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Johnny Dynell today

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“In the late seventies and early eighties the yuppies were total losers in New York club-land. By the nineties they had taken it over. I never saw that one coming. However, I think that they and Mayor Giuliani get way too much credit for New York’s cultural downfall. I think that they are symptoms of the decline but not the cause of it.”

Starting his DJ career at New York’s seminal downtown underground haunt the Mudd Club in 1980, Johnny Dynell rapidly became one of the City’s busiest and most popular underground DJs, going on to hold residencies at nightlife institutions including Danceteria, Tunnel, Palladium and later Crobar (between 2003 and 2007). A leading light and key player in the post-punk early 80s club scene that helped spawn both hip hop and later house music, he hung out with both Madonna (when she was a Danceteria coat check girl) and later David Morales, when the future house God was a teenage gang-banger.

Johnny @ Danceteria (1983) picture by Chris Savas

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Spending his entire adult life DJing, promoting and producing electronic music in New York, he’s perfectly placed to identify the forces that destroyed New York’s once fabled nightlife, singling out gentrification as one of the greatest single causes.

“New York just got too rich. Kids can’t afford to come here anymore,” he points out.

“The only people who can afford New York rents are lawyers and investment bankers. That’s who lives in New York now. Today New York is seen as a great place to live and raise a family. That sort of says it all.”

Back in the early 80s, New York was seen as a great place for miscreants and misfits to mingle, party and pursue artistic alternative lifestyles, drawn by the city’s 24/7 notoriously decadent nightlife and lifestyle. With semi-derelict areas such as the East Side’s Alphabet City and Skid Row providing relatively cheap space for those willing to brave street gangs and assorted random crazies, anything was possible, and the City thrived as THE global heart of underground culture. 30 years on, the Bowery and Avenue D are uber-expensive banker infested quarters, though Johnny remains optimistic despite his assessment.

Jackie 60 (picture by Paul Brissman)

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“As far as club life goes, New York is very sad now and is nothing compared to the scene in Europe, sure, but as a city she is still the queen,” he insists. “Her reign will come to an end someday for sure but there is still nothing like it. I never underestimate New York. She always rises from the ashes.”

And though he identifies gentrification as the single greatest destructive force against nightlife he’s far from forgiving towards Rudolph Giuliani based on his own experiences running legendary alternative club Jackie 60 (with his wife Chi Chi Valenti) throughout the 90s.

“When we started Jackie in 1990 we developed a great relationship with our local police precinct,” he explains.

“They were affectionately called ‘Fort Bruce’ by the other precincts because they are located on Christopher Street in the gay West Village. Every day they saw it all.  We were always honest with them about what went on at Jackie. They knew exactly what we were all about. Jackie 60 was a wild place with crazy performance art but nobody got hurt and they knew that,” he points out.

More Jackie 60 party snaps (by Paul Brissman)

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Hosting performance art pieces such as naked girls wrestling in paddling pools filled with chocolate pudding (‘we explained that it was our annual Brown Party.  “Oh, like the White Party?” they laughed’) the club thrived until 1994 when Giuliani headed for mayoral victory.

“One day our cops told us that if this Giuliani guy wins the election and becomes mayor everything will change. ‘He’s a Nazi’, they warned us,” Johnny recalls.

“They suggested that we get our cabaret license before it’s too late because this guy was going to come down hard on clubs. We did get our license and he did become mayor. He then created this special ‘Task Force’ to harass clubs. They would come in and give us tickets for things like hanging our liquor license on the wall with a screw instead of a nail. Things like that. When I would go to court the judge would just shake his head disgusted and throw it out saying ‘this guy (Giuliani) is insane’.

“I know it sounds crazy but it was actually a very clever, devious plan of constant harassment. The message was clear. We are always watching and we will kill you the second you slip up. His term as Mayor was New York’s darkest hour.”

Jackie 60 (picture by Tina Paul)

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Ludlow street, Lower East Side

20 years ago, Jonty lived and almost died in New York City, suffering a horrific lift accident at seminal 80s club Danceteria (where he worked at the time). Crushed and literally dragged between the base of the lift and the wall of its shaft, he suffered six normally mortal injuries, receiving the Last Rites some 40 minutes later as he waited outside a hospital operating theatre for the anaesthetic to kick in . . .

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