Save the Robots

Save the Robots was an underground after hours club in New York City's East Village neighborhood. "Robots," as the venue was popularly known, operated quasi-legally from a nondescript storefront and basement at 25 Avenue B, between East 2nd and 3rd Streets, from 1983 until mid-1984, when the club was shut down for fire safety violations. After undergoing safety-related renovations and obtaining a social club license, the venue reopened in early January 1986.

The club was frequented by drag performers, musicians, club kids, employees of other bars and clubs, skinheads and other denizens of downtown New York nightlife, including Dean Johnson and Lady Bunny.^[1] Save the Robots was known for its late hours of operation and sold only vodka, soda and juice. Patrons typically arrived after 4 a.m. and partied until the 8 a.m. closing time, often with the aid of recreational drugs. At one point, talk show host Craig Ferguson worked there a bouncer.^[2][3][4]

The year 1993 marked the last days of 'Robots' before its imminent closure. The space was subsequently leased to other operators, who transformed it into a fully licensed dance club, and endeavored to capitalize on the "Save the Robots" name, without consent from the original owners—and with few vestiges of the original clientele or atmosphere.^[5]

In July 1996, the Turkish operators who were capitalizing on the save the Robots name, though legally, hired 25 year old DJ Jerome Farley to play records every Saturday. Farley's sets lasted up to 12 hours, and because of the musical void left by the closing of the original Sound Factory, Farley catered to those patrons musically. Farley had gained notoriety because DJ Junior Vasquez identified him in the crowd while he was deejaying once at Tunnel Nightclub (where Farley later was Resident DJ) and once at Arena at Palladium Nightclub, called Farley out on the microphone, and instructed through the club's sound system that he be escorted out of the club, allegedly for copying his music style. Farley used the announcement to promote the opening of his "See the Light" party at "Robots". In a twist of fate, in 1999, Farley became Junior Vasquez' manager and business partner until they parted ways in 2008. Farley's sets at Save the Robots launched his career in the music industry. He performed on Saturdays from July 1996-January 1997 and returned in April 1997 until the club finally closed for good in late June 1997.^[6]

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