The Shelter, also known as Club Shelter, is a New York City Dance Music and House music nightclub started during the 1990s. The club was at multiple locations including 6 Hubert Street, 157 Hudson Street, and 150 Varick Street in Manhattan depending on the date. The Shelter was established by resident DJs Timmy Regisford, Merlin Bobb, and Freddy Sanon. The club is closely associated with record label 157 Shelter Records.
In 1991, The Shelter opened its doors following the closing of Paradise Garage. The Shelter became a sanctuary for people to express themselves in which race and sexual orientation did not matter.
The Shelter's most active promoters and DJs were collectively known as "N.A.S.A." (Nocturnal Audio + Sensory Awakening), who hosted parties at the club on Friday night. The dance floor had an incredibly loud 37,000 watt sound system, installed by Garage-era DJ legend Timmy Regisford. The speaker cabinets were larger than the dancers.
Resident and Guest DJs include:
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs, club DJs, mobile DJs, and turntablists. Originally, the "disc" in "disc jockey" referred to shellac and later vinyl records, but nowadays DJ is used as an all-encompassing term to also describe persons who mix music from other recording media such as cassettes, CDs or digital audio files on a CDJ, controller, or even a laptop. DJs may adopt the title "DJ" in front of their real names, adopted pseudonyms, or stage names.
House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground club culture and evolved slowly in the early/mid 1980s as DJs began altering disco songs to give them a more mechanical beat. By early 1988, House became mainstream and supplanted the typical 80s music beat.
Lawrence Philpot, known as Larry Levan, was an American DJ best known for his decade-long residency at the New York City night club Paradise Garage, which has been described as the prototype of the modern dance club. He developed a cult following who referred to his sets as "Saturday Mass". Influential post-disco DJ François Kevorkian credits Levan with introducing the dub aesthetic into dance music. Along with Kevorkian, Levan experimented with drum machines and synthesizers in his productions and live sets, ushering in an electronic, post-disco sound that presaged the ascendence of house music. He DJ'd at Club Zanzibar in the 1980s as well, home to the Jersey Sound brand of deep house or garage house.
Paradise Garage, also known as "the Garage" or the "Gay-rage", was a New York City discotheque notable in the history of dance and pop music, as well as LGBT and nightclub cultures. The 10,000 square feet (930 m2) club was founded by sole proprietor Michael Brody, and occupied a building formerly located at 84 King Street in the SoHo neighborhood. It operated from 1977 to 1987 and featured resident DJ Larry Levan.
Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London owned by Sony Music with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio.
Marc Allen Scott, also known as Toraino Scott or Tee Scott, was an American DJ and remixer in the disco era working in New York City. He was born in the Bronx.
Down the Street was a gay nightclub in Asbury Park, New Jersey, United States.
The Zap was a beach-front nightclub and performance arts venue, in Brighton, England that became known in the late 1980s and early 1990s particularly for its acid house nights. It has been described as an "influential ... club which pulled together many of the underground strands of visual art, fashion, music, design, comedy, cabaret and theatre which were circling at the time".
The Sound Factory was a nightclub first located 532 West 27th Street and then 618 West 46th Street in New York City's Manhattan. The Sound Factory was an integral venue during a peak period of house music in New York. Prominent DJs, artists, and parties appeared at the club. It was in operation from 1989 to 1995. There were other reincarnations of the club until 2004.
Sven Väth is a German DJ and electronic music producer. He is a three-time DJ Awards winner, and his career in electronic music spans over 30 years. The single "Electrica Salsa" with OFF launched his career in 1986. Referred to as "Papa Sven" by his fans, Sven Väth has made his mark in the music community by being one of Germany's pop stars in the nineties, running two night clubs in Germany, and starting his own company Cocoon, which encompasses a booking agency, record label, and a branch for events. He is recognized for cultivating the underground electronic music scene not just in Germany but in Ibiza as well, with his own night at Amnesia for eighteen years and after-parties at creative locations around the island. Sven Väth is a major proponent of vinyl, using only two decks and a mixer for his extensive DJ sets, his longest set having been 30 hours.
DJ Timmy Regisford is an American DJ and producer. After working at the WBLS radio station in New York and as an A&R Director at Atlantic Records and MCA Records, he became Vice President of A&R at Motown Records, then Vice President of A&R at Dreamworks Records. He was the founder and resident DJ at the Club Shelter nights in New York City.
Boyd H. Jarvis was an American record producer, remixer and musician, best known for his song, co-written with Jason Smith, "The Music Got Me"; released in 1983 by Prelude Records. He has collaborated with artists such as Herbie Hancock, La Toya Jackson and Johnny Kemp.
The New Jersey sound or Jersey sound is a genre of house music originating in Newark, New Jersey, during the early 1980s. It is a type of deep and garage house with an emphasis on soulful vocals influenced by Newark's gospel legacy.
UK garage, abbreviated as UKG, is a genre of electronic dance music which originated in England in the early to mid-1990s. The genre was most clearly inspired by garage house and jungle production methods, but also incorporates elements from dance-pop and R&B. It is defined by percussive, shuffled rhythms with syncopated hi-hats, cymbals, and snares, and may include either 4/4 house kick patterns or more irregular "2-step" rhythms. Garage tracks also commonly feature 'chopped up' and time-stretched or pitch-shifted vocal samples complementing the underlying rhythmic structure at a tempo usually around 130 BPM.
Tony Humphries is an American electronic musician and DJ. He was one of the earliest proponents of house music and has been instrumental in spreading the genre on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the DJ culture, a resident DJ or local DJ is a DJ who is employed by a dance club, unlike a guest artist, who works as freelancer and therefore play at several clubs. Obtaining a residency implies being part of the salaried staff of a company.
157 Shelter Records is a New York-based house music label founded by Freddy Sanon.
Club Zanzibar was a dance club that opened in 1979 at 430 Broad Street in Newark, New Jersey. Its presence in Downtown Newark was noted for its influence on house music and garage house genres and scene. Club Zanzibar, along with other gay and straight clubs in the era, was both a straight and LGBT black and Latino nightlife destination.
London Underground FM was a mid-1990s to early-2000s pirate radio station in London.
The Empire Roller Disco was a 30,000-square-foot roller rink located at 200 Empire Blvd. in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.