A book Fat Freddy maybe interested in

Arguably the most famous heavy metal venue in the world, the history of the New York venue L'Amour has now been documented in print form. "Rock Capital of Brooklyn," a large, hardcover coffee-table style tome jammed with over 1,000 full-color photographs, ticket stubs and memorabilia from the noted heavy metal nightclub, is set to be released in the coming months.


L'Amour in its early '80s heyday presented such acts as Metallica, White Lion, Cinderella, Skid Row, Poison, Twisted Sister, Warrant, Anthrax, Ratt, Slayer, Megadeth, Stryper, Queensrÿche, Kix, Iron Maiden, Guns N' Roses, Motörhead, Manowar, Extreme, Dokken, Yngwie Malmsteen, Winger, among many others. As most of these acts were either unknown or up-and-coming at the time, the venue is considered the CBGB of heavy metal. L'Amour was the epicenter of the New York underground metal scene for most of its 25-year life. It was home to five of New York's most predominant bands: White Lion, Overkill, Biohazard, Life Of Agony and Type O Negative. Featured in the book are performance photos of the bands that graced the L'Amour stage.


The book is a collaborative effort. The story is written by legendary L'Amour DJ Alex Kayne who is recognized as New York City's first heavy metal DJ and is the venue's longest resident DJ. Alex Kayne presents his well-known "RockMachine" shows throughout the tri-state area. The book's music photography is attributed to legendary music photographer Frank White, who began photographing music in 1975. White was the house photographer at L'Amour in Brooklyn for many years. Just over a year after working as the venue's photographer in 1986, the Frank White Photo Agency was started. L'Amour staff, bands, and regulars have contributed some of their memories of life at the club to the book as well.


"Rock Capital of Brooklyn" tells the story in images and words of the famous venue and its important contributions to the heavy metal music scene.


If you are a hard rock, hardcore, heavy metal fan, or just a music history buff then this book is a must-read!

Haha, yea, I read about this on Blabbermouth the other day.

This book has been in the works for a couple of years now. In fact, just about a month or so ago I got a message on Facebook from the guy in charge of its FB page, he'd seen me post a few times on the FB message board for the club itself so he asked if I had any photos or concert ticket stubs or other memorabilia to contribute. So if they're still asking for contributions, I would imagine it must be a long way from actually being published yet.

Either way, yeah, whenever this thing finally sees print, it would probably be worth a look. I went to that club a bunch of times in the late 80s/early 90s. Unfortunately I missed its true heyday (early/mid 80s) as I wasn't old enough to go to club shows at that time.

Never got to go to L'Amour but I would reviews in Kerrange and other metal rags, sounded like metal's answer to CBGB's, another place I never got to go see.

I saw a few shows at the L'Amour club.

ultmetal wrote:

I saw a few shows at the L'Amour club.

Lovely neighborhood, wasn't it Ult?

I remember the first time I took my brother there, I had been in college for a year or two and had been there a bunch of times, but he came out to visit for the weekend and being a sheltered suburban white boy, he was pretty much terrified of the place. Haha.

We walked into the club just as one of the bouncers was dragging some guy out by the hair (!)... when he got to the big wooden front doors he literally smashed the guy's face against them, then opened the door and tossed the guy like a shot put out into the street. My brother's eyes got wide and he sez to me "What the f**k kind of place IS this?" Hahaha.

manny wrote:

Never got to go to L'Amour but I would reviews in Kerrange and other metal rags, sounded like metal's answer to CBGB's, another place I never got to go see.

I never went to CB's either, though I always wanted to. If I ever perfect my Time Machine I'm gonna go back to 1974 and catch a Ramones gig there.