Bookie's Club 870

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Bookie's was an old supper club, then a failing gay bar, when the punk band The Sillies began booking it in 1978; after a hugely successful first weekend on March 17–18, 1978, with Coldcock and The Denizens, the owner handed the booking over to them. It became Detroit's first real punk and new-wave club: The Police played their first Midwest show there, Ultravox, The Damned, John Cale, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers and the Dead Boys followed, the Romantics, Sonic's Rendezvous Band, Destroy All Monsters and Wayne Kramer made it their second home, and David Bowie, Elvis Costello and Blondie dropped in after arena shows. The name came from owner Sam Stewart's nickname and the street number, though the sign still read “Frank Gagen's”; the punk era faded in the early 1980s as other bars copied the format, and the building later burned down (in 1989 per the Music Origins Project; a Detroit Street View post says 1991).

1. Detroit's first real punk club
2. The Police's first Midwest show
3. About 350 capacity