The Club King, Peter Gatien
The Club King, Peter Gatien
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The Club King
My Rise, Reign, and Fall in New York Nightlife

Author: Peter Gatien

Narrator: Braden Wright

Unabridged: 8 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2020

Synopsis

A behind-the-scenes look at the meteoric rise and stunning takedown of a nightclub empire, by the man who held the reins.Limelight, Tunnel, Club USA, and Palladium—the cutting-edge, insanely successful, and notoriously decadent clubs that dominated New York City’s entertainment scene, their influences reverberating around the world. Across four decades, a single mysterious figure stood behind them all: Peter Gatien, the leading impresario of global nightlife. His clubs didn’t follow the trends—they created movements. They nurtured vanguard music acts that brought rock, house, grunge, hip-hop, industrial, and techno to the beautiful ones who showed up night after night to tear the roof off every party. But as Peter and his innovative team ramped up the hedonistic highs, Rudolph Giuliani was leading a major shift in the city. Under the guise of improving New York City’s “quality of life,” the club scene was targeted—and Peter Gatien’s empire became a major focus of the administration.In this frank and gritty memoir, Peter Gatien charts the seismic changes in his personal and professional life and the targeted destruction of his nightclub empire. From Peter’s childhood in a Canadian mill town to the freedom of the 1970s, through the excesses of the 1980s and the ensuing crackdown in the 1990s, The Club King chronicles the birth and death of a cultural movement—and the life of the man who was in control of every beat.

About Peter Gatien

Peter Gatien created, owned, and operated groundbreaking nightclubs over the span of four decades. In his early twenties, he opened his first club, the Aardvark, in his hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. He went on to helm an unbroken string of successful megaclubs, including Limelight in New York City, Atlanta, Miami, London, and Chicago, as well as Manhattan’s Palladium, Tunnel, and Club USA, and CiRCA in Toronto. Gatien was also the executive producer of the film A Bronx Tale. Today he splits his time between Toronto and New York City, enjoying a home life with his wife, Alessandra, his four children, and his two grandchildren.

Reviews

Goodreads review by April on March 19, 2020

The Club Kids scene, and the murder that came with it, has long been a fascinating topic. Therefore, when infamous club owner Peter Gatien’s autobiography was offered via Amazon First Reads, I instantly selected it. The first half or so was an interesting look into Gatien’s successful rise, but it s......more

Goodreads review by Erik on December 21, 2020

"The Club King" is Peter Gatien's memoir, recounting his time at the apex of the New York club scene and his ultimate fall at the hands of Rudy Giuliani, a mayor who had made a conservative fear of others the hook that won him his election. Gatien grew up in Cornwall, an Ontario mill town that he sou......more

Goodreads review by Whistler's on February 01, 2024

The French-Canadian boy with chutzpah. It speaks to the quality of this book that I found it fascinating even though I've never been a "clubber" or had any interest in celebrities. Peter (nee Pierre) Gatien made a fortune from the need of humans to crowd together for security and excitement. He liken......more

Goodreads review by Jenny on March 03, 2020

This book was interesting and frustrating at the same time. It was almost more of a study of the anthropology of night clubs and what it takes for one to succeed than a memoir. Gatien does not go much below surface level in describing his personal life, so it is truly difficult to classify this as a......more

Goodreads review by Josh on March 31, 2020

The Club King: My Rise, Reign, and Fall in New York Nightlife by Peter Gatien is a memoir of sorts by the owner of one of the most notorious nightclubs in New York City history, the Limelight. I normally don’t comment on writing style and quality early in my reviews, but The Club King is exceptional......more

Quotes

“A giant of the 1970s through 1990s New York City club scene…paints a picture of a simple guy with big dreams who was always vulnerable to outside speculation and conjecture…crisp, vivid prose…a warm tale of a local boy making good on the other side of the border…Sixteen years after his deportation back to Canada, Gatien tells his side of the story. An arresting and provocative narrative.” —Kirkus Reviews“Gatien once dominated the empire that is New York nightlife. Now he’s telling his story—the highs, the hedonism, and all the gritty details.” —Newsweek“Peter Gatien may be the wisest cat in New York…he’s got a tale to tell, one filled with fabulousness and tabloid phantasmagoria…The Club King, his slick new memoir out this month, chronicles Gatien’s rise from a working-class kid in a sulfurous paper mill town in Ontario.” —Rolling Stone

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