Prior to 1984, the first rule of clubbing was was No tennis shoes No t-shirts No caps So we start with button down shirts and some nice shoes. Then things became crazy!  Spark Guns, Whistles.... Funk, House, Techno, Acid House, Trance.... Pirate Radio, Indoor Snow, Car Hoods, Sand, Animals, Motorcycle Entrances.... |
| This is "Chaos in The Flats: 1984 to 1993" (My anecdotes are in yellow) (Links to the best music you've probably never heard are in cyan) |
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  took me to the Nine of Clubs. It was dark, the music was good and nobody was really dancing together.  I loved it! And the place was insane on Wednesday nights. The music alternated between sets of alternative and sets of techno and acid house |
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Two guys and a girl arm in arm just rolled down the stairs right into the middle of the dance floor -At the Nine of Clubs Some guy just placed his Raggedy Ann doll on the dance floor He's dancing to it! Another guy has a Barbie tethered to himself, the string is so long Barbie is bouncing off the floor. Tough night for Barbie! -At the Nine of Clubs Nine of Clubs made Wednesdays exclusively techno and acid house and opened Thursdays for alternative music.  They could do this because the number of people coming to the flats was rising very rapidly. Listen to the song that cleaved the underground into two groups "This Is Acid" Both groups would flourish and result in more underground clubs. While a new club opened every 3 months or so, at this time, crowds had ballooned to 15k people in the flats every Friday and Sunday, and 20k on Saturday. Only one club, NRG, closed during the period 1980 to 1993. |
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The entire dance floor moves up and down! Oh, and I took a Chippendale home one night. He told me most of them were gay. -At Rumors Nightclub (Rumors on Euclid, The original Nite Moves). This club had a riverview waterfall -At D'Poos. The Ritz was huge, three floors. The Beach Party required even more space. A large section of the parking lot was walled off, filled with sand, palm trees, hot tubs and, of course, a bar. -At The Ritz These clubs had outdoor swimming pools. -At Fagan's & Shooters. |
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Back at the Ritz: At the twin bars near the dance floor level, I saw a pile of tips 2 feet high. Boys were bringing down full garbage cans every 5 minutes. Later in the night two guys had full-on sex in the balcony level. Scout's honor. -At the Beach Party at The Ritz PSST! If you click on most images they will open in a new window Then click again and the image will become large enough to read all text. |
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After taking the freight elevator up to the fourth floor, we saw one person doing the heel click. We later learned this was something from the roaring 20's. Within an hour or so, the club was pretty full. We later figured out the club had no intention of opening the first three times we tried. -At Aquilon. escalation of the club wars in the Flats. With it's video screen, it's window views and high end design, it easily surpassed what a club was at that time. -At Aquilon. Aquilon also becomes the first straight club to advertise in a gay weekly. Aquilon is also the first straight club to host a gay night, Millenium, on Mondays and Thursdays. (They spelled Millennium wrong!) -At Aquilon. |
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us in, they announced that weekends would feature the Jerry Szoka Big Band until 11 they would then change to techno and trance music to finish the evening. It worked, the club was full throughout the evening -At Aquilon. Aquilon launched The Lift on Wednesdays, a completely underground weekly. -At Aquilon. a Victorian library. -At Spy Bar. into the river, and drowning. -At Rumrunners. |
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a roaring success. We were fixated by many new, crazy songs that we could listen to endlessly. Here's a few of the techno anthems: James Brown Is Dead Dominator Dominator Version II Sesame Street Speed Racer Speed Racer Version II to that for 3 hours, getting drenched, then running outside to get quenched in the deep freeze of January. -At Many Places. |
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performed in Cleveland April, 1988 See Dee-Lite's Video -At Aquilon. never turns the lights on at close. You can't have your sweaty patrons scattering like cockroaches just because it is 2:30. The great clubs stay open until almost everyone leaves. They pour water to help the kids sober up for their drive home. -At Aquilon, U4ia Nine of Clubs, Metropolis and more. |
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The closest we could park was where Progressive Field is now. As soon as we exited our car, we just heard this buzzzzzzzzzzz. Turns out that is what half a million people and seven stages sound like from a half-mile away. -At Riverfest Heightening fences were installed on the Detroit-Superior bridge because people were jumping off the bridge into the river That jump is about 100 feet. -At Riverfest A massive new multi-level gay club opens. It was so popular a satellite parking lot was rented, along with a shuttle to the front door. -At U4ia |
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At some point, a law lapsed that prevented nudity and alcohol in the same space. The coat check quickly became a clothes check. Soon thereafter the lapse was closed. -At U4ia Three gay clubs are the first to advertise in a straight mag, The Scene -U4ia, Club Trash & Detour |
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Live with Nina Blackwood TV show debuts from Coconuts on CBS, Cleveland, October, 1990  At one point, there also was a pirate radio station -At Everywhere largest yet, with a VIP room, full balcony, two outdoor river view levels and a large dance floor. AND this space featured a pulley system that allowed for raising and lowering props like palm trees, fake cars and sheer fabric. The system was operated by kids employed by the club. -At Club Coconuts In 1991, we all knew a new club was opening on the west bank of the flats. We would drive by at the end of a lot of evenings to see if it was open. -At Metropolis |
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a main room with a large dance area and a stage. There was an overlook balcony and a second room that was ablaze in glow. It also featured a dance runway over the main bar and a multi-level VIP room. -At Metropolis started out with chill music. Then Scott Forbush would say a short sermon and then scream "Rave you Mfrs Rave". We would all then run for the boxes or stage to dance. At times, the music was so loud, my straw would stand up in my drink. -At The Church of Metropolis Judgment and King Missile at Metropolis, October, 1991 
Turns out, if you give the dj $10 and a casette tape, they will tape what they are spinning in real time! Sooooooo, I did this a few times. Here are actual tapes from The Church!!!. The Church, Tape One The Church, Tape Two The Church, Tape Three The Church, Tape Four
up for Metropolis and The Church was like no other. It was the apocalypse. They had placed the hoods of cars everywhere. There were also dead trees and little creatures. And there was a burning stench in the air. Amazing. -At The Church This Hip-Hop club had a roof that opened up to the sky. -At Mirage |
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LET'S TALK WHISTLES!! LET'S TALK WHISTLES!! There had been flyers instrucing us to bring whistles. They went unnoticed, that is, until DJ Euphoria played The Church. Someone brought a whistle. I was floored. -At The Church first few whistlers in this video DJ Euphoria At The Church Video The whistles sounded better in person At any rate, within a couple weeks, rooms were filled with the sounds of whistles. Nothing like 500 whistles blowing periodically at the same time. One would blow and the rest would follow. -At The Church, The Lift, U4ia & More. |
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the winter palace opened. Metropolis brought in 12,000 square feet of FAKE SNOW. In fact, they constructed a complete winter landscape indoors. Not sure who cleaned all that up! The flats became so popular, charter buses from elsewhere were spotted outside some clubs. -At Metropolis |
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understandable to think that we had seen everything, butttttttt, no. One Sunday we were all dancing and then three Club Kids walked in and just sat on the center box Eventually, these kids started to dance because they were surprised by our Glow Kids and our hard driving dancing. -At The Church |
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supposed to be a late-night party in a secret location. Tidal Rave was Cleveland's first. We were to call the number on the flyer. The answering machine then instructed us to get tickets and get the event location from The Rascal House downtown. The venue turned out to be the Aragon Ballroom and the party was mobbed! This event pushed Charm's Blow Pops and spark guns. -At A Secret Location |
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was interesting. Clearly someone was doing roof work and left the ladders out. I looked up and kids were on the roof dancing all around the courtyard. Thankfully, they coaxed everyone back to solid ground. -At A Secret Location Friends at The Church. 
My farewell weekend. I moved to Dallas, so I could listen to Top 40. Hated it and was back by 2000.  |
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