Throughout its nearly 30 years, a lot of people went to Richard’s on Richards.
It wasn’t the same type of crowds either, throughout its long run, it catered to two very different scenes.
The first being yuppies and the latter being the city’s live music scene – which is in itself a vastly diverse group of people.
RELATED: A Look Back At Vancouver’s Most Popular Bars From The 80s, 90’s and 00s
In the 80’s Richard’s on Richards was a beautiful people’s bar. Well-to-do Vancouverites would line up outside, and punks would drive by and swear at them.
Waiting outside was not for naught though, because once inside, they got to dance around to a top 40 cover band. For today’s club goers, a cover band might sound cheesy but this was the 80s and apparently it was very cool.
One could imagine the same crowd would be a mix of 12 West and Celebrities goers if they were partying today.
A well repeated story about Richard’s was that people there did so much coke the toilets needed to be serviced monthly, to remove all the straws.
Changes
In the 90s the bar made a soft pivot to be a live music venue.
Then it was only a live music venue and this worked well for years, with the bar catering to a vast array of different musical artists.
Acts that ranged from Booker T and the M.G.s to an Emily Carr student fueled rave night called Half-Alive.
Lee “Scratch” Perry, Franz Ferdinand, Katy Perry, Neko Case, Queens of the Stoneage, M83, and early dubstep artist The Bug all played there.
When the Black Eyed Peas played there in 2004, it doubled its capacity of 345, the bar was packed and the owners heavily fined.
Condos Gotta’ Condo
The bar eventually succumbed, as much of Vancouver has, to the whims of the Aquilinis and Bob Rennie who slowly purchased it and some surrounding businesses.
Now it’s condos on Richards.
The bar was once also known as Dick’s on Dicks.
If you’re interested in Vancouver club history, a great book to read is Aaron Chapman’s “Vancouver After Dark: The Wild History of a City’s Nightlife”
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