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For the last 100 years, Champaign-Urbana’s concert halls, bars, coffee houses and athletic arenas have been filled with music. Each place, speaking in its unique way, has reflected the community’s varied music tastes. Performers like Marian Anderson, Dan Fogelberg, The One Eyed Jacks and REO Speedwagon provided diverse music experiences for their audiences.
Concert halls like the University of Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Smith Recital Hall and University Auditorium were principally built as spaces for formal listening experiences. Popular artists occasionally performed in these spaces, including the Ramones, who played in 1981 at the Auditorium.
Renowned vocalist Marian Anderson performed at the Auditorium in March 1950, singing compositions by Handel, Schubert, Donizetti and Langston Hughes. Although the Auditorium served as a lecture hall for campus classes, it was the primary concert venue for the university’s music ensembles and visiting artists like John Philip Sousa, Robert Frost and Ravi Shankar, until April 1969, when the Krannert Center was dedicated.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Champaign-Urbana’s music scene became much more casual, with informal performances taking place in local coffee shops, restaurants and bars. Unlike the dance bands of the 1940s that played at Robeson’s Rooftop Garden, Prehn’s and Huff Gym, small student ensembles and solo artists used music to express their views on hot social and political issues of the day.
The Red Herring coffeehouse was established in the Channing Murray Foundation in 1967 and served as a local hub for folk music and the campus’ anti-Vietnam War movement. Music performances began around 1969 on the second floor of the building, and frequent performers included Dan Fogelberg, Peter Swinnerton and the Morrow Plots Experimental Bluegrass Band.
That same year, the Red Herring held its first folk music festival with the help of the university’s Campus Folksong Club. The McKinley Foundation established its Toad Hall coffee house around the same time. Beginning in 1971, it featured folk music every Friday and Saturday evening.
By the 1970s, Zorba’s, Treno’s, Mabel’s and the Red Lion began regularly featuring jazz combos, such as the UI Jazz Band under the leadership of John Garvey. Urbana’s Nature’s Table Coffeehouse and Restaurant was established in 1979. It quickly became the community’s favored eatery for faculty, students and lovers of live jazz performances. The Table’s intimate environment, good food and location across the street from the university’s Krannert Center made it fertile ground for Champaign-Urbana’s jazz scene until 1991, when it closed. Such nationally recognized jazz artists as Herb Ellis and local saxophone legends Ron Dewar and Guido Sinclair performed there regularly.
Chances R opened Sept. 14, 1966, with The One Eyed Jacks and became one of Champaign’s first music venues to feature rock ‘n’ roll. The Red Lion and the Brown Jug quickly joined the same rock scene, and the three clubs regularly provided varied popular hard and soft rock acts each week. Chances R and the Lion remained hot music venues during the early 1970s, but the Brown Jug closed on June 9, 1971. In January 1978, Chances R was purchased by three former employees of Giovanni’s, which was considered Champaign’s most popular gay bar. Chances R was transformed to 63 Chester Street (or simply C-Street) to become one of the region’s most popular discotheques that catered to both Urbana-Champaign’s straight and LGBTQ communities.
Otis and the Elevators got its start in Champaign and was frequently billed as a blues and rock cover band. They played frequently at Mabel’s, which was located on Green Street one block from Campustown’s Record Service. Mabel’s featured local and national artists, including the Elvis Brothers, Vertebrats and Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets. Like Panama Reds and Ruby Gulch, Mabel’s booked high-quality bands nearly every night.
One of Urbana-Champaign’s most recognized musicians to play at Mabel’s in the 1980s was Adrian Belew. Before moving to Urbana, he played lead guitar for Frank Zappa, David Bowie and the Talking Heads. Between 1981 and 1986, he lived in Urbana and toured with King Crimson. After forming the Bears in 1985, his band appeared regularly at Mabels.
During the late 1970s and ’80s, the university’s Assembly Hall became a popular venue for traveling national acts like Elvis Presley, Elton John, Frank Zappa and The Eagles. On Sept. 22, 1985, the first Farm Aid concert, organized by Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young, was held at Memorial Stadium. Tickets for $17.50 sold out within 24 hours, and the audience of 80,000 people raised over $7 million to help struggling Midwest farmers during America’s 1980s recession. The event featured nearly 60 acts, including Alabama, The Beach Boys, Charlie Daniels Band, Emmylou Harris, B.B. King, Joni Mitchell, Willie Nelson and Eddie Van Halen.
Today, music continues to be a vital part of our community. The Altgeld Hall chimes were constructed in 1920 and have, until recent renovations, always provided afternoon and weekend performances for the campus and local community. The Rose Bowl Tavern has featured music since it opened in 1946, but since 2020 has become one of our community’s most diverse music venues. In addition, Urbana’s Canopy Club, Krannert Center, Champaign’s Virginia Theatre, The Space and Huber’s West End Store offer a variety of music styles to satisfy anyone’s taste.
For those looking for a musical walk down Champaign-Urbana’s memory lane, there is also the weekly HomegrownKIO radio show that airs every Sunday evening on 107.9 FM WKIO. For more information about the Sousa Archives’ new exhibit, “Spaces Speak: Sounds of Champaign-Urbana’s Music Venues,” or to schedule a tour of this exhibition and the rest of its collections, contact Scott Schwartz at either schwrtzs@illinois.edu or 217-333-4577.
Scott Schwartz is director of the Sousa Archives and Center for American Music at the University of Illinois.
