Final curtain to descend on historic rock venue
Rumors had run rife for years, and sure enough, the bad news finally came through, officially, late on Monday night. The Rodon Club, one of the Greek capital’s few indoor rock concert venues, will close down in late June, its operator, Anosis, an entertainment company, announced in a statement. The company cited the downtown Athens building’s owner desire to develop the premises. The 1,500-capacity venue was revamped into a fully equipped concert hall, following its life as a cinema, after it had degenerated into a storage facility. It was launched in stylish fashion back in 1987 by the truly telling Australian indie-rock band the Triffids. They were the first of many great acts, from peripheral to close-to-mainstream, which made the venue a legend over the years. The club’s very existence sparked a drastic increase in the number of concerts offered to Athens’s seriously deprived concertgoers. Prior to the Rodon Club’s opening, shows were few and far between, often ramshackle affairs at poorly equipped halls. It seems that the indoor venue’s steady flow of winter season shows also gradually livened up the city’s open-air concert activity during the warmer months. Besides the Triffids, other acts that have passed through the Rodon during its 17-year history include: John Cale, Iggy Pop, the Gun Club, Bo Diddley, the Cramps, the Pixies, PJ Harvey, the Chills, the Go-Betweens, Jonathan Richman, Taj Mahal, Dandy Warhols, Tricky, the Dream Syndicate, Green On Red, Julian Cope, Louis Tillett, Sonic Youth, Echo and the Bunnymen, Calexico, Blondie, Morrissey, the Fuzztones, Died Pretty, the Ramones, Wipers, Opal, Pere Ubu, Peter Hammill, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Television Personalities, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – the late bluesman, who played his last ever show at the club, passed away about a month later – the Waterboys, Jah Wobble, Mano Negra, Les Negresses Vertes, and a host of local acts. It all accumulates into a lot of music history and nostalgia for those that were there – on and off the stage – and are still with us to remember. On a brighter note, Anosis, in its statement, said that the process for the opening of a new Rodon Club were already under way. News of the developments would soon be announced, it added. The club’s agenda for its remaining months of life include several shows, mostly heavy metal. Exceptions include Morcheeba on May 13 and 14, and Caravan, on April 15. The schedule also includes a «Last Rodon Party,» but no details or date were given.
