NIGHT LIFE HISTORY LESSON NYC HURRAH JOY DIVISION , TONY WILSON , RUTH POLSKY

Recently on Facebook, someone posted a comment thanking me for all the great bands I had booked at HURRAH, He mentioned Joy Division, Od course Joy Division never made it to the US, Their lead singer Ian committed suicide the day before they were to depart for the US tour,

Joly MeFee, himself a downtown Brit ex-pat and a truly deserving legend himself commented in reply: "you mean Ruth Polsky ... Joy Division? "

let me share with you my response as it spreads light on what club life was like in the early '80's in NYC and what happened in the "backrooms" of clubland that most people never knew or quite frankly wanted to know

I posted:

Joly, let's be clear here. Ruth Polsky was my assistant at Hurrah. I had chosen to train a woman in a job that was held mostly by men. I choose to hire her because she was a smart music journalist and we shared the same music taste.  When I departed HURRAH because the “front” owners were under pressure from the backroom boys who were demanding I pay less money to the artists. I refused as the club under my management and booking and staffing policy had become a huge success.  Backstory; Arthur Weinstein, a street promoter had been hired by Robert Boykin His job was to hand out free admission cards and drink tickets to “the right people” in order to bring in fresh blood for the old hurrah members to ..well you put in the correct word!  FYI: Despite various rumors, Weinstein, who was quite a personable character, was NOT an owner of HURRAH. Barbara Lackey and Robert Boykin were the front “owners”, Arthur stole and sold the Hurrah membership list to guys opening a new club on 54th street. I liked Arthur and we remained friends until he died of natural causes He had a colorful and charmed life. Both Arthur and his design gifted wife Colleen were the kind of New York nightlifers you would want to have as part of your club friends.  I did.

Hurrah had been the beautiful people's club of choice until Studio opened. Under my formatting of the space It went from dead to being the place to be again,  But this time by a new downtown looking, arts and fashion driven crowd Jane Friedman (now of HOWL fame) and Henry Schissler (rip) had tried to reinvent Hurrah  as a “rock disco” bring in Meg Griffin of WNEW (she was a great radio jock) to spin later in the night .with “camp” theater performed in the beginning of the night but people would come to see Divine and then leave for Studio 54.)   

As to your post, Joly, re Ruth and Joy Division:  when I forced out of HURRAH I had booked the club six months in advance. I took with me my Rolodex, the contracts, and the calendar as a way to get paid the money I was owed. Ruth was aware of who I was booking but did not have the contracts or dates. Tony Wilson of Factory ,  home of Joy Division, was a personal friend. We had a professional relationship that included he gave me first look access to all bands he believed in. Tony had released Joy Division. We had begun talking about bringing them here, I had spoken to the bookers at the other 6-8 clubs across the US about joining me in booking a tour for Joy Division .,, NOTE this was  before Ian Copelan started his US talent booking agency, FBI (Frontier Booking International) representing many of the emerging NME bands,  His brother Miles Coprlan’s owned the UK labelm, IRS, whose artist roster included the Police.  Ian used the routing we as club bookers haa established prior to his involvement and used it as his the original backbone of FBI  touring routes.

I had introduced Tony Wilson  to Ruth on several occasions. They liked each other,. When I left the club that  I had made successful, I did not ask the employees to follow me as I knew (a) all of then needed jobs and (b) I  had created a template that was culturally and commercially successful and I believed need my skills to work. . (Note about 5 months after I left under pressure to open the original Danceteria many of the Hurrah employees moved to Danceteria,, Not Ruth. She stayed at HURRAH until it closed.

Tony Wilson,  when he heard I was no longer at HURRAH  called me and asked what I wanted him to do, He told me  Ruth was in contact with him about Joy Division. I told him I had not found a new place yet and the bands should not suffer. I reminded him that I had mentored Ruth, She was well trained and very motivated,, She helped him put together a short US tour that never happened, Ian, the lead singer, committed suicide the day before Joy Division was to come to America, I remember Ruth calling me devastated. She loved Joy Division and all the bands we booked, While she was hired by different clubs after Hurrah c to compete with me and my clubs including Danceteria, Pep etc, we remain personal friends up until her untimely death when she was hit by a taxi in front of  the Limelight on a very rainy night, I never blamed her for the machinations of the backroom boys and the “fronts” that represented them. We shared a common love for the new music emerging here in the US and from England, I was one of the few club people who attended her burial in Toms River N.J. Unfortunately, people like Bill Bahlman, a DJ at the time, have constructed a false history to promote themselves. He may have been around but I never hired him at any club I had when i was in charge. I think he did DJ at Hurrah when my DJ’s Mark Kamins and Sean Cassette left to join me at Danceteria.