ODE TO THIS OLD BAR
Former Koko Pellie’s owner laments fate of downtown pub in new country song
“Chatham Street is dead and gone,” sings the former owner of Koko Pellie’s in a new country music tribute to his defunct downtown Windsor bar.
The recently released video for Rob Higgins’ song This Old Bar shows images of the exterior and interior of 110 Chatham St. W. — while Higgins croons: “I thought I could save it, but I was wrong.” “The song is actually true,” Higgins, 50, explained on Thursday. “It did break my heart to close the doors on the place.”
“The owners of the building were nice enough to let us in and shoot some scenes … because the place has been sitting empty for close to six years, unfortunately. It kind of shows the state of downtown.” Koko Pellie’s opened in 1999 as a lounge, grill, music venue and drinking establishment. Situated on Chatham Street West, near Pelissier Street, the place had a reputation for attracting an older-than-30 crowd looking for good times and fast love. “Everybody jokes about ‘Cougar Pellie’s,’” Higgins said with a chuckle. “We were probably the busiest bar on a Saturday night for the older age group.”
But the party couldn’t last. After peaking in the early 2000s, downtown Windsor nightlife entered a long, painful decline. With customers dwindling and bills mounting, Koko Pellie’s closed its doors for good in 2013.
“Our fat-cat mayor made his east-side deal and he moved on,” laments Higgins in the song’s lyrics — a reference to former mayor Eddie Francis and the decision to build a sports centre in the city’s east end in 2007.
An image of the WFCU Centre is shown when the line is sung in the music video.
Higgins said Thursday he respects the former mayor, but he still believes not putting the arena in the city’s core was a critical error.
“I just don’t agree with that decision,” Higgins said. “So many hotels and restaurants downtown needed something to kick up our business. We kept waiting for something to happen.
“(A downtown arena) really would have helped — instead of sticking it in the middle of a field with nothing around it. It’s frustrating to me when I go to other cities and I see a downtown arena and the business around it.” Despite such Windsor-oriented lyrics, Higgins said he didn’t set out to create a memorial song or a Windsor song — it just happened that way. “I never actually write a song thinking ‘This is what I’m gonna write about.’ I just pick up a guitar and it starts to flow.” The music was co-written and performed with Dan Sinewitz and the video was made by Chris Blais — both longtime friends and bandmates of Higgins in their old group Drop Dead Famous.
For Higgins, This Old Bar isn’t just about Koko Pellie’s, but the memories that were made and the people he’s lost over the years. The video includes small personal reminiscences and homages: Pictures of Higgins’ late sister are shown on a mantel, a drum set of a deceased uncle is shown in a living room, and Higgins rides a motorcycle that belonged to another friend who died.
“Those were a couple hard years. Closing the bar, family members and friends who left before their time,” he said. “The whole song kind of wraps up a section of my life.”
Higgins said he’s been working on more country music under his new band name, HiGGi — but he’s not sure if he’ll have more local references. “The stories seem to write themselves,” he said.
As for the future of downtown Windsor, Higgins feels the core is overdue for rejuvenation. But he can’t imagine a return to the way things used to be.
“You see all the ‘for lease’ signs,” he remarked.
This Old Bar by HiGGi is available now on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, and Amazon.