What do you remember about the Brunswick House, the CBC asked on its website. So I told them, never expecting that a lot of what I said about the shenanigans from the 1970s would show up today at cbc.ca.
I recalled the downstairs lineup of the talentless, the brazen and the dead drunk who (dis)graced the famous dive's stage during the years Rockin Irene was MC. Upstairs at Albert's Hall it was a different story. Some wonderful entertainers played the venue - see this blog Dec. 5, 2015 for their names - and others I'd forgotten such as Jeff Healy and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Now the Brunswick is no more. Shuttered for the time being as it begins a transition from Hogtown institution to Hogtown history, it would be too easy, too simple, to be downcast about the grand old girl's fate. The better thing to do is to reflect on her long, long run, stretching back to 1876, and remember the great times she provided, - if, of course, you can recall any of the nights out you had there.
I recalled the downstairs lineup of the talentless, the brazen and the dead drunk who (dis)graced the famous dive's stage during the years Rockin Irene was MC. Upstairs at Albert's Hall it was a different story. Some wonderful entertainers played the venue - see this blog Dec. 5, 2015 for their names - and others I'd forgotten such as Jeff Healy and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Now the Brunswick is no more. Shuttered for the time being as it begins a transition from Hogtown institution to Hogtown history, it would be too easy, too simple, to be downcast about the grand old girl's fate. The better thing to do is to reflect on her long, long run, stretching back to 1876, and remember the great times she provided, - if, of course, you can recall any of the nights out you had there.
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