Kippies, shuttered and surrounded by iron sheeting

RELATED LINKS: Cracked Kippies ends on a sad note JOHANNESBURG'S world-famous jazz club, Kippies, is to be demolished in the coming months - because cracks in the walls have put the building at risk of collapsing. But the City wants to find jazz lovers another home. Read more Kippies, the club that wasn't always there MOST people know that jazz club Kippies in Newtown was named after saxophone player Kippie Moeketsi. But what most people don't know is that the building that houses Kippies was never there in the first place. Read more

Kippies to blow jazz across Newtown again Nearly two years after it was closed for safety reasons, the world-famous - and much missed - Kippies is to reopen at a new venue in Newtown. October 25, 2006 By Lucille Davie KIPPIES, the world famous jazz club in Newtown, is to open next week in a new venue, after closing last year because the building it occupied was structurally unsound. Musician Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse, the manager of Kippies, will open it at the Songwriters' Club, just a few blocks from the original Kippies, on Thursday, 2 November, with a show entitled "Sipho with Friends". His friends include Judith Sephuma, Don Laka and Selaelo Selota. "The re-opening is long overdue," said Mabuse, adding that he has spent the time since its close in January looking for a new venue and is very happy with the choice of the Songwriters' Club. "I am absolutely happy with the choice; it has more space, actually." Last year Kippies was forced to close when a large crack developed down one wall of the club, making it unsafe. It was found that it was constructed on a geological fault line. The soil under the building has a high clay content and the foundations are unstable, which could cause the building to collapse at any time. At the time it was thought that the building would have to be demolished but it is still standing. The news of the closure last year was greeted by many people with sadness. The club, opened in the mid-1980s, has had most of South Africa's jazz greats perform within its cosy walls. The building is owned by the Johannesburg Property Company and at the time of its closure, former managing director Leila McKenna said that it would cost R6-million to fix the problem. However, the building was not worth R1-million, she said, which made it uneconomical to repair the damage. Kippies is modelled on an Edwardian toilet, the original of which was built about 200 metres north of Kippies in 1913, the same year the building that houses Museum Africa and the Market Theatre was built. From Saturday, Kippies will be open to the public and will be open every Friday and Saturday night at the Songwriters' Club, on the corner of Carr and Quinn streets in Newtown. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za