With their innumerable contributions to the growth and development of Montreal club and rave culture over the years, Legendre and De La Gauthier have secured themselves mythical status in the electronic music community. While Legendre had taken a break from organizing for four years, De La Gauthier has been living in Holland and Germany for the last 10, plying his trade behind the turntables as an internationally acclaimed DJ. In the late '80s and early '90s, however, the two forever etched their likenesses into the face of Montreal's nightlife.

F*** de la police!

I was lucky enough to hear De La Gauthier play at January 1994's Random Axxess, a warehouse rave in the truest, dirtiest, coldest sense of the word, mere weeks before he would leave Montreal. Though the city's rave scene was still in its infancy, De La Gauthier had seemingly accomplished all he could here and was ready to head for greener pastures.

"I was quite tired of the politics in Montreal, it was very frustrating," De La Gauthier recalls. "Parties were getting shut down, we had just been through the whole H2O nightmare with the police chasing after us, and even then that was not new to me. I had been pushing already to have these kinds of events for a couple of years at the time. I had been to New York and I'd been partying this way already for years, so I wanted this really badly, but it was not happening - it was very hard. I had done every club, I was playing house at DiSalvio's, mixed styles at Lézard on Tuesdays; I had techno nights, I did raves. I was one of the first to go to Quebec, Ottawa and Toronto to play at raves and warehouse parties."

More than just a party with a cool name, Underground Legacy is literally a chronological audiovisual journey through the development of our local nightlife.

"Miguel Graca is opening," explains Patrick Legendre, "playing house music from the beginning, before 1988. Robert is going to cover house from '88 to '92, and Tiga will play early rave music. Rob Di Stefano - this guy's a monument in New York - is going to do the Playground period sound, and then Stefane Lippé will cover from 2000 until now. It's a progression all night long, and during each set the lighting and the ambience in the room will be different. At one point you'll be at Bal en Blanc, then Black and Blue, for example. With projections all around the room, we can transport people to any big event that happened here in the last 10 years."

No house in the garage

DJing professionally for 24 years now, De La Gauthier's career was born in an era of belt-driven turntables, before any legal afterhours clubs, when raves were no more than a dream cooking on the shores of Goa.

"I started DJing in the '80s - I was the first to play house music in Montreal," he claims. "I even lost a residency of six years 'cause I was playing house at Le Garage, on Mayor Street. The owner's friends were not too keen on house. They thought it was too repetitive, so they told me I could only play one house record at a time, then I had to play something else after it! A couple of weeks after that they kicked me out."

De La Gauthier's main reason for leaving Montreal, however, was entirely personal. On an earlier trip to Europe he had met his soul mate, Achim, his partner now for 10 years, whom - due to new legislation in Germany that recently permitted same-sex marriages - he married in late 2004.

"I went to Berlin in the summer of '93 for the Love Parade," De La Gauthier recollects, "and I met him the night before. We kept in contact, then finally in January of 1994 I went to Holland because Achim was studying there. I was really lucky because I had never produced records or anything, but I got my first booking in Germany right away. From there other promoters heard me and I started playing everywhere in Germany. Even then it was difficult, if you were just a DJ, to break into the scene, but I got lucky and was able to do that."

From Ibiza to Amsterdam, Berlin to Rotterdam, De La Gauthier has not slowed down since, producing countless EPs and remixes in the past decade, co-founding a family of four record labels and cementing his reputation worldwide as a diverse and eclectic DJ, his sets informed by years of experience, a complete lack of fear and a desire always to make people dance, laugh and lose their minds.

Living Legendre

While De La Gauthier has shone behind the decks, it was only through the hard work and perseverance of event organizers and club owners such as Patrick Legendre that he, other DJs and thousands of partygoers were finally able to establish a thriving dance music community here.

"I've thrown parties for a long time," says Legendre. "I'm the one who opened Playground, Montreal's first real afterhours club. I also did the first small afterhours parties in the basement of Le Royal, but in 2000 I decided to take some time off from the scene and do computer science. I missed it, so I thought I had to do it again - it's still inside me. I wanted to do my comeback at the same time as Robert, so it's perfect."

In addition to Le Royal, which ran from 1992 to '94, and Playground, which lasted from '94 to '98, Legendre was also co-owner of the seminal Big Bang nightclub from '89 to '92, and founded and produced the massive Bal en Blanc from '95 to 2000. Last year he made headlines again as he spearheaded the Collectif Montreal la Nuit and rallied against proposed afterhours restrictions in the Ville-Marie district.

"During that period a lot of people were talking bad about the scene, about drugs, or people making a lot of noise, and I thought it was about time to do something to show that it's not bad, that it's fun, and it's a cultural event."

Showcasing the founding fathers of Montreal's electronic music scene, Underground Legacy promises to be an educational experience for the uninitiated, in addition to hours of exquisite music, visuals and atmosphere, and a trip back in time for veterans of our rave and club community.

Underground Legacy
With Robert De La Gauthier, Rob Di Stefano, Tiga, Miguel Graca and Stéfane Lippé

At Darling Foundry (745 Ottawa St.), Jan. 29
For info: www.undergroundlegacy.com, www.robertdelagauthier.com
$60 tickets available at Priape (1311 Ste-Catherine E.) and Aritmetik (St-Laurent, St-Denis or Cours Mont-Royal locations)
 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

The new wave of warehouse?     we've revisited a lot of pop culture from the 80's and it looks like it's time for the 90's to be brought back... if even for just one night. all too often there seems to be someone somewhere telling us we have to officially celebrate some period of musical history. i have great memories of the montreal underground scene and i have a huge collection of flyers from back in the day that i use to retrace my steps. at that time the whole thing seemed to be about celebrating our differences and getting to hear music that we'd never been able to hear on CD or on the radio. also, the locales that the parties were held in mattered just as much as who was on the flyer. like so many pieces of a puzzle it all had to fit together like some crazy picasso painting for it to work. the party scene has become more of a cash grab than an expression of anything these days. get the big names booked and make sure that every pill-chomping weekend warrior knows about your event. don't get me wrong, i am really happy to see some of the local legends stepping up to provide the soundtrack to what will probably be quite a huge evening. i just hope there will be some energy from the crowd to make it all seem like more than just another big party.
Brent McLennan	{59 votes}	January 27th, 2005
The Guy in the article checks in..........Mr. Gauthier, you are too cool     I just checked out one of the latest members of Hour and it is none other than Robert De La Gauthier who decides to sign up, get his thirty tokens and give his five cents worth. I might add, his comment was more a congratulatory thank you for all of the support he has received and the promises of Hour readers to attend his show. That's pretty freakin' cool.... So, if you write an article about David Bowie, U2 or David Byrne, I wonder if they will become Hour contributors???????? I look forward to Robert De La Gauthier contributing his thoughts to the music/cultural scene and hope that this contribution is not a one off. Hey, why don't you write an article on Uma Thurman and see if she writes a comment back and signs up.....sounds like a good vibe we have going here....... :)
Steve Landry	{20 votes}	January 31st, 2005
Robert De La... Gauthier thanks!     Thanks a lot for this very nice article! Wow! Merci! Danke! oh...and, I'd like to add. My set will be split in 2 parts actually, not as stated in the article as only house from the warehouse era, but the first half of my set with the house music I played during the warehouse era, then for the second half, introducing the more tech house,techno, acid, early trance and early rave stuff I played at crisco, Oasis, H20 and the various other raves and parties of that era.I always had a techno flavour to some of the House I played on one end, but at the other, quite the opposite, happy with vocals, the big anthems of then, so the music I'll play will refelct those 2 sides. come early! I Start at 11h30 until 0h200 :)
Robert De La Gauthier	{24 votes}	January 29th, 2005
We miss you!     A quick note from Maastricht, the Netherlands... That sounds like a really nice party night! I remember Robert playing all kinds of music when he arrived in Europe - from house to techno to crazy rave stuff. That was quite uncommon, in the Netherlands at least. The scene was divided in substyles like 'mellow' and gabber. Personnally, I get bored easy. Luckily, Robert can be very surprising!
Bert Van Den Bosch	{9 votes}	January 29th, 2005
Talent     Robert is truly a legend. I have been shaking it to his music on two continents for 15 years now and I've always been left breathless. His knowledge of dance music is unparalleled, he takes risks, and plays music no one else does. Thank god he's back... a "local" DJ for "local" people !
Mark Ritter	{11 votes}	January 27th, 2005
This event was incredible...........     This event was incredible, thanks to Patrick Legendre and Robert de la Gauthier, please do it again.
Samuel Laprise		January 30th, 2005
Cover     Wowowowow! This week's cover is fucking awesome! I think it's one of the most experimental covers in a long time. keep up the good work. kudos.
May Truong	{14 votes}	January 27th, 2005

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