Mel Cheren, the founder of legendary New York disco label West End Records and the influential NYC nightclub Paradise Garage, has died, aged 74, after suffering complications from AIDS.
Cheren's mid-seventies disco ventures were attributed with shaping many aspects of dance music and DJ culture. The Paradise Garage was one of the first clubs to put the DJ at the centre of the show, while his label was one of the first to release 12" singles and to make instrumentals available so DJs could extend the length of tracks if they wished. When a documentary was made about Cheren last year it was titled 'The Godfather Of Disco'.