There are two US clubs that had simultaneously broken the barriers of race and sexual preference, two clubs that were to pass on into dance music legend - Chicago's Warehouse and New York's Paradise Garage. Up until then, and after, the norm was for black, hispanic, white, straight and gay to segregate themselves, but with the Warehouse, opened in 1977 and presided over by
Frankie Knuckles
and the
Paradise Garage
where
Larry Levan
spun, the emphasis was on the music. And the music was as varied as the clienteles - r'n'b based Black dance music and disco peppered with things as diverse as The Clash's 'Magnificent Seven'. For most people, these were the places that acted as breeding grounds for the music that eventually came to be known after the clubs - house and garage.
Music Box Chicago, Ron Hardy created the environment for the house explosion. Where Knuckles' sound was still very much based in disco, Hardy was the DJ that went for the rawest, wildest rhythm tracks he could find and he made The Music Box the inspirational temple for pretty much every DJ and producer that was to come out of the Chicago scene
Paradise Garage New York, 1976: The Paradise Garage was the legendary club which was located at 84 King Street, New York from 1976 till 1987. The Paradise Garage club gave its name to garage music, New York's flavor of underground dance music.
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Warehouse Chicago, 1978. The Windy City is not exactly a dance music mecca. Like the majority of American cities still are today, Chicago was a rock and blues town. Plenty of live music and beer swilling bars, but not much in the way of dancing or clubs. A young DJ, newly arrived from New York, opens a club named The Warehouse, and will unwittingly change the lives of thousands of people in the late 80's and early '90s. That DJ was Frankie Knuckles
The Loft David Mancuso: [...] I started giving rent parties which basically it's still down to the same thing, to manage and afford a life-style, that's basically the goal, to have a good time
Stonewall The Stonewall was a gay bar in Greenwich Village that was raided--for no apparent reason--by the police in the late 60's for being a gay establishment. [...] The Stonewall Riots are considered the birth of militant gay rights and ushered in the era of gay pride
Better Days Opened in the 1972 and closed in 1988. It was located on West 49th Street. DJs Tee Scott, Bruce Forest, Francois Kevorkian , Kenny Carpenter, Larry Patterson, Shep Pettibone, and others played to a loyal, attitudeless black crowd over a period of more than 15 years
Sanctuary "...this discotheque opened up in a converted German Baptist church in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York in 1969 and was probably the first nightclub. The altar was the deejay box."
Galaxy 21 New York area club. 1976: Walter Gibbons was the DJ, Francois K. had been hired to play live drums on top of Walter's mixes. Kenny Carpenter, who must have been 17 at the time, did the lights.
Gallery New York club where both Larry Levan as well as Frankie Knuckles learned their basic mixing skills. It was owned by Nicky Siano. Loleatta's first performance as a club artist was at The Gallery.
Continental Baths Levan got his break in 1972 when the DJ at the club where he worked, the Continental Baths, was sacked. The owner told him to go home and get some records [...]
Experiment 4 In 1976, Jellybean was spinnin' here. Francois K replaced him for an evening. This was Francois K's debut as a DJ.
Private Eyes The first in NYC to have video as the main attraction--34 screens playing many different images at once while people danced or just hung out. Run by Steve Sukman, it was a big record industry hangout from 1983 to 1987.
Fun House Jellybean's club. 'Stone Fox Chase' by Area Code 615 was a popular track there.
Loft Legendary New York club, founded in 1970 by David Mancuso. Loft Classics.
Shelter Timmy Regisford was and is chief DJ of this venue.
Body And Soul This is what House music is all about. Body & Soul, the only Sunday afternoon party in New York City occupies the same space as the legendary Shelter, home of Timmy Regisford and garage heads of the late 1980's.
With Francois Kevorkian, Joe Clausell and Danny Krivit on the decks from 3:00 pm till 10:00pm every Sunday, there is no better place in the world to experience what House music is all about; positivity, unity and bangin' tracks. Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, male, female, straight & gay, everyone is here to get along and groove to the best the New York underground has to offer.
Zanzibar "I remember when Zanz[ibar] was the Lincoln Motel, and when it became Zanz (1979/1980?), I think every Wednesday, they had one of the top jocks at that time play. Tee Scott, Larry Levan, Hippie Torales , etc.. That's what got it going. I don't recall Tony Humphries. Merlin Bobb was a doorman.
