To paraphrase Peter Venkman no job was too small, no fee was too small. True freedom was something tangibleeven addictive. But still, it wasnt the ego-stroke of now the world will know my name! It was the fact that it made it real. For artists and performers it was a golden age with clubs needing to book events seven-days-a-week. New York City Nightclub Flyers from the 1980s. For one, he was older than most of the people out at the clubs, and with his salt-and-pepper hair, he looked it. Yet, what changes when you leave a longtime residence? Visit NYCgo for official NYC nightlife information, including historic New York bars and lounges, like McSorley's, 21 Club, Pete's Tavern and. Located within the heart of Harlem, the exclusive club was known for their highly accredited blues and jazz performers such as Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington. There was still a wild abandon in New York. Whether its the clubs or the thriving warehouse scene, youth and internationalism rules Brooklyn nightlife, alongside layers of social privilege. Reporting on what you care about. Here, we present . He had unique access to the era's most exciting . Even the most famous personalities in the city werent guaranteed entry into the exclusive venue. Worlds apart from the venues I was playing, these were the holy grail of hip New York. The building was remodeled in 2003, and is now home to a handful of stores including the St. Mark's Market, a Supercuts, and a Chipotle. When we moved locations, we were able to tell the people who we REALLY wanted to be there and get it back to the core group. Something went wrong. Since opening in May, Wiggle Room is one our favorite nightclubs in terms of aesthetics, cocktails, and clientele. The origin of that lane is the New York described in the pages of Lawrences book. The Tunnel might well have started the trend of making the most popular clubs in New York a) in Chelsea, b) in historic buildings ironically co-opted for neon graffiti 1990s-type purposes and c . After his tenure in the clubs, he worked as a staff photographer for Women's Wear Daily for nearly two decades. Search, watch, and cook every single Tasty recipe and video ever - all in one place! By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. There were a lot of eccentrically dressed people, and those were the people Alexis adored, Glam said. Now the space is occupied by a showroom for high-end granite and marble products. Dancing up on a riser or on the stage was for those that felt like letting their inner exhibitionist loose, on display for the entire room to see showing off your best moves. New York City nightlife has always been pivotal within pop culture. The Electric Circus was an experimental psychedelic nightclub that was open from 19671971, and featured performances by bands such as The Velvet Underground, Sly and the Family Stone, and The Grateful Dead, along with shows by jugglers, gymnasts, and performance artists. I always loved taking photos on the dancefloor. The venue was demolished in the early '00s and replaced with a condo building, and now there's a sushi restaurant on the ground floor. Excerpted from No Sleep: NYC Nightlife Flyers 19881999 by Adrian Bartos aka DJ Stretch Armstrong and Evan Auerbach, available now from powerHouse Books. As you can see, the Fillmore's history is commemorated with a mosaic on a traffic light pole on the corner. Steve Eichner is a legendary nightlife photographer. The venue closed in 1971, and the building on 105 Second Ave. is currently occupied by Apple Bank for Savings. Club flyers, by design, were ephemeral objects distributed on street corners, outside of nightclubs and concert halls, in clothing stores and retail shops, and were not intended to be preserved for posterity. The wiry 49-year-old may have grown up in the London exurb of Winnersh and teaches cultural studies at the University of East London, but theres little question that New Yorks late 20th-century nightlife has served as his muse. On my nights off, I went to parties like Giant Step & Soul Kitchen. But in a way that is because of New Yorks success; because its influence helped grow dance scenes all over the world. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. His day job was as a bookkeeper. Even the co-ed bathroom at Tunnel was a place for merrymaking. Beatrice Inn, 2006 - 2009. Spa also sold 16 different types of bottled water, another of those trends that must have been so original at the time but now seem just plain silly. Please enter a valid email and try again. I imagine its not only for the good looking design, but more importantly for the fact that my mother knew how happy I was to be on the wheels in that club; how proud I was to have my name on that invite, and what a big part of my life that was. Drag queens, crossdressers, facepaint, and sexiness everywhere. Theyre so emblematic of that time no computers, totally DIY. The venues didnt matter to me. Of all these places only SOBs has survived into this new era, a place where I met one my most beloved girlfriends and saw Kanye West for the first time, reasons enough I hope it can survive this new, more buttoned down NYC. They were also reaffirming a set of values by which the city of their era lived and, at times, still tries to. For one, he was older than most of the people out at the clubs, and with his salt-and-pepper hair, he looked it. Some so hilarious and experimental, I would laugh out loud while pressing the shutter button. Cher was notably denied entrance, because -- as owner/namesake Nell Campbell recalled in the Times, she didnt have the right look. And Nell herself took her partying very seriously, as Michael Musto once recounted seeing her "voguing naked on top of [one of Nell's] tables." 1. I really have no idea how its endured there so long among the graduation photos, holiday snaps, etc. Founded by Italian immigrant John Perona as a speakeasy on 52nd street in 1931, El Morocco would become famous for its ostentatious zebra print interior as well as parade of the glamorous people (including Marilyn Monroe) who sought an escape from Prohibition. Mayor Rudy Giuliani had declared war on dance clubs, the days of the Club Kids were in their final throes and the reign of Peter Gatien and clubs like Tunnel were winding down. E. Jean Carroll was 'out talking to people' Long before this fraught moment in the media's glare, Carroll was a journalistic luminary, known for her Ask E. Jean advice column, and for being a . The grimy The World on East 2nd Street, the spacious Building on 26th Street (where I went to Powerhouse parties) and the spooky Palladium were all sites of fun for me. 8. The place is so legendary that its famously filthy toilets were recreated for a punk art exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but these days the building is the home of a retail outlet for menswear designer John Varvatos. Rock stars and artists treated Maxs like their own personal living room. The records that came out of these borderless scenes soon became the soundtrack of the entire city and beyond, with Blondies Rapture, Afrika Bambaataas Planet Rock, the Peech Boys Dont Make Me Wait and Madonnas Holiday effortlessly crossing genres, cliques and, soon, oceans. Bond's Casino was a nightclub and venue in Times Square that famously hosted a residency of 17 concerts by The Clash in 1981 that has been extensively bootlegged over the years. Oops. Golden Years: New York Nightlife In The '50s. Revisiting the Hedonistic Bliss of New York's Legendary '90s Nightlife Scene. One featured DJ Harvey, who spent a few years in New York learning his craft at the feet of Levan. Brownies at 169 Avenue A was a hot spot during the "new rock revival" of the early 2000s, and hosted early gigs by The Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Liars before shutting down in 2002. On Now Bar and Lounge. Though the '90s might not feel like that long ago, our city's neighborhoods are a world away from the gritty places they used to be, for better and for worse. Michael Fazakerley /Leandro Justen. Walt Cassidy is still . In fact, through sheer circumstance, over the course of a single week in October 2016 you could watch and listen to urban folklore cement as history. Billing itself as part disco, part circus theatre, it features DIY dcor, psychedelic projections, dressed-for-cabaret employees and an audience always ready to let loose. Purchase No Sleep at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other fine retailers. You didn't dare go unless you were perfectly turned out." At 254 West 54th Street, Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager converted a former opera house into the most notorious nightclub of the disco era. Founded by New York City nightlife tycoon Amy Sacco, Bungalow 8 was the club of the early aughts. I remember the burnt orange ambience of the club lighting, how it was bathed in smoke. They replaced CBGB with a luxury menswear shop, and The Palladium was turned into an NYU dorm. There was nothing in the world I enjoyed more than spinning records. He took them because he just loved drag queens and club kids, Glam said. (And is a wonderful fact-meets-fiction preamble to Lawrences historical account.) Address: 289 10th Avenue, New York, NY 10001. Promoters would encourage that. In the ultimate party move, the club was shut down in 2001 by the liquor authority after years of negative attention from Mayor Rudy Giuliani as part of his "quality of life" campaign and the owner was deported to Canada in 2003. This is a list of notable current and former nightclubs in New York City. His sets were eight hours and he usually DJed five nights a week. Before the internet, there werent many ways to prove your status unless you were legitimately famous. We had to bring 20,000 pounds of sound equipment up five flights of stairs to throw the party and then bring it down the next day. Drenched in throbbing neon while whirling away inside the relentless, pulsating music, a simple passing glance and an open mind could lead to the journey of a lifetime. They had the very best DJs (Stretch Armstrong, DJ Jules, DJ Enuff, DJ Hiro, Frankie Inglese) and the most beautiful array people (models, rap stars, ballers, art kids, skaters, drug dealers, etc.). Come along for the ride! A killer flyer didnt guarantee a good party but you look at any flyer in this book and you can picture the great time being had. Nells is probably most famous to younger readers, though, as a regular hangout of American Psychos fictional character Patrick Bateman. Through the 90s, they became both increasingly prevalent and more sophisticated as printing technology evolved. Rubell's maxim: "The key to a good party is filling a room with guests more interesting than you -- which meant Rick James, David Bowie, Andy Warhol, and hundreds of people youve never heard of, but who were living very weird lives in the late 1970s. Emotionally, critically, intellectually, its hard to say that New York is the kind of mecca for dance music that it was in the 70s and 80s. It was on the rooftop of Cuando which was a school on 2nd Ave and Houston Street. It's still called The Palladium, though. A reaction to the giant, airplane hangar-esque discos that had permeated the city during the 1970s, Nells was a Jazz, Reggae and Hip-Hop dance club with a capacity of just 250. A 2015 survey of former nightclubs in the city identified 10 most historic ones, starting with the Cotton Club, . Dec 31, 2021 - New York City 1980s and 1990s night club underground scene - sound factory / limelight / nell's / tunnel / danceteria / carmelita's / M.K. You were a legend in your own mind. The design would be on a big floppy disc! And if that wasnt enough of a draw, every Wednesday night, the club hosted a contest, from pie-eating and singing challenges, to best legs competitions between its famous dancers and attractive clubgoers. Or it could be as playful and eye-catching as Warhols pop art, flipping the script on some iconic image hoping to seize your attention as you walked by the window of a hip Soho boutique. Flashs skills at cutting up records, and his interpretation of the cross-genre flow at the heart of the citys original sound (disco, rap, funk, dance-punk, Latin, mutant electronic, all in the mix) were rapturous and timeless. Life and Death is the third of Lawrences books about the citys rhythms, joining the disco scene-redefining Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music, 1970-79, and the quasi-biography, Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92. Ronnie Wood and Keith Richards at the Danceteria in 1980. To do so during late nights, in dark, sensorially overwhelming clubs, keeping all of ones faculties intact makes it more so. Fabulous was the word of the era, and it came in all forms. These were not pick-up clubs or bottle bars. Ive put my brain through some wear and tear over the years and honestly have a hard time remembering names of places I played last week, but I will never forget the name and address of that party: Nut n Honey at Tilt, 179 Varick Street (corner of King Street, for extra credit). The years that followed still brought plenty of noteworthy nights and denim-drenched outfits. Also, he was always taking photos. Like The Get Down, Life and Death unearths a golden moment when living was cheap, the crowds diverse, the community strengthened, creativity mutating and freedoms flourishing. I may have fantasized about DJing at these clubs from time to time but I harbored no grand illusions that Id be playing these places any time soon. Those included panels at three institutions of higher learning (NYU, CUNY and Columbia), book-signings at three club nights (the Loft, 718 Sessions and Better Days), talks at two galleries (Howl and Steve Harvey) and two record stores (Rough Trade and Superior Elevation), as well as one museum presentation (at MoMA, which hosted a panel after a screening of writer Glenn OBriens majestic lo-fi film, Downtown 81, starring Basquiat). The Garage, meanwhile, was home to not just the gay, black dancers historically placed there, but also young art-punks and nascent hip-hop kids, whose music found life on Levans turntables. Both were DJ sets by older English men that lasted upwards of six hours. So, while Flashs stock as a local legend never fell off, its been a minute since it paid such high market dividends. Then the girls returned to their capes to finish the number. I saw my window of opportunity, gave Carlos the hard sell and handed him my tape, though I never expected to hear back. Bond International Casino (1530 Broadway). That was part of the ethos of the day. The flyers seemed themselves a physical manifestation of the evolution of New Yorks downtown scene: the artwork could look born from a Basquiat 12-inch record sleeve: hand drawn, collagist and gorgeous. Lot 61 The dominating force of the early aughts of New York nightlife, Amy Sacco actually opened the uber successful Lot 61 in the late 1990s. Well send you our daily roundup of all our favorite stories from across the site, from travel to food to shopping to entertainment. Download the STARZ app to catch up on Power now, and dont miss the Season 3 premiere on Sunday, July 17 at 9pm on STARZ. US residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data. B. Now, a selection of them has been collected in the book, Fabulousity: A Night Youll Never Forget or Remember, published by Wild Life Press. Self care and ideas to help you live a healthier, happier life. The Tunnel had a ball pit where people could jump into thousands of yellow plastic balls and throw them around like an out of control kindergarten playroom. I'm a night owl and find the vice side of New York to be much more to my liking. Damn, this really was it! But CBGBs was not for the faint of heart, fights and substance-fueled violence were a regular occurrence, including Dee-Dee Ramone who reportedly had frequent jealous battles with his groupie girlfriend (picture broken beer bottle threats and smashed windshields). Studio 54 was the pillar of the New York club scene for many years. Though no longer a weekly or commandeered by Mancuso (that nights DJ duties were split by Douglas Sherman and Colleen Cosmo Murphy), the Loft has retained a utopian, communal private-party vibe unlike any other, an older, mixed-race clientele, and an aspirational old-school positivity in its music and atmosphere that in America 2016 comes in extremely handy. Marquee New York. Theres so much to say in so little space yet you could blow it up poster size and itd look amazing on a gallery wall. A new book looks back at the iconic 1990s nightclub scene when sex, drugs, and dance music created the perfect cocktail for iconic parties that catered to revelers every imaginable whim. The epitome of old-school New York Latin class, Palladium Dance Hall hosted everyone from Celia Cruz, the most famous Cuban songstress of all time, to Desi Arnaz to a parade of jazz greats so long it would have put a New Orleans funeral to shame. Source: Pixabay. French . Though theres rarely a lack of nighttime activity in the city that supposedly never sleeps, on paper it seemed like an especially great match. Today's gay nightlife experience feels sterile and conservative in comparison, and leads me to relive the past . Jack did the earliest flyers. This is a good thing. From the days of all-night jazz jams and hangover cures at the Plaza, the club scene in New York has undergone evolutions of pop, disco, punk, rock, trance, EDM and anything else that provides a sufficiently loud musical backdrop for sex, scandal, and the occasional bout of mayhem. During those eight years, Gregoire Alessandrini was able to witness a unique atmosphere, which he share now with us: "The city had obviously tremendously changed since the 70's and 80's but you just had to walk around the corner, enter any downtown dive bar to find the signs and remains of this legendary NY. Let's revisit the blissfulness of New York 90's club scene. Then, people came here from all over the world on pilgrimages, said Lawrence. One of the biggest was at this olive oil warehouse in Tribeca with no working elevator. Lotus A certain level of foresight was in play when David Rabin, Will Regan, Mark Baker and Jeffrey Jah opened Lotus on the corner of 14th Street and 9th Avenue in what would become the center of nightlife in New York City. Image subject to copyright. Head over to this brick-lined bar with neon lighting and a staircase lit up in pleasing LED lights located just a block north of Madison Square Garden. And no one could be better suited for the elegant glamour than Jackie O herself, who visited the club with both her husbands. A stark contrast to the clubs Victorian grandeur decor. Each night was an out-and-out Bacchanal, with Cab Calloway, Ellington, Louis Armstrong and others soundtracking the vice emporium with songs like "Reefer Blues," "Kicking the Gong Around" (20's slang for using opium), and "Kokey Joe.. The MisShapes had everything you could want in a gala costumes, tourists, tight pants, and Leigh Lezark, Princess Coldstare herself. The DJ would be in command, and when the music reached a crescendo, the entire room seemed to climax together in unison. On the eve of a week that would see New York City host a handful of events to celebrate and spotlight the release of Tim Lawrences new book, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983 a study of what the author convincingly identifies as the citys cultural renaissance, when hip-hop, new wave and dance music collided in clubs like Mudd and the Paradise Garage one of the books characters was making a rare Brooklyn appearance at a space in Bushwick. The Mudd Club, which was located on 77 White St. from 1978 through 1983, was a crucial spot in the early days of New York punk. (modern). 06/27/16. They were all alphabetically organized with little index cards like youd see in libraries. Known for the sticker clad walls and prominent rock performances, this venue founded by Hilly Kristal helped to usher in new American music genres and revolutionize culture in downtown Manhattan. Rubell always made certain that those interesting people always returned for another party, whether that meant building a corral in the middle of the club for equine-enthusiast Dolly Parton, plying Bianca Jagger with a flock of white doves, or giving Warhol a steel barrel full of cash. After a few weeks at the same location (if we stayed at the same location) we picked up more and more people who would hear about it, and then the parties would get out of control. Truly, the most amazing collection of people came to Milky Way whether it was Keith Haring, or John Kennedy Jr. & Darryl Hannah slumming it or whether it was the Jungle Brothers or Russell and Lyor and Fab Five Freddy. Theyd shower the eccentric people with free drinks or free admission to create a circus environment in the club that would be enjoyed by the other patrons, Glam said. Both sets were epic exercises of form, stamina and musical arc, featuring records beyond simple classification. So much action and a communal vibe of everyone moving their bodies to the beat. Above all, these ten clubs mastered the art of debauchery and earned a place in nightlife history. I was a waitress in the day or worked in the clubs as a bathroom attendant or coat checker. 5. And although set in the '90s, the decade saw the 2003 release of Macaulay Culkin's "Party . The list of incredible acts that also got their starts here includes The Cure, Depeche Mode, The Beastie Boys, and Billy Idol. All photos are by Steve Eichner and can be seen featured in his new book called "In The Limelight - The Visual Ecstasy of NYC Nightlife in the 90s". The venue was shut down in 1996 and is now part of the Foxwoods Theater, home of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. Read about Eichner's memories in his own words and see his picks of his most joyful photos from the 90s nightlife in NYC: Photographing partiers at play was delightful for me and made entertaining pictures. A glimpse through the rare images below will remind you that as with everything in the city, the scene is constantly changing. . 2. The Beatrice Inn The Bea was a reaction to and the antithesis of many of the clubs described within, going against the bigger and more expensive is better motto to create an intimate and often raging dance hall set in a former and tiny restaurant in the West Village. I'm glad he took the pictures because there was a lot of free-flowing alcohol back then, Glam said. The Limelight was a nightclub that was an epicenter for "club kid" culture in the '90s, and a rock venue that hosted a lot of industrial and post-punk bands like Foetus, Gang of Four, Cop Shoot Cop, and New Model Army. His photographs have been published in Vogue, The New York Times, Newsweek, TIME, Rolling Stone, People, Vanity Fair, Cosmo, Details and GQ. Located on East 14th street, the downtown club founded by Studio 54's Steve Rubell was known as one of New York's largest rock venues and dance clubswith iconic music stars such as Madonna making appearances. Thursdays at The World were a memorable night that will always warm my heart. Sacco and Bungalow rode a Sex and the City wave and the space quickly became the hot spot of the beginning of the decade. Its a simple royal blue, glossy card adorned with an image of a 70s era Barry White. They all hung out there and would regularly get on the mic. New York City nightlife was undergoing a major transition at the dawn of the 21st century. Lawrence dug into the three years between the decades dawn and the oncoming midnight of the crack and Aids epidemics, before Ronald Reagans neoliberal policies and Manhattans first real-estate boom took hold of New Yorks cultural life. By contrast, the same evening marked the end of the 13-year weekly run of DJ Franois Ks Deep Space party at Cielo, in the Meatpacking District, which in 2017 is moving to Output, a Berlin-style club in Williamsburg. The 90s were about pleasure, and it was in every corner. It's dubbed the "wickedest place in New York" by local press. The public has a right to art: the radical joy of Keith Haring, Abrief history of protest art from the 1940s until now - in pictures, Creative drive: Keith Haring's car canvases in pictures, From Basquiat to Jay Z: how the art world came to fully embrace hip-hop, Keith Haring review: the political side of a pop-art legend, Keith Haring, the Political Line review, Keith Haring's life was fleeting but his work endures, Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983, Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music, 1970-79, Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92, Giulianis zero tolerance policies of the 90s. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. Warhol reportedly held court in the clubs private back room almost nightly, with substances and strip teases always on the docket. Patti Smith, The Ramones, The Talking Heads, and dozens of other avant-garde, head-smashing and crowd-punching punk acts made this club -- which closed in the mid-aughts after giving The Strokes one of their biggest boosts. Memories. For almost 20 years, those photos sat in Glams apartment in New York. Scroll To Top. My sense of it is that there is a will in New York to bounce back [from] the low point of the Giuliani period, Lawrence added. This two floor bar offers "softened socialization" and on-tap cocktails like their "Wiggle Room Martini.". The first club I DJed was Mars. Im a pragmatist, however, and I armed myself with a strong supply of my own DJ demo tapes, on the off chance I was out and met a club owner who could potentially be a future employer. They were handed out by the hundreds on 14th Street and sat by the doors of Phat Farm, Supreme and Union. Manchester's Haienda - which was founded by Tony Wilson with money made by New Order's record sales - is where baggy was born. New York City nightlife in the early 1990s was a hot and visceral experience. If our memory serves us correctly, they also served a delicious tuna entre all night. Club kids were known for their wild ensembles, which drew inspiration from punk, S&M, and clown styles. Visual artist Walt Cassidy, who partied with the Club Kids, documented the uniquely self-indulgent era of nightlife through provocative images in his book New York: Club Kids. Other stories range from pure chaos -- Sid Vicious getting thrown in jail for attacking Patti Smiths brother -- to pure, weird boredom: David Bowie recalled meeting Iggy Pop there, describing it as Me, Iggy, and Lou Reed at one table with absolutely nothing to say to each other, just looking at each others eye makeup.. As Lawrence writes, the Downtown communitys cross-cultural collaborative spirit was not limited to clubs. When nightlife expert Tim Lawrence came to the city to promote his book about the early 80s, the clubs he went to revealed how much has (and hasnt) changed. The original CBGB on 315 Bowery closed in October 2006, but it remains the world's most iconic punk rock venue. Paradise Club, The Times Square Edition, 701 7th Ave, New York, NY 10036. The visuals of the clubs were extremely enjoyable. The space is now occupied by Hi-Fi Bar, which happens to have one of the best and most elaborate custom jukebox systems in the world. The Ritz on 125 East 11th St. was the premier rock club in New York in the '80s, and it hosted gigs by pretty much every hot act from the era, from Sonic Youth and Public Enemy to early shows by Soundgarden, Ministry, and Guns N' Roses. Spa After his genuinely outstanding Life closed down, Uncle Steve Lewis brought much of his gang to Spa, a raucous water themed dance club near Union Square. Below, we look at twenty-nine engrossing images of the underground rave scene as it grew throughout the 1990s: Ravers often wore multi-colored plastic bracelets known as "kandi," which often featured the words "peace love unity respect." Those who wore them were referred to as "kandi kids." MDMA, also known as Ecstasy or Molly, became the . Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. It was his hobby and passion. Full of California style decor and Hollywood Glamour this nightclub soon became the NYC playground for the A-List including Kate Moss, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and more.
