I’ve been kind of fascinated with the St. Louis Flyer Project on Flickr. Of course, looking at these old flyers doesn’t really bring back many memories for me since I wasn’t living in St. Louis at the time. But they are curious since they are clues as to what the Rock’n'Roll Scene was like here back in the ’80s. Most of the clubs and halls listed on these flyers don’t exist anymore, and one in particular caught my eye; Turner’s Nite Club. It was this flyer of their February 1986 calendar that piqued my interest, mainly because of the map that showed its location, namely on Salisbury near Hyde Park on city’s north side:
Turners Nite Club Calendar from February 1986
Here is another flyer for the place, probably from the same period:
Imagine seeing this show for only $6!!
Now to know why this is interesting to me one might need to understand that St. Louis has a long history of being pretty segregated–not unlike a lot of cities. Where different parts of town are known as the domain of different races. The north side in St. Louis is known as the “black” part of town. So knowing the racist attitudes of some white people in St. Louis, I found it curious that back in the ’80s there was a Rock’n'Roll venue frequented by mostly white kids on the north side. So recently I thought I’d go see if this place was still standing, and discovered (not surprisingly) ruble. Apparently Turner’s Hall suffered a fire in recent years and burned down–but not all the way. From what I hear it was a fairly large venue, and when I saw it I could tell that it was. It seems to have been a repurposed gymnasium building of some sort. Anyway I took these photos on my visit.
About a block away I met this guy who was selling his home made cookies on a nearby corner. He was very personable but too young to remember Turners. His name is Sim and I included a couple of photos of him here, his cookies are awesome, BTW.
If you have any memories of this place please post them in the comments. I really know little more than what I’ve related here.
Turner Hall had been showcasing music events for a LONG time… as evidenced by this flyer:
Here’s another:
By the way, it is indeed sad to see those photos and to see the building in such sad shape. I attended quite a few of those punk shows in the mid-’80s, including The Descendents (I even interviewed them before the show for a ‘zine I was writing for at the time). The original Bernard Pub was also in a pretty bad neighborhood, but that didn’t stop hundreds of kids from going to see shows at these places.
Wow… time to pull out that Effigies CD that’s somewhere in my closet.
Sad indeed. Great pix. I was too young to see any shows there.
Sure wants me some of them cookies though!
This was another John Green find, he also booked the Bernard. He also had shows at another nearby North Side bar called Brothers, Flaming Lips, Das Damen, Micronauts, Reptile House and Rhythm Pigs played there.
Turners was part of some kind of German society fitness focused kind of thing. The room that held the stage was actually a dance hall with a very large stage. It even had real dressing rooms on either side. It was owned by a woman named Dorothy who was very much a mother type with a lot of the kids that came to the shows. She freaked out hard on Dayglo Abortions though, didn’t dig their name at all. Shows started there around fall of 1985 through November of 1986. Raw Power was the last show there and they didn’t get to play but maybe three songs before the cops shut it down.
The neighborhood though around the building was mostly white. In fact it was pretty scary because these folks were straight up in-bred freaks that would come charging out Hyde Park throwing punches and attacking people just to be doing it. The first time I ever saw Whoppers Taste Good was at Turners in August of 1986. I fell over laughing when the introduced a song called “Domino Theory” but then added that it wasn’t the White Pride song. This song was about pizza. Classic.
Anyway, some more memorable shows there were Doggy Style when all their gear was green because it was favorite color of a dead former member. During their set they had a bunch of the little kids from the neighborhood on stage with them. The Descendents show was a riot afterward in the street. I think locals had come inside and started fights that ended up in the street where one of the street signs was pulled out of the ground and swung at people. The last Black Flag show in St. Louis was also there in May of 1986. The last WSY show as also there with Naked Raygun. I have a video of our set but I don’t know if anyone has the Raygun set. Oh, and on a band guy note the PA was never big enough for the room and the load in was up a huge flight of steps. Good times.
That’s about all I have, any questions, let me know. If you would like to know about it’s pre punk rock history talk to Bob Reuter. He used to take gymnastics there when he was a kid. He’s from the neighborhood.
The area was more of a mixed area. There was at least one night when the white trash neighbors of the club were gathered in the park across the street ready to run off the punk rockers. I think that may have been at a C.O.C. show. There was also a “local’s” bar full of bikers and hoosiers on the ground floor in the middle space, for a few years there was a great Sandwich shop on the ground floor in the corner space. I can remember waiting forever for them to open the doors if you got there too early. Everyone would be lined up drinking whatever they had stashed in their jackets, all the way down the steps and through the hallway and out to the street. I saw lots of great shows there, but I think the best one was Doggy Style/Gang Green co-headliner show, or maybe it was D.R.I. on the “Dealing With It” tour, or the final Black Flag tour, or… man, come to think of it… there were lots of good shows there!!!
I know a ton of info on this place because the women who owned both hall and deli is my grandma Dorothy!
I use to hang out there back in the 40s and 50s. A friend who won the tri state golden gloves use to train there. I went to the weekly dances and had some great times in the place. Only stopped because of the white trash musicians started coming and drugging the place up. It was the best gym in the area back then. Jerry Reeves was the boxers name. The neighborhood was white then and my dad just loved it that way. So glad those times are leaving us. Their was a gang called the salisbury gang back in the 30s and 40s and still some remnants of it were there when I was going to the bar and the dances. Another tavern in the area was O’Learys or the Sullivan Bar Thank you for the memories.
yeah i use to go to shows there / does anyone have any photos of the punk shows?