LDJ Steve Luigi owned and ran between 1990-92
In 1988 Steve opened a record shop in the ‘Corn Exchange’ in Leeds called ‘The Listening Booth’, so called because it had booths where customers could listen their music before buying. Although Steve was DJing Funk, R&B and Hip-Hop, he was selling quite a different music in his shop, House and Rave, Quite fortunate really, as also in 1989 Paul Lamont told Steve that he didn’t want the club to play Funk and R&B anymore, and that he wanted it to be a Rave club. Steve was in good stead to fulfil the role of a Rave DJ with the music that he sold in his shop. The week after being told, Steve turned into a ‘Rave’ DJ. The rest is history.
After 3 years of packing in the crowds, the 'The Gallery' was voted 2nd best venue in Europe by ‘Mixmag’ an international music magazine. The club went from strength to strength until the sad and untimely demise of Paul. The club was handed down to Paul’s brother Chris and Chris’s wife. The club could not be run by the couple in the same way as it was when Paul was in charge, and soon got into severe financial difficulty.
Help was procured by Leeds club owner ‘Peter Riley’ and club promoter legend ‘Dave Beer’. The new owners wanted to run the club their way and told Steve that there was no room for the type of music he played, so one of the most famous nights in Europe had to finish.
This was in the year of 1994 and this was a bad year for Steve, as not only did the Gallery close, but his record shop did too, and the radio station that Steve played on, the infamous ‘Dream FM’, stopped broadcasting too.
Steve had a well deserved rest for a couple of years running his new shops ‘Racks of Wax’ and 'Choonz Worldwide’, until they too closed due to change in trends of media i.e. downloads and CDs.
The resurgence in Steve’s DJ career was when the tunes that he used to play at the Gallery, became popular again, and Steve was back in charge. Steve now plays at venues in and around the UK, not only playing Rave, but also playing the music that he loved when he first started to DJ, Northern Soul.
Steve has managed to re-collect most of the Northern Soul tunes that he originally had and enjoys playing them out as much as he ever did.
Steve is now one of the oldest mixing/club DJs in the UK at 61 years young, and is very proud of the fact too. He has spent 41 years of his life doing a job that he loves doing, pleasing the crowds, and crowds still support him wherever he plays.
The History Of The Gallery Leeds (extract from)
AFTER THE GALLERY; THE ‘POWERHOUSE – MIRFIELD (LEEDS GALLERY PART 2) After the ‘Gallery’ closed it’s doors, Steve Luigi wasn’t willing to let it die, and toured round the other Leeds clubs to see if any of the owners were interested in hosting the ‘Gallery’ night. Unfortunately none of them would take the chance although it was explained to them by Steve that there were over 1000 punters with nowhere to go every Saturday. Steve ventured further afield and found a club called ‘The dance mill’ in Mirfield, West Yorkshire that was willing to accommodate the night every Friday. Steve decided that with it being a new venue, a new name might be fitting, and so ‘The Powerhouse’ was born. The flyers and posters were printed and the Djs and artistes were booked. Steve, being a DJ on the infamous ‘Dream FM’ at that time also launched a radio advertising campaign. So the scene was set. Coaches had been arranged to pick the clubbers up outside Steve’s record shop ‘Racks of wax’ in Leeds, and take them to Mirfield and back home after the gig for only £3 return. Unfortunately, on the first week, only about 25 people turned up for the coach, on the second week about 15, and on the third week about 5. (2014)
