Throwback: When The Cannery was a Club!

Mike Glenn November 12, 2015

Many people know the Cannery as a great place for a glass of wine, a date, or an outing with friends– but do you remember when the Cannery was a club?

The Cannery area was booming with life and entertainment, until the city shut them down back in the late 90s– until then, Cannery Village one of Orange County’s go-to places: http://articles.latimes.com/1999/aug/17/business/fi-919

So exactly how entertaining was it? Well here are some videos of a Greg Topper literally swinging from the rafters in a packed house during performance sometime between the late 70s to early 80s– when the Cannery was absolutely going “off”. From the video description:

Greg Topper live at The Cannery Restaurant in Newport Beach, California. Starboard presents a wild show featuring Classic Rock & Roll Boogie piano player, singer and entertainer, Greg Topper, reminiscent of Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard and other Rock & Roll greats. Topper is a raunchy, low down and nasty performer on stage, but off stage, he’s a soft spoken incredible man.

Described as the “Midnight Idol of Southern California” and “The Rock & Roll King of Orange County”, Greg Topper was born in Los Angeles and started playing the piano by ear when he was eight. He knows over 500 songs and has never had a single music lesson. His specialties are Fats Domino, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley. He has recorded numerous albums and CD’s with songs from the 50s through the 70s.

Topper has performed with such greats as Roy Orbison, Bill Medley of The Righteous Brothers, The Turtles, Jose Feliciano, Charlie Daniels, Little Richard, Jackie DeShannon, Dick Dale, Bob Carlisle, Phil Shane and Albert Lee.