Pandemic threatens live-music landmark
The Rainbow Bistro, a live-music landmark in the ByWard Market area for close to 40 years, will close at the end of the month unless a buyer comes forward.
Owner Danny Sivyer said he's running out of money, and doesn't see the situation getting any better so long as physical-distancing advice limits the capacity to just 40 people. The second-floor bar at the corner of Murray Street and Parent Avenue was licensed for 148 people before the pandemic.
“We were hoping for a reopening this fall but we're only allowed 40 people, and 40 people just doesn't do it for paying bands and sound men and doormen and everything else,” the 67-year-old Sivyer said.
“I just can't keep shovelling out the dough.”
Although the bar was eligible for the federal government's rent-relief program and had secured loans and grants to weather the pandemic, Sivyer said he didn't see the business getting through another winter.
“We thought (the pandemic) would be over by fall, and it would be like the Roaring Twenties. We'd make some money and pay back the government. But not with 40 people,” he said. “And now the fourth wave is coming.”
He saw the effect of the reduced-capacity regulations during the handful of shows that were permitted last year. “People weren't allowed to dance or stand up,” he recalled. “We had signs that said, `Please dance only in your mind.' It's fun to be there when it's packed and the band is roaring and the dance floor is full. But when you have 40 people spread out quietly watching a band, it's kind of sad. It wasn't the Rainbow.”
Thirty-seven years ago this November, Sivyer and a friend, the late Ronnie Knowles, opened the Rainbow, determined to bring live music back to Ottawa in the dying days of disco. Knowles, who had lived in New Orleans, had contacts in that city's music scene, and blues quickly became the bar's focus, starting with a show by the acoustic blues master John Hammond
All these motorcycles rolled up outside, and all these bikers came in the door, creating a phalanx around Jim (Belushi), Dan (Aykroyd) and Matt Guitar Murphy.
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Many blues legends performed at the Rainbow in the early years, including Albert King, Albert Collins, Koko Taylor, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Matt Guitar Murphy and more. Several Canadian acts on their way up were also showcased, including The Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Jeff Healey, Colin James and k.d. lang, who famously wore a wedding dress and brought hay bales to decorate the stage.
One of Sivyer's fondest memories is the time Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi visited the club, and played an impromptu set. Their band, The Blues Brothers, was in town for a concert at the National Arts Centre, and Sivyer figured they were staying at the Château Laurier. He faxed the hotel to invite them to the bar.
“The next thing we knew, all these motorcycles rolled up outside, and all these bikers came in the door, creating a phalanx around Jim, Dan and Matt Guitar Murphy. So I said, are you guys going to play or what?'”
Over the years, the club turned into a family business, with daughter Stacie, son Jesse and various friends of theirs working at the bar to put themselves through university. In recent years, Stacie took over much of the booking.
Sivyer, who's also a realtor, said he used to draw a salary of $19,000 a year from the business but stopped taking it in 2001 when the bar hit a rough patch after the introduction of the no-smoking bylaw in Ottawa. He hasn't paid himself since.
In the coming weeks, Sivyer hopes to sell the sound gear and lighting equipment. If a buyer for the establishment comes forward, too, even better.
“If they want to make me an offer that lets me clear my debts to the government after all these loans, that would be nice,” he said. “It would be nice to walk away without owing money.”