Roxy Tape 31/12/1989

Historical live recording from one of the legendary clubs in the Netherlands -- the Roxy, based in Amsterdam. Open from 1987-1999, Amsterdam’s Roxy Nightclub emerged at the genesis of rave culture, enjoying success during a crucial turning point in the socio-economic organisation of the inner city. Amsterdam’s legendary RoXY nightclub closed down on 21 June 1999 in the most spectacular style. Beginning with the funeral of the club’s founder Peter Giele (who had died of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 55) the day had already been a bit of a fiasco, with Giele’s corpse falling out of the coffin as it was being lowered into the grave. But it got worse at the wake, when some indoor fireworks started a fire that managed to burn the whole place down. It was a sad end, and not one that Giele would have wanted. While it may have secured the club’s legendary status, the space was host to many important artworks and it represented the crowning achievement of a man whose significance to Amsterdam’s alternative cultural scene was immeasurable. Operating for just over a decade, the club’s opening in 1987 came at an incredibly opportune moment. The late 80s was when house music really started to take hold in Western Europe, coming here in a process which started in the wake of disco, emerging from queer, black and Latino communities in Chicago, Detroit and New York in the early 80s and arriving in Europe by way of Ibiza and the legendary parties of DJ Alfredo at Amnesia. In 1988, there was also the beginning of the so-called “Second Summer of Love” with a massive wave of free parties and illegal raves. Just as the previous summer of love in the late 60s was fuelled by LSD, so its successor was similarly fuelled by the widespread use of another new drug: MDMA, a substance which really stimulated euphoric, empathetic and loved-up experiences. Around this time, several clubs cropped up that began to cater to the increasing numbers of people eager for an intense cocktail combining the drug; this new, often very soulful dance music; and also this incredibly vibrant and exuberant aesthetic, shaped by those black and queer communities who had first introduced the sounds in the early 80s. The club that really captured this mood in Amsterdam was the RoXY. Situated near to the city’s famous flower market, the RoXY was founded as a collaboration between Giele, DJ Eddy de Clerque and Arjen Schrama. Giele, however, was the driving force behind the project: he was the person who first saw the potential of converting the old Roxy porn cinema into a club and it was him who shaped the RoXY into what he called a “total art” experience, giving the club the backronym “Radical Outlet for the Xenomaniac in You”. The RoXY also enjoyed fame for its, very random, door policy. Those who were welcomed with an open door could just as easily be rejected the next time. Only a coveted membership guaranteed access. A positive consequence of the door policy was that there was usually a pleasant atmosphere inside. DJ Isis: “By the time RoXY burned down in 1999, it had lost some of its magic. The fire was a big drama in Dutch house history, but in my opinion, it was the theatrical ending its founder Peter Gielen (RIP) would have wished for.“