Disco producer Denis LeWeb page had a knack for drawing revellers to the dance ground, and within the coronary heart of Montreal’s pumping Eighties nightlife, the musician’s hitmaking expertise had been unmistakable.
With a stream of Billboard chart hits, LeWeb page helped outline an period of Canada’s discotheques as a part of the duo Lime.
LeWeb page, who recognized as non-binary and later took the identify Nini Nobless, died Monday of most cancers at age 74, mentioned former supervisor Yvon Lafrance.
While not precisely a family identify, LeWeb page’s infectious synthesizer hooks made Lime’s songs favourites at dance golf equipment world wide.
“He was a genius,” defined Claude Chalifoux, who co-owned Lime Light, the bustling Montreal dance membership that recurrently spun Lime’s dance tracks.
“All of the music that Denis did was a smash hit. People went crazy when they’d play Your Love, You’re My Magician and Guilty.”
Years earlier than these digital disco favourites, LeWeb page was already chasing a music profession.
As an adolescent, they carried out within the band the Persuaders, and by the mid-Nineteen Seventies had shaped the jazz-fusion act Le Pouls with then-wife Denyse LeWeb page, a singer-songwriter in her personal proper.
Just a few years later LeWeb page secured their first hit with the funky 1979 single The Break, launched underneath the identify Kat Mandu. The cowbell-fuelled music peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s U.S. disco chart.
The success put some wind into the sails of LeWeb page’s second mission with Denyse, which caught the wave of the synthesizer revolution sweeping by way of the business.
Inspired by the sounds of Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk, the LeWeb page duo had recorded an electro-disco mission collectively. But they hadn’t settled on the title of their new act the night time they walked into the Lime Light with a promotional copy of their first vinyl, mentioned Chalifoux.
Lime Light, a downtown Montreal discotheque that welcomed homosexual and straight clubgoers alike, proved a fruitful inspiration in additional methods than one. Opened in 1973, the venue started internet hosting an unique, fashion-forward patronage 4 years earlier than New York’s Studio 54 would cater to an analogous crowd.
When in-house DJ Michel Simard performed Lime’s 1981 debut single Your Love on the turntables for the primary time, he was immediately satisfied that they had successful on their arms, remembered Chalifoux.
As the disco pair chatted with Simard, it turned clear they had been by some means linked to the venue in a particular means.
“When the people came to the Lime Light … a lot of (them) said, ‘We’re going to the Lime tonight,’” added Chalifoux.
And so a shortened model of the membership’s identify caught to the couple.
An evening on the Lime Light quickly turned synonymous with listening to Lime’s hits over the sound methods on one of many venue’s two ranges of dance flooring.
By the top of 1981, Your Love had unfold past Canada’s borders, touchdown atop the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for one week.
Lime delivered one other ground filler with 1982’s mirrorball booty shaker Babe, We’re Gonna Love Tonight, which peaked at No. 6 on the dance chart.
Denis and Denyse additionally discovered success exterior Lime once they wrote Dancin’ the Night Away for the duo Voggue. The 1981 single held at No. 1 on the Billboard dance chart for 3 weeks.
They additionally continued making music as Lime into the Nineteen Nineties, although mates say monetary issues led LeWeb page to promote music copyrights to Unidisc, a Montreal file label that focuses on sounds of the period.
“My parents’ relationship was not easy,” mentioned Claudine LeWeb page, the couple’s youngster.
“They continued making music together … and then my dad continued producing music but used other singers. Or my mom would sing by herself on songs with other artists. The goal was just to continue making music.”
Around the early 2010s, LeWeb page started to publicly determine as a girl, taking the identify Nini Nobless and recording new materials. The music struggled to seek out an viewers for quite a lot of causes.
“I felt that the people didn’t like that Denis went from a man to a lady,” mentioned Chalifoux.
“His music was good, he had the same voice as when he was singing with Lime, it was only a physical change … (but) the sound was too much from the ’80s.”
Still, Lime’s sound has reverberated in up to date circles with the assistance of Unidisc. The firm’s possession of Lime’s catalogue meant the label may reissue and rework previous recordings.
In latest years, that included recruiting Canadian dance producers Jacques Greene and Tiga to supply remixes of the duo’s traditional singles.
Francis Cucuzzella, who manages artist relations at Unidisc, mentioned there was a documentary on Lime being made in cooperation with the late LeWeb page. While the mission is now in limbo, he hopes it would sooner or later be accomplished and launched.
A funeral is deliberate in Montreal for Sept. 4.
Editors’ notice: The Canadian Press consulted household and mates of Denis LeWeb page, who additionally glided by Nini Nobless, to find out which names and pronouns they imagine they’d have most popular for this story. The musician used their names and pronouns interchangeably of their later years.
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