The Channel
Any conversation about the Boston music scene the 1980s has to include The Channel, one of the city’s most (in)famous concert venues. Opened in 1980 at 25 Necco Street on the edge of Fort Point Channel (hence the name), it was on the site of the old Mad Hatter disco and was a mainstay for rockers of all varieties for more than 11 years.
With an official capacity of 1,700, the venue was the largest rock club in Boston and the surrounding area, so sharing a bill with one of the nationally or internationally known acts that played there – or headlining one of the club’s local-music nights – was often the highlight of up-and-coming bands’ careers. Being able to tell people that your group played at The Channel provided a certain street cred overnight.
NOTABLE APPEARANCES, STAFF MEMBERS
Dozens of Boston- and New England-rooted acts took to The Channel stage, among them Misson of Burma, Human Sexual Response, ‘Til Tuesday, Jon Butcher Axis, Pixies, The Cars, Lizzie Borden & The Axes, Gang Green, Extreme, Big Dipper, The Neighborhoods, Face to Face, La Peste, Farrenheit, Buffalo Tom, Big Catholic Guilt and The Fools.
Bands from outside New England that appeared included Devo, The Ramones, Black Flag, Ministry, Spin Doctors, Tom Tom Club, Stray Cats, The Rollins Band, The Hooters, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and The Cramps along with a number of well-established reggae and blues acts (including Jimmy Cliff and B.B. King in 1991). “Anything from heavy metal to Latino and gospel,” the club’s booker, Warren Scott, told The Boston Globe in 1985 about his approach. “If it has an audience, we’ll do it.”
In addition to Scott, other Channel staffers included soundman Dinky Dawson, deejays Carter Alan, Bradley Jay, Metal Mike and Carmelita and bartender Robin Moran, the last of whom helped to organize the Channel Reunion Concert in June 2013 to celebrate the bands and the venue that made the ‘80s such a great time for rock fans living in or around Boston.
BANKRUPTCY, CLOSING
Hit hard by rising booking costs, liquor license issues and competition from other venues including the Paradise Rock Club in Boston, T.T. the Bear’s Place and The Middle East in Cambridge and Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel and The Living Room in Providence, Channel owner Harry Booras filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 in 1990. After a few fits and starts, the venue closed for good on December 31, 1991, and notorious mobster “Cadillac Frank” Salemme took control of the space in 1992, turning it into a strip club called Soiree.
(by Stephen Haag)
