50 years in business<\/a>. And the people who made it happen are reflecting on Toad’s success in attracting so many top acts to a venue with a standing-only capacity of about 1,000.<\/p>\n\u201cYou know, I thought it would be good for a few years and then I\u2019d be out doing something else,\u201d said owner Brian Phelps, 71, who started as the club\u2019s manager in 1976. \u201cAnd then the thing started to happen when some of the big bands started to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Music and cheap beer fuel success<\/p>\n
Original owner Mike Spoerndle initially opened Toad\u2019s Place in January 1975 as a French restaurant with two friends he later bought out. Before that, the building had been a burger and sandwich joint.<\/p>\n
But when the restaurant got off to a slow start, Spoerndle had an idea for bringing in more customers, especially students: music, dancing and beer. A Tuesday night promotion with bands and 25-cent brews helped turn the tide.<\/p>\n
Among the acts who performed was New Haven-born Michael Bolotin, who would change his name to Michael Bolton and go on to become a Grammy-winning ballad writer and singer.<\/p>\n
The gregarious and charismatic Spoerndle, who died in 2011, endeared himself to bands and customers. A local musician he tapped as Toad’s booking agent used his connections to bring in area bands and, later, major blues acts.<\/p>\n
Then, in 1977, came a crucial moment. Spoerndle met and befriended concert promoter Jim Koplik, who would bring in many big names to Toad’s over the years, and still does today.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike knew how to make a really great room and Brian knew how to really run a great room,\u201d said Koplik, now president of Live Nation for Connecticut and upstate New York.<\/p>\n
A year later, Springsteen stopped by Toad’s to play with the Rhode Island band Beaver Brown after he finished a three-hour show at the nearby New Haven Coliseum.<\/p>\n
In 1980, Billy Joel stunned Toad\u2019s by picking it \u2014 and several other venues \u2014 to record songs for his first live album, \u201cSongs in the Attic.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same year, a little-known band from Ireland would play at Toad\u2019s as an opening act. It was among the first shows U2 played in North America. The band played the club two more times in 1981 before hitting it big.<\/p>\n
An unforgettable show for $3.01<\/p>\n
On a Saturday night in August 1989, Toad\u2019s advertised a performance by a local band, The Sons of Bob, and a celebration of Koplik\u2019s 40th birthday, followed by a dance party.<\/p>\n
The admission price: $3.01.<\/p>\n
After The Sons of Bob did a half-hour set, Spoerndle and Koplik took the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cLadies and gentlemen,\u201d Spoerndle said.<\/p>\n
Koplik followed with, \u201cPlease welcome the Rolling Stones!\u201d<\/p>\n
The stunned crowd of around 700 erupted as the Stones kicked off an hourlong show with \u201cStart Me Up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you. Good, good, good. We\u2019ve been playing for ourselves the last six weeks,\u201d Mick Jagger told the crowd.<\/p>\n
The Stones had been practicing at a former school in Washington, Connecticut, for their upcoming \u201cSteel Wheels\u201d tour \u2014 their first in seven years \u2014 and had wanted to play a small club as a warmup. The band\u2019s promoter called Koplik, who recommended Toad’s. The band agreed, but insisted on secrecy.<\/p>\n
Those at Toad\u2019s kept a lid on it for the most part, but swirling rumors helped pack the club.<\/p>\n
Doug Steinschneider, a local musician, was one of those at the venue that night after a friend told him the Stones would be playing. He wasn\u2019t able to get in, but managed to get near a side door where he could see Jagger singing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was amazing!\u201d said Steinschneider. \u201cFor being a place where major bands show up, it\u2019s a tiny venue. So you get to see the band in their real element. In other words, you\u2019re not watching a screen.\u201d<\/p>\n
A few months later, Bob Dylan’s manager reached out looking for a club where he could warm up for an upcoming tour.<\/p>\n
Dylan’s 1990 show at Toad’s sold out in 18 minutes. He played four-plus hours \u2014 believed to be his longest performance \u2014 beginning with a cover of Joe South\u2019s 1970 song \u201cWalk a Mile in My Shoes\u201d and ending with his own \u201cAll Along the Watchtower.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a good one,\u201d Phelps recalled.<\/p>\n
Variety is the key to longevity<\/p>\n
Phelps \u2014 who bought out Spoerndle’s stake in Toad’s in 1998 \u2014 believes the secret to the venue’s longevity has been bringing in acts from different genres, along with events such as dance nights and \u201cbattle of the bands\u201d. Rap shows especially draw big crowds, he said.<\/p>\n
Naughty by Nature and Public Enemy played Toad\u2019s in 1992. After releasing his first album, Kanye West played there in 2004 with John Legend on keyboards. Drake played Toad\u2019s in 2009, early in his music career. And Snoop Dogg stopped by to perform in 2012 and 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have all these things, all ages, all different styles of music, and you have some dance parties to fill in where you need them, especially during a slow year, it brings enough capital in so that you can stay in business and keep moving forward,\u201d Phelps said.<\/p>\n
On a recent night, as local groups took the stage for a battle of the bands contest, many were in awe of playing in the same space where so many legends have performed.<\/p>\n
Rook Bazinet, the 22-year-old singer of the Hartford-based emo group Nor Fork, said the band members’ parents told them of all the big acts they’d seen at the New Haven hot spot over the years. Bazinet’s mom had seen Phish there in the ’90s.<\/p>\n
\u201cMe, the Stones and Bob Dylan,\u201d Bazinet added. \u201cI\u2019m glad to be on that list.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) \u2014 Nestled on a narrow, one-way street among Yale University buildings, a pizza joint and an ice cream shop, Toad\u2019s Place looks like a typical haunt for college kids. But inside the modest, two-story building is a veritable museum of paintings and signed photos depicting the head-turning array of artists who’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1946084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[309195,29332,339085,28851,339084,24510,339086,320223,22646,339087],"class_list":["post-1946083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-billy-joel","tag-bob-dylan","tag-brian-phelps","tag-bruce-springsteen","tag-jim-koplik","tag-kanye-west","tag-mike-spoerndle","tag-rolling-stones","tag-snoop-dogg","tag-spoerndle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/From-the-Stones-to-Cardi-B-this-college-haunt-has.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1946083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1946084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1946083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1946083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1946083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}