In the 1980s, The Jockey Club in Newport Kentucky, directly across the river from Cincinnati, was one of the best punk clubs in the entire midwest. Freaks regularly came from mid-Ohio, Kentucky, & Indiana to catch a glimpse of their favorite touring bands. It was ground zero of the Cincinnati Hardcore scene; and if you ever went there, your life was changed forever. You were no longer one of “them”. You were officially Punk.

 

Some of these flyers I designed myself. The rest were done by friends and comrades in the scene. Many of these shows I was lucky enough to attend. There are some I greatly regret passing on.

 

Many of the people pictured here are still my friends, others I just knew by face. There were so few people into this music in the midwest in the early 80s, you kinda knew everybody. If you saw an unfamiliar Punk on the street, or at school, or sitting in the back of a crosstown bus, you were almost compelled to introduce yourself – just to find out who they were, who their favorite band was, and how the hell they had gone unnoticed thus far.

 

My intention is for this blog to serve as a permanent archive of all things Jockey Club. I claim no ownership for any of the photos. If you have any images to contribute, I’ll take whatever you got. If you see something of yours you want taken down, please let me know.

 

Also please do check out the amazing Aurore Press book “It’s a Freak Show, Ace! Punk Flyer Art for the Legendary Jockey Club 1982–1988”, which came out in 2025 and I'm proud to have been a contributor. It contains even more photos and flyers than this page, if you can believe it.

 

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you got 'til it’s gone…”
- Joni Mitchell