February 1987
Opens Knitting Factory on Houston Street in Manhattan
When I started the Knitting Factory in 1987 with Louis Spitzer, we had no idea what we were doing! We had found an old, dilapidated Avon Products office on Houston Street between the Bowery and Broadway. The rent was $1,800 per month for 2,000 square feet on one floor in a four-story walkup. The place was really a mess: yellow painted plaster chipping off the walls, a rotted wood toilet, [Read More]
February 1988
Sweater Ceiling
In 1988, I had the idea of sweaters on the ceiling to cover up the ugly square tiles we inherited. My friend, the artist, Dan Bodner, helped buy 100 sweaters at $1 each from Goodwill, we cut in half to double the surface area, and he knit them together and hung them. The NYFD made us fire retard them so they would not burn.
March 1990
Produces 1st Knitting Factory Festival in Gronigen, Holland
June 1991
Produces 1st What is Jazz? Festival in NYC
April 1994
Moves Knitting Factory Club to Tribeca, NYC. Lou Reed plays.
I’ll never forget Hal Willner bringing Lou by the construction site of the new Knitting Factory in Tribeca in the fall of 1993. I was both nervous and excited to be giving a tour of our upgraded venue to a musician I had many records and was so important to the history of music. Somehow, I convinced him to play a show there soon after opening–which we overly packed the [Read More]
April 1996
Produces 1st Downtown Seder at the Knitting Factory
July 1996
Produces Intel NY Music Festival and Plug-in conference
August 1996
Closes 1st 3rd-party investment into Knitmedia, parent of Knitting Factory venues
May 1997
Writes business plan and co-founds Digital Club Network
June 1997
Produces 1st Texaco NY Jazz Festival and presents a compilation CD to President Clinton
January 1998
I had drunk the Kool-aide
On a trip in 1998 to Burgundy in France, I tasted a Montrachet Le Montrachet in Montrachet and the fireworks went off. I started a cellar immediately after that trip realizing how great aged wine, white or red, could be….I had drunk the Kool-aide.
