Some local musicians see the southern New Jersey music scene as having some ground to gain to get back to its former glory
Hibiscus no more: One of the few local venues for local musicians has closed its doors, possibly for good.
Recently an establishment that made a most concerted effort to help restore the luster of live, local music — Hibiscus Island Grill of Somers Point — closed its doors, presumably forever.
The knee-jerk assumption is that it probably became another casualty of the poor economy, and while that likely factored into it, some longtime area musicians see the lack of collaborative support as part of the culprit for the dearth of clubs/bars/lounges with live, local acts.
Gina Roché grew up in the Philly suburbs, but the well-known singer has lived and performed in the Atlantic City area for the better part of three decades. She began at a bygone club called the Lido, and has worked in nearly every casino lounge over the years.
“I’m one of those people who likes to look at the bright side of things, but it’s so different now,” says Roché. “When I first moved here you could go to any casino at any time of day and there were live bands playing different rooms. They got rid of that, and interestingly enough I wonder if more people would come down here if they brought more of that back.
“I think we went through a dark period of when the casinos weren’t having any live music, and when they did it was sort of canned music, and that’s when I stopped performing there. I wanted to do something a little more organic. I’d rather go to a club and hear a really loud rock group than to a casino and hear a band-in-a-box or karaoke. If I want karaoke I’ll go to a karaoke club.
“I’ve seen it go up and down,” she says. “During the summer it’s so cool that they actually have live bands on the beach at the beach bars, and this whole summer places like Sandi Pointe [in Somers Point], the kinds of things they were doing over there are fantastic and were well attended and appreciated by both the musicians who performed and the people who came out. It was like a breath of fresh air. I hope to see more of that.”
She isn’t the only one. Bill Christman’s been performing in the area 45 years. He and his group the Espresso Band would become the house band for owner Jerry Blavat at Memories in Margate, back when that renowned club used to bring in national headliners like the Dovells, Chubby Checker, Little Richard, the Five Satins and others. Typically bands would play a particular club for three or four nights a week as their “house band,” says Christman, occasionally rotating with other clubs and other bands over a set time period to keep things fresh.
“And when you weren’t playing, you were practicing,” says Christman. “The golden rule back in the day was that if you don’t make the club owner any money, you didn’t play, you didn’t work. Many of the bands who played here at the shore in the summertime were from Philly, and it was Philly people we were playing for. There was a saying that if you could make a living playing in Philly, you could make it anywhere, and some of the best bands anywhere came here during the summer.
“Competition was fierce, and the only way to survive as a professional musician was if you had band members who were committed and versatile. There were different rooms with different kinds of music, and sometimes the same room would asked you to take it light for the dinner set then rock it out at the night.”
When the casinos started arriving in 1979, the Casino Control Commission mandated that every casino have some sort of perpetual live music during operating hours. When that rule was rescinded, it sort of had a residual affect on many of the clubs outside the casinos that would employ some of the same musicians.
“There would sometimes be five or six bands playing different rooms in the same casino every night,” says Christman, “and outside of A.C., we had rooms like Tony Mart’s and Bayshores just in the Somers Point area, a couple places in Brigantine and Sea Isle City, and in Wildwood there were about 25 clubs — and everybody had the best bands.”
Christman sees that potential in southern New Jersey again, but it would mean a commitment from more clubs to bringing back a regular music format, or the “house band” mentality.
“It’s changed a lot over the last 15 to 20 years, and part of the problem, I think, is that the clubs that do have live music only bring in a band for single-night gigs,” he says. “We’ve had to travel out of state to find clubs that would give us steady work, and the ironic thing about some of those places is that we’d meet people who have homes in A.C. or Ocean City who’d ask why we don’t play there. To tell people that that’s where we’re from, but that playing one place one night and another the next wasn’t practical — it kind of made us feel stupid.
“This area could be a gold mine like it once was,” says Christman. “People from the Philly and southern New Jersey areas love their music, but this one-night thing is killing it. I’m not sure what the mentality is there, but club owners seem to be putting less of an emphasis on entertainment, and in my estimate quality entertainment can account for probably about a third of their potential to draw business.”
Dubbed “Hard Rock Rising,” the A.C. Hard Rock has 12 bands/solo artists competing on four Friday nights, 9pm-1am, starting Feb. 24. Ultimately the field is whittled to three finalists worldwide, with the grand prize being an all-expense paid trip to London for the 7th annual Hard Rock Calling music festival July 13-15. The winning band/artist will be on the bill with this year’s headliner — Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
Regulars locally at live-music venues like the Gypsy Bar at Borgata, the RiRa at The Quarter in the Trop, and along the summer nightlife hotspot scenes of Sea Isle City and Wildwood, the members of GoodMan Fiske have taken single-night gigs involving as much as six hours driving in each direction
The guide is destined to soon become the place for local booking agents and promoters to check out local bands and listen to songs and watch video.
"The Local Music Guide is a great idea. I believe it’s very important for the musicians to work together and support each other, rather than just protect their own ‘piece of the pie.’ The South Jersey music scene seems to be growing stronger and stronger, and hopefully this guide will make it easier for all involved — clubs, fans and musicians alike — to continue that growth and bring back the ‘glory days’ once more.”
In recent years, Marotta has been very busy carrying the torch from his father into the 21st century. Putting on several area benefit concerts as well as Tony Mart’s Reunion events, and booking the Somers Point beach ...
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