Brooke Leifso
Jasper Place has always featured live entertainment and music. The late shopping hours and local hotels created an atmosphere conducive to attracting touring bands after the rules around bars and live music eased in the ’60s.
In the booming early ’60s, the Jasper Place Sports Centre became THE gathering spot for youth and the favourite place for dances with live bands. The Muk-Luk Mardi Gras Festival hosted large teen dances there. In 1963, it hosted a live-televised Beatles concert to screaming teens.
In the 1960s through early 1980s, The Klondiker established its primacy for band performances. In the ’70s its main floor was known for Country and Western, while the basement “Gold Room” catered to rock, attracting bikers as regulars. Touring bands could play multiple nights in a row, earning a week’s worth of pay and staying at the hotel. When the ’70s opened, The Klondiker had 8 bouncers on each floor during busy nights. Local bands like The Mustangs got their start there. The Klondiker switched hands and was last known as the Jasper Place Hotel.
In the ’90s the Ritz Diner Bar and Grill rocked with live alt-rock music. It closed in 1997 after a Halloween gig: Skalloween with the Mad City Bombers. Maria Dunn played her first gig at Ritz Diner: “it was a cool vintage diner that welcomed local musicians to try their hand at performing in a live venue: my first live gig playing folk music for fun”
Then in 2009, the Haven Social Club appeared to host emerging bands and touring acts. It closed in 2013, leaving a gap in the Jasper Place area and music scene. Their former building is slated for demolition for the LRT.
New West Hotel has always been part of the Country Music circuit. It has hosted acts for over 50 years, 6 nights a week with, open stages Saturday. Jasper Place residents and local Country legends Joyce Smith and George Myren played regularly from the get-go.. “Thing about the New West, always had good country music. It was the greatest social gathering place for musicians to visit and listen to the music and catch up to the latest gossip. Everyone went there to BS and just visit with each other. It’s really being missed”.
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[This post first appeared in the December 2020 edition of SPANN (Stony Plain Road and Area News Network)]
