NEW YORK (AP) – For the owners of The Bottom Line, the venerable Greenwich Village nightclub, it was always about the music. Now, nearly 30 years after its opening, it’s all about the bottom line.

The club, where Bruce Springsteen played a renowned 1975 stand and Miles Davis and Lou Reed once jammed, faces eviction after falling behind by $185,000 on its rent. The landlord, New York University, says it could use the space for new classrooms.

Both sides are due in court Tuesday for a hearing that could shutter the famed 400-seat club that opened in February 1974.

“I don’t think there are any bad guys in this situation,” said club co-owner Allan Pepper. “I’d just like NYU to take off their landlord hat, and put on their hat dedicated to the fabric of the community, to culture, to art.”

Art at The Bottom Line meant music – the club hosted thousands of shows while establishing itself as one of New York’s musical shrines. It was started by Pepper and Stanley Snadowsky, childhood friends chasing a dream.

“Allan and Stanley put their heart, soul, blood and money into this,” said veteran New York disc jockey Vin Scelsa, a friend for years.

The reality, at first, exceeded the dream. Springsteen, in a black leather jacket, wowed audiences for 10 sold-out shows in 1975. Reed memorably trashed music critic Robert Christgau during a 1978 gig that became a live album.

“I’ve had so many great experiences through the years as a performer and as a spectator at The Bottom Line,” said Nils Lofgren, currently playing with Springsteen’s E Street Band. “It would be a shame if their doors ever had to close.”

The owners’ eclectic tastes were reflected in The Bottom Line’s performers: Harry Chapin, Mose Allison, Stan Getz, Roger McGuinn, Tony Bennett, Burt Bacharach, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes.

But problems with the rent began in 2000, the university said; those woes were complicated by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the troubled economy.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said the university was sympathetic, but the mounting debt became too much to ignore. Nearly 18 months back rent remains unpaid.

“Nobody wants to see The Bottom Line closed,” Beckman said. “We have talked to them, written them, asked them to resolve this, and they didn’t. The university has shown a considerable amount of patience.”

Beckman noted that the club’s rent was just 50 percent of market value. And, he added, NYU is well aware of both the club’s rich history and the likely public relations hit attached to eviction.

“In a David vs. Goliath story, Goliath rarely comes out looking OK,” Beckman said. But the school feels it can no longer subsidize the club at the expense of its students.

For Scelsa and many others, the club’s value is not defined by real estate or rent. It’s in nights like the one where Jimmy Webb, Grammy-winning writer of “Wichita Lineman” and “Up, Up and Away,” stepped on stage for the first time in 20 years – thanks largely to Pepper’s efforts.

“It’s all that stuff that’s so special, no important,” Scelsa said.

His sentiment was echoed in more than 1,000 supportive e-mails that arrived in the last week, said Pepper, who spent one teary night reviewing the reminiscences. Webb, after hearing about the money woes, immediately proposed a benefit show.

Pepper hoped that the heartfelt reaction to the club’s possible demise will reach NYU officials.

“I think NYU knows intellectually how important this place is,” he said. “I want them to know emotionally. I know they don’t feel that.”

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On the Net:

www.bottomlinecabaret.com

AP-ES-09-19-03 1432EDT