Punk Club CBGB Founder Kristal Dies

Aug 29, 02:10 PM

Current Headlines: Hilly Kristal, founder of the legendary New York punk club CBGB, died in New York from complications due to lung cancer at age 75.

Kristal, who died Tuesday, launched the club in 1973 to showcase bluegrass and country music acts -- its name was an acronym for country, bluegrass and blues -- but the Bowery venue quickly became known as an incubator for experimental and punk music, Billboard reported Wednesday.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the club served as a launching pad for performers such as Blondie, the Talking Heads, Television, Living Colour, Patti Smith and the Ramones.

Even though the space became known as a premiere stage in music, it began to falter in the 1990s. CBGB closed in October 2006 in the face of rising rents and neighborhood gentrification.

Kristal was born in Manhattan. After attending the Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, he eventually returned to New York, spending the 1950s and 1960s performing with a variety of music acts. He later became the manager of the Village Vanguard jazz club.

Kristal is survived by a daughter, a son and two grandchildren.