Limelight

When there often in the mid-80s with my friend Janet from Long Island to dance into the wee hours. We always got in (thanks Janet!) and had the best time ever!! It was absolutely insane and then some. Great times, great club...this was before the Club Kids. Madonna was there saw so many people...I wish I saw more photos of what it was like back then. Definitely hitting the movie!

I started bartending at Limelight summer of 1983. My really good friend Joey Danna was the head bartender then and got me the gig. I though it was only for the summer but did not leave working for the Gatien empire until 1998. Limelight was a great club as well as Palladium, Tunnell and Club USA. It feels like so long ago but just like yesterday too! I met so many wonderful people over all those years and I am greatful to have had the chance to have that kind of experience in my life. It was incredible! I met my partner John at Limelight in the Chapel while I was bartending on Friday 13th 1991 a Marc Berkely John Blair night. We are still together 20 years later. So, Limelight really had a big impact on my life! Love to get back in touch with anyone from those days! Hit me up on fb Joseph (Joe) Burris

Wow! Memories..... Limelight! dam it was good!

Thanks all of you for remembering the limelight in Hollywood fla, the best of the best and thanks for rembering my dad freddy! he was also their before it was taken over by Peter it was called Rumbottoms!! anyone who knows my dad or have friend of my dad id really love to talk i was just a kid at that time but i kept intouch with Tommy, Peter, and Bobby its great to here so many great stories!! love it !! im looking for a girl called Bambi! dose anyone know her?? her is my personal email ilofort@yahoo.com please contact me directly!!
love you all!! and no they did not fiend any dead bodys when the club burned down i was there about 1 hr after when i seen it up in flames the only thing left was the sign and some other stuff what a down!! hope to here from someone soon!!

Hi There, i am actually finalizing a 2hr movie/docu about the club scene from the mid90s, very professionnal, not amateur...i found this forum very interesting...i am actually living in France, and i will probably release my movie end of the year...
Do not hesitate to send me your feedback and if some of you have some footage to share, you are welcome...
Also anybody gots some early, rare, past and amateurs videos ?
Drop me a mess on djhedi@orange.fr
Peace !
www.backinthehouse.com

I remenber going to the "church" when I was in High school. I will never forget it. I remenber all the secret rooms all over the place. I remenber the walls were "water", the bathrooms...wow...Someone called me a "fish" I dont know what that meant? I loved the library.

The Limelight was NYC's best club space. I wish it were still headed by Peter.

Here are some pictures from when Absolution was there. http://www.absolutionnyc.com/2011/01/13/absolution-party-pictures-from-the-limelight/

Original Limelight dancer here. Glad to hear all the love! Hallelujah, Limelight! I never saw any sex (maybe because I was up in the cage), and I wasn't into the drugs, but I'm still dancing over twenty years later. Use stage name Dakini Borealis now. R.I.P. to the Limelight ... and to Tommy Buckley, who died last year.

I used to live on 19th str, and Limelight opened on 20th , just around the corner !!!! Me, a brazilian girl brought up in a catholic home....what a strong impression the first time I entered that club !! I was so amazed by the dancing on top of the altar hahahahaha I thought it was the craziest thing to do on and with a church!!! Loved it...

Micheal Alig is gonna be released this fall!!!! wowowowowowww :D

went to the limelight in i think 92-93? a girl that was riding w/us left her leather coat in the back seat of our locked car so when we went home we had to drive all the way to e. stroudsburg w/ a smashed in back window! it was feb. and very cold! craziest scene ever but a lot of fun! i love to people watch and the eye did not go wanting! had no idea at the time that i was seeing a part of history...wonder if i bumped into michael alig?

Okay, my first gay bar I went to was called The Limelight in or around 1975 in N.Y. I was from a small New England town, and I thought.....there's this many people like me? I got so much attention. You could certainly tell that I was not from N.Y. I looked like a little farmer boy. A night I have never forgotten.

I used to go to the Limelight only on Sunday nights for Rock and Roll Church. I went every Sunday in the late 80's / early 90's. I moved to NY from Seattle for about 5 years and loved NYC!!! Not even sure why I left NYC and went back to Seattle, guess it had something to do with the cost of living in the city. Anyways, I used to have the biggest crush on a punk rock guy named Billy who worked in the coat check. He lived in St. Marks place. Anybody know his last name & maybe if he has a Facebook or My Space? When I think of Limelight I think of all the great times I had, but I also think of him....he was sooooo hot!!!!

I loved the Limelight I was dancing with the angeles as I wrote in a journal back then. I remeber I met Jean Michel Basquiat there and we talked on many a subject, I was stunned by our conversation.

http://gawker.com/5408609/the-new-limelight-shopping-mall-makes-all-the-former-club-kids-weep/gallery/

sad news, Limelight is being turned into a rich kid's outlet mall. :(

end of an era

The Limelight next to the Hollywood Dog Track was the GREATEST disco that ever existed. I have been to many clubs in many countries and I have never been to a better club. The lights coming out of the ceiling were the best (cost about $3 million in those days), the sound system spectcular (giant speakers), and the dance floor- enough room for everybody!
Of course, owner Peter, and manager Freddy were the best. No VIP Lounge. Nope- didn't need one. Everybody was SOMEBODY once you walked through the doors and ended up on the dance floor. We didn't need VIP rooms. Yeah sure the lines were long but it was worth it if you timed it right or got there early.
When I wasn't there, I was watching Miami Sound Machine perform at the Wreck Bar or I was hanging out in the Grove. Great memories for sure.
Hey Ilona, please email me.

I attempted to go to the Limelight twice and both times it was shut down. I can not believe to this day that I missed out on history and the chance to have the greatest night ever. I too wish that there will one day be another Limelight with the same attitudes and carefree style. I think all of the club kids are absolutely wonderful!!

YES!! IT WAS AND WILL BE ONE OF THE HOTTEST DISCO OF ALL TIMES... HELLO TO ALL MY DADS FRIENDS, AND TO PETER AND BOBBY SEE YOU IN NY..IN HOLLYWOOD FLA WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS IM SURE MENY PEOPLE REMEMBER?
LOVE FREDDYS DAUGHTER ILONA

Does anyone remember a guy named Michael Allen who worked at the Limelight in NYC in the 80's for the Art Director and then moved to Chicago to help open the Limelight there? If so do you have any photos?? Please let me know. Thank you in advance. Patrick

I used to go to the limelight in the 90s. They best time i ever had. I never had to wait on line thanks to Desire at the door.. I would always start off at Larry T's apartment over Twilo and move my was around. Started on friday night and not coming home (Jersey Shore) till Sunday afternoon.

The LimeLight in the 70s in Hollywood Fla, is the best memories... peter and bobby and freddy Levin of cource !!! the club was a hot spot and lines from 1 side to another with the parking at the dog track, my father freddy ran that club and died for that club 1979.. it was HOT and happening,,
after 1979 the club burned and then years latter re opended in NY as you know as the church, limelight.. Peter also has a nother club called the Tunnel also in NY... GREAT MEMORIES FOR MY FRIENDS PETER, BOBBY, AFTER SO MENY YEARS......

OK, The 70's one had nothing to do with the club on 6th.
The sole proprietor, Peter Gatien is from Canada, where he has opened a new club after getting tossed from the US, but he has Native American blood in him, so he could come back if he wanted. He had a few Limelight Clubs. Chicago, New York and London, but the London one was pawned soon after. Actually I never knew if Peter really owned that one. In the mid 80's they only had like 2 speakers on the dance floor. I started working there, doing lights in 88/89 and it was a commercial club with bridge and tunnel crowds. Toward the end of 89 into 90, club music got much faster and different. Techno happened. The club hired a decorator and light designer. Colleen and Arthur Weinstein. Also publicists and real promoters. Rock and Roll Church remained in place for many years after but the other nights were all new. Sone big names were brought in, but not all of them were successful there. Jellybean sucked there and never even bothered to show up most of the time, Morales was beaten up by the bouncers and left, Frankie Knuckles played for a few weeks but I think he was too classy for that joint. They were open 6 nights so I can't remember everyone, but after a while we had a solid lineup of Tony Fletcher on Communion night-nice guy who picked it up pretty quickly-cool bands on that night, Keoki on Disco 2000-super creative acid/trance/techno/house, Charlie Casanova who was technically the best I had seen then and had great records and special mixes, Jeff Mills- I ain't even gonna say anything about that master of disaster!, Repete Demarco who basically introduced Manhattan to Techno, and Sister Dimension who was an F-ing trip. Drugs,murder,scandal,ego and greed destroyed the perfect balance.

I lived in the U.S.A for 1 year. (from july 1991)
Me and my friends ( all exchange students from Europe) used to go to the lime light almost every week. It was the coolest club I have ever been to.
I remember there always was a big line, but probably because we looked a litlle diffrend, we did not have to wait long. The sound inside was perfect. I have seen a lot of sex in bathroom and on the dancefloor.

that's a terrible thing to say about "lady bunny". she only looks that way.

I heard they found dead bodies there that's why it had closed down is that true

I worked at Limelight from 1990-93. Tom Buckley was the manager, the crowd was awesome...a little too many drugs (I didn't partake) going around but dancing around on stage (while I was supposed to be minding the front door) was great! I wish I knew what happened to the old crew: Geoff (Brit bartender), Ney, Leo (bouncers)all the cage dancer girls....those were great times. There will NEVER be a club like Limelight. People have tried to duplicate it...but it was one of a kind. =)

Limelight was the 1st NYC club I walked into back in 1994. Till today I will never forget that night and I dont think I ever will.

I was there every weekend there after till it got shut down. My biggest goal was to be able to DJ the main floor. Well I got that chance when it was reopened back in 1999. I was with DJ Boris on Saturday night. It was the greatest experience for me till today.

Limelight to me is the greatest club thats ever been around in NYC, I spun at many big NYC nightclubs around that time and no room will ever top that.

When it became Avalon I wanted to see what they did to the place, ya it was the same room but not in a million years felt like the old.

I know it will never happend, but I wish someone had the power to bring it back, the Old Limelight.
Well for now all I can do is close my eyes and just go with all the memories that will last forever.

Remembering Limelights on 6th Ave. Late eighties. Sunday night...Rock night, Gigantic speakers to sit on obviously, getting there late of course. Enjoying with friends from the recording engineering world. No complaints, it was a lot of fun. From the outside lokking in you felt like an Angel, but once you walked in...Watch out!

LimeLight was my home away from home. After yrs of hangin out there I finaly got to DJ for awhile. I was there with Brutal Bill, Anthony Acid, Lord Mike and my friend Maria till the end. I got to meet some insane people and had the time of my life... One night I even traded a pair of my socks for a pair of argyle socks with some girl I had just met in the DJ booth. I told her I liked her socks and she said she collects stuff from DJs. She had collected rings on her fingers from a whole bunch of other DJs so she asked to trade socks with me.If anyone knows who that girl is... tell her I still have her socks, does she still have mine? lol. And do you remember the old guy in the bathroom... "Take care of the old man" lol. I worked alot of club since than and nothing will ever compare. The best times of my life were at the LimeLight.

for the gay games-stonewall 25 gay pride weekend i went up to new york and danced for mark berkley in the library. i went into the backroom and someone pick pocketed my wallet with my night's gogo pay and tips. not a hard feat when your pants are around your ankles. imagine that as a job description."bye honey, i'm off to work pick pocketing the back rooms" LOL! michael alig heard that i was going to be doing my watermelon trick and dragged me over to the disco 2000 side of the club to be in the strip contest. keoki was the d.j. and lahoma emceed. rupaul was still sorta punk and the lady bunny was still skinny!

I was in limelight on june 2001, it was a great experience for me. I danced from 10pm still 4am without stop. I remembered there was a zone for body make up, and cool sound and light effects.

Yes, I remember how they didn't want straight people in the gay section. I LOVED the reverse descrimination. LOL Well I guess they would let Madonna in the gay section but that's about it. I miss all of the old gay hang outs like the Limelight,Roxy, Paladium etc. It sucks that they want to change the Limelight into a mall.

That's how we used to get in, through the "gay entrance". I remember that we gays had access to the main room but the non-gays didn't have access to our side. Those freebies from HX came in very handy for Limelight and Club USA. I went back in 2001 on a Sunday night and and the vibe was so different. At least I have memories.

You guys must be straight. All the gay people went in through the "gay entrance" where you didn't have to wai tin any line. And you didn't have to pya if you had a coupon from HX. There was the "Lick it Lounge" where all the gay boys would hook up. They had rooms where all you saw was a guy jerking off. I miss those days. They were so much fun. We used to have sex in the bathrooms.

Whenever I visited NY in the early 90's, this was one of my favorite clubs on a Friday night.
The music in the library was spectacular and I actually preferred it to the music played in the main room. DJ Merritt would spin on Fridays.
Excellent space, awesome memories...

I saw Chuck Berry at the Limelight on New Years Eve. Does anyone know what year that was? Please email me

Last New Year's Eve (December 3l, 2007) German tv broadcast from "Sensations" in Duesseldorf with a NYC dj Erik Morill. It was like Limelight only bigger. Everyone was in white and 75% straight and 25% gay. I am going to Carnvale in Duesseldorf this year just to see what the place is like. But, Saturday nights with my PR boyfriend downstairs or after we broke up with the cuties upstairs, Heaven should be this good.

My first experience in Limelight was in 83 or 84. I was a breakdancer for Nona Hendrix and we did a show there on a Sunday. had 2 leave after b'cus of school but it was a great experience.

I used to go there a lot. Great club. In my book, Infinity is number 1

I use to go to the limelight in 1984-86... i couldnt beleive it the 1st time i went there.. i was dating someone who was a bartender there so we use to just walk right in.. but after he stopped working there and we no longer dated cause he moved to california, i was on my own and standing out in the crowd with everyone else waiting to get picked to go in.. insane.. i always wondered why they did that... they liked to make people feel like either you were worth going in or you were nothing.. thank God i always made it in.. i saw whitney houston perform there before she was even famous.. and in the crowd was tiny tim, drew barrymore and she was only 8 yrs old!! and i was also there when they had a party for the jacksons.. i think for randy.. michael wasnt there though.. i do remember one of the brothers on crutches.. not sure who.. i dont remember but i have pictures somewhere...
all i could say is thats the best and craziest club i ever went to.. nothing will ever come close to that..
i miss it..

The Limelight was part of NYC history . A friend named Arthur W. who worked there with me once said, " there hasn't been a nightclub of this magnitude since Studio 54. He would have known if anyone would . This was a place where good and evil came to play on a weekly basis, and only the strong made it out . Much respect to Peter G. and Michael A. for making my youth more than memorable .
RIP limelight.
Peace

My band played here in the late 1990s and it was the greatest experience ever! We got ready in the bathrooms, and when i walked into the stall the bathroom was almost empty. Come out, the bathroom was getting packed. Within minutes, the bathroom area is packed, drugs, crazy stuff going on....then my band is called to take the stage. The best stuff ever!!!! Coolest club with so much atmosphere, all kinds of weird little rooms and spaces. Great memories...Avalon? Um, no.

All I know is that the good times are waaaaay over, Avalon is so retarded, it killed all the memories of the realness that happened inside those walls when it was limelight.
From the Wed nite hot bodies to the weekend hardcore bashes, nothing compares..

Used to go to the original Limelight on 7th around 1976-1977. It was a small club and when you entered there was a bar on the left and the dancefloor was on a lower level in the back. The music was great and it was usually my stop on a Wednesday or Friday night. I don't remember the reason it closed but by then the crowd had changed.

I heard from friends about the other Limelight (in the church) that came later but was told not to bother - so I didn't.

Don't worry Mikko. My mom worked across the street from there when I was a kid and took me there to take communion (I should have told her it was an Episcopalian church and not a Catholic one). Years later, after I came out of the closet, I was taking Communion there of another kind. You remember the party...

When I told my mother this she almost fainted.

Nothing like the original Lime Light. I though for sure I was going to Hell for going to such a place and having so much fun, LOL! All the clubs in NYC were the tops.

The club kids !!! Michael Alig...

There was some kind of ritual : people would go for a coffee at Barnes and Nobles across the street. I was there, visiting my sister from Paris and a girl liked my pants and told me to come with them.
Inside it was hysteria !

I went there later in the '90s and loved it! I was living in Paris at the time and came to visit my then-Girlfriend. Good House music, good crowd. It, some other clubs, and NY nightlife in general made me want to move to NY for awhile. I thought too many places closed too early, though.

Went here back in 92 during my NYC clubbin days. Lot's of techno not enough house, too many shady cats in suits trying to sell you ecstacy. Interesting club though.

I patroned the Limelight in the mid eighties when it FIRST opened. My friend Dave was a bartender there and he gave me a life - time credit card like card. It's black and has a gold cross on it. No joke I got in for free and was put right through the front of the line. I still have that card. It brings back many fun memories of my many visits. Those were the days. Is it still open, in any capacity other than praying?

I went to a MOS event there was playing Todd Terry, CJ Mackintosh, Tony Humphries, and the performes were Jocelyn Brown, Malaika, among many more artists, Unforgettable, that was in July 1993, During the NMS

Went to Limelight once in 1986. I have to say there was no club quite like it that I've been to...better and more wild than the Chez Paree in AC. I wish I had the chance to go there more than the one time I did.

From 1990 and on Limelight was the best club in the world. Period.

Disco2000 on Wednesdays
Future Shock Fri/Sat
Rock n' Roll Church on Sundays

Another hangout.

boxter32 maybe you were too young at the time, but the club was a reality way before the 6th ave site , ive been clubbin since the seventys i think i would know

The club in the village may have had the same name but it wasn't owned or managed by Peter I don't believe. I worked for him for 3 years and don't remember a mention of another Limelight before the 6th Ave. location (666 6th Ave). He did go on to open clubs in Chicago and London, both were named Limelight and neither lasted for very long under Mr. Gatien's management.

Like larry2, I remember the original on 7th Avenue with David Rodriguez providing the music. Also remember the Bon Soir. Wild place, a little 'young' but I went to hear Eddie Rivera.

nothing like the original on seventh ave in the village which by the way was alot smaller but was way more cool then then 6th ave, people tend to forget that !! . Its a shame these small clubs are forgotten,they set the pace for the rest of the larger clubs of the present , remember the bon soir in the village?how about dukes? or the electrical inferno on second ave between 13th and 14th street, how about the volcano ? remember it ? ,it had a theater down stairs that showed cartoons , it was on ten st. and second ave across from saint marks church, those were the good ole days