Champz Sportz Grille Chatham

 

Venue: Champz Sportz Grille

City: Chatham-Kent,  Ontario, Canada.

Year: 2017

Opened: Nov. 18th, 2016.
Address: 304 St Clair St.

Notes: Formerly the Legion. on St. Clair Street, Champz brings live music on the weekends with Rock, Blues, & Jazz.

Bio: A new venue has arrived in Chatham…Lots of pool tables, dart boards,4 big screens, lots of flat screens, a mouthwatering menu, live classic rock/blues/jazz music every Friday, live country music Saturdays,  and the coldest beer in town.

Regency Event Hall

Let us host all of your special events. We will make your day worry free, food made on site by Chef Opie!! A set menu or customized to your likes. Fully stocked bar and staff to take care of all your needs.

Links: 

* Facebook link here.
* Website here.

Update March 2019: Champz closed it’s doors in early 2019, due to unforeseen circumstances.

Chatham Cultural Centre 2010

Venue: Chatham Cultural Centre (Kiwanis Theatre)
Location: Chatham Ontario Canada
Phone: 519-360-1998, 519-354-8346
Ticket Box Office: 1-866-807-7770
Kiwanis Theatre: 519-354-8338
Website: http://theculturalcentre.com/cms/

Address:
Chatham Cultural Centre
75 William Street N.
Chatham Ontario
N7M-4L4

Located in historic downtown Chatham, the Chatham Cultural Centre offers the Kiwanis Theatre, Chatham-Kent Museum, Thames Art Gallery, and within a short walk, the Milner Heritage House. Nowhere else in Ontario exists such a rare combination of art, heritage and entertainment in one convenient location.

The stage at Kiwanis Theatre hosts the best Canadian and local performing artists. Welcoming 40,000 patrons to events each year, this 679-seat venue is Chatham-Kent’s premier host for professional touring artists, local theatre companies, musicians and more. In its studio the Kiwanis hosts more intimate events such as the Friday Night Jazz series.

A few events happening this year at the Kiwanis Theatre: 2010 CK Guitar Summit, Just For Laughs Road Show, BAM Percussion – eXplosion, Black Violin, The Fabulous Crooners, Crystal Gage, The Mask Messenger, Jade Lester CD Release Concert, Brooke Nicholls, Irish Fire,

History: In 1963, the building (last used as the Chatham Vocational School) was bought by a group of citizens eager to establish an art centre in Chatham. By 1969, The Thames Theatre Association for the Arts was presenting live performances in the original 700-seat school theatre and the old gymnasium was being used as a gallery.  Renovations to the gymnasium and the studio areas of the building began in 1975 and the Thames Art Gallery, National Exhibition Centre was born.

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Rondeau Pavilion 1964

 

1969

1960’s

 

 

Club: Rondeau Pavilion
Year: 1964
Built in 1952 by Maurice Smyth (Date noted from article online)
(Update 2017: I have been notified by a personal source that it was actually 1958).
Location: Rondeau Park Ontario
What: Hottest dance club around for decades.

Note: People would drive from a hundred mile radius to party at the Pavilion, and there is no way I could do the Chatham Music Archive without mentioning this place and what I have been told about it. Nothing was like it for miles and miles and the kids would do anything to make it every night.

• The club drew 1,500 on average every Saturday night
• People came from Sarnia, Windsor, Detroit, London and everywhere in between
• Ages 12 – 20 were the scene for the infamous dances held
• The rules were strict but were respected and followed by patrons
• Bands included The pharaohs, The Fiends, Sally and the Bluesman, The American Breed, MC5(in 1969)
• Bob Seger and Alice Cooper played there regularly as struggling musicians before becoming famous
• The Hops (DJ’s spinning what the kids wanted to hear) were the high lights for the kids
• Popular Dj’s for the years the Pavilion were most packed were Bill Saunders and Paul Dusten
• Bill Saunders became the DJ in 1964
• The place is also memorable for its closing song “The Sand and the Sea”
• Girls waited against the wall for a guy to ask them to dance, that was the era
• The guys constantly walked clock wise around the hall
• Mr. Smyth sold Rondeau Pavilion in 1975, attendance was dropping as policies changed to the park
• The pavilion was the third and last dance hall at Rondeau
• Rondeau is Ontario’s second oldest provincial park, which was established in 1894, a year after Algonquin Provincial Park.
  Main Source: The Weekender, May 10^th 1980 By S. Dudley

  Email your info & pictures to:
  chatham_music_archive@hotmail.com