The GoGo's played Club 88
- June 7, 1979
- October 5, 1979
- January 4, 1980 w/ Plugz, Gears, Eddie & the Subtitles
11784 Pico Boulevard
West L.A.
- Club 88
- Pico Boulevard
Club 88 was a popular lower tier music venue located in West Los Angeles. From 1977 - 1981 it provided a platform for many local unsigned rock bands to perform.
The owner of the club was Wayne Mayotte. Mayotte was a retired mechanical and structural enginneer. He worked for over 25 years overseas, primarily in the Far East. Club 88 was named after a popular club in Tokyo.
When Mayotte's son started a band he would help them out. He would travel with them as their sound engineer and roadie.
He enjoys providing an outlet for unheard bands.
Mayotte opened up Club 88 in July 1977. The 250-capacity club hosted many local bands. It was just one step about a garage. Mayotte would book groups that were just starting out. At Club 88 Moyotte worked as part time bartender, booker, bookkeeper, general manager, janitor, carpenter and plumber.
In 1979-80 Club 88 was considered on the lowest rung of the L.A.'s music club venue ladder. Other venues on the low rung included the Rock Corporation and Blackies. In the middle somewhere was Madame Wong's and the Hong Kong Cafe. Higher up was the Starwood, the Roxy and the Troubadour. The Whisky was at the top.
Club 88 was a former strip club stripped down to the bare bones and converted into a music club. The club was basically one large room with a stage at the far end and a full bar off to the side. Conditions were terrible - there was a shoddy sound system, poor stage visibility, bad lighting and a disgusting stage.
Former site of Club 88 on Pico Blvd. (original structure is not here today)
2008 photo:tlc
Club 88 was located in an unincorporated area of L.A. County, a segment of Pico Boulevard between Bundy and Barrington. Maybe that explains it. This part of Pico is also part of L.A'.s Bermuda Traffic Triangle. The other two segments being the San Diego freeway and the Santa Monica freeway- which happen to be the two busiest freeways in all of Los Angeles. This traffic triangle is sort of like a level 5 on the hurricane Richter scale. Many cars have disappeared after entering this mysterious zone.
2008 photo: tlc
Pico Boulevard is a major L.A. thoroughfare that runs from downtown L.A. west to Santa Monica.
The bit of road on Pico between the San Diego Freeway and the Santa Monica Freeway in West L.A. is interesting in the fact that it is such a '60's time capsule.
Parts of this stretch is actually in an un-incorporated part of L.A. County. Businesses (such as bars and nightclubs) had moved here in the 1960's to avoid the greater restrictions that would have been put upon them in the City of L.A.
Case in point...
- possible the next metro stop?
2008 photo: tlc
2008 photo: tlc
Many of the commercial establishments that exist here today appear to have their original facade, paint jobs and liquor licences granted to them from the '60's. It's kinda like a 1965 RCA TV set that's been left in the spare bedroom. It still works - but there is not much else to say about it except - how has it managed to survived all these years?
It is probably safe to say, this portion of Pico Boulevard has never been a huge destination spot.
It's more like of a place one passed through quickly to get from here to there. It is one of those in- between places.
405 (San Diego Frwy) at Pico Blvd.
Former location of Club 88 looking east on Pico Blvd.
2008 photo: tlc
Today - this stretch of Pico Blvd is still pretty forgettable unless you are in the market for a new mattress or some tropical fish.
However... back-in- the-day ... there use to be couple of very good Mexican restaurants on Pico Blvd. - located right across the street of Club 88! Last I checked - they are still there! - Of course they are!... and ... they haven't changed a bit.
2008 photo: tlc
2008 photo: tlc
2008 photo: tlc
It's nice to know that some things never change... on Pico Boulevard.
The Apple Pan! Still there! And...
-Very popular with hamburger aficionados
2008 photo: tlc
2008 photo: tlc
Anawalt Lumber - West Los Angeles - Still there!
2008 photo: tlc
Adventure 16 - Still there!
2008 photo: tlc
Norm's on Pico - Still there!
2008 photo: tlc
Billingsley's -Still there!
2008 photo: tlc
The Arsenal -Still there!
2008 photo: tlc
The best new addition in town on this stretch of Pico Boulevard happens to be located right next door to the old Club 88! There is no sign out front - but it's called Liquid Kitty - and they serve the best martini's in L.A. ! It goes without saying this place is big for the after work crowd. Very cool place indeed.
2008 photo: tlc
2008 photo: tlc
Los Angeles Times ad
July 22, 1979
5 comments:
This space in the early 1990s was also an excellent rock venue called Nomads. It was the last club located there before the building was torn down. The last night it was open, we destroyed the place (since it was coming down). By then, there was the main room with bar and side seating, plus a second smaller bar in the front corner, and pool room in the very back behind the stage.
The Club 88 might have been the lowest end of the totem pole as far as being a show case club in West Los Angeles, but to my recollection, it was the first club to allow bands doing original material, and not signed to a label, to have a venue in which to be tested, and proven, in front of live audiences.
The "higher ups" were copy cat, jump on the band wagon followers to the Club 88's lead.
I remember it very well.
Milt Wilson, the manager of my band back then, Division Street, was the guy who convinced Wayne to let our band play his club, with our original songs, and promised that we had a following, a 'drinking' following, that would bring some revenue into his club.
To his great credit, Wayne agreed to this experiment.
It worked out, and Wayne opened his club whole heartedly to this idea, for other bands.
After The Club 88 became a very well known success, the other clubs joined in on the craze.
Up to this time, the only way to play at The Whiskey, The Roxy, etc, was to be signed to a label.
Milt Wilon, our manager, and Wayne, owner of the club, pretty much made the unsigned band show case scene, explode into a huge success.
My band, Division Street, was very fortunate to have been in on that, from the very beginning.
Thank You,
Dinosaur Drummer.........
I was a sound engineer for a band that played the lower tier LA clubs in the early to mid-eighties... Club 88, The Troub, Anti-Club, etc... and I may be mis-remembering this, but I think 88 (and the Troub) at around this time invented the "pay to play" concept, where an unsigned band would have to front the club owner $$ to cover a minimum number of paying audience members. If you got the minimum to show up, you got your deposit back. Am I wrong about this?
The pay to play concept began after my group, Division Street, broke up.
I kinda left the scene for a few years, so I never saw the birth of pay to play.
We never had to pay to play, we just had to produce. Thank the Gods Of Rock, that we always did!
If we did not produce, however, we would not have owed any club owner any money, we just most likely would not have been asked back to play.
I am very happy that I never had any part of 'pay to play' at least in that sense.
In earlier bands that I was in, we had our own form of pay to play.
We would rent a hall, put out flyers and leaflets, and if no one showed, then we lost money.
It was our own enterprise.
Capitalism, I guess, lol
Dinosaur Drummer
I played at Club 88 quite a bit, mainly with Elton Duck. One time Tom Waits and Ricki Lee Jones were out on the dance floor during our set. The place was a dump, but Wayne was a very nice guy who gave lots of unknown groups a chance. My group Invisible Zoo made our debut there. Shortly after that, Wayne started to lose it, and was letting a bunch of cats live in the place. It smelled pretty bad and lost whatever dingy charm it had, and I never played there again. But for a while, it was the coolest dive on the West side, and we had a lot of fun there.
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