Catching up with the popularity of Europe and the United States at the end of the KK Disco Plaza, the heyday of thousands of people dancing
In 1994, an immigrant from the Netherlands, Mr. Yan Jiangyin came to Changzhou, opposite the Palace of Culture opened the KK Disco Plaza, which is one of the earliest mass entertainment nightclubs in Changzhou.
Strictly speaking, Andy is not a real DJ, but the hundreds of square meters of dance floors, brilliant laser lights, and funky music make him look like a king on the stage. As long as Andy exists, even if it's just a casual fiddling with a disc jockey, young people in Changzhou are convinced that KK is the place to be when it comes to international popularity.
In fact, discos had long been on the decline in Europe and the United States, and in the 1990s the world was dominated by sharp dancers and house musicians, KK imitated Shanghai's most popular bar, JJ's, with its upbeat and joyful dance music, attracting all the trendy young people of Changzhou at the time.
"Tickets were 80 yuan on weekends, which was considered very high, but it was still packed, holding thousands of people at most." A veteran Changzhou nightclub player, Mr. F, told reporters that unlike today's bars, discos in the early years charged admission, which was the source of most of their revenue.
Most people come to KK to dance, and not many buy alcohol to drink, not to mention chatting.
Mr. F explained, "On the one hand, there is no place to sit and drink, on the other hand, the wine is not cheap, and the people who come here are young people in their twenties, or even students in junior high and high school, who are shy when it comes to buying tickets."
Go Zhiyi, 39, who used to be a popular singer at KK, said he feared the scene then was not even comparable to the most popular bars now. "It was absolutely eye-opening, the music and hardware in there were unprecedented, and they did gimmicks at festivals to keep people on their toes." Go Zhiyi said, whenever the festival, the track above the dance floor will slowly fly a shiny silver "flying saucer", accompanied by "Star Wars" music, suddenly opened, floating out of the countless balloons, we play coaxing. "There are tickets inside, everyone's going crazy!"
The "Old House", known as the utopia of the post-60s and post-70s, has become a "legend" along with its founders
Also in 1994, two restless young people from Changzhou took up a different
Also in 1994, two restless young people in Changzhou took another 'night road', the birth of the old house bar, announced the Changzhou "bar" era. "The United States in the 60's there is a band called the "Velvet Underground", a debut, the record only sold a few hundred, but every person who bought their records have organized a 'bull' band, affecting the process of rock and roll. The Old House was the 'Velvet Underground' of Changzhou." The bar carries many memories of the post-60s and post-70s, and some people still sigh when they recall it.
The former proprietors, the bands and singers resident at the bar, the lone artistes, are now well-known figures in the industry. The Old House was part of their youth, a utopia for discussing life and dreams. As soon as it opened, the Old House attracted a number of foreigners based at the Grand Hotel, as well as pilots and stewardesses from the Changzhou base of the Xinjiang Civil Aviation Corporation, and even more local young people who love Western culture, including painters, pioneering poets, advertising designers and music composers.
The old house became a big hit within half a year, becoming another trendy place for young people in Changzhou outside of KK. The two young men who single-handedly built Old House had never been to a bar before opening the store. "We mulled over the idea of having a place to go at night, full of ideas for an art salon, but didn't know what to do, so we decided to go to Shanghai to check it out."
Mr. W, the founder, said a group of four friends arrived at the Hengshan Road bar in Shanghai and made a lot of jokes. "Walked in to see, but it is foreigners, they can not even order alcohol, the heart is weak. Asked for a bottle of beer, the mouth of the bottle inserted a slice of lemon, do not know how to drink." Mr. W pretended to be calm, rubbing the lemon slice on his teeth, and the other three followed suit, making the foreigners around them look blank. "That dewy-eyed, that foolishness is showing."
The downcast four went to bars around Fudan University at the urging of their friends and finally found their way. "Mostly Chinese, with pool tables, playing darts, resident singers and a casual atmosphere, that's the kind of bar I had in mind." In July 1995, Mr. W, who came back from stealing a lesson, opened the Old House Bar in collaboration with someone else. The green bricks built up a bar that was more than 20 meters long, with log countertops and a manger placed in the corner, and the whole bar was built by two people. "A bottle of beer is pushed from the head of the bar to the end in one go, especially with the feeling of a Hollywood movie."
After this, the bar had a resident band, followed by a resident folk singer. The two founders were not prepared for the sudden success, "The crisis was slowly becoming apparent, we just didn't know it. We were too young when we opened the bar, and we were too quick to capitalize on our success, and many of our practices were too far ahead of their time. We were pioneers, but pioneers are meant to hang on the wall, die, and then be admired."
Talking about the old house, founder Mr. W describes it as having "given him the brightest time in his life", while recalling the past seems a little surreal: "It's a memory that I don't want to touch, and the bar and the people have become legends."
The second movement:
Minuet
The fusion of bars and dance halls created the era of Changzhou performing arts bar
Whether imitators or latecomers, "blossomed" in the breeding of the search for new changes
KKK and the old house of the fire, which led to a number of imitators. Miramar, Feiyue, AA, Haoxiang, Lanling, they are still in the heart of the 60s and 70s memory.
Mr. W said that in the 90s, entertainment practitioners had two places to go in the evening, KK was the first half and Old House was the second half. At that time, discos and bars were new, and keen businessmen drew on each other's strengths to evolve a new form of bar - the performance bar.
The late 1990s saw the emergence of nightclub-like performance bars such as Casablanca and Space Moon City, which were places for wealthy Changzhou bosses. At the beginning of the new century, Shengshijian, Champagne Avenue and Oriental Shengshi gradually became the new fashionable places for young people in Changzhou. The performance bar is the prototype of the modern nightclub, there is music, good wine, but also a variety of magnificent performances, singers, dancers are essential elements.
Go Zhiyi in these performing arts bar have served as managers, he said performing arts bar turnover is much higher than the disco bar and bar, the early years of doing business in Changzhou people to choose such a place to entertain, red wine, foreign wine a night of consumption of tens of thousands of is not surprising. "Sheng Shijiazhuang although still put disco, but there have been boxes, Oriental Sheng Shijiazhuang is even more in the decoration of the next full effort, personalized design, the wall painted with big red peonies."
At the same time, Changzhou also opened its first all-night bar, Piao Bar, which still plays disco music, but without a dance floor, and has been replaced by booths and booths. The bar also had a successor, the East Bar Pear Blossom, whose proprietor was a big fan of the old house. At this time in Changzhou, the bar industry blossomed, and show bars became mainstream.
The third movement:
The passionate fast
Foreign chains came one after another, and Changzhou bars ushered in the "Xiyingli Era"
Entertainment on par with that of first-tier cities, and fashionable passions surged in
The year 2005-2006 was a watershed year for the Changzhou bar industry. industry's watershed. The Las Vegas bar of the Hershey Culture Group opened in Changzhou, and the Baidu chain of bars under the Jofan Industrial Group moved in the following year, bringing an impact on local bars. Some performing arts bars found that quality singers and dancers were poached by the powerful chain bars.
Chain bars bring not only entertainment on par with first-tier cities, but also a unique business model. Tao Chai, stage director of the Rittal Bar in Xiyingli, said, "A single store is a 'wild field' in our view, and there is no concept, order or rules, so it's hard to compete with the chains." Foreign chain bar "invasion" of Changzhou, almost the local performing arts bar without a fight.