memorial concert Friday in Columbus, OH for Charles "Charlie Wonder" Nutt; co-owner of "America’s first rock ’n’ roll disco"
Hoodoo
Owner kept club rockin’ as he rolled through life
May 18, 2006
Aaron Beck
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
http://www.dispatch.com/weekender/weekender.php?story=dispatch/2006/05/18/20060518-W10-00.html
The fortunate distill their lives to the things they love.
For Charles "Charlie Wonder" Nutt, life was animals and rock ’n’ roll.
And although he was passionate about both, he never preached about
either.
With his custom-made jackets, ’70s glam-rock hairdo, sunglasses at
night and vegetarianism, Nutt lived by example.
When the one-time co-owner of Crazy Mama’s died of a heart attack Feb.
16, 2005, the Columbus rock scene lost one its more-colorful
characters.
Nutt and equally peacocklike older brother Bruce Nutt — promoter of
Friday’s concert with the Sovines and the Flyin’ Saucers — opened
Crazy Mama’s in 1979.
Bruce Nutt described the pre-MTV joint at 1536 N. High St., which
featured a video program piped in from New York, as "America’s first
rock ’n’ roll disco."
It was where many central Ohioans got their first tastes of Blondie,
the Sex Pistols and Talking Heads. Between videos, disc jockey Charlie
Wonder provided the soundtrack.
"He was really into the roots of rock," Nutt’s brother said. "He’d
play the MC5, the Stones — and go all the way back to the Sun
(Records) artists.
"We put our heads together to create the ambience, but he had so much
to do with that vibe."
Crazy Mama’s eventually morphed into a hangout for Cheap Trick, Frank
Zappa, the Ramones and the New York Dolls’ David Johansen when they
were in town.
Performers in the club, which closed in 1994, included the Blasters,
Clifton Chenier, James Cotton, the Cramps, Joan Jett, Mitch Ryder,
Ronnie Spector and Junior Walker.
And when Crazy Mama’s closed for the evening, Nutt said, the party
would move to the "Bat Cave," the Nutts’ adult romper room at their
parents’ house in Hilliard.
"Back in the day, . . . we’d have as many people back at the Bat Cave
as we did in the club," he said. "The Bat Cave is exactly as it was.
Whenever he wants to come back, it’s ready to go."
Friday concertgoers, however, shouldn’t expect a sad affair.
"I can see him now at the back of the club. If I were to say anything
maudlin, I can hear him say: ‘C’mon, man, get the party going! People
want to bop, man! People want to go! What is this cornball stuff?’ "
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