![]() ![]() Those were the three centres of the hardcore scene. That’s where it was all born, and it was an experience that won’t happen again, at least in my experience, not in New York again, there’s no centre anymore, there’s no CBGB, no Wetlands and no Coney Island High. There’s an AGNOSTIC FRONT video and the people can’t move cause there’s so many in there. Lou: It was crazy, when people first started going to the shows 100, maybe 150 people used to turn up, but from like ’84 onwards it was jam packed, there was like 500/600 people in a room that’s supposed to hold 300. ![]() The rest of us could do what we wanted, so long as we weren’t breaking the law or killing each other! He gave you a chance, so many bands had their careers started there, look at THE BEASTIE BOYS. He did the same with hardcore, he had every other night of the week and the Sunday matinees where young kids who were just getting into hardcore got to go to a rock and roll show. That’s why he had the birth of punk there with THE RAMONES, TELEVISION, nowhere else would let those bands come and play and he said yeah come on. I just loved it cause of the community and it’s where the team formed and got their identity, but we were just so lucky that Hilly, the owner was so into all different types of music. Lou: When I was there it was like we didn’t know how special it was going to be. What was it about the CBGB matinee shows that made them so special? It was rough, you would have weekends where you work Friday, go to play the shows from Saturday through to Sunday morning and night, drop the gear off go home and go to work on the Monday. We always had day jobs, up until 1997, so it was a good 10 years before we could make it a full time job y’know. As we started playing CBGB we got offers to play in Rhode Island, Boston, and it just started snowballing from there. ![]() We got to play one, and then we got offered another, and then we said we were gonna headline. Lou: It’s weird, we kept playing just to do the matinees at the legendary CBGBs. How quickly did it go from being a hobby to being a career option? We played one show as SICK OF IT ALL with those two and then Armand got Richie to play bass and that’s what we call the first SICK OF IT ALL kids. Then Pete wanted to join and so we had these two other guys and we started a band in our basement. We were all hanging out in school, and Armand was playing in a band called REST IN PIECES, and then started another band with Craig called STRAIGHT AHEAD, so we would go to all the shows and support them. After releasing another stellar addition to their back catalogue this year in the form of Waking The Sleeping Dragon!, we got the chance to sit down with hardcore royalty Lou Koller to look back on their epic career, reminisce about the classic CBGB matinee shows and also look at how SICK OF IT ALL have grown into one of the most legendary hardcore bands on the planet. ![]()
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