Why The Belly Up in San Diego Is a Magnet for Music Royalty — From The Rolling Stones to Snoop Dogg
Categoria: Musica
For five decades, the 600-capacity Solana Beach, Calif., venue has welcomed legends from Etta James to No Doubt on a quiet street lined with Quonset huts.
Por Billboard | 31/07/2026
For four full months in 2015, the head honchos at Solana Beach, Calif., club The Belly Up were forced to keep a big secret: The Rolling Stones would soon be playing the 600-capacity venue. “We made a vow within the [those] of us who knew that we’re not telling our spouses, we’re not telling anyone until the week of the show, and we stuck to that,” says Belly Up Entertainment president Chris Goldsmith , who held the secret alongside The Belly Up owners Steve Goldberg and Phil Berkovitz . What Goldsmith did do was tell his wife to save the date for what would go down as one of the legendary band’s most exclusive gigs on that tour. “I think [my wife] appreciated not having to try and keep that a secret herself for four months,” he says. “I did her a favor.” Related From ‘Dime-a-Dance’ to Hosting U2 & Bob Dylan: How Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa Has Endured for Over a Century Glenn A. Baker, Australian Music Historian and Former Billboard Correspondent, Dies at 74 Chris Brown Pleads Guilty to Lesser Charge of 'Affray' in 2023 London Club Assault Case The gig was scheduled for May 27, 2015, at the beginning of the Stones’ Zip Code stadium tour — three days after Mick Jagger and company played to more than 40,000 fans at nearby San Diego’s Petco Park. The underplay was especially under wraps since tickets wouldn’t be sold to the general public; instead, former Hewlett-Packard chairman Ralph Whitworth had hired the band to play The Belly Up for a private event benefitting immunotherapy cancer research. After news of the private event began to leak the week of, The Belly Up added privacy screens along the chain link fencing behind the venue, “so Mick could do his little jog back and down the alley,” Goldsmith adds. In order to play the room, Jagger asked that the stage be extended by four feet — and the addition has remained since. “It worked for the Stones,” says Goldsmith. “It should work for everybody.” The Rolling Stones at The Belly Up in 2015 Courtesy Belly Up Entertainment Goldberg and Berkovitz were happy to accommodate The Stones, as they are with all artists and their teams. It’s an ethos that has been part of The Belly Up since its inception in 1974, when Dave Hodges and Greg Gilholm opened the bar in the now-iconic Quonset huts — arch-style metal structures — on Cedros Avenue that were formerly a waterbed manufacturing and showroom space. The bar served beer and wine, as well as Polish sausage sandwiches and pickled eggs, to patrons playing ping-pong, pool and board games. In 1976, the tavern pushed aside some of the ping-pong tables to welcome its first live band, Squatters Last Rights. The success of that first live show encouraged Hodges to build a small stage from scrap material left over from the waterbed warehouse, and he continued to book live acts, especially artists who played blues, jazz and rock’n’roll. Related How Phoenix’s Rebel Lounge Took a Beloved, ‘Dingy’ Rock Club & Gave It New Life Hodges, who p