Why am I doing this

I have been asked by many as to why am I putting on this 20th anniversary concert. There are a number of reasons which I will try and explain below. I am also hoping that the outpouring of emails and notes I have received from friends, artists, old staffers, etc. who want to connect around the March 1st Anniversary show will share their stories through this blog. It is amazing to me how fast time has gone since February 1987 when I opened the knit. There are excerpts from the book on Knitting Music that I will try not repeat.

But I felt a need, since CBGBs and The Bottom Line have closed their doors in the last year, to celebrate the Knitting Factory’s existence. However, since I no longer control our trademarks, I did not want to get into another legal issue with the Management of the Company I founded. The term “Old Knit” felt right. The words are used by many as a definition of what was a period of time of tremendous vitality and communal activity around the Knit from inception in 1987 to 1997. It is not only about the location we had on Houston street, but encompassed a few years after our move to Tribeca in 1994. However, the transition of the Old Knit to the New Knit, if you will, represents my changing from being a sole proprietor of the company, where I owned 100% , to it becoming a corporation with shareholders and investors. In my desire to grow, I started bringing in outside capital to foster this thirst for becoming a larger media company. The brand Knit was terrific, it had become know in countries around the globe over the first ten years as the true home of new music. We had an office in Amsterdam Holland booking Knitting Factory stages in all the big festivals in Europe. We had Japanese licensing of our records providing sizable advances to allow our record label to grow. We had a Television series which was further spreading the gospel. The internet in 1995 offered us the most alluring opportunities.

I jumped into that world of new media full force. Our club was the first to broadcast on the web in 1995. We had deals with Apple Computer, Intel, Real Networks, etc. I got our sponsorship for the Festival with Bell Atlantic seeing the connection with their activity in Broadband and communication devises. But it was a bit early. Too much Wired Magazine and elixer from dot.com consultants. I was taking on investment from a number of financial groups which diluted my interests in the “Knit Media” umbrella company to a point where I simply lost control. By 2000, I was not the majority owner nor in control of the board. Trying to get open a big club in Hollywood, growing the media business, overseeing a staff of 100 people in three offices certainly pushed my focus away from the music itself and the community that made it.

It was this shift of focus as corporation that really demarks the old knit from the new knit. Would I have done it differently and managed the growth better if I could do it again, certainly. Do I regret the path of life, no way. Live and learn. But, when people say to me, boy it is cool you and Zorn are close friends again. Why was he so angry with you in 1996 /1997. Well, John and others (including my Dad) where the de facto board of directors before I had one. In fact, the community of patrons and artists were really much of the policy makers and “board” that we had, before it became a more formal corporation. This shift to the new was something that John felt was not right and expressed it to me. I simply was too naïve and interested in growth to balance out these two competing needs. I would today, but then, I did not fully get it. I have a little more gray hair today at 44 than I did at 34. I started this damn thing at 24.

Anyway, I am so proud of the Knit, more the old than the new, but happy it is alive. In fact, even grateful to the current management and investors for seeing the value in the brand and wanting to leverage it for taking it to new places in their own image. In my great grandfathers Yiddish, zie gazunt. The Old knit was a place so many people met, got married, created bodies of important work, art, dialogue, and strong memories.

The old knit was a place almost anything could happen on the stage. The collaboration was unprecedented in New York, mixing artists from the avant-garde, rock and jazz worlds together. Incorporating film, dance, and spoken word into the mix. It just does not happen in any one spot with such ferocity, as it did at the Knit over those 10 years. In terms of avant-garde place, The Stone, is the closest. Although, there are elements of old knit in many of the great spaces in Brooklyn and Lower East Side today. It is a new time with many great new players. I must say, I enjoy going out to see music today more than I have ever. Not being confined to only one location is liberating. Although, the open bar was certainly a nice perk.

I’ll try and write more in the next few days, but wanted to start sharing my thoughts. I am hoping some others might join in the dialogue. What do you remember about the Old Knit? Did it impact you in anyway?