Second coming for Toronto's club scene
He comes from a small Canadian town, helped transform New York’s nightlife and got booted out of the US. Can the legendary Peter Gatien pump new life into the failed club Lucid? And will gays leave the ghetto to give it the street credibility any Limelight-esque party palace needs?

Peter Gatien once said, “If someone wants to masturbate in one of my clubs, what can I do about it?” It is this offcentre, live-and-let-live attitude that has made him so successful in the past (though secretly I check my chair as we sit down to chat). Perhaps this also made him an easy target. Looking relaxed in a striped shirt under a simple grey sweater, comfortable camel-coloured slacks and dark glasses, he is not the powerful Gatien that I have always pictured. Unless you knew his name, you would never guess that this man, fiddling with a pack of cigarettes, was the undisputed king of New York’s nightlife for more than a decade, with strong connections to New York’s gay community and the celebrity world. But that was then. This is now.

After being deported back to his native Canada and lying low for two years, Gatien is in the midst of a whirlwind, carefully crafting his return to the lofty spotlight. With a stream of people coming and going from his fourth-floor office in the former Lucid Nightclub on John Street, he explains how he plans to change Toronto’s nightlife scene. He’s opening a new club that promises to be unlike any that he, or anyone, has attempted before. Despite a slight slur in his speech and a scattered manner of talking, Gatien still comes across as very confident, even passionate, in his grand plans not just to transform this 53,000- square-foot, four-floor mega-complex in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District, but to change the nightlife of this city and its very cultural soul. It is an act of passion that will undoubtedly reinvent and polish Gatien’s somewhat tarnished image at the same time. His newest (and, he says, his last) club, Circa, set to open this May, is positioned to be “an international entertainment venue that will link Toronto to the global meccas of New York, London, Paris and Tokyo.” Could he be the saviour of Toronto’s troublesome clubland and will club kids worship again at his door?

“I really wasn’t interested in opening up another dance club, but then someone brought me to Lucid,” says Gatien. Walking through the cavernous space, he was hooked, but for second opinions, he brought in people from New York whom he trusted and respected. He asked, “Is this place as great as I think it is?” According to them, it was, and will be.

Fifty-three-year-old Gatien has always surrounded himself with intelligent, creative people. For the transformation of Circa, he is working with visionary designer Travis Bass and Joakim Hannerz, an inventive Swiss architect. Bass has worked for such celebrities as P. Diddy, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Leonardo DiCaprio and Valentino. Hannerz is the founder of HAHA + Company Inc., a multidisciplinary design firm that blends architecture, media and technology to create a wide range of high-tech products and interior spaces. He is also a cofounder of Sensacell Corporation, an innovative company dedicated to developing new interface and sensing technologies. The renovation of the former Lucid is expected to cost $2.1 million, but with just over a month to go, very little seems to have been done. Besides a few walls knocked down, a pile of sinks ripped out of the washrooms and the construction of a new raised stage, it is still very much Lucid.

Still, he’s confident. And Gatien knows a thing or two about opening a club. When he was 17, he lost his left eye in a hockey game and received a $17,000 settlement. With this money, he soon opened his first bar, booking Rush as his first live act. A trip to New York in 1976 for the first Billboard Magazine National Disco Conference brought to his attention an ad in the back of the New York Post. In it, he read about a bankrupt nightclub in Florida. This would become the first incarnation of the infamous Limelight.

Gatien has seen the changes in the club scene first-hand. “In the mid-’70s, you could just put a mirror ball up, paint the walls black and you were in business.” He witnessed the neon and chrome fad of the ’80s and the more art- and fashion-inspired clubs of the ’90s. This is when he started operating clubs in historic buildings. The first and most famous of these was New York’s Limelight (the third of his clubs with this name, the second being in Atlanta), housed in an old church in the heart of Chelsea. The theme of the club was “post-disco” decadence, which contrasted sharply with the stained-glass windows and religious symbols that flanked the walls of the former house of worship.

At his height, club czar Gatien operated four New York clubs. The smallest, Limelight, held 2500 people; the short-lived Club USA held 3000; the Palladium (coincidently, his new Toronto venture Circa was originally built as the Playdium mega-event arcade) held 5000; and the Tunnel held a staggering 5600. “We were doing about 17, 18 nights per week between the four clubs,” Gatien states. “And in those nights there would be two to four parties in each location. It was a lot of organization.” And a lot of money. With the four clubs, Gatien was raking in more than US$40 million a year.

“I don’t think I’m delusional,” he states. “If [you ask] anyone who’s knowledgeable within the industry who has had the biggest impact on nightlife in the last decade or two, my name would definitely pop up. This is something I’m beyond proud of.”

These venues attracted a huge share of celebrities. Everyone from Grace Jones to Sir Elton John, Liza Minnelli and Madonna (“she was nice” is all Gatien says of her) have partied the night away in his various venues. Gay icons like Joey Arias, Lady Bunny, Phoebe Legere, Lypsinka, RuPaul, Superstar DJ Keoki, Allison Wonderland, Larry Tee, Screaming Rachel, Richie Rich, Kenny Kenny and Amanda Lepore were some of the regulars who frequented Limelight’s holy halls. Vin Diesel, then known as Mark Vincent, was even a Limelight bouncer. So building the 3000-capacity Circa (which is expected to attract its own share of local and visiting celebrities) should be easy for him.

One reason Gatien has chosen to open a club in Toronto is the city’s well-represented art, music and fashion scenes, which he plans to tap into. “It’s a really sophisticated population,” he says. “That allows us to create really great events, great environments, and constantly reinvent ourselves. Torontonians really don’t know how well received their city is. I have a lot of actor friends and they all rave about Toronto. Things are much better [here] than in the United States, quite frankly.” “Toronto is a booming city,” adds designer Travis Bass. “New York has already boomed. The club kids are gone. The artists are gone. It’s a very rich city, but culturally it ain’t what it was 20 years ago. Warhol is dead and not even like his little brother is running the scene. Studio 54 is gone. The Palladium [and] Limelight are gone and [there is] nothing even close to that to replace it. New York seems like an old grandfather at times. New York is a little bit talking about yesterday.”

Gatien and Bass plan to make history. “This club will be my legacy,” claims Gatien grandly. The entire club, as well as the very concept of “the club” itself, is being gutted and revamped. Circa will not just be a spot to dance and be seen, but a cultural hub incorporating art exhibits, hightech gadgets and state-of-the-art light and sound, all presented in a fashionable package. It will be the little black dress of the nightlife scene. They are hoping everyone will want it. Gatien believes that by creating a culture, if they do it well, f i n a n c i a l remuneration will follow. “In the end, your club can be gilded in gold, but it is really the crowd that you draw that will make it [either] an institution that people remember for years or just an OK place.”

But will Gatien succeed where others have failed? In his view, many club-owners make the mistake of simply designing an incredible environment, falling in love with it, opening the doors and thinking people will come piling in. “That’s just phase one of coming up with an environment that’s smart, fun and stimulating,” he states. “I think we will strike a chord in this town.”

He may be right. There’s been a flurry of press surrounding Circa, and the police have already paid him a visit because of a call made to them (from a rival club-owner) insinuating that with Gatien at the helm of Circa, drug problems will follow.

“We have already developed a positive relationship with the local police and there is no advantage to us to have any drug activity in the place,” he stresses. “So we will do whatever is reasonably expected to curtail it. But I used to say that when New York becomes drug-free, my clubs will become drug-free. If 20% of society does drugs, then 20% of my clientele is going to do drugs. I can’t help it. Obviously I will not allow open use of it, and I will not tolerate it.”

If Gatien is a bit defensive when it comes to allegations of wrongdoing, especially in connection to drugs, it is because his New York clubs went through a series of drug raids (most turned up very little actual evidence), and he was arrested on drug trafficking charges back in the 1990s. Perhaps the police were tipped off by some of the wilder parties thrown at Limelight by infamous club kid promoter Michael Alig. It was a well-known fact that ecstasy (then K, among other drugs) was a huge party drug used by most of Alig’s infamous club kids, and, with party names like the very in-your-face “World’s Biggest K-Hole,” perhaps it was only a matter of time.

Many of these drug raids and investigations into Gatien’s clubs came just as newly elected Mayor Rudolph Giuliani pledged to clean up New York City. The Limelight was one of his prime targets. One event that didn’t help matters was the tragic death of an 18-year-old boy who died from an overdose of drugs he obtained at the Tunnel.

Still, Gatien is considered by many to be the most unjustly prosecuted New York City nightclub owner. It is said that city, state and federal law enforcement agencies wasted many manhours and resources in their frantic and ultimately futile attempt to nail him to the cross as some sort of drug kingpin. All they were able to get him on was tax evasion – $1.3 million over several years. The drug use, some say rampant drug use, at Gatien’s clubs was not unique, but part of a trend that has been going on for decades. What was unique was the effort to bring him down. Although Gatien faced up to 25 years in prison, he agreed to a plea bargain and spent only 45 days in jail before being deported back to Canada (he had never applied to be a US citizen, though he still maintains a home there with his stunning wife Alessandra Gatien). He eventually sold Limelight and the Tunnel after losing millions due to their temporary closures and court costs.

Gatien speaks briefly of his arrest and trials. “Prosecutors in America want to be the next Giuliani someday, or they all want to be the next president of the United States,” he says, eyeing his pack of Menthol Marlboro Lights. “So if they take down the big scalps, then they get press. Martha Stewart is a perfect example. I got charged with what’s called conspiracy to distribute MDMA. I was totally undressed during a five-week trial by the federal government and was acquitted in 2.5 hours. You can’t beat the feds, so after I beat them [on drug charges], then they came after me on tax evasion charges.”

“I had literally a thousand employees at that time, of which they got two to testify against me [on the drug charges]. The federal government, when they take people on, win about 97% of their cases. The case against me was pathetic, and the jury saw it that way.” Gatien is adamant that if he were guilty of the drug charges, the FBI should have been able to get at least half of his 1000 employees to testify to the fact. They were unable to get even 1%. “At the time, I was probably doing [US]$40 million in business. Highly unlikely that I would be selling ecstasy at $5 a pop.”

While only two staff members testified, 19 others claiming to know Gatien in some form also provided testimony against him. One of those who was questioned, but never gave in-court testimony, was Michael Alig. Some say Alig, Gatien’s promising young promoter, betrayed him and brought about his ultimate downfall. Gatien disagrees. Alig, for those who do not know the story, or who have not read the book Disco Bloodbath by James St. James, or who have not seen the movie Party Monster (starring Macaulay Culkin as Alig, Seth Green as St. James and hunky Dylan McDermott as Gatien), was the infamous gay promoter of Gatien’s clubs Limelight and the Tunnel, and king of the club kids. A flamboyant figure, he got addicted to heroin and killed his drug dealer, Andre “Angel” Melendez. After Alig’s friend Robert “Freeze” Riggs struck Angel over the head with a hammer, Alig poured Drano down his throat and left the body in his bathroom for a week before chopping off the legs, putting them in a box and dumping it the East River. Alig was so brazen and out of control that, accompanied by his gaggle of club kids, he actually went on Geraldo Rivera and bragged about it. For his crime, Alig was sentenced to 20 years in jail and is up for parole this year.

“The whole town had heard about [Melendez’s] murder. It was written up in The Village Voice,” Gatien recalls. “The feds went up to [Alig], and made a deal that if you testify against Peter, we’ll let you walk. So Michael at this point, party animal, was not working for me, and was really getting worse. They debriefed him to the point where they couldn’t use him anymore and had the state come in and arrest him for the murder.” In the end, Alig actually began to change his testimony against Gatien. “So he never testified against me. I mean, he would have gotten destroyed on the stand.”

Gatien still likes Alig – a brave thing to admit – and the two have been in contact over the last 10 years. “When Michael committed that crime, I had just let him go, just two or three weeks before. He’s actually a very creative guy who unfortunately got hooked on heroin. I’m not excusing his actions, but he wasn’t like a violent thug who beat up on people. In fact, of the 1000 people that I had working for me, if you asked who would be most unlikely to commit a violent crime, I would have said it would be Michael Alig. Drugs got the better of him.”

If Alig were to show up at Circa, Gatien quickly says that he would welcome him in. “If he does 10 years in jail, trust me, he’s not likely to ever do that again. I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable having him here. He’s a very bright guy.”

As the creator of Disco 2000, held every Wednesday at Limelight, Alig was a very smart nut indeed. Running for an incredible six years, it was a largely gay night. Its reputation for being outrageous, fabulous and fucked up packed in underage clubbers, freaks, voyeurs, fetishists, and club kids in wigs, platform shoes, chicken costumes, kiddie clothes, even Pampers.

But that was New York then. It’s important not to live in the past, and Gatien has clearly moved on. Is Toronto ready for another large club in the Entertainment District? Lucid closed down within a year. Within the gay community (one that has not been keen to venture into the testosterone-rich straight nightclub district in the past few years), we have seen club after club disappear, and nothing has replaced them. Many veterans of the gay club scene are choosing to go to lounges over clubs, while many of today’s young gay clubbers are not partying in strictly gay venues anymore. They are in fact going to more mixed spaces, as the issue of being gay in this era becomes a non-issue. This is a good trend for Gatien, because this is essentially what Circa is all about. With its many rooms, Circa plans to mix not just sexualities but different clubbing communities, from the hip-hop boys to the electro-rock glamour kids to Queen Street queers to the traditional circuit gym bunnies. Quite frankly, it will need to attract every scene in this city, straight and gay, in order for it to fill up weekly. In an era in which clubs have evolved into cliques based on music preference and fashion, Gatien and his team of promoters plan to bring everyone together under one roof. If it works, it will be a bigger miracle than Jesus turning water into wine.

But if anyone can do it, Gatien can. “It’s been a long time since a large club has opened in Toronto and I think our timing is right,” he says. “I’ve been hearing that [the age of the large club is over] since 1977, when I opened up my first large club in Florida. The reality is [that] the energy that can be gotten out of a large facility is incredible. Large also gives you the ability to create a greater environment that you can’t get in a smaller club.” “Peter is famous for having the divas and the club kids,” raves designer Travis Bass. “Early on in his career he realized he was attracted to these flamboyant people – like Michael [Alig] before he went off and had his problems. He’s always been the king of the club kids. So [when] Peter started this project, he has been saying, ‘I need to have my divas, my freaks and my club kids.’ If this club becomes a straight club, it would be a failure and I wouldn’t want to be involved with that. It would be so boring for us.”

Part of their plan to create a cultural hub that is appealing to a diverse clientele is well on its way. They have established relationships with some of Toronto’s galleries and museums. New local and international art installations, of which there will be many situated in the venue, will change every six weeks. They have held meetings with local party promoters like Gairy Brown and A.D/D., and have even lured Jeff Rogers away from the Drake, installing him as Curator, Art and Live Music. Talks have begun with USbased media companies Clear Channel and House of Blues (the world’s largest and second-largest concert promoters, respectively) to bring live music to the space. Plus, with Gatien’s 20-plus years in the clubbing industry, Circa (and Toronto) will have access to world-class bands and much-sought-after DJs (names like Danny Tenaglia have been mentioned). DJ Tiesto will be the first mega-act to appear at Circa on May 21, and Junior Vasquez is in talks to be the big-name resident. Generously, Circa plans to allow local up-and-coming DJs to use certain spaces for free. All this will hopefully not just attract a diverse local crowd, but will act as a magnet to attract visitors to the city. Like the CN Tower, Circa aims to be a world-renowned destination.

And of course, in keeping with his past, the gay community will soon be courted – a gay night is in the works. In fact, a meet-andgreet at Toronto’s popular gay nightclub, fly, was held recently to introduce Gatien and his team to the city’s gay party elite. “All my clubs have always had a gay presence,” he points out. “I am very loyal to the gay community. Gay people are a very important part of our culture, and part of our society. And being part of the gay community is a very important aspect of our club that will be cultivated. The gay scene will always have a voice here. Always.”

Opening night this May is sure to be a spectacle the likes of which Toronto has rarely seen. The red carpet will be out, limos will be in procession, bulbs will flash, cash registers will ring and the age of Circa will be upon us. If everything goes according to Gatien’s colossal plans, sounds of breathlessness and awe will be heard reverberating above the music, as those inside take in the entire space, floor by floor, room by room, curious oddity by interesting piece of art work. Celebrities, club-scene glitterati and media from all over the world are expected to attend. All will be there, not just to see this unique venue, but, perhaps as importantly, to bear witness to how the infamous Peter Gatien has miraculously risen from his imposed tomb to grant Toronto and the world a new nightlife. I’ll be keeping an eye out for those pesky masturbators.

by Rolyn Chambers