The Upstage Club

Here is some of the press we’ve received lately

The coaster was the first to cover the “Last Jam”, my favorite quote from the article is “So many things in Asbury park didn’t work, But this did” , the article is in PDF format
Coaster article on the last jam

Here’s an article from The Two River Times covering Tom Jones’ documentary on skid row, he makes mention of upstage on the second page, although I found the whole article interesting. This one is just a BMP, but you may need to download it so you can zoom in to read it
Page 1
Page 2

Here’s another article from The Two River Times, this one is actually about the Upstage’s Last Jam.
DQ: From 1968 through early 1971, if you were a musician down the Jersey Shore, The Upstage was the place to be.

The Last Jam
By Uncle Mike

Photo by Scott Longfield

ON A COLD and cloudy Sunday afternoon in January, a small group of musicians and fans made their way up the narrow staircase that leads to the third floor of 702 Cookman Avenue to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime event.

Sunday, January 29, was The Last Jam at one of the most important clubs in the musical history of Asbury Park - the Upstage.
When local musician Margaret Potter and her husband,Tom, opened a second story coffeehouse called The Upstage Club in 1968, they could not have known that they were helping to plant the seeds of a music movement that would influence the history of rock ‘n’ roll, but that is exactly what they did.

While The Stone Pony would grab all the glory, The Upstage was the true birthplace of what would become known as the Asbury sound, and the beginning of an incredible journey for a skinny little kid from Freehold named Bruce Springsteen.
Tom and Margaret envisioned The Upstage as a sort of musicians’ club, a place where local talent could gather and share their music, thoughts and experiences.

The club soon became so popular that they had to expand to the third floor just to accommodate the musicians and all their fans. The Upstage not only became a safe haven for local musicians to ply their craft and hone their skills, but the third floor would become the home of the jam, where musicians like Springsteen, Vini Maddog Lopez, Miami Steven Van Zandt, Southside Johnny Lyons, Danny Federici, Bill Chinnock, Sonny Kenn, Billy Ryan, Joe Petillo and Gerry Carboy, just to name a few, would be exposed to all types of music and influences.

From 1968 through early 1971, if you were a musician down the Jersey Shore, The Upstage was the place to be. Though short lived, The Upstage was a seminal club in the growth and development of rock ‘n’ roll music as we know it today.

The Last Jam at the Upstage was organized by Carrie Potter, (granddaughter of The Upstage owner Tom Potter), Joe Petillo (Asbury native, local musician and former Distraction),Tom Jones (California filmmaker from Rumson ) and Mark Olsen (building manager), the impromptu, unrehearsed last jam featuring Upstage alums, Joe Petillo and Sonny Kenn (lead vocals/electric guitars), Billy Ryan and Ray Satch Sorrentino (electric guitars), Cliff Bloodgood (acoustic guitar), John Luraschi (bass/vocals), Gerry Carboy (bass), Vini Maddog Lopez (lead vocals/drums) and Kevin Kavanaugh (keys/vocals) was something that all those present won’t soon forget. With a picture of Margaret and Tom Potter taking center stage and the ghosts of musicians past swirling in the air, the old club was restored to its former glory with an eclectic mix of tunes representative of the true spirit of The Upstage.

Featuring vintage renditions of Robert Johnson/Cream’s Crossroads (Luraschi nails lead vocal), Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me (Sonny gets down), the Stones’ The Spider And The Fly (Vini, Sonny and Gerry rock), the wicked Pickett’s Mustang Sally (Joe P. steps up to the mic), Cream’s Strange Brew (Vini shines on vocals/Sonny rules on guitar/John and Gerry rip it up on bass duet), the classic Stormy Weather (whole band swings) and an all-out band jam closer, the boys not only shook the paint off the walls and put big smiles on the faces of all those in attendance, they gave The Upstage a most richly deserved and heartfelt send-off. And as if all that wasn’t enough, the boys moved across the street to Red Fusion (formerly Harry’s Roadhouse) bridging the gap between the old and the new Asbury by performing two very well received sets featuring such favorites as Key To the Highway, Hey Joe, Little Queenie, Great Balls Of Fire, Blue Moon Of Kentucky, Act Naturally, In The Midnight Hour, and a repeat performance of Strange Brew.

Thanks to a handful of very caring, giving and talented musicians, Margaret and Tom Potter’s Upstage was given a most proper farewell.

The best of The Upstage is alive and well in the hearts, minds and talents of all the musicians who graced her stage for one last jam. As Joe put it, What better way to send the old girl off?

Rest well Margaret and Tom — your efforts have not been forgotten.

Heres an article from Upstage Magazine also covering the story:
Tearing Down The Upstage Club

by Gary Wien

(ASBURY PARK, NJ — December 18, 2005) — It was a bittersweet day for the history of rock and roll music as musicians and music fans paid their last respect to the Upstage Club today. The short-lived, but greatly remembered place on top of the old Thom McCann building on Cookman is slated to be gutted for the arrival of a new condo building.

The Upstage Club is famous for helping to launch the careers of such legendary Jersey Shore artists as Bruce Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Bill Chinnock, Little Steven, David Sancious, and many more. Artists were known to jam all night long until the club closed at 5am.

A film crew led by Tom Jones of the Halo Group was given permission to film inside the old club. Interviewees included former Upstage regular Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez; Robert Santelli from the Experience Music Project in Seattle; and Carrie Potter, the Granddaughter of Upstage founder Tom Potter. Long-time regulars to the club like David Mieras and Eileen Chapman were also on hand as people came in and out all day.

In between the interviews, a slideshow of photos from Tom Potter’s extensive collection of Upstage photographs was projected on to the wall creating a ghost-like image that seemed to strike just the right chord for the occasion.

Although much of the club has long been picked apart, several pieces of the Day-Glo psychedelic artwork remain in excellent shape on the walls and the framework for the famous stage littered with speakers in still in place.

In recent years efforts were started to save or preserve the club, but the real estate market boom for Asbury Park pretty much killed that idea.

Robert Santelli, once said that the Upstage Club “was really the birth of the whole Asbury Park scene, the whole idea that the Jersey Shore had something to say musically.”

Bruce Springsteen wrote about the club in the liner notes for Southside Johnny’s first record. “That club brought out everybody’s talents. The kids at the Upstage were each in their own way a living spirit of what, to me, rock ‘n’ roll is all about. It was music as survival, and they lived it down in their souls, night after night. The guys were their own heroes and they never forgot.”

Additional photos may be seen here