For one night, 30 years ago this past Jan. 15, Lansdale became the slums of Shaolin.
In a small town that was worlds away from the gritty, Dirt McGirt streets of Staten Island, a seismic shift in music and culture took place as the iconic rap group Wu-Tang Clan descended upon Lansdale (technically, Towamencin) on Jan. 15, 1994, to perform at Jumpers Teen Club.
Lansdale Forever? Wu-Tang Forever.
The club was located in Lansdale Village Shoppes, a strip mall at West Main Street and Oak Boulevard that had Acme, the Lansdale Beef and Ale House (which had a 7-hour hostage situation this week in 1995) and Philly Finest Water Ice. New Station Pizza was there in the mid-90s, as was the Lansdale Jaycees’ annual Haunted House and a Blockbuster Video. Today, it is the site of Lidl & Total Liquidators.
The club catered to ages 15 to 20. It had music, a sports entertainment center, and a snack area. It was open Thursday through Sunday, 8 p.m. to midnight. Nightly crowds estimated at 200 to 500 people, said former owner Stephen Pennington.
"Jumpers started as an all-ages club in 1993,” said Pennington, now a lawyer and CEO of the Center for Disability Law & Policy. "Wayne Fields, my partner and I, decided to have Wu-Tang perform after we started to book local groups and wanted to expand. I had a contact with connections to the group and we booked them to perform in early January 1994.”
Pennington remembered it as one of the coldest nights in years.
"We advertised the concert locally and sold 500 tickets,” he said. "Wu-Tang performed around midnight after a number of local rap groups performed. It was quite an experience that led to us bringing Biggie (Smalls) to Harrisburg.”
By Jan. 15, 1994, Wu-Tang was two months removed from the debut of their groundbreaking album "Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers).” The album would go from selling 30,000 copies in its first week to being certified Platinum exactly one year and four months after the killer bees swarmed Lansdale. To date, the album has sold more than three million copies.
The legendary hip-hop collective – RZA "Bobby Digital,” GZA The Genius, U-God, Ol Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon the Chef, Inspektah Deck, and Masta Killa – brought their lyrical mastery and unmistakable style to a town that would never be the same again.
"The members of Wu-Tang were great guys. No hassles at all,” Pennington said. "I explored creating a rock opera featuring the group around the Shaolin Style, but it never went anywhere. The last time I saw them was at the venue in Camden (on Aug. 16, 1997) along with Rage Against the Machine. Quite a contrast.”
Pennington remembered assuring Trinity Lutheran Church next door that the venue had the capacity to hold the event.
"A number of Philadelphia music producers also attended, and we survived the night. Jumpers closed because of declining attendance. We were hoping to create a venue to have dancing and concerts. We held regular concerts of local bands, but it never took off,” Pennington said. "Only the group showed up. No manager or label people. Maybe it was just a warmup. We opened in October 1993 and closed a year later.”
Memories of the performance were vague to those who attended the event. According to a compilation of popular Wu-Tang songs performed in 1994 on www.setlist.fm, the attendees to the Jumpers show were likely treated to the hits "Bring da Ruckus,” "C.R.E.A.M.,” "Can It Be All So Simple,” "Method Man,” "Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta F’ Wit” and "Da Mystery of Chessboxin’.”
Elizabeth Richardson-Naidoo, of Lansdale, who was a model at the time living in Telford, was asked to host the event.
"I remember it was insanely hectic that day. They were at full capacity, so it was wall to wall and hot,” Richardson said. "Everyone was super nice, and they all acted totally professional. I was a model at the time and was expecting someone to do something inappropriate and it was the opposite – they were all gentlemen.”
Richardson said the venue was very small.
"It was cold outside, and we had snow recently. I do remember there were a lot of concerns about possible fights, but I don’t think anything happened,” she said.
The experience itself, and the memory of it now, ain’t nothing ta F’ wit either.
"I have no pics. It was pre-iPhone,” Pennington said. "I regret that. Same with Biggie.”
This article was previously posted on the old North Penn Now site, and was republished here on April 2, 2024.
