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Rockafellas’ always managed to keep the glasses full, the amps plugged in and the stage lights on — until the landlord posted an eviction notice Jan. 15, 1998.
The Five Points rock club had many close calls during its 14 years in business, but that night, it closed for good. The announcement didn’t come from the owners, staff or the newspaper; it was made by a member of the band Zen Tricksters, who found the eviction notice shortly after midnight and announced it to the crowd.
In the early morning hours, the Rockafellas’ crew removed the sound system and memorabilia.
“BYE” was left on the club’s marquee.
Now, almost 10 years later, Rockafellas’ will say hello again to old friends.
A two-day, four-venue reunion, which will begin Friday Nov. 16, will feature more than 20 bands who played at Rockafellas’. You’ll also see some of the people who made the club memorable.
But the party won’t be at 2112 Devine St., Rockafellas’ former space, which now is occupied by Jake’s. Rockafellas’ spirit will be celebrated at The Flying Saucer, New Brookland Tavern, Headliners and 5 Points Pub.
We asked Scott Padgett, Steve Gibson, Jack Jakubs, Angie Seshun, Steve Varholy, Angelo Gianni, Mark Bryan and Brent Lundy, people involved with the Rockafellas’ name past and present, to share their memories with us.
Here are their stories.
SCOTT PADGETT
Greenstreet’s, a Five Points rock club, burned down. That’s what spurred Padgett to open Rockafellas’ in 1984.
“I had been the music editor of Oceola Magazine,” Padgett said. “That was like the alternative paper in Columbia. (Dick Harpootlian started it.) It had folded, and I was looking for something to do.”
Steve Gibson, whose family owned the restaurant The Peddler, was Padgett’s partner. Brothers Tommy and Mike Bise helped build the club, which cost about $10,000 to renovate, Padgett said.
“We wanted to have live rock ’n’ roll in Columbia, because, at the time, there was none,” Padgett said. “Five Points was just starting to get some traction as more than a bar scene.
“There were so many local bands around. There was no outlet for anybody.”
The name, if you’re wondering, was ripped from a Houston bar named Rockerfellers’.
Rockafellas’ hit its early stride when Padgett connected with trend-setting I.R.S. Records head Miles Copeland, brother of guitarist Stewart Copeland of The Police.
“He gave me a cold call,” Padgett said. “That’s when the bands anyone remembers started coming.”
Padgett said that the club’s early success was a joint effort.
“If I hadn’t heard of a band, I’d go to Peaches Records & Tapes, or I’d go up to Manifest and ask Carl (Singmaster),” he said. “We’d talk to the people at WUSC. It was almost a communal effort, because we needed to break even if we wanted to have another band come in there.”
One of the bands that kept packing the place: frat-party favorites Hootie and the Blowfish.
“They were a really good cover band, and they started developing their own deal,” Padgett said. “They kind of honed their own stage act. I remember I paid them in Jagermeister.
“They were there all the time because they made us money.”
The nightclub business wasn’t all about raising glasses to a full house, though.
“Everybody will come up and say, ‘It’s always crowded in here. How can you not be doing well?’” Padgett said. “It’s such a do-or-die business.
“It wasn’t all the glamour and romance that everyone thinks it was.”
STEVE GIBSON
Gibson, who partnered initially with Padgett to start Rockafellas’, didn’t always understand the bands that filled the club beyond capacity.
“Some of them I scratched my head on,” he said. “But Scotty did a tremendous job.”
Gibson said Padgett and others, like Eddie Blakely, handled most of the club’s booking of punk, metal and rock music.
“Scotty had some background writing music,” Gibson said. “I helped him move his album collection at some point. I can tell you he’s an aficionado.”
Gibson agreed with Padgett’s assertion that Rockafellas’ was built by more than the guys who paid the bills.
“It was a tremendous community effort. Rockafellas’ was the kids at WUSC. Carl at Manifest was a big part. Amy (Singmaster) started the Free Times, and she was a big part of what we were doing. And Mikey Miller at The State.”
Gibson said it was hard selling his ownership stake in 1988.
“That was a little difficult, because I love the live music,” he said.
JACK JAKUBS
Jakubs, along with partners that included booking agent Art Boerke, ran Rockafellas’ from 1988 until it closed in 1998. For Jakubs, Rockafellas’ was more than a rock club.
“It was a place for people to go,” he said. “I’m still friends with a lot of people from there.”
Jakubs had to wrestle with other Five Points clubs for talent and, most importantly, patrons.
“It was a fight with Greenstreet’s and Elbow Room just to stay open and pay the bills,” he said. “It was always about the music.
“It wasn’t about opening a nightclub and making money.”
ANGIE SESHUN
The Schmackmammy Shot.
Ask former Rockafellas’ patrons what’s in it, and you’ll get a variety of answers. Seshun, the shot’s creator and a Rockafellas’ bartender and manager from 1993 to 1998, won’t reveal the ingredients.
She might not remember, but what she does remember is the good times she had at the bar.
She created a MySpace page (www.myspace.com/Rockafellas5ptsbar) about a year ago to reconnect with old friends. The response led to this week’s club reunion.
Why take charge of a two-day, five-venue reunion?
“I’ve been going to that club since probably ’86 when I was in high school,” Seshun said. “My first show was 7 Seconds, because my boyfriend at the time wanted to go.
“(Rockafellas’) would do these early punk shows from 2 to 6 p.m. on Saturday.”
Rockafellas’ accommodated all ages and all types of people — even those who had to be escorted out repeatedly.
“It was the nicest place to get kicked out of,” Seshun said. “We wanted to put on a good show, but we wanted to take care of you.”
STEVE VARHOLY
Varholy wasn’t much of a bar-goer, but he was a regular at Rockafellas’.
“I went to all the shows,” said Varholy, who operates WXRY-FM 99.3. “Usually, I wasn’t a regular in the main bar, but I would hang out downstairs at the Purple Pit.”
The Purple Pit?
“The Purple Pit used to be a basement and storage. It’s now covered over by the deck at Jake’s,” Varholy explained. “The place was painted black and green and purple.
“If you didn’t like what was going on in the main room, you could get in there any night for no cover.”
Varholy has been working closely with Seshun on the reunion. His reasons for getting involved were simple.
“A lot of my friends now were friends that I made there,” he said.
Anybody could become a friend at Rockafellas’.
“It was pretty much a place anybody was welcome,” Varholy said. “If you went to enough shows, you became friends with people who worked there.”
ANGELO GIANNI
Gianni is a member of Treadmill Trackstar, one of the bands reuniting for the reunion. He remembers the owners of Rockafellas’ fondly.
“Steve Gibson gave me my first gig there,” Gianni said. “Years later, when Treadmill’s first record came out, Steve was working at the local rock station, and he’s the one who pushed to get us played on commercial radio.
“Then, when Art and Jack took over, it was the same thing. Those guys were sort of father figures who helped us out, gave us the gigs, promoted us and critiqued us in very honest — sometimes painful — ways.”
Gianni said Rockafellas’ was more than a building and stage for bands.
“It was a group of incredibly varied people with different backgrounds and interests who had a love of music and drinking in common,” he said.
MARK BRYAN
It can be written that Bryan, guitarist for Hootie and The Blowfish, came of age at Rockafellas’ as Hootie transitioned from a cover band to regional star to ... you know the rest.
But before Hootie became an MTV favorite, Bryan booked The Norms, a band he played in from his Maryland hometown, at Rockafellas’. The Norms were going to open for Scruffy the Cat.
“My guys failed to make the trip, and we had to cancel, so the Scruffy guys opened for themselves,” Bryan said. “They brought me onstage to play ‘My Baby, She’s All Right,’ and I still play that song to this day.”
BRENT LUNDY
Lundy, a singer and guitarist who also tended bar in the Purple Pit, said his Rockafellas’ days seem like a blur.
“But people tell me it was a good time,” he said. “It was fun to have a rock ’n’ roll venue with a neighborhood bar inside it.”
Lundy said the Purple Pit was appealing, because you still could hang out at Rockafellas’ without hearing not-so-appealing bands.
“It was a place to go to escape the metal bands Art would book; a counterculture to the counterculture,” he said. “We could go down there and do our thing.”
Lundy, who will perform on WACH-57’s “Good Day” at 7 a.m. Wednesday to promote the reunion, said he felt like he was part of a family business.
The reunion resonates for Lundy.
“It’s kind of always bittersweet when you celebrate a death. Ask any Elvis fan,” he said. “It’s great that it is remembered and so dear to people.
“It’s kind of sad that we haven’t had anything to take its place, and it’s been 10 years.”
