'The Roar of L'Amour'

DETAILS MAGAZINE - The article that called me "Mr. Personality"

Taken from a Facebook post

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One of my fav parts of being THE ROAR OF L'AMOUR (DJ/VJ/MC/Talent coordinator/promoter) was being contacted out of nowhere by national press)

In late 87, early 88 (I never kept track on these things), I walk into L'Amour and Jodie Miraglia (our awesome receptionist) hands me my messages and one included a note from Details Magazine.

Details was a very popular magazine, so I was intrigued and called the female who left the message.

She said she is doing an article on the hard-rock/metal scene in NYC and in her research my name keeps coming up.

She mentioned she wanted to come to the club that weekend to interview me and anyone I felt would be interesting.

I said come on the Helix/Playmate night this Saturday, I will leave your name at door and told her camera is fine but no videotape (when I tell the MTV story, I will explain why)

Helix was a Canadian band that never reached big heights, when they were booked, the club asked me to put Playmate on as their support because they knew the band would be the draw. I said absolutely.

The night comes and Details gets there and starts interviewing me in the booth. George (owner) comes up and I suggest they talk to George as well.

She ask if she could just watch from the booth to see how I work, a national magazine wants to see me do my thing ... NO BRAINER!

As I do mic-work, she watches over the crowd to see if anyone interest her. One female caught her attention and that was Dizzy the waitress, she ask "should I talk to her?" I tell her absolutely; her name is Dizzy for a reason.

She interviews George and Dizzy and several patrons that got her interest from watching the crowd reaction to my mic-work. I also suggested she talk to the bathroom attendants, because I thought that would be funny.

She comes up to the booth after interviewing patrons and described me in the article as "Mr. Personality" and who the "kids identified with"... I WILL TAKE THAT!

She said that I had an MC/Emcee quality that she didn't see in other clubs (Cat Club, East, etc.)  and asked if I can get her backstage to talk to Helix and Playmate.

I wave her past security and she speaks to both bands and mentioned Helix wasn't interesting and knew zero about the club, but Playmate certainly did.

I said wait until they both play.

Playmate comes on and killed it and when Helix came on 50% of the crowd left.

Nothing against Helix, I thought they were good, but that happens sometimes.

She said she was surprised since Helix had records out, etc. and since I was the talent coordinator/booker asked how the show came about.

I mentioned the club treated Playmate really well and they knew Helix would draw "middling" numbers at best, so asked if they would open.

You see that was how it worked or should have worked. Some bands didn't understand that if I booked them to open on a night in front of 1,500 that the correct thing to do was help us in return on a smaller night.

That is exactly what happened with that booking.

She found that fascinating, but that was my day gig.

She then said that she saw my influence, mentioned I should be on MTV (see PostScript) and wanted my top ten songs I played, I thought about it fast and gave it to her.

She left during Helix set and thanked me for all the info.

I didn't realize it, but George (owner) asked her if he could see what she was writing first before it went to press. She agreed and ... (welcome to my world) he changed my top 10 to his liking.

Yes, that was what it was like for me.

The article came out (with photos by Frank White) and was awesome towards both me and L'Amour. Outside of my top ten being changed, I was ecstatic.

Thank you to whomever kept the magazine

PS: MTV once called the club asking for me and said they wanted to interview me. I was thrilled, I knew several people there pitched me to be part of their metal programming strategy.

MTV gets there and the owners refused to let them video inside the club.

I argued, but they said "NO".

So MTV briefly interviewed me outside and I apologized over and over and told them to interview the line of kids waiting to get in and they did.

I later found out that killed my chances of being featured on MTV.

Trust me, this was when I knew I had to get out eventually.

Chuck Kaye

Ah Yes Indeed

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