"HELTER SKELTER" IN NEW YORK CITY...FOR A LITTLE WHILE ANYWAY

As I currently go through my rolls of film to add more pictures for this blog, I came across some of these random shots from 1992.
There are even a few shots here from the short period when the legendary Goth club "Helter Skelter" existed in NYC around July/August of 1992.
Bruce from the original "Helter Skelter" in Los Angelos came to New York looking to branch out since the Goth scene was really going well here.
Initially he approached Marius, Jay and I, who were doing the "Belfry" night at the Bank, to start it up and gave us a ton of merch to promote it, including these incredible die cut peel-away "Helter Skelter" stickers that I was putting up EVERYWHERE in NYC that summer.
(Funny enough there's even one still up on the wall in my old room at my parent's house to this day...See pic below)

Anyway, one thing lead to another and eventually Father Jeff from "Ward 6" took over and had the night at Jackie 60 after "Troublemaker" ended it's run there on Thursdays.
Opening night was great, with the taped outlines of bodies all over the place with fake blood, right out of the Manson killings crime scene photos.
However, New York City wasn't as successful for a full-on Goth night and "Helter Skelter" only lasted about two months or so.
Just seems that in NYC you had to have a night that not only played Goth, but had all the danceable Wax Trax/Industrial stuff as well.
But even so, we were really surprised that the night didn't work here. Everyone thought it was a sure-fire hit since at the time, the scene was getting bigger with bands like Requiem in White, The Wake, Sunshine Blind, as well as smaller parties like "Dark Wave" and the "Night of Misanthropy" were starting up.

Jesse, Sheila and Sonja downstairs at "Helter Skelter" at Jackie 60

Adam and Summer at Skinny Puppy

Rob Xian, Sheila and Sonja outside the Pyramid

Helene and Jen at "Helter Skelter" at Jackie 60

Ian, Sheila and Sonja: end of night at Limelight

Robbie, Nicole, Brian and Me at Skinny Puppy

Laura at "Helter Skelter"

Vanessa Miasma DJ-ing at Tilt

Robbie performing at Pyramid (Michelle Meow at left)

Adam and Sheila at Skinny Puppy

Aimee and Patrick "Helter Skelter"

Marius, Jay and Ian outside the "Belfry" at the Bank

Sheila, Kenny and Michelle at Tilt

Sheila mugging it up at Tilt

Sharon and Scott in the Chapel at Limelight (Thanks Reese & Sam!)

PARTYING OUTSIDE OF CLUBS...

Here are some pictures of a bunch of us hanging out away from the club scene.
The first set is from a house-party Jesse threw in the summer of 1992 at his house in Queens. Fun night with lots of people, food and drink. Some people may not even remember being there (sorry Joe!).
The second bunch of shots are from the West Side Highway to watch the 4th of July fireworks show that summer. There weren't many years where the city had them on the Hudson, but this was one of them.
I DO remember that the year before in 1991 the fireworks show was actually down by Governors Island, so they let spectators go onto the Brooklyn Bridge and view the show from there. We all did just that. I remember it was Rory, Laura, Flavio, Weegie, Jesse, myself and a few others. THAT was an awesome place to hang out. But obviously, in this time of "Potential Terrorism" they'd never let that go on any longer. Sucks...
Anyway, enjoy...

Jen, Brian and Rory

Randi

Dale, Ian and Joe

Tuesday and Dale

Kristi

???, Jen and Tuesday

Here are the 4th of July pics:

Helene and Ian

Andre, Joe and Sharon

Jesse, Rob, Helene, Me and Ian

Sheila and Sonja

Jesse

Sharon and Joe

Joe, Helene, ???, Jesse and Sharon

???, ???, Mary, Andre and Joe

AS IF A CLUB EVERY NIGHT WASN'T ENOUGH...

So, besides having all of these clubs to hit in NYC, we were also lucky enough to have what seemed to be a concert to go to every night as well.
During the same time as all the clubbing, we had so many venues putting on shows it was ridiculous. Some of the more active venues back then: The Ritz, The World, Marquee, Limelight, Roseland, The Academy, The Cat Club, CBGB's, Pyramid, Irving Plaza, Wetlands, Maxwell's in Hoboken N.J., ABC No Rio, and your bigger spots like Radio City and the Beacon Theater.
So as I was putting this blog together it got me to remember some of the shows in that short period of time. It was insane just how many shows we fit in while clubbing. Usually we'd go to the show, THEN trek over to whatever club was going that night.
The following are as good a list of the shows we saw in that time as I can remember. These shows ranged from large venues down to the clubs themselves.
Thing is, I KNOW I'm forgetting many other shows. Any help would be appreciated. Here goes in NO particular order:
Sleep Chamber, Meat Beat Manifesto, Pigface 2x, Revolting Cocks, Killing Joke 2x, Front Line Assembly 2x, Wolfgang Press 2x, Dead Can Dance 2x, Happy Mondays 2x, Morrissey, Sisters of Mercy 2x, Creatures, KMFDM, Einsturzende Neubauten, Nick Cave 2x , Ministry, Lush, Nine Inch Nails, Nocturnal Emissions, The Fall, Fugazi, Sex Gang Children, Pere Ubu, Alien Sex Fiend, Cramps 2x, Skinny Puppy, Whitehouse, Hair and Skin Trading Company, Crash Worship 4x, Tony Wakeford, Front 242, Shadow Project, Christian Death, Wire, Pixies 3x, Gang of Four, Breeders, Legendary Pink Dots, Laibach, Consolidated, Thrill Kill Kult, Peter Murphy, Siouxsie and the Banshees 2x, Janes Addiction, The Cure, Bjork, Suicide, Cocteau Twins, The Cranes, The Damned, Suicidal Tendencies, Godflesh, P.I.L., Pain Teens, Foetus, Nitzer Ebb, Rollins Band, Die Krupps, Ajax, The Mentors, 808 State, and the Young Gods.
Again, I know there are many that I forgot, and I haven't even mentioned all the NY Hardcore shows (Murphy's law, Agnostic Front, etc etc etc), but this is what I could come up with at the moment. Not a bad bunch of shows for such a short period of time.
Some of the more memorable shows that stick out in my mind:
Sex Gang Children reunited after 10 years performing at Limelight; Sleep Chamber's show at Limelight was incredible; Dead Can Dance at Symphony Space; the Sisters of Mercy show at the Ritz where all they played were the classic tracks; (on a side note: the Sisters show at Radio City three months later was EASILY the worst show ever!! With Public Enemy, Warrior Soul and Young Black Teenagers sharing the bill. Total Debacle! Goths, Metal Heads and Hip Hoppers all together in one place. Recipe for DISASTER! They may as well has Skrewdriver play that night so they could fit in some Nazi-Skins to boot!); Suicide at Limelight (with Ric Ocasek from the Cars performing with them); Nick Cave at The World (as aggressive as I have ever seen him); and ANY Crash Worship show!! (I remember they had shows at Limelight, the Building, Wetlands, West Beth Music Center and I think even Brownies. Each and every show absolutely incredible!), and the incredibly rare performance by Nocturnal Emissions at some small venue on Avenue B sometime in 1992.
I DO remember the hilarious moment at Limelight when Shadow Project played, and Rozz Williams wanted to start the show by being "dragged" out onto the stage by someone on a leash. As much as Neville tried, he couldn't get any of us to do it, so Chris got stuck with the "job". The look on his face as he was "pulling" Rozz out was hilarious. He clearly wanted to be ANYWHERE but on stage with an old goth at the end of a leash! I found an image of this online (sadly I didn't take any photos):

Anyway, I know I've said it before, but it really was an incredible time in New York City then. So much going on and so many places to see it. And when you realize that MOST of the venues were relatively close to each other, as well as close to the clubs themselves, we never really had to trek very far to hit whatever it was we were doing.
Then Giuliani came in, and got rid of most mid-sized venues for concerts, and we all KNOW what he did to clubs...
And with that, people fled to Williamsburg and gave birth to Hipster Nation.
The rest, as they say, is history.