CLUBLAND
The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture
Chapter One
THE ONE-EYED DON
New York City, Early October 1995
It was one of those brilliant autumn days in New
York, the city radiant with luminous color. While the soothing afternoon
light skipped gaily across the surface of the Hudson River, Peter
Gatien's world was all grim turmoil. A couple of nights ago, in the early
hours, the stony-faced Gatien saw his flagship venue in Chelsea, the
Limelight, padlocked by the NYPD. Friday evening, just at the peak of
business, and his temple of thump-thump-thump-located at the corner
of Twentieth Street and Sixth Avenue in a weathered Victorian pile
that once housed St. Peter's Episcopal church, then later a drug treatment
center-was packed to the vaulted rafters with gyrating penitents
hanging off the two tiers of metal balconies that surrounded the cavernous
main floor. The irony wasn't lost on the revelers, who seemed to
take a perverse delight in frolicking on the altar or sniffing blow in the
pulpit. Out on the churning dance flo ... read full excerpt from: Clubland ebook
