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the armed forces kinda had a life of its own
for as many years as I've known a downforce has always been a gathering
place for people
who come to sort of pollinated share their ideas to legendary place
there's been so many amazing things that have happened here through the years so
many amazing artists
Smashing Pumpkins you know play the horse dinosaur junior played the horse
Jon Hamm and
Marcia ball 10,000 maniacs the Saw Doctors really got their start
here remember seeing all address give 80 back
Archie Shepp went to myself this Lyle Lovett there have been people that have
been signed here
be called Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman joshua redman
smithereens abilities ok data Joan ask John Hiatt
urban people that got their start here during open mic night that went on to
become
very famous performers and they still come back I mean it just goes
on and on and on feel really lucky to have been able see all those people
if I point to one thing they gave me an idea
to have the Iron Horse one of the first albums that was given to me was a singer
songwriter in there
then in the sixties game Tom Paxton and
one of his songs in a later album talked about a coffee house at music spot in
London
and I was lovelorn in London in 1974 75
and I decided I'm gonna go find this little place the talk about call the
Troubadour
and I walked in the door it was like 0 I am home
you know there were these little cafe tables with people sitting around
reading in their journals am
their work instruments hung all over the walls and
so i sat there in wrote in my journal you know when it be nice if one day just
to have a place like this
than a few years later I was a hanging out with John Reilly who
was my partner in the first couple years the Iron Horse Inn we were hanging out
at Sheen's Park Northampton nineteen sorry I was just it was
filling really quiet town with with a few nice restaurants and
but not a lot of a lot of cultural well activity going on here we are again
standing around drinking one of a small selection of beers there's gotta be
something else
and we kind of got shook hands on the notion that
there would be something else and lo and behold weeks later
we signed a lease on this place and started making it up as we went along
the place was half a size and you can rent a room in North Hampton for what
you read to the Iron Horse were you know that time it was three hundred
seventy-five dollars a month
as what is the Iron Horse came closer and closer to opening you know they're
there was no name and one day I was sitting around the kitchen table with my
parents in the Berkshires
and we were looking out the window and then my mom
was both the painter and a metal sculptor and the entire matter was
populated with these whimsical creations
hers including one Iron Horse and
we looked at me said you could call it the Iron Horse that became the name of
course people read
all kinds a inferences in 28 retired 15 years that I A own the venue the horse
was
I'm not just in the window but on a pedestal and it was really the first
thing
that you saw when you came to the club I remember
the first add for the Iron Horse which ran in conjunction with the grand
opening on February 24th
1979 was a tiny little had sorry inauspicious
start for for the club the first night
there we opened on my book to ban because I wanted to be good know why did
be festive but we were
opening a room where we thought that music would be kind of casually
presented by
but the band that then had a little bit of currency and you can even find your
name on the web now called clam jam pray they wear
Celtic band and they came down to play we open the doors
we had 224 rings at the register
back first day here how really like what is happening here me we we were sold out
on the first night I still have the sold-out sign in
pain wasn't working two different color ans you know and
worry going in the back going to our okay look at that will get the creates
the milkman brought you don't put it pulled out like five crates for more
people to sit on people sitting on the floor and
he was just dislike you're here
few and and so that was that was really it was a wonderful thing and
and it actually maintain that way there was a built-in audience that we didn't
even know about
you now the Iron Horse as much as it was something that
I wanted to do it also ended up answering
something the people were yearning for in the community
brought all sorts of different kinds of people here from Smith professors to
to musicians to people who just want to get off the street
have a cuppa coffee in a way when you when you step back and take a look at
the history the Iron Horse in history North Hampton
is very symbiotic relationship they both kinda grew up together
in that North Hampton really started to grow as a
divers artistic entertainment community
around the time the Iron Horse started