Hurrah was a nightclub located at 36 West 62nd StreetPost, H.: "New Wave After Dark: The Big Clubs, New York, Pg. 55, Nov. 3, 1980. in New York City from 1976 until early 1981. Music and videos Hurrah was the first large dance club in NYC to feature punk, new wave, no wave and industrial music. The in-house DJs at Hurrah were Sara Salir, Bill Bahlman, Bart Dorsey and Anita Sarko. Under the management of Henry Schissler,New York Rock: From the Rise of The Velvet Underground to the Fall of CBGB by Steven Blush and later Jim Fouratt,Shapiro, P.: Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, page 256. Faber & Faber, October 2006. it became known as the first "rock disco"Christgau, Robert: "The Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll (Almost) Grows Up", Village Voice, Jan. 28, 1980. in New York, and pioneered the use of music videos in nightclubs, placing video monitors around the club,Shore, M.: The Rolling Stone Book of Rock Video, pg. 73, Quill, 1984. over a year before the launch of MTV. The club was owned by Arthur Weinstein (who also created The World and the after-hours clubs The Jefferson and The ContinentalHaden-Guest, Anthony: "The gang of new york", The Observer, 18 July 2004.) and his partners, who opened the club in November 1976, months before Studio 54.Martin, D.: "Arthur Weinstein, Starter of Nightclubs, Dies at 60", The New York Times, July 16, 2008.
With Ruth PolskyPalmer, R.: "New York Rock Bands Excite London", The New York Times, February 20, 1981. as booking agent, Hurrah became known as a place for new wave, punk and post-punk bands to play, featuring many of the British bands' first American performances."The Pazz & Jop Critics' Poll (Almost) Grows Up", Village Voice, Jan. 28, 1980.
On April 16, 1978, the Tom Eyen comedy play The Neon Woman, starring Divine, opened at Hurrah. It ran for 84 performances, closing on July 15, 1978. Famed New York club doorman Haoui Montaug worked as the doorman for Hurrah. 1978 incident The club became notorious for an incident in December 1978, where during a Skafish gig, Sid Vicious got into a fight with Todd Smith (brother of Patti Smith), resulting in the incarceration of Vicious for two months in Rikers Island.Tucker, R.: "My New York: Sid & Nancy", The New York Post, July 27, 2010. David Bowie was filmed in the club for his music video for the song "Fashion" in 1980.Pegg, Nicholas: The Complete David Bowie, Reynolds & Hearn, 2000. Joy Division was scheduled to perform their first-ever US dates from May 21-23, 1980 at Hurrah, but the suicide of their singer Ian Curtis a few days earlier prevented this.
References
Shapiro, P. Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco, Faber & Faber, October 2006. Orth, Maureen: "The Beat Comes East," pg. 39, New York, 26 March 1979. Turcotte, Bryan Ray, and Miller, Christopher T., Fucked Up + Photocopied: Instant Art of the Punk Rock Movement, Gingko Press, August 1999.
External links Live At Hurrah Video Archive by Merrill Aldighieri