In 1988 in New Westminster, an old movie theatre called The Paramount opened its doors as a Young Adult Night Club. It was a very cool location. The tiered steps of the old theatre, lent a vibe.
The balcony above, it over hung the dance floor and the DJ booth was in the corner of the balcony overhanging. The dance floor was black and white checkered, and it was build out front of the old movie house screen stage. Live bands also played there on the stage.
There was a concession area when you enter the main floor.
In 1989, I worked at the concession selling pop to the kids. Occasionally I helped with the coat check at the door. The guys that ran the place, often gave me a drive home, as the buses only ran so late back then. It was a stand up decent thing to do.
If we didn’t get a ride, groups of us would hang out at Knight & Day restaurant or in the New West Court House gardens. To kill time until transit started up again.
Skytrain was just getting extended to the area by this point in the city’s history. I remember a group of us sitting outside the Columbia station as it was being finished (it opened February 1989.)
It was early wee hours, waiting on the buses to begin again. A dude with us *yes I know who* found a can of something flammable, and poured it down the roadway, it is a hillside, and it ran downwards toward the intersection. I was sitting talking to another friend of mine *he’s in law enforcement now* when whooooosh this huge flame erupted.
We all ran, our hearts thumping.
Ah the good old days.
The Paramount is currently a Gentleman’s Club. On their website I found some photos of what the club looks like inside now. The floor is still checkered and the layout remains similar to how it was, just a stripper pole there now.
1988-1989 The Paramount
Some of the pictures here are borrowed from the Facebook group, where we share memories, some though are my own personal photos. You can see the live band flyers in the lobby, D.O.A. local punk band legends, once played there.
The Paramount was where I had met my first long term boyfriend. I was 15 when we met in 1988.
I think our relationship lasted 9-10 months? There are pictures of us at my family Christmas 1988 together. He went with my family to The Cloud 9 Revolving Restaurant for my 16th birthday in March 1989. The relationship ended in the Fall of 1989? Late summer at best.
(Note: The Cloud 9 restaurant closed in 2017.)
Bass Players Man, Bass Players
Rob Rantamaa was the bass player and singer in a band that played at The Paramount one night in 1988. They were called “Xternal Affairs” and I thought they were very good and went to talk to him after their show. He was a few years older than me and few inches shorter.
We connected, and started dating.
Rob moved out of his parents place in Langley, to an apartment in New Westminster, and I practically lived at his place. Yeah, my mom wasn’t the greatest gate keeper and let her 16 year old stay away with her older boyfriend at his apartment. In her defence, she did put me on birth control.
He taught me to drive when I was 15 turning 16. I often took my mom’s Sunbird without a licence and without her permission before I had my license. My older brother once stopped me from “stealing” my mom’s car.
My mom never knew, until after my daughter was born in 2010 and one day we were all talking about things we did in the past. I told the story of taking the car. My mom was stunned. My brother apologized for being such a goody two shoes back then, but honestly he was being a good big brother. I was reckless to have taken the car without a license.
I was a reckless teenager. That I will never deny.
A free spirit even then, that couldn’t be held down. By the time I was 16 and had my driver’s license and occassional permission to use my mom’s car, my relationship with Rob was waning for me. I ended it after the Summer of 1989.
Summer of 1989
Rob’s parents have a cabin on Green Lake. We drove up there for a summer vacation. He took us out in this little metal fishing boat with a small motor, we puttered around. The sun was going down, and it looked like a storm cloud was heading in. We weren’t going to make it back to the cabin before dark, or before the storm came. I was terrified. We sat at the shore to avoid being in the middle of lake when the thunder and lightening rained down on us. The mosquitos feasted. I hate pitch blackness. The dark scares me. I just cried in fear in that boat bobbing in the reeds.
When the storm moved on, we pulled me together, and pushed back out into the darkness of the lake and puttered toward the cabin, when a motorboat with a spotlight came for us.
That was when I was done. That was the nail in the coffin. Rob hadn’t listened to me, and my requests to go back sooner were ignored before the storm, and it resulted in being stuck out there. I just felt unseen.
We still laugh about that day on the lake. We are still friends online.
Shortly some time after the lake day, we spilt up. I ended it. I end everything. One night before we broke up, I decided to head home on the bus with my girlfriends, and he drove behind following us. I was so angry at him for it. For his distrust.
I didn’t know how to properly end a relationship. I was 16. Despite acting like a grown up, I actually fucking wasn’t. I had no clue how relationships worked. I had bad role models.
Should my parents have thought it wrong to let me live like that?
I don’t think my mom thought, by that point, that she could stop me, so instead she allowed it under her watch. I agree, I would have done what I wanted, one way or another, so I am glad she allowed me that safety net. My mom tolerated a whole lot of shit from me as a teenager but… Sorry mom, but you know it’s true – as a child I witnessed a lot of shit behaviour in my role models. My father was pretty much absent and when he wasn’t – I was never good enough for him.
I learned what relationships are like from my parent’s relationships, my family. Nurture baby.
Wonderboogie Vegas
I still catch up with Rob on Facebook from time to time. He is a proud dad. He works in Vegas now playing bass and singing still. If you are ever in Vegas I think he still does shows. He was doing work with a project called The Reflex before Covid shut down Vegas.
Last we chatted he was just getting back to work there. He is in a group called Wonderboogie that looks like a blast. How he wears those platform boots I will never know!
The Paramount, and Changes and then The World aka The Eclipse, started my love of clubs. Eventually I was legal-aged, and off to places like Celebrities, The Odyssey, Luv-A-Fair and The Twilight Zone to name just a few Vancouver club haunts. I think Celebrities is the only one still around today.
Uploaded September 4, 2023