SAN DIEGO (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — 4th & B, the largest and best known venue in downtown San Diego has canceled all currently booked shows and may be shuttered.
Ticket sales for all shows at the venue have ceased and their website and events calendar show nothing but a 'coming soon' while an adjacent Twitter feed offers a grim litany of relocated concerts and refund information.
According to the San Diego Union Times, the shuttering is due to a lost lease after a Nov. 15th court ruling ordering the venue's owners Vincent and Judy Puma of Speth Brothers Inc. to pay $125,077.56 in back rent and “holdover damages” to the venue's owner, Crown Invest LLC.
Originally opened as a music venue in 1995 by Bob Speth, the first eleven shows in the 1,500-capacity were promoted by Bill Silva. Under Speth's management, the club saw performances by artists such as B.B. King, Crystal Method, Wu Tang Clan and Tito Puente.
Speth sold the venue in 2003 and it changed hands several times before the Pumas purchased it in 2009. In that time, due to changing conditions in the live music industry and with the addition of a new House of Blues just a few blocks away, 4th&B faced an increasingly competitive environment.
“Once Bob Speth decided to get out, 4th & B really hasn’t measured up to what it was capable of,” veteran San Diego concert promoter Tim Mays told the Union-Times. “There are certain bands a venue the size of 4th & B is useful for, but there aren’t enough to fill it on a regular basis."
Relocated dates included performances by Public Enemy and reggae icon Barrington Levy. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
