The Starwood Club was a popular club in West Hollywood, California during the 1970s and 1980s. Many early punk bands and heavy metal bands started their careers playing at The Starwood.

Though the Sunset Strip's Whisky A Go Go is the best known Rock Club in Los Angeles, The Starwood was the real home to LA's famed Rock Scene of the late 70's/early 80's. Not only was Van Halen signed to Warner Bros. after being heard at the Starwood, Randy Rhoads' Quiet Riot played Starwood 36 times, and only played 28 other gigs in their entire career (10 shows before adding Rudy Sarzo, including Randy & original Quiet Riot bassist, Kelli Garni's Kennedy High School Prom).

The Starwood was located on the northwest corner of Santa Monica Blvd. and Crescent Heights Ave (extension of Laurel Canyon-changing names @Hollywood Blvd.).
It had been quite a fashionable nightclub called "PJ's" in the 1960's, and attracted a large number of film and TV stars. During its incarnation as PJ's, the Standells and Trini Lopez recorded their live albums there.

EDDIE NASH - THE STARWOOD'S INFAMOUS OWNER

In the early 1970s, PJ's was purchased by alleged organized crime figure Eddie Nash, and became The Starwood.  Nash once operated more than 20 bars, restaurants, and strip clubs in the Hollywood area, including the Odyssey, Ali Baba's, and the Kit Kat Club. He also owned the Seven Seas building, a three-story structure across the street from Grauman's Chinese Theater. The building was the home of the famous Hollywood Boulevard nightclub, the Seven Seas, a popular island-themed club which was one of Hollywood's favorites during WWII, and grew to legendary status with the return of the Hollywood Glamour Days. The club once boasted live floor shows, complete with full music, dancers, and lavish staging, three times a night. Eddie Nash (Adel Nasrallah) knew this town. Whether a posh disco or a darker strip-club, Eddie's clubs catered to every group of people, gays, straights, bikers, college kids, hard rockers, punks, the leather set, you name it. The Starwood alone featured 3 distinctly different rooms, joined around another huge central bar area. The concert room was home to a good-sized stage, a nice enclosed room for sound & lights, a legal room size of 399, plus a 99 seat VIP balcony ("The Hot 100"). What made the club especially attractive to bands (beside several good-sized dressing rooms), was the Fire Department's legal limit for the entire club was 999. When the good rockers took the stage, most of the other 500+ fans in the other bar rooms could mill in & out of the main room, exceeding the legal limits, and hang around to watch the second set (Almost every established, popular, local band did two sets a night - on the weekends).

Slash relives the Starwood glory days
(click)

The Starwood was highly instrumental in the careers of Van Halen, Quiet Riot, DEVO, Mötley Crüe, The Runaways, The Go-Go's, The Motels, The Germs, Black Flag, The Plimsouls and X, and hosted live performances by a wide variety of local and touring acts. Some of the acts from outside of California who played the Starwood included The Damned, The Jam, Cheap Trick, The Stranglers, AC/DC, Yesterday and Today (Y&T), The Fleshtones, and Ozzy Osbourne (who, along with Randy Rhoads&Rudy Sarzo, premiered his Blizzard of Ozz band at the Starwood).

 Prosecutors accused Nash of trafficking drugs out of his clubs and he was suspected of ordering the bludgeoning deaths of four people at a Laurel Canyon drug house in 1981, in a case known as the "Wonderland Murders." This brought an end to one of Hollywood's long-time club owners, and the demise of his Rock Emporium.

THE PUNK YEARS

The Starwood was the first LA venue to showcase the new LA punk groups. The Punk movement began to surface in London with Malcolm McClaren's Sex Pistols and the "The Bromley Contingent" bands (The Clash, The Slits, Siouxsie & the Banshees, and Generation X - fronted by a young Billy Idol). While the British punk scene was expanding, the New York Scene was in full swing. The first concrete punk rock scene had appeared in the mid '70s in New York. Bands like The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Wayne County, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, Blondie, and the Talking Heads were playing regularly in the Bowery District, most notably at CBGB'S. If it was growing in London and New York, it was naturally going to spring up in Los Angeles as well. Soon, with the assistance of their Starwood appearances, LA punk bands like Black Flag, The Plimsouls, X, The Germs, and Weirdos were gaining national attention and record contracts.

RORY GALLAGHER AT STARWOOD

          DEVO AT STARWOOD - 1977

A classic example of Starwood's role in showcasing a broad range of musical styles is the many appearances of Devo. Many thought they were a local LA band when, in fact , they were formed in Akron, OH, in 1972 by art students Jerry Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh (and sometimes their respective brothers Bob). Their name came from their concept of "de-evolution" (the idea that instead of evolving, mankind has actually regressed). Their jerky, robotic rhythms combined with an obsession with technology and electronics (the group was among the first non-progressive rock bands to feature the synthesizer) plus their use of atonal melodies and chord progressions, all of which they filtered through the perspectives of geeky misfits. They became one of new wave's most innovative and (for a time) successful bands.   Devo's big break came in 1976 when their score for the short film The Truth About De-Evolution, won a prize at the 1976 Ann Arbor Film Festival. The film was seen by local music legend, Iggy Pop, who, together with his buddy, David Bowie, were so impressed they brought in producer Brian Eno (Roxy Music) and landed a deal for them with Warner Bros. Records. Their first album, Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!, made them cult sensations. However, it was their 3rd album, Freedom of Choice, featuring the smash hit single, "Whip It", coupled with their emphasis on highly stylized visuals,  which forever etched DEVO in music video history. The "Whip It"  video became a staple on TV's fledgling MTV network and has remained a favorite to this day.                                                     

THE END OF AN ERA

The Starwood finally closed its famed doors for good in 1982, allegedly, the result of a mysterious fire. Coincidently, the fire followed Eddie Nash's "streak of bad luck", which by 1982, had become known as "The Wonderland Murders".

 Not only had Nash been the victim of John Holmes & the Wonderland Gang's burglary (to the tune of $1.2 million), he was later implicated in the gruesome murder of four of the gang members. Similar unexplained fires also befell other Nash-owned properties around this same time. Subsequently, the huge, ideal club structure was demolished and a mini-mall was built on the site.

THE SOUND COMPANY'S

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