Another One Bites the Dust: Vancouver’s Richard’s on Richards Nightclub to Finally Close Its Doors for Good
7/3/2009 By Jason Schreurs

Looks like Canada just lost another one of its great music venues, as Vancouver’s long-running Richard’s on Richards plans to close its doors forever on July 21. As suspected for quite some time, the building’s owner will demolish the popular live music spot in late July to make way for a new condo development.

It may not be all bad news, however. The club’s liquor licence has been transferred from the current 1036 Richards location to 556 Seymour Street (the former home of A&B Sound), where a new club is expected to open in mid-October. According to the Georgia Straight, the new establishment will have four lounges, a 5,000-square-foot dance floor, two art galleries and will feature dance nights on weekends, with live music Sunday through Thursday.

It’s unknown what the new club will be called (Richard’s on Seymour? Seymour’s on Seymour?) and what style of live music it will host.

All shows after the planned close date of July 21, such as Blitzen Trapper, Three Mile Pilot and Maximo Park, have been or are in the process of being moved from Richard’s to other locations in Vancouver.

As any music-loving Vancouverite knows, Richard’s on Richards has been the site of many amazing shows over the years, be it indie, dance, metal, punk or rock’n’roll. Also, most likely know that the owner of the current Richard’s location is none other than Aquilini Investments, the company helmed by Vancouver Canucks owner Francesco Aquilini.

Meanwhile, local writer Aaron Chapman is working on a story about the history of the venue. “If anybody has any anecdotes they'd like to pass along of shows they saw there, played there, if you worked there, had bad night there or a great night, feel free to drop me a line via aaron@aaronchapman.net,” says Chapman.

For a chance to check out a piece of Vancouver live venue history before it closes, here are the final shows at Richard’s on Richards:

7/10 Roots Reggae Tour featuring The Abbyssinians
7/19 Five Alarm Funk
7/20 Bonobo

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