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Nicky London Club Kid Days

I came to New York in 1989 with no plan other then wanting to attend NYU film school. I was offered a place to live and a job dancing as a go go drag queen at Lee Chappell’s Locomotion Party at the Roxy. I remember my first night very well because my drag was not as glitzy as the others. A nasty queen kicked my heel and broke it with her platform as I was dancing on stage. I almost broke my neck that night. A lovely older drag queen by the name of Madam helped me off the stage and loaned me a pair of flats to continue the evening. Olympia was also there to console me telling me how great she thought I looked and offering me her teddy which was filled with one of the best sweet tart drinks I’ve ever tasted. In those days they paid you to dress and dance 3 30minute sets for about $75. Other nights I would pass out flyers and invitations to parties. Sometimes the promoters would ask me to do a kamikaze sweep dropping hundreds of flyers at a time all over the floors of the clubs or throwing them from the balconies. some evenings I would DJ at restaurants like Avenue A and Lucky Strike for a small payout and dinner. New York was exciting at that time. Nightlife offered something to do every night of the week. Disco Interruptis, Panty Girdles, Love Machine, The Palladium, The Pyramid, ABC, Copa, Carmeletias, Boy Bar and Disco 2000 were just some of the party’s happening every night. If you were a freak, people wanted you at their parties. Club Kids and drag queens were the VIPs, a side show of entertainment that every major club wanted. We were celebrities and people would come to the clubs expecting to see us. Drugs were commonly used and I was asked over and over by clubbers where they could score. People got busted right and left. One time someone asked what I felt like doing tonight? The person asking me had on what looked like a change dispenser on his belt, only this was filled with every drug under the sun. Someone was regularly being carried out of the club because they mixed drugs and alcohol together and could not walk. Project X magazine was the popular club rag of its time. After meeting Ernie Glam on a photo shoot he asked me if I would like to come and work at the Limelight for Project X. I really liked Ernie, he was smart, honest and designed Michael Alig’s bottomless costumes. Michael on the other hand made me uncomfortable. Later I would find out he was skimming a portion of my pay check for his own pocket. The Limelight was always designing things for Disco 2000 as it was becoming the most popular party of the week for the club. One night Michael asked me & Pebbles if I would be part of one of the installations at Disco 2000. All I had to do was lay in a glass coffin for an hour or so and get paid $100. The box was in the shape of a coffin with a clear Plexiglas top. It was placed in the center of the dance floor lying flat so all I could see were the lights on the club ceiling. People could see us while they were dancing. As the last 10 minutes approached I could hear Michael calling some of the others to come and dance on the box. He used to wear these old platform clogs with big wooden heels. He started climbing up on the coffin and stomping hard pulling others to join in 5 or 6 at a time. I started to sweat really bad and my heart was racing. All I kept thinking was I would be crushed to death at Disco 2000 by Michael Alig, Clara The Chicken and a bunch of club kids. Thankfully the glass was thick. Michael was always doing things like this. It was just a matter of time before he went to far!!

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