♪♪ [Ary Bermeo] The Maintenance Shop, also known as the M-Shop, is located on Iowa State's campus in the Memorial Union in the basement area.

It's a small concert venue.

It's pretty great.

♪♪ [Ary Bermeo] Knowing that there's been legends in this room, I do get goosebumps thinking about it.

♪♪ [Ary Bermeo] But yeah, just the environment in here whenever there's a show is completely electric.

♪♪ [Allison Talyat] This year we're celebrating the 50th anniversary of the M Shop.

It's kind of crazy to think about as a 21-year-old.

[Jim Brockpahler] The programming comes from Student Union Board, or SUB as we call them.

They're the ones that are booking the entertainment, working with those entertainers, doing the promotion and the marketing.

I'm the one staff member involved, otherwise it really is a student-run space.

♪♪ [Allison Talyat] The M Shop is significant to me since it was one of the main draws that brought me to Iowa State.

Now that I've been working in the M Shop, I've met some people who have got me connected and helped support me with exploring concert photography.

So, I take photos at most of our shows when I'm able to.

I'm hoping to continue in concert photography once I graduate.

♪♪ [Ary Bermeo] Having Robin and Linda Williams back here in the M Shop is huge, especially for this year.

They have been performing at the M Shop since the year it opened.

So, it's great to even meet them.

I'm 21 years old, M Shop was born before I was.

It's pretty cool to see the genuine history in person.

♪♪ [Robin and Linda Williams] We're here at this point in our lives where we can take the gigs we want.

We don't go out on the road and beat ourselves to death like we used to.

We get to come to places like the Maintenance Shop because we want to.

♪♪ [Robin and Linda Williams] The Maintenance Shop has been a real big part of our lives.

[Robin and Linda Williams] It's always like coming back home in a way.

It's just always a great place.

[Alex Brown] Back at the beginning of the year we had a rededication of the space and during that I was working the bar.

And so, I like to say that I was the last bartender of the first 50 years and the first bartender of the next 50.

And I like to bring that up a lot because I think it's fun.

♪♪ [Alex Brown] Whenever I'm working here it's a leadership opportunity.

It's working with people and getting better communication skills while still having fun.

[Alex Brown] So, the performing arts director and the Student Union Board helps to organize Grandma Mojo's improv comedy, open mic nights.

Those are opposite weeks from each other.

And then three times a semester we bring in a professional comedian.

Grandma Mojo's is made up entirely of students that audition to get in.

They hold auditions every year.

And so, it's always kind of a revolving door of funny people.

And it's one of the funniest things you can see on campus.

(laughter) ♪♪ [Jim Brockpahler] 50 years ago in 1974 this was the mechanical department or our maintenance shop at the time.

The students championed to turn this into a live music performing venue.

And history was born.

[Allison Talyat] So, the stained glass is really significant.

The students were looking for something to bring to the venue and there was an auction at a local church.

And originally it was in one piece, but they tried putting it on stage and obviously it was too tall to fit.

So, they split the arched part of it and the rectangle part of it and that way both are still present in the venue.

♪♪ [Jim Brockpahler] Going into the 80s when IPTV, when Iowa PBS was here doing the blues series and the jazz series and these amazing artists that have all played in front of that same stained glass and it was broadcast to the nation thanks to IPTV, Iowa PBS for putting the M Shop on the map, so to say.

(applause) ♪♪ [Dan Rice] I was the actual first full-time manager of the Maintenance Shop in 1980.

When I started it was already very famous worldwide because of the public television show, the Jazz at the Maintenance Shop.

So, we didn't have to go out and get a lot of people.

They all wanted to play here.

They wanted to see it.

They wanted to be a part of what we had here because they could see it on TV.

♪♪ [Dan Rice] When Iowa Public Television, now Iowa PBS, when they came and did the blues show it put us on the map in terms of Iowa, nationally, internationally.

♪♪ [Dan Rice] John Lee Hooker, Hooker was probably my favorite show in the whole time I was here.

It was done on a hot June night.

♪♪ ♪♪ [Dan Rice] Albert King was interesting.

If you watch that show he had a broken finger, big old white bandage.

It was kind of wild.

♪♪ [Jim Brockpahler] That history of the M Shop, the history Iowa State has and kind of what it means to all the students involved from 1974 to now is amazing.

♪♪ [Alex Brown] It's a huge source of pride.

You get to help carry on something that you know is so iconic.

And to say there's all these eras of people doing this before me.

And it's nice to know that I've earned my place here in the M Shop, that I've made a difference.

It's fun to get to keep it alive.

♪♪ [Ary Bermeo] I hope that what we're doing now is good work so that we can continue it on in the future.

And maybe, who knows, 75, 100 years later we've still got the M Shop.

I think that it's something that can be kept alive if protected.

♪♪ Thank you!