CBGB (Country, BlueGrass, and Blues) was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the Patti Smith Group, Mink DeVille, The Dead Boys, The Dictators, The Fleshtones, The Voidoids, The Cramps, Blondie, The Shirts, and Talking Heads. In later years, it would mainly become known for Hardcore punk with bands such as U.S. Chaos, Agnostic Front, Murphy's Law, Cro-Mags, Warzone, Gorilla Biscuits, Sick of It All, and Youth of Today becoming synonymous with the club.

The storefront and large space next door to the club served as the "CBGB Record Canteen" (record shop and cafe) for many years. Eventually, in the late eighties, the record store was closed and replaced with a second performance space and art gallery, named "CB's 313 Gallery". The gallery went on to showcase many popular bands and singer-songwriters who played in a musical style more akin to acoustic rock, folk, jazz, or experimental music, such as Dadadah, Toshi Reagon, and The Shells, while the original club continued to present mainly hardcore bands and post-punk, metal, and alternative rock acts.

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor of stage and screen. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His breakout performance was as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman is known for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, Éamon de Valera in Michael Collins, and Metatron in Dogma.

Rickman has also had a number of other notable film roles such as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply, P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure and Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. More recently, he played Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Rickman was born in South Hammersmith, London, to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. Rickman's mother was from Wales and a Methodist, and his father was of Irish Catholic background. He has one elder brother, David (b. 1944), a graphic designer, a younger brother, Michael (b. 1947), a tennis coach, and a younger sister, Sheila (b. 1949). Rickman attended Derwentwater Primary School, in Acton, a school that followed the Montessori method of education.

Rupert Alexander Grint (born 24 August 1988) is an English actor, who rose to prominence playing Ron Weasley, one of the three main characters in the Harry Potter film series. Grint was cast as Ron at the age of 11, having previously acted only in school plays and at his local theatre group. From 2001 through 2011, he starred in eight Harry Potter movies alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson.

Beginning in 2002, Grint began to work outside of the Harry Potter franchise, taking on a co-leading role in Thunderpants. He has had starring roles in Driving Lessons, a dramedy released in 2006, and Cherrybomb, a small budgeted drama released in 2010. Grint co-starred with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt in Wild Target, a comedy. His first project following the end of the Harry Potter series will be Into the White, a 2012 anti-war release in which he stars as the main role.

Rupert Alexander Grint was born and raised in Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom. His mother, Joanna Grint (née Parsons), is a housewife, and his father, Nigel Grint, is a memorabilia dealer. Grint is the eldest of five siblings. He attended St Josephs Primary School in Hertford, a Roman Catholic primary school. While there, Grint took an avid interest in theatre. He started performing in school productions and joined the Top Hat Stage and Screen School, a local theatre group that cast him as a fish in Noah's Ark and a donkey in another nativity play. He continued performing in school plays as he moved up to Richard Hale School. However, Grint had never acted professionally before the Harry Potter series. At the age of 16, he left school to focus on his acting career. "I didn't really like school that much," the actor later commented.

Stana Katic (English pronunciation: /ˈstɑːnə ˈkætɨk/; born April 26, 1978) is a Canadian film and television actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Detective Kate Beckett on ABC's Castle.

Katic was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, to a Serbian father and Croatian mother, who both immigrated from Yugoslavia. Her father is from Vrlika, and her mother is from the surrounding area of Sinj. Katic later moved with her family to Aurora, Illinois. She spent the following years moving back and forth between Canada and the United States. After graduating from West Aurora High School in 1996, she studied acting at Chicago's Goodman School of Drama. She has four brothers and one sister.

Katic played the character of Hana Gitelman in Heroes, Collette Stenger in 24 's season 5, and Jenny in the film Feast of Love starring Morgan Freeman. She also played Morgenstern in Frank Miller's film The Spirit, Corrine Veneau in the Bond movie Quantum of Solace (though she was originally up for the role of Strawberry Fields in the film), and Simone Renoir in the third installment of The Librarian franchise, The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice.

Oliver Taylor Hawkins (born February 17, 1972 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an American musician, best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters. Prior to joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill and Can't Not tours, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band called Sylvia which, after changing their name to Anyone, went on to sign with Roadrunner Records. His cousin, Kevin Harrell, introduced him to Dave Grohl after camping with him for several weeks in the Ozarks. Hawkins would eventually become the drummer for Grohl's band, Foo Fighters. He was voted "Best Rock Drummer" in 2005 by the UK drumming magazine, Rhythm.

In 2004, Hawkins formed his own side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, in which he plays drums and sings.

After leaving the Orange County-based band Sylvia (later emerging as ANYONE), he joined up as drummer for Sass Jordan, which in turn he left to act as drummer for Alanis Morissette. He has appeared in Morissette's videos for "You Oughta Know" and "You Learn".