2012 Nightlife Hall of Fame: Fred Pierce

As Pierce remembers it, it all began with his uncle, who owned a dinner theater that provided a show, a meal and a party afterwards—and just parties on the weekends. The New Jersey-bred Pierce would go to the theater on weekends to clean up, and eventually DJ along with his cousin, who later introduced him to the West Village club scene (the two came out to each other as teenagers).

“I got the whole DJ bug,” Pierce explains. “For me it was more of a DJ thing, having an audience to play for—but since I was working with other promoters and doing promoting, I developed a good niche for contracts and stuff.” Pierce began working with James Saunders, who’d created Brooklyn’s South Oxford Club and was “pretty established as a promoter for the black gay community—he filled a need after the Paradise Garage parties stopped.” The two teamed up for Octagon, a regular Friday night party that “just blew up” and was going strong well into the ’90s. From there the two “expanded all over the place” to venues ranging from the Roxy to The Basement—which was just that and, according to Pierce’s website, would never pass today’s strict health codes.

Pierce has gone national, starting with Houston Splash; when his crew joined up and tripled the Texas party’s usual numbers, they outgrew their planned space and wound up in a converted aircraft hangar with the tail of a jet protruding into the dance floor. “Within a month we had to convert it into a dance space, with lights, sound, the bar, everything,” he recalls. “And the line never stopped, all night.” The event was significant because it introduced the now-common practice of different promoters collaborating on parties. Pierce has also gone international, playing the Loft House in Germany and Club Yellow in Tokyo, among others.

New York, though, has been Pierce’s main stomping ground for the past 30 years. He sparked the black gay pride movement with parties like the Martin Luther King Jr Day bash, Unity, and, more recently, the Quentin Harris-fronted Kiss My Black Ass at Webster Hall. He’s done his part with numerous AIDS fundraisers and work with community organizations. He’s rubbed shoulders with a range of special guests including Grace Jones, RuPaul and Dennis Rodman. And he continues working and playing in the scene to this day, though he focuses on smaller, more intimate parties like Funky Buddha.

Fred Pierce’s legacy has given him reason to be proud. Though he once wondered if he and his contemporaries had been disregarded or forgotten, he came to see that wasn’t true. “People call up and say, ‘You guys helped me to come out, you provided a comforting environment for me to feel good about myself,’” he says. “I get these emails that say, ‘You guys are the pioneers.’ It feels pretty good.”

Who have been the most memorable personalities you’ve worked with over the years?
Probably Gwen Guthrie was the most memorable, because it was, I think, the very last performance she ever [did], and she was really physically struggling. She wasn’t able to hold everything, but she pulled it together and still gave it her all. She did 24 songs and walked out of there like a diva. I was amazed; it brought me to tears.

Your website has a funny story about Grace Jones.
We were all sort of biting our nails, wondering if she was even going to show up. She came in with a bottle of champagne, totally on something, like, “Dahling, let’s start the show.” This was 6am, and she didn’t go on for two hours—she wanted to have fun. Meanwhile the crowd was going nuts. But Grace doesn’t go on until Grace is ready. And she did an amazing show—for those who were still there.

Your website mentions problems with [former New York mayor Rudy] Giuliani. What was that about?
Every promoter has gone through it—a club will get shut down a day before and you have to move an event, because another event got violent or an underage drinker went through. I don’t blame Giuliani for wanting to enforce a rule of law. The question is how far you go before it becomes too much. That’s where there was always a big problem with him…They used to raid clubs all the time. One party we moved three times, and wound up at a smaller venue where people were on top of each other.

What’s been your favorite party?
At 667, a small bar, very intimate, in Brooklyn. It was “Freddy’s Basement,” sort of like we’re all in the basement and having a party kind of thing. The energy was phenomenal. It was a joy to go every week; it was never a problem. No drama from club owners, not too much drama from patrons. People kind of knew each other, or everyone started to get to know each other, sort of like our own little gay Cheers.

What’s been your favorite era?
The very early ’80s, and the ’80s into the ’90s, because I didn’t take it as a business so much as just having a party. Once I quit my day job and started doing it full-time, it changed. When you have to pay the rent, it takes on a different parameter. But back then it was more innocent, more fun. I enjoyed it more.