Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.07.2010, Blaðsíða 39

Preserving quality
is our business
Open daily for lunch and dinners
Special off er on Monday
and Tuesday – 3 course dinner
for only 4200 ISK.
Reservation: tel. 552 5700,
e-mail: gallery@holt.is
Bergstaðastræti 37 s. 552 5700
holt@holt.is www.holt.is
Elegant surroundings
Superb cuisine
Modern comfort
22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2010
Dr. Gunni’s History Of Icelandic Rock | Part 20
Obviously I have no first-hand experience of clubs
before I started playing in 1980, but from what I’ve
heard there were some pretty cool venues oper-
ated before my time.
VETRARGARðURINN
The most exotic one was operated in the fifties.
It was called Vetrargarðurinn (“The Winter Gar-
den”) and was located at the Tívolí in Vatnsmýri,
an amusement park in the mire beside Reykjavík
airport (the Tívolí was run from 1946 to 1964 and
brings a lot of nostalgia to some). Vetrargarðurinn
was small and got hot and steamy, even when it
was frosty outside. It had our grandparents hop-
ping along to primitive rock ‘n’ roll by early Ice-
landic rock groups such as Lúdó and Falcon. The
place was a bit cut off so folks had to take a taxi
or walk home afterwards, and presumably many
Icelanders were conceived in the ditch besides the
road.
GLAUMBÆR
Glaumbær is the most legendary beatnik and hip-
pie venue in Reykjavík, not the least because of its
burning down in 1971. Glaumbær was the place to
be in the sixties: two floors of narrow corridors,
bars and two stages. Bands in matching suits gave
way for lambskin vested longhairs as the sixties
turned into the seventies, and Rúnar Júlíusson
from Trúbrot could often been seen hanging from
the chandelier in a hippie rock frenzy. The source
of the fire was said to be a cigarette from the pre-
vious night’s festivities. Some of hippie band Nát-
túra's gear burned down with the place, and in the
weeks after the fire some bands held rallies urging
the city to rebuild Glaumbær. Nothing came of this,
and the place lay dormant for years until The Na-
tional Gallery of Iceland opened on the site in 1987.
KÓPAVOGSBÍÓ
My first gig was at Kópavogsbíó (Kópavogur’s cin-
ema) in 1980. It is where Icelandic punk was un-
deniably born through punk band Fræbbblarnir's
relentless efforts. The cinema opened in 1959 and
also served as a community hall. The place had
become quite shabby when the punkers took it
over 20 years later, throwing concerts there oc-
casionally over the next three years. The gigs at
Kópavogsbíó usually started at 2 PM on Saturdays
and were all ages ones, as no booze was for sale.
You might have been able to buy popcorn though.
HÓTEL BORG
During the ‘Rokk í Reykjavík era’ (1980-1982,
when punk and new wave finally made it to Ice-
land, as documented in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson’s
legendary 1982 documentary, ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’),
the main venue was Hótel Borg. This swankiest of
hotels in town opened in 1930 and has sporadical-
ly housed dance events and concerts since then.
This is where British and American troops came
to get some action during the occupation years.
The high roofed hall was on the first floor, and by
1980 the former glory could be spotted through
the prevalent shabbiness. The hotel still proudly
stands by Austurvöllur, remodelled to match its
former swankiness, but its days as a concert venue
are mostly in the past.
SAFARÍ
The place to play in the early eighties (besides
Hótel Borg, of course) was Safarí, a low roofed,
450-capacity club on Skúlagata. The dance floor
featured blinking lights, much like the ones at leg-
endary disco club Hollywood. There were no ‘disco
freaks’ at Safarí, however, just hip people from the
Rokk í Reykjavík era, now gone all ‘new roman-
tic,’ dancing endlessly to The B52s’ ‘Rock Lobster,’
or so it seems in my Alzheimer-lite version of the
place.
Safarí opened in 1983, but had one year op-
erated as Villti tryllti Villi (“Wild, furious Villi”), a
teen club that sold soda and hamburgers instead
of alcohol. Safarí was to change names, owners
and ID numbers frequently over the next years, as
business was sloppy. It became Roxý, then Roxzý,
and eventually Casablanca.
My most memorable gigs there were support-
ing German noisemakers Einsturzende Neubauten
and Australian rock band Crime & The City Solu-
tion in 1986 with my band S.H. Draumur. The Ger-
mans had brought teen girls along (from Bahnhof
Zoo presumably) and Blixa and co. had us out of
the backstage room before the gig (so they could
shoot up heroin, I guess). The Australians were
more relaxed and we hung out with them back-
stage. This was quite awesome for me, as two
members of the group had previously played in
The Birthday Party, a band I absolutely loved at
the time. Unfortunately, I was not in Iceland a few
months later when Nick Cave—the main guy from
The Birthday Party—showed up to play Roxzý with
The Bad Seeds.
DUUS-HúS
Duus-Hús on Fischersund opened in 1984, but
Stuðmenn were the first band to play the club in
1986, when a new room was added to the place.
For the next few years, this would be where ev-
eryone from Ham to The Sugarcubes could rig up
a gig. As the room was small, fifty people would
make it feel like a packed house. The highlight of
Duus-Hús’ existence happened in August 1990
when The Sugarcubes played a private concert
there for French political leaders, President Mit-
terand and Minister of Culture, Jack Lang (who
was a Sugarcubes fan) during their official visit to
Iceland. After Duus ceased to exist the place was
squatted by the down and out for a while, until it
was torn down and eventually replaced by another
building.
TUNGLIð (AND BÍÓKJALLARINN, AND
RÓSENBERG)
In the late eighties, Tunglið (“The Moon”), opened
in a building that had originally housed a cinema
(Nýja bíó – “New Cinema”). Many legendary gigs
took place there, like Ham's ‘farewell’ gig in 1994.
The place was quick to become shabby even
though an ambitious mural of President Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir was painted on the most promi-
nent wall. Tunglið’s cellar housed a tiny club called
Bíókjallarinn (later Rósenberg). It housed every-
thing from biker rock gigs to ecstasy raves. Tunglið
probably housed up to a thousand people, so of-
ten the attendance looked quite tragic. The place
burned down in 1998 [via arson], after years of
continuing shabbiness. A new house was built on
the premises and is now known as the Iða house
at Lækjargata.
TVEIR VINIR OG ANNAR Í FRÍI
By the mid-nineties, the comparatively best
venue was the weirdly named Tveir vinir og an-
nar í fríi (“Two friends and another on vacation”)
on Laugavegur. It was a carpeted cellar run by
Ragnhildur “Hilla”, a kind elderly woman who
handled show bookings in-between everything
else. The place had a karaoke machine and a wi-
descreen TV, too. It was more “real rock” then the
other venue at the time, Gaukur á stöng (“Cuckoo
on a stick”), which was more ‘pub rock’ or ‘corny
pop’. This place hasn’t burnt down yet, but it was
changed to a strip club—Vegas—in the late nine-
ties.
There has never been an abundance of good
live music venues in Reykjavík—and there has
never really been a really great place to play either,
at least not for the last 30 years. There are usu-
ally some shabby holes available for bands to pick
from, ranging in size—but maybe current places
like NASA and Rósenberg shouldn't be called
“shabby holes” though. Yet venues continue to go
bankrupt or burn down. The last one to catch fire
was Organ, a fine shabby hole that burned to the
ground last year.
- DR. GUNNI
By Dr. Gunni, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki allir í stuði?
(Rock in Iceland).
Shabbiness And Bankruptcy
Or: Reykjavík’s ‘Best’ Concert Venues Throughout The Years
1. The Sugarcubes play a private gig for French
politicians at Duus-Hús in 1990
2. Glaumbær in 1969
3. Safarí ‘new romantic’ newspaper ad from
1984
“The dance f loor featured blinking
lights, much like the ones at
legendary disco club Hollywood.
There were no ‘disco freaks’ at
Safarí, however, just hip people
from the Rokk í Reykjavík era,
now gone all ‘new romantic,’
dancing endlessly to The B52s’
‘Rock Lobster,’“