Tuts Chicago - 40th Anniversary

  by Philamonjaro

published: 9 / 9 / 2020

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Philamonjoro reflects on short-lived but influential Chicago music venue Tuts in its 40th anniversary year.

2020 continues the 40th anniversary of one of Chicago’s greatest live music clubs of its time. For a few brief years from 1979 to 1984, this 350 seat venue presented a smorgasbord of music From Richard Thompson to Killing Joke. Under the management of two owners, and two locations, it earned a reputation as the place to be for the best breaking artists you had never heard of before. A cover charge that was well worth the money. The first location, under the ownership of Vel Kolar, was in a basement on Clark Street in what would later become Smart Bar in Cabaret Metro. From 1982 to 1984 under the new ownership of Kevin Walker and Hank Zamola, the club moved next door to the Belmont CTA train stop at the corner of Sheffield and next to The Vic Theatre. The second floor live music room was already sacred as its earlier incarnation was The Quiet Night. Bob Marley played there and Mick, Ronnie, Charlie and Keef graced the stage after their July 10, 1978 Soldier Field gig joining Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon on stage. Too numerous to name them all, a few stand out nights included RIchard Thompson, The Cramps, Los Lobos, T-Bone Burnett, The Replacements, Bad Manners, The Alarm, Buddy Guy, Son Seals, Peter Tork, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Stray Cats, Yello, Naked Raygun, Richie Havens, Heavy Manners, Violent Femmes, Missing Persons, Weird Al Yankovic, The Romantics, Flora Purim and Airto, Corky Seigel aas well as so many more. Today this corner goes unnoticed as Milo’s Hair Salon. Fondly, the salon has a section of wall enshrined with photos of the club. For the rest of us, we recall the stories, the antics, and the raw power of the music with the affection of coming to age with a lifetime of musicians who we still follow to this day. In celebration of this anniversary former staff member Philamonjaro is issuing a limited edition t-shirt featuring the iconic club logo: http://www.philamonjaro.com/tuts-order-form (Square image of the t-shirt goes with this link). The photographs that accompany this article were all taken by Howard Greenblatt and are of Missing Persons, Mose Allison, Nico, Richard Thompson and Tuts staff. For photographs or a limited edition book of Greenblatt’s imagery, visit http://www.imaginepictures.net

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