Once upon a time, Vancouver was home to many live music clubs and ballrooms where celebrated musicians played and even launched their careers. Michael Buble started his singing career at Babalu's on Granville Street. The Town Pump was a grunge music mecca in Gastown that hosted the likes of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and No Doubt. The Cave Supper Club was a cavernous space whose headliners included Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino and Ella Fitzgerald. 

If you aren't familiar with any of these places, it's because - in a town where commerce trumps culture - almost all of Vancouver's live music venues have been converted to expensive glass condominiums. 

But one old girl still reigns supreme over the city's music scene. Even though she is almost 85 years old, The Commodore Ballroom has been hosting the world's greatest musicians since 1929 and was named one of the top ten most influential live-music rooms by Billboard Magazine in 2011.

"This city has seen so many notable nightclubs and music venues big and small disappear over the years, it's quite incredible that of all of them, only the Commodore Balllroom is still around - despite the odds in many ways," said Aaron Chapman, author of the new book, Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver's Historic Commodore Ballroom.

I wanted to write about Aaron's excellent book because the history of the Commodore Ballroom is a story of how the city and it's music scene has evolved over the last 85 years.

Originally built in 1929, The Commodore Ballroom became Vancouver's premier ballroom. Known to have the best dance floor in town, which was engineered to bounce slightly, it quickly attracted the city's movers and shakers. For the next thirty years, a succession of big bands and orchestras were hired to play exclusively, ending with the Dal Richards Band in 1965 (97 year old Dal Richards and his band still play events around Vancouver today). 

In 1969, the Commodore got a facelift to match the changing times when an a local club promoter named Drew Burns purchased the lease, renovated the room and changed the name from the Commodore Cabaret to the Commodore Ballroom. Over the next 28 years, Burns would transform the ballroom into the major rock'n'roll venue it is today. According to The Commodore website:

He brought in live acts of all genres — from rock and roll, country and the blues, to punk, new wave and heavy metal. The names that graced the Commodore stage during these years included Tina Turner, Kiss, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, B.B. King, David Bowie, and The Village People. Burns broke new ground by booking the first Vancouver appearances by Patti Smith, Blondie, Devo, Tom Petty, The Police and the North American debut of The Clash — all within a few weeks of each other.

Former Commodore Owner, Drew Burns. Photo: Jack Ramsay, Vancouver Sun

"No single nightclub operator in the history of Vancouver changed the music scene or nightclub scene as much as he did," said Chapman."I think had anybody else but him taken over the Commodore it would be gone by now."

Burns lost the lease in 1996 due to a financial dispute with the owner, effectively closing The Commodore. The building sat vacant for four years. But after $3.5 million in renovations (including a new hardwood dance floor) it reopened under the House of Blues banner on November 12, 1999, with Blue Rodeo playing the opening night. It's been rockin' ever since.

"On that artistic level, it's absolutely incredible to look through the list of bands and musicians that have performed there," said Chapman. "Not only some of the biggest bands in the world have played there on the way up like U2 on their first time in Vancouver, but that's still happening. Like the Katy Perry show in 2009 - now she's the Superbowl Halftime entertainment. But also its important to remember its been a favoured stage of local musicians, and musicians from the rest of Canada who've played there going back for decades now."

Katy Perry at the Commodore in 2009. Photo: David Zhang

As a musician, Chapman, who also penned the history of Vancouver's other legendary nightclub - The Penthouse - in Liquor, Lust and the Law, played the Commodore many times.

"My own history as a musician has been tied to the room on more nights I played and shows that I saw than I care to count. I've seen great shows there like the Tom Waits show, but also had the same thrill of playing on that stage that I've got equal enjoyment from. So I had thought for a number of years that it would make a fascinating book especially considering Vancouver has had the Commodore so long, I don't know if the we really appreciate how good we have it to call that room ours. It's world famous now."

i'm embarrassed to admit that my first memories of The Commodore didn't even involve an actual band. When I had just turned 19, my friends and I used to throw on our crop tops and bell bottoms to dance the night away at Discotronic, a hugely popular seventies night that The Commodore hosted shortly after its reopening. Every Tuesday night, the room would fill with people dressed in garish disco clothes and we'd dance the night away to songs like The Hustle and anything by the Jackson 5 (Vancouver never had a disco scene, so this was a throwback to nothing particularly historic or local).

As I matured, I have since seen many concerts at the Commodore over the years, so I had to ask Aaron, "why do people love the Commodore so much?" His responded that, although we change, the room stays the same:

No matter who you ask, the answers are the same. Some of the details might change, whether it was that dancefloor, the sound quality, or the fact that you can see the band on stage from anywhere in the room. 

In the end, each generation of Vancouverites seem to have had a great time there they'll never forget. If you ask some older people who went there in the 1980s, they'll maybe say the Commodore isn't what it used to be. But I could show you people who went there in the 70s who said the same thing. Or people who went there in the 1940s who said that was the heyday. The truth of the matter is that so much of it is tied to our own youth. So whether or not you were a man in a tux on a romantic evening with the woman who would become your wife, dancing on that ballroom floor to Ole Olsen and His Commodores in the 1940s, or you were pogo'ing on that same floor in a leather jacket to the Dead Kennedys and DOA in the 1970s, you had a great time there, and you never forget those nights. I can guarantee you there is somebody in their 20s going there tonight, who is going to have the same kind of time that those people had, and they'll never forget it. And in 20 years, they'll say the Commodore is't what it used to be. In the end, the Commodore has always been the same, always been great, and it's us and the music that changes.

Aaron Chapman's new book, Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver's Historic Commodore Ballroom, is published by Arsenal Pulp Press.  For more stories and background on the history of the Commodore, I've posted more of my interview with Aaron here. 

Aaron will also be speaking at a couple of events with the Vancouver Heritage Foundation and the Vancouver Archives in the coming months (information provided in the links).

Nirvana thrilled the Commodore in 1991. Photo credit: Charles Peterson.