So, Zaphod's is closing.

ZAPHOD BEEBLEBROX IS CLOSING


The other day the news broke that Ottawa live music staple Zaphod's is closing. The venue has been a staple in the Ottawa music scene for over 25 years. Zaphod Beeblebrox got it's name from the character in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and many of the drinks and events have names based off the book series. 

Over the many years Zaphod's has played host to hundreds of artists from the local scene to international touring acts, iIncluding local superstar Alanis Morrisette; Nickelback; Jewel, and many others In 2005 the Rolling Stones filmed a music video there. 

Local musician and promoter Ryan Fitz (Castlefield and The Indie Scene Promotions) broke the news to the world over his Facebook profile with the statement, "Zaphod's is gone. There goes our last decent mid-sized venue... :(" Many people were shocked and upset to hear that the venue was closing and didn't want to believe what Ryan was saying because there were no articles about it from any news agencies. A few hours later the first articles were beginning to appear online.
 Michael Wood, owner of Ottawa Special Events and former guitarist for the band Circuit posted on his Facebook wall, "Before you get upset about Zaphod's closing ask yourself first 'when was the last time I went out to see live music?' The less we all go to support the great talent we have in Ottawa, the more venues will continue to close."

I am inclined to agree with Michael and say that if we don't get out there and support the Ottawa scene then more venues are going to close. The music industry is an industry that is hard to make a living in. With the invention of music streaming services, illegally downloaded music, and watching  shows on YouTube (which is also free) not many people are going out to shows anymore. Why would you if you can watch it for free on YouTube or listen to an illegally ripped audio version of the show.

I talked with local musician Noah Cook from the bands Martyrs and Ringwraith about how he felt about Zaphod's closing. He said, "Obviously a closing venue in Ottawa means one less place to enjoy music publicly and to meet new people. It's not only another blow to the local scene but it's forcing it to go more underground. It also limits the amount places big out of town bands can play. I'm necessarily not surprised but I definitely am bummed to see it go, if anything it reinforces bands to play DIY venues and will bring the scene tighter together which is gnarly. It's sad to see Zaphod's go but we have to keep moving up and make the best of a shitty situation."

Written by: Kyle Stumpo

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

History Of Recorded Sound Part 1: The Phonautograph and Phonograph

Image
If you follow our YouTube channel, then you are aware we are working on a new series where every week we will discuss a small section of the history of music and audio recording. I decided that once a week I will make a written version of the YouTube video so that the people who don't watch the channel, can still get the information. However, the written version will have a bit more information in it as it doesn't require as much work to produce and I'm more comfortable making written content than a video. THE BEGINNING:  The history of audio recording is divided into eras; the first of which is called The Analogue Era (AE for short). The AE focuses on the time from 1854 to about 1930. Now when most people think of the beginning of audio recording, they are more than likely under the assumption that Thomas Edison was the first person to figure out and produce a way to record sound, but this is not true. The first person to actually find a way to record sound wa...
Read more

2018 In Review

Hey readers, It has been a long time since I posted on here. I've been so busy the last few months that the Blogger page took a back seat. We here at The Ottawa Sound have been working on a bunch of new media for you but due to our busy schedules and lack of funds we have had to hold off on them. But we would like to present our faithful readers with a special 2018 In Review article. This year has been the biggest year of my life when it comes to music and journalism. I have had the opportunity to interview many bands, made new friends, made new music and started a record label. The local scene has been very supportive of The Ottawa Sound and we appreciate each and every one of you that has been to a show, read an article or watched a video. Our main goal moving forward is to post at least one article weekly. That doesn't seem like much but when you're working, in 3 bands, working on a record label, writing blog posts, running 2 YouTube channels and working on a solo ...
Read more

History of Recorded Sound Part 3: Berliner and Montreal

This week for history Monday we will be talking more about Victor talking machine company and Montreal’s role in the beginning of the recording industry. If you watched the previous episode of history Monday you know that Emilee Berliner and Eldredge Johnson founded the united states gramophone company in the late 1890’s and after dealing with many lawsuits and companies stealing his designs, Berliner decided to transfer all of his patent's to Johnson. Johnson rebranded the company as Victor talking machine company. Before the mid-1920’s recording was done in a purely acoustical way. The sounds were played into a horn and then the vibrations would make a diaphragm that was held in place vibrate and then the vibrations would make the stylus move; the stylus would engrave the waveforms into the disc or cylinder and voila you had your recording. However, you could not play back the recording you had because they were made on a soft wax, and if you played it back you woul...
Read more