Like No Slam Dancing, it will become what it is meant to be. These projects have their own soul and create themselves, as weird as that sounds.