michaelalig

Landing in New York from South Bend, Indiana, to attend university, the apparently innocuous and quite naive Michael Alig got a job emptying ashtrays at Danceteria. The young hopeful had big dreams and it didn't take him long to realize that the city's dancefloors were paved with gold. From then on, he stomped his way through the scene all the way to the top, with all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop. Securing the support of coke-head Peter Gatien, the eye-patched Limelight owner, Michael started promoting innovative club nights and infamous outlaw parties in and around the Village. He certainly revitalised a dying scene by bringing much-needed new blood to the old guard. Always impeccably turned out and usually flanked by his trophy toy boy Keoki (who DJ-ed at his club nights), Alig had remarkable pulling power. He also acted much like mother hen, even creating cartoon characters for his entourage to play with, the likes of Clara the carefree chicken (acted by the otherwise brilliant Ernie Glam), the drug child (acted hilariously by James St James), as well as Ulrich the dog and IC the bear. Being the UK editor to Project X, the magazine he helped run with Julie Jewels, I naturally met him on my various trips to New York. He seemed to be a quite together and articulate kind of guy, as well as charming, if a bit hyperactive. However, when the astronomical amount of drugs that he consumed on a daily basis finally got to his head, Michael murdered his room-mate/dealer Angel Menendez after a drug-related argument. No one knows for sure how long he's still got to serve inside (5-6 years?), but the reality is NYC's clubland has never been the same since his demise.