Manuscripts Collection
The rock music nightclub known as First Avenue & 7th Street Entry traces its beginning to the establishment by Allen Fingerhut in 1968 of a rock music bar called The Depot in the vacated Greyhound bus station that he had acquired at the corner of Seventh Street and First Avenue North at the edge of the warehouse district in downtown Minneapolis. Two years later the club was franchised out to the American Events Company (Cincinnati), which opened another of its Uncle Sam's chain of disco clubs on the site.
Facing financial problems in 1979, AEC left Minneapolis, returning operation of the club to Fingerhut. Club manager Steve McClellan, who had been booking occasional, mostly local, live acts in the club since 1976, began intensifying those efforts, focusing on the the growing punk music movement in Minneapolis. In 1980 the club was rechristened First Avenue & 7th Street Entry, First Avenue housing the main stage and 7th Street Entry--a former restaurant area in the old bus station--housing a smaller stage dominated by local alternative and indie rock acts.
Since 1980 the two stages have hosted hundreds of rock, R&B, funk, alt-country, blues, and worldbeat acts from around the world, as well as continuing to serve as a professional stage for developing local acts--Prince, the Replacements, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, and many others--who went on to achieve national and international reknown. By 2000, the club boasted an annual attendance of 500,000 and an employee base of 120.
The band files provide a chronological record of performances at the popular music club during its first 23 years, and offer a representative glimpse of the alternative and indie rock acts popular in the U.S. during that period.
These documents are organized into the following sections:
A print version of this finding aid is available in the repository; filed in ALPHA inventory notebooks under the heading: First Avenue & 7th Street Entry.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should
Accession number: 15,907; 16,048
Processed by: Dennis Meissner, August 2004; Patty Dean, December 2004
Catalog ID number: 002942632
These files concentrate on the acts that played the main stage. See the 7th Street Entry section of the collection for band files that document acts booked for that stage.
The files are arranged in a single chronological sequence, by performance date.
Brief single-page forms giving very general information (contact information, musical style, availability and preferences) about bands and artists applying to play in 7th Street Entry's "New Band Showcase" performance series. The forms are sometimes annoted with staff notes and comments.
The 66 band files are in alphabetical order by artist or band name. Please note that individual artists, as well as bands, are filed under forename, rather than surname.
Bands include: 60 Cycle Hum, A:Pod, Art Symposium, Balloon Guy, Big Trouble House, Brutus Brenda, Calanders, Chris Herriges, Christmas, Crawl A Cross, Danny O'Kane, D-Day, Derek Godette, Drill, Dynamic Rappin 'Trio, Evene Es, Fat Tuesday, French Festival, Gerty, Gneissmaker, God's Favorite Band, Guzzard, Holly McNarland, Hovercraft, Hubert Temba, Illiterate Beach, Ishkabibble, J. Keiser, J.U.L.P., Jessie Johnson, Jinkies, Joe Henry, John Eller, John's Black Dirt, Kirk Kelly, Lemon Grass, Liquid Pink, Loose Rails, Lori Wray, Lost Cause, Mickey Finn, Mortal Micronots, Nasty Savage, New Day Blues Band, Orion, Orthotonics, Pat McLaughlin, Percy Strother, Phantom Helmsmen, PJ and the Magic Bus, Plasticland, Pleasure, Richie Havens, Royal Trux, Scream, Skully's Rock and Roll Emporium, Smile House, Stagger Lee, The Big Lie, The Swoon, The Vibrators, Thorazine, White House.
Samples of hundreds of complimentary passes issued by the nightclub for various performances and events, filed in three-ring binders.
Miscellaneous promotional glossies of numerous acts that played at First Avenue over the years, filed alphabetically by the name of the artist or band. Please note that individual artists, as well as bands, are filed under forename, rather than surname.