Club 6400

Club 6400 (Sixty-Four Hundred) was a popular nightclub located at the corner of 6400 Richmond Avenue and Unity Drive in Houston, Texas, United States. Named for its numeric address, it operated at the original location from May 29, 1988 until January 10, 1989.

Heyday

Club 6400 began as a Sunday night event at the Hippo nightclub that targeted the 18-and-over crowd. The playlist avoided Top 40 dance hits and highlighted lesser-known songs from the industrial, synth-pop, new wave, goth, techno, EBM, new beat, house, and Hi-NRG music genres; this was similar to what other Houston clubs like Xcess, Numbers, and NRG that were playing at the time.

Club 6400 first entered the mainstream consciousness when local then-Top 40 radio station KKBQ-FM (93Q) premiered its first ever weekly live club mix show from Hippo. Called "93Q Live On The Cutting Edge", the show was a runaway hit for both the club and the radio station. After just two weeks as a Sunday night-only feature, Hippo club management decided to expand the feature to seven days a week and renamed the venue Club 6400. The club and KKBQ's live Saturday simulcasts from there became wildly popular among high school-aged kids and young adults in the Houston area.

Destruction and Decline

Club 6400 was gutted by fire in the early morning hours of Tuesday, January 10, 1989. The "Houston Post" reported that, because of speculation that Club 6400 was no more, other clubs in the area, many of which catered to a 21-and-over crowd, were trying to reel in Club 6400's misplaced clientele by lowering their age requirements to 18-and-over. KKBQ announced plans to substitute the weekend's live simulcast with an in-studio mix show called "The Music of 6400," with the quip that "the hottest club on the planet just got too hot," while Club 6400 management looked to reopen at a temporary location until the club could be rebuilt. Club 6400 reopened just four days after the fire, on Saturday, January 14th, only a few blocks away, at 6130 Richmond Avenue, and KKBQ was on location for a live broadcast. The first 100 people through the door at the temporary location each received an actual piece of the old Club 6400 structure.

Club 6400 continued to run at the temporary location through 1989, but this incarnation was not as popular as it was at its previous location. The burnt-out structure at 6400 Richmond Avenue was finally demolished in August 1989 to begin construction on the new building, but by then, it was too late. The Club 6400 phenomenon had worn thin by this time, and KKBQ's 70-week agreement with the club would expire the following month. By 1990, Club 6400 was truly no more.

New Tenants at 6400 Richmond Avenue

The new building at 6400 Richmond Avenue was completed in 1990 and opened as a club called Back Alley. Since then, the location has played home to several different clubs:

*Back Alley (1990-1991)
*Texas Live (1991-1993)
*Rockefellers West (1993)
*Peter's Wildlife (1993-1997)
*6400 Sports Bar (1997-1998)
*T-Town 2000 (1998-2004)
*Club Planeta Bar-Rio (2004-current)

Most of the concrete slab on which the old Club 6400 building stood remains untouched underneath the east part of the current building. A set of steps that once led into a side entrance of Club 6400 still stands today as well.

Legacy

Though Club 6400 had only been in business for a few months, its impact on the Houston club scene and live radio mix shows was significant. The term "6400 music" became a part of the local vernacular as a blanket reference to the genres of music played at the club, and the reference is still recognized by many in their late 20's to early 40's who grew up in Houston during the club's glory days. To this day, many Houston-area DJ's in the same age bracket as the aforementioned group will recognize and oblige requests for "6400 music."

During the 1990s, several Richmond Avenue nightclubs attempted to capitalize on the legacy of Club 6400 by presenting regular tribute nights or theme nights in which music from the Club 6400 days would be played.

Key Artists of Club 6400

*A Split-Second
*Alphaville
*Art of Noise
*Bigod 20
*Belouis Some
*Book of Love
*Boytronic
*Bronski Beat
*CCCP
*Cabaret Voltaire
*Cetu Javu
*Clan of Xymox
*Danielle Dax
*The Cult
*The Cure
*DAF
*Depeche Mode
*Dirty Harry
*Englishboy On the Loveranch
*Erasure
*Front 242
*Front Line Assembly
*Gary Numan
*Invincible Limit
*Kissing the Pink
*Kraftwerk
*Live Cinema
*Love and Rockets
*Man to Man
*Microchip League (or MCL)
*Ministry
*Meat Beat Manifesto
*My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult
*New Order
*Nitzer Ebb
*Pet Shop Boys
*The Normal
*Public Image Limited (or PIL)
*Revolting Cocks (or RevCo)
*Sandra
*S-Express
*Signal Aout 42 (or SA42)
*Sinéad O'Connor
*The Sisters of Mercy
*The Smiths
*St. Che
*Tragic Error
*Tribantura
*Vicious Pink
*The Weathermen
*Yazoo (or Yaz)

Live Shows

*A Flock of Seagulls (on the roof)
*Book of Love (New Years Eve 1989)

External links

*6400 Tribute Sites
** [http://www.6400music.com 6400music.com]
** [http://www.club6400.com Club6400.com]

Audio Links

* [http://www.tophour.com/audio/Houston%20TX/fm0929_1988-06_kkbq-fm_jfernandez.mp3 6400 available 7 days a week announcement -courtesy of tophour.com] voice of Mark Landis