Legendary nightclub owner, impresario and lighting man, Arthur Weinstein has died from cancer.

I first started going to Arthur's club "Hurrah!" in 1978/1979. I saw a lot of historic new wave gigs there.

In 1988, Psychic TV played a last minute organized Halloween party @ the club that Arthur owned at the time called "The World". This was a memorable event mostly due to the sensational acid light show by Captain Wizzo we had brought in.

I remember a few weird things happened that night. Our roadies had asked to borrow my Sony Walkman Pro cassette recorder during the tour and I told them if it got stolen that they would have to reimburse me for it. That night it got stolen and Dickie did reimburse me for it on the following tour. Tom Halliwell mentioned that he went in the crowd and grabbed a guy who was videotaping the gig and tried to stop him and confiscate the tape and the guy said, "I own the fucking club". Tom didn't get the tape. I remember in our tiny closet / backstage room Perry Farrell from the band Jane's Addiction was just squatting in the corner observing us with peculiar curiousity after our performance. Jane's Addiction's first album had just come out. Only the US guys on the bus, Tom, Jim and I had heard of them. An A&R guy from a major record label named Michael Alago came backstage to say how great he thought the show was and showed some interested in us. Gen spoke to him briefly and he left the room. Shortly after that I was in the men's room of the club using the urinal and he came up to use the urinal beside me and asked me why Gen was such an asshole to him. I'm not sure what went down but I told him that Gen wasn't that bad. Boy was I naive....

A few years later when I went solo as a live techno act and played NYC @ "Limelight" in the early 90's I played a Tuesday night that was basically a showcase gig for the group EBN to get signed to TVT Records. I was headlining but you know how those things are. Everybody shows up to see the group about to get signed and I got paid to play to an empty room. What do you expect @ Limelight on a Tuesday night ? However, I had my best friend running around the club videotaping my gig and the lighting guy was amazing. He gave me a lightshow like the club was packed full that made my sedentary performance worth documenting. The lighting guy was Arthur Weinstein.

Turned out my best friend who videoed my gig was living in the Chelsea Hotel and his neighbor on the same floor was none other than, Arthur Weinstein. One day I was walking up the stairs of the Chelse Hotel with my 2 friends and I recognized Arthur and introduced myself as Fred Giannelli from Psychic TV. Arthur exclaimed, "Best Halloween Show in New York City EVER !!" Arthur was apparently impressed with that night too. I knew he had video footage of that gig, so I asked him about it and he said he did have it but his wife was sick and I just told him if he ever dug it out to drop it off at my best friends who lived across the hall from him. I told him I would make sure Genesis P-Orridge never got a hold of the footage and he exclaimed, "I don't even know who that is ! ".

Thank you Arthur, even though I never did get to see that footage. The memories from your clubs are still branded upon my brain.

Hurrah !, The World, Limelight, Club USA...RIP Arthur Weinstein.

telepathic regards,
Ĩed.giannelli