December 6, 2003 -- IT'S punk party time on the Bowery.

Just a week after the corner of Second Avenue and Bowery was renamed Joey Ramone Place, CBGB, the dingy rock club where the Queens punk rocker and his band honed their act, is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Owner Hilly Kristal, now 72, was a musician himself - a singer mostly interested in classical music, opera, folk and jazz - when he opened CBGB (it stands for country, bluegrass and blues) in December 1973.

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