Rick Squillante
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Rick Squillante was a nightclub Disc Jockey and Record Industry representative and producer who rose to fame during the 1980s as the principal DJ at the famed Starck Club in Dallas, Texas. He has been noted as a major influence on many of today's modern DJs in the dance music trade.
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[edit] History
Rick Squillante started his career in the late 1970s in San Antonio, Texas, eventually becoming the resident DJ at the city's popular dance club Bonham Exchange. After several years at the venue, Rick moved on to become the principal DJ at Dallas' Starck Club. Designed by Phillippe Starck and financed by Dallas businessman Blake Woodall, the club's investors included music star Stevie Nicks, who performed on opening night along with Grace Jones on Memorial Day weekend of 1984. The nightclub became an uncommon celebrity hangout, attracting the likes of Robert Plant, Annie Lennox, Prince and Rob Lowe. It was noted as one of the first locations where the drug MDMA became popular.[1][2][3] Squillante is credited with breaking several hit dance records while a DJ at the Starck Club, including Uptown's version of (I Know) I'm Losing You, which reached No. 85 on Billboard's Hot 100. Squillante's mixes emphasized multiple genres including European Techno and Synthpop, highlighted by such bands as Pet Shop Boys, New Order, Yaz, Heaven 17 and Section 25.
[edit] Record Industry
Through connections made at the Starck Club, Squillante eventually landed a job working for the Resource Record Pool in Los Angeles. He moved to the city in 1988 and was hired at Virgin Records in Beverly Hills, which became a directorship of Virgin's dance department in New York. In 1993, Squillante was the Executive Producer of a Virgin Records compilation CD "Aural Opiates", which included tracks by Heaven 17 and Massive Attack (reviewed in Issue No. 2 of CMJ New Music Monthly). During this time, Squillante helped Janet Jackson's career become an international success and was awarded his own label imprint. Squillante moved to New York City, but was eventually laid off by Virgin Records in 1998. During the following years, he was not involved in the music or DJ industry and most people acquainted with him said he simply "dropped out of the scene." On April 21, 2001, for unknown reasons, Squillante committed suicide.[4]
[edit] Influence
Many DJs reference the work done by Rick Squillante as having shaped and influenced the modern dance music scene. Wade Randolph Hampton, better known as "DJ WishFM" and featured in the film Groove, noted Squillante's influence in a March 2006 interview calling him "the original hero of the Starck Club who showed me the way."[5] Hampton also said, "Much like Nicky Siano was (Studio) 54’s legend, Starck’s major DJ force, the late Rick Squillante, broke new ground – night after night. His flawless mixing and uncanny ability to merge disparate parts into a magnificent sum will forever be the standard for Starck disciples."
He is known within today's DJ industry as one of the early pioneers of nightclub dance music and the contemporary rave scene.[6][7][8]
