Zaphod’s could be crowned the best live music club in Canada ( Photo: Christopher King )
 
 
 
Zaphod Beeblebrox is a mouthful, but it’s a name that has become synonymous with Ottawa’s music scene. And for a few weeks this month, it shared the spotlight with a number of Canadian venues as one of the best live music clubs in Canada as part of a CBC Radio 3 contest.
 
Zaphod’s didn’t take the top spot – it lost out to The Phog in Windsor – but it did make the Top 10 shortlist. The original list of 50 venues was released on Jan. 28, and the polls opened to voters across the county on the CBC Radio 3 website.
 
Zaphod’s was somewhat of an underdog, facing off against established venues like the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto and London’s Call the Office. Instead of looking at it as a battle between clubs, Eugene Haslam, the owner of Zaphod’s, took it as an opportunity for the city of Ottawa.
 
“It’s going to be great if we can give the city something to be proud of,” said Eugene Haslam, owner of Zaphod’s Beeblebrox. “People across the country will be like, ‘Wow, really? Ottawa has the best live music club in the country?’”
 
Zaphod’s was the only Ottawa representative to make the top 50 cut, and was the only regional representative in the top 10 after The Black Sheep Inn and Almonte Town Hall fell short.
 
Haslam opened Zaphod’s on Rideau Street in 1988, and moved four years later to its current location on York Street in the heart of the Byward Market. Over the years, almost every major Canadian musical act has graced the stage — the Tragically Hip, Alanis Morissette, Broken Social Scene.
 
But it is Zaphod’s tagline, “The club at the edge of the universe,” that sets it out from the rest of the venues in the CBC contest. Haslam strives to book breaking bands, both local and international, and has succeeded in staging everything from Ben Harper, Yo La Tengo, the Dandy Warhols, and D.O.A.
 
“There’s good music, and there’s other music,” Haslam said. “There’s music you like and there’s music other people like. So alternative means nothing to me.”
 
Named after the character in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book series by Douglas Adams, Zaphod’s is definitely not your average night club. (It’s so trendy that even the Rolling Stones filmed a music video there in 2005 for “Streets of Love” off A Bigger Bang.) Painted black, illuminated with neon lights and a drink menu with highballs called the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, Zaphod’s identity is unusual, to say the least.
 
Haslam just wants to run a club that anyone can attend and enjoy. Along with his diverse music selections, Haslam also started the Zaphod’s philosophy to make the club a safe and tolerant space for everyone.
No racism, no gender bias, fair prices and good service are just a few of the rules advertised on posters throughout the club.
 
But Haslam insists this is just part of a business model he has been following for twenty years.
 
“Coolness comes from other places,” Haslam said. “We don’t strive to be cool, I think we strive to be relevant and credible.”