Wanted: Memories Of The Pyramid Club, 1981-1985

You my dear are too kind ! don't stop now !!!! No really,,,, it wasn't any ONE person but the entire GROUP (along with all the "performers" of course) that made that scene so fun and BUSY. I think you posted a pic. with you and Mr. sex and another "girl". I remember you also... you were never a BITCH to us downstairs as some OTHERS could be (ie...Inter. N. Crisis on the rag, lipsynca at a soundcheck although SHE was professional and we loved her SHOWS) yea...lots of "queers" had their moments at our expense. We would retreat to the tech room and giggle around a doobie at the "starpower" ! Of course...i loved Crisis too ... who couldn't help but love her as she whipped out her favorite "BREASTS" to the SALIORS in town for fleet week. I have a big mouth sometimes ...i know.... but i love you all none the less. It's so nice to be HOME again ! Thanks Dad

I was never a "BITCH" to you guys because I wanted access to the sacred "Tech Room". It wasn't much to look at but the vibes alone from that room could knock you out. If I remember correctly you guys had a key or a lock or something that kept EVERYONE out. It was genius.
Forget about the club, tell us about "The Tech Room"!
I bet Hattie never saw the inside of it!

This is a pic I took of International Chrysis in 1986.

I look foward to reading this book on the early Pyramid years.
I went to the Pyramid during these years. I only have a comp flyer from those years, it's from 84 and says something about a mud wrestling championship between Ethyl Eichelberger and Ranting Tanya Ransom.
I didn't think the music went too much into new wave, well not in the same sense as the Ritz new wave music was. I always found the music at the Pyramid some of the best, there was always songs that I never heard that I would hear at the Pyramid. I didn't really know anyone at the Pyramid,, sort of knew Alan, one of the dancers. I was a loner goth queen.

maybe not the vibes as much as the thick dense cloud of "smoke" in there. rasta's at heart ! In fact... a joint was "a key" ! both hattie and sista had keys but would be too dressed to the hilt to carry them around. Loreta B always knocked 1st and sometimes would say "i know you're in there because i can smell the weed from the street...SO OPEN UP" !

2ND... NEW WAVE MUSIC... sucked with all that moaning in and out of "key" and way to many "versus" ! I love the house/Disco and to this day... i think alan had the largest collection of rare or unheard of DISCO. pyramid also played a lot of "hip hop"

babette... hi ! do you know anyone on 75th st. ?

lastly... i seem to remember the demise of our "club" came shortly AFTER "acid house" entered with the NEW manager(that jewish guy) and although he mellowed out a bit at the end ... it was too late ...he already ran it into the ground. (anyone remember "the meth" that spread though our club) everyone was doing it ! people ..i never saw doing drugs were sniffin that shit left n right. (we know who we are !) i lost hope through that period and it became a JOB to go to work again instead of something to look forward to. enough said ! bye if anyone thinks i "rant to much here"... tell me.... i'm alone here in china and am tickled pink to be back with the one's i love most. okay,bye

Hi Dana, sorry, I don't know anyone from 75st.

I moved around a lot in those days but I never knew anyone from 75st area.


At the time I was hanging out with this guy who was a new wave freak, so I followed his lead to the clubs, so that's why I am influenced by new wave, although I do like the other music that was played in the clubs.

I did like the shows that Pyramid put on, you probably know the names. I really liked John Sex with his hair that would touch the ceiling. The show I liked was when John had a Christmas light jacket that lit up, the shows were so camp. It's sad about John and others who are no longer with us.

I also liked the guy who took the money in the early days. I don't know his name, he was kinda tough looking but he seemed so nice to me. One night some yuppie dude was giving him a hard time and he sort of raised the price of admission on the guy and at the same time, let me go in for free, pissing the guy off. I don't think the other guy came in. I liked him, he was a nice guy to me. Too bad I don't remember the names,,,,,,,well, I never knew most of the names anyway.

I didn't hang out too much in the downstairs area or the upstairs area, I liked to dance, so I was mostly on the dance floor. I would dance until my mascara would look spooky running down my face

quote:

(anyone remember "the meth" that spread though our club) everyone was doing it!

Honey, THAT'S the Pyramid Club that I remember!

quote:

I also liked the guy who took the money in the early days. I don't know his name, he was kinda tough looking but he seemed so nice to me.

And that cute guy at the door...
I remember him too Babette.
What was his name again Hattie?
you know the one I mean.

Lets see....tough guys "on the door" ????

RAY BEE's (local skinhead and sweetheart "if he liked you") i think he died though and that's a cryin shame.

Jimmy gestpo (local skinhead and front man for "Murphy's Law. again...if he liked you ..you were "IN" if you gave him shit...you could expect a "beating" then or after you left the club. (wasn't that WHY they were hired ?) Being able to see "whispers" on sundays, hardcore bands on monday and so on made the best club in the world. (BET) !

Barnard n lewis ... could get down no problem but were usually gentlemen. (any word on them hatches ? )

I must thank you "messy" for the outstanding pictures and if i hadn't been a junkie also i would never have seen the HUMOR in those pic's. I laughed and it was needed ! Thanks again !

I remember all of you...well, most of you.
And if Brian is Hatches then I have you to thank once again for letting me still come in after my father called you.

I spent loads of time in the DJ booth...how come noone has yet to mention Ivan?
....and I spent time propped on the beer boxes next to the ice machine in the wait station, where Stephan named me "Queen of the May."
I screamed when songs I liked came on.
I mean high piercing screamed- like the girl in that "dont need this pressure" song
I did a fine job of giving Bill Murray and Dan Ackroyd an utterly pointless tour of the Mood Lounge, which in hindsight pretty absurd, but who the hell cares.
I helped to redesign the loft upstairs for a New Year's event...Painted for a day and a half!

the first night I ever went to the pYramid was in high school....all the guys I liked were bisexual or gay, and I was at a party, and this guy I was friends with came out to me and I said thats IT...I cant TAKE this anymore! Everyone is GAY! I'm going downtown to the Pyramid!!!
and there I went...at least three nights a week for about three years....

What ever happened to....Grace, Joey, Richard, Tanya, Peggy, Robert, Michael Rios, Russell..I kept a diary when I was that young and in my first few weeks out at pYramid, I would remember and record the names of everyone I had met that night...too bad I dont have that kind of marketing ability today!!!

I remember when there was no DJ booth for me to hang out in (boo hoo) and they had to climb through some strange hole in the wall...that had to be a fire hazard..for sure!

I did "rounds" at pYramid...I was outside, inside, DJ booth, mood lounge, tech room, backstage...everywhere...

Then people took me out to breakfast at 103's or Nightbirds which were both so awesome and funfilled, or we would go to after hours places like Save the Robots or Berlin...warm drinks - no ice - no refrigeration - no air conditioning...but great music....

then once I was exposed to the club scene I became corrupted...got a job at Danceteria...had a problem one night working as elevator girl, then the club closed...went to work at Palladium...then went back to school and left the scene.

I doubt any of you remember me...but let it be known that the pYramid cocktail lounge played a very signicant part in my early adulthood and will probably require an entire chapter in the autobio.
L

What a great post.
You really nailed that time period.

I forgot about climbing through that hole to get to the DJ booth.
That was nuts!

And yes, Hatches is sometimes known as Brian.

Hi Lisa Lisa, I also went to 103 and nightbirds after a night out. I liked Nightbirds, it was more grungy(?). 103 sometimes had too many people that would come and gawk at the strange downtown people,, in other words,,,tourists from New Jersey. I didn't know this person but I would always see CC from the clubs at 103. I sort of knew Tom at Nightbirds, I would go there many times by myself after a night of clubbing, eating and reading a comic, my mom never let me read at the table at home, but it was OK with Tom.

The only person that I know from the clubs that others here might know is Miss Shanon. I first met her at Enz store, then at Lee's. I would only have small talk with her, we never talked to much.
Lisa, I probably saw you in 103 but we most likely didn't meet.

i loved ivan ivan and still do although i have no idea where he's at these days. Ivan was a professional when it came to his dj job. almost always SMILED as he escorted you out of the booth (not u lisa lisa). btw... that hole was my "downtime before showtime space" and that hole got fixed because all those queers keep disconnecting the cables leading to the amps. and some dj's had lp's stored in there that went missing.....that wasn't like that for very long.... but "time" isn't my best recall.

remember when "madonna" came with her new husband (sean penn) who got in a fight outside the club that got a lot of media attention. She was there to see "MARTIN" (doing his last pyramid dj gig....what a beautiful person he was. she stayed quite awhile up in the dj booth and at show time....she got kicked out (nicely though)..... btw...i did ask about ivan but not "in public" here. i would also believe that although some may have not known your name...they did however know YOU (lisa) you were there more than 3 nights a week (as i recall) and the chair of boxes by the ice machine forever pissed off the busboys but was a prime location nonetheless.

Near the end of producing Dominatrix with Ken Lockie (co-producer) and Stuart Arbright (the "band"), Ivan brought another performer to Ken, fresh from the Pyramid stage and the tech room to boot. And that was me. Ken and Ivan produced my 2 song "development deal" with Geffen's money. Through Ken Lockie I met one of my heroes, Keith Levene of Public Image Ltd. He later borrowed a mixer of mine. Ivan also produced the English language remake of Les Rita Mitsouko's "Marcia Baila". The Dominatrix single was also lifted from another, more obscure single, Die Dominas I think it was called released by that woman who also had a clothing line I think. Ivan claimed that HER claim of rip-off was bull, but if you listened carefully to both you could tell that Lockie studied the original and this informed his contributions to the hit.

daddy, you wanted glimpses of the inside of the tech room? I can give 'em . But be warned, it was usually pretty normal in there.

Sometimes I'd walk in on one of the, uh, senior staff sniffing drugs. I'd walk in sometimes and the lighting/stage person (me: sound) would have two little piles of coke and direct me to sniff them. Much later we we talked about it and I realized this was meant to cut any motivation I might have to tattle. I did have sex in there once or twice.

I guess overall it was more laid back than the other offices (my favorite name for an office: "the wig office"). But how would I know?

We'd gossip. Chris or someome rigged up a ventilation system drawing air in from below and out from above. The big TV came in and that changed things. Dear Mark Oates and I had a few very intense talks. He's gone too.

Maybe the best part was being right off the dressing room--not what you want to hear, daddy?

I remember the tech phone to the dj booth that was fixed to the stairs to the stage . . . and what a thrill it was the first time (and everytime, I guess) that I picked it up. How a screw up like me ended up being the emcee . . . that had a lot to do with Mark Oates.
But that phone ringing meant "Showtime"

Finally in the "Cuchifritos" or "Hapi's BackDoor" days (daze - it's all a grey (gardens) blur) the tech-phone broke and no one was there who could or cared to fix it. Probably someone stole the copper wire to sell for drug money. That more than anything signaled to me that the Queen of Clubs was indeed a corpse. You'd have thouth some of the many thousands of other signposts along the way would have sunk in.

Other fun memories, when Sister Dimension called me to put me on probation and say, "Hapi, a Pyramid Dancer does not pull her panty hose down around her ankles and lift her dress over her head." after a particularly wild (what I thought was 'artistic') go-go gig.

That reminds me. Hattie once explained that it was illegal to expose one's pubic hair in a NYC bar or some such wording that was on the books - as to why I couldn't wear a see-through dress. So I remember being very proud of myself and thinking that I was getting one on against "the man" by walking on stage totally nude with a shaved bush.

Funny to be remembering all this now as I sit here writing this in a full Birka from my Underground Bunker in an Undisclosed Location.

Hatches - do you think China is ready for Hattie & Hapi Hattie & Hapi Hapi and Hattie's Fried Chicken Review?

xxoo Haplestilskin

As she would say, "Have you met the TWINS?"
"36-24-9 [vaudville pause] the shoe-size honey."

quote:

Of course...i loved Crisis too ... who couldn't help but love her as she whipped out her favorite "BREASTS" to the SALIORS in town for fleet week.

FOUR things 1)I just found this site tonight,and am I thrilled!! Just seeing the familiar names is making me feel at home. It all started by typing Brian's (Hattie)name into Google to find him. 2)KESTUTIS, I have wondered
for years what you are up to and would be very happy to offer up what I can for your book collaboration.
3)DANA, I went to Shangai last year for the Guy Bourdin opening at the Shanghai Art Museum and then on to Beijing...What an incredible place . I went to one of the best warehouse parties with video and audio dj's from Berlin and an acquaintance Isaia working with them, that I have been to in years. The scene and lifestyle there is top notch. you were lucky to end up in China!
4)DANA,you said "in memory of my brother David",that puts a somber note on things,and I hate to think what that means. I have very fond memories of David.

It's Aleta, I forgot that part.. I hate to lable myself like this ,but for a memory jolt,I was Paul Roule's girlfriend & business partner in New World,a night bartender and two day a week theme (country day & martini cocktail hour)happy hour 'hostess'. The music selection was integral to the ambiance.

I just noticed that the posts before mine are from a couple of months ago...ohhh. I've never been on a message board before. Is anyone reading???

hey aleta , your home like the rest here. i said almost the same thing when i 1st got here many months ago. .... welcome and so you know ... sometimes, it seems that people are again very busy being fabulous and don't post right away.

David was "David Crocker" /mc/lights and stagemanand yes ... he and i were very good friends and were very much like brothers. he died in 1992 or around then and i heard about it a week later while i was still a street junkie .... his passing has made think so much about him. Baby Gregor too ...we hung out alot at the end of his life and i still have both of their voices from answering machine tapes i managed to keep while losing 98 % of everything else.

beijing is so fuckin great. been here almost 9 yrs. and just did a dj show at Angel club kast friday. keep in touch will ya. i'll be back in the summer to nyc for a month or so. bye