The Gallery was a
disco in
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develo ...
,
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
which was opened in February 1972 by disc jockey
Nicky Siano
Nicky Siano (born March 18, 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is a former resident DJ at Studio 54.
Biography
In 1971, aged 16, Siano got his first DJing gig at The Roundtable. In February 1973, aged 17, he opened The Gallery (disco), The Gallery in C ...
and his older brother
Joe Siano
Joe Siano was the vocalist for the psychedelic rock band the Head Shop, which released an album on Epic Records in 1969.
In 1972, together with his better-known younger brother – Nicky Siano – they opened The Gallery, a landmark disco in Ne ...
. The first location of The Gallery, located on 132 West 22nd Street, closed in July 1974. It reopened in November 1974 at 172 Mercer and Houston Streets and closed in October 1977. Famed DJs
Larry Levan
Larry Levan (; born Lawrence Philpot, July 20, 1954 – November 8, 1992) was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern da ...
and
Frankie Knuckles both worked at the club, but not at the DJ booth.
Grace Jones and
Loleatta Holloway
Loleatta Holloway (, ; November 5, 1946 – March 21, 2011) was an American singer known for disco songs such as "Hit and Run" and "Love Sensation". In December 2016, ''Billboard'' named her the 95th most successful dance artist of all time. Acco ...
both made their debut performances at The Gallery.
Disco's House of Worship
The disco era produced an attitude and culture popular among a majority of the population, but proved to be an especially crucial time for the emergence and empowerment of traditionally marginalized and disadvantaged groups, as blacks, gays, and women found security in the community built around dance clubs such as The Gallery. This safety provided by The Gallery in the 1970s created a catharsis for minorities though the temporary relief from harsh outside realities. The club “
eaturedritualized activities centered around music, dance, and worship, in which there
ereno set boundaries between secular and sacred domains”.
Popular references
John Mayer mentions The Gallery in his song "
City Love
''Room for Squares'' is the debut studio album by American singer-songwriter John Mayer, originally released on June 5, 2001, and re-released on September 18, 2001, by both Aware and Columbia Records. Upon its release, it peaked at number 8 on ...
".
Further reading
*
Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever' by Will Hermes, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2012)
*
Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Grove Atlantic (2014)
*
Love Saves the Day: A History of American Dance Music Culture, 1970-1979' by Tim Lawrence, Duke University Press (2004)
*
Hold On to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-1992' by Tim Lawrence, Duke University Press (2009)
*
Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco' by Peter Shapiro, Faber and Faber (2005)
*
The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries' by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, Black Cat (2010)
*
Disco: The Music, The Times, The Era' by Johnny Morgan, Sterling (2011)
*
'The 1970s club scene in New York was special': Nicky Siano by Will Coldwell, The Guardian (Apr 7, 2017)
*
"You Better Work!": Underground Dance Music in New York' by Kai Fikentscher, Wesleyan University Press (2000)
*
Nicky Siano on disco, drugs and DJing at Studio 54, The Vinyl Factory
*
Nicky Siano on the Gallery and the Dark Days of Disco, DJHistory.com
*
Welcome to The Gallery!, Standard Hotels
References
Nightclubs in Manhattan
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