In 1989, Christine Visca, Phil Smith and Richard Grant opened the Sound Factory in a converted warehouse at 530 West 27th Street in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood.
[1] Smith became increasingly involved in The Sound Factory Bar, a smaller offshoot gay club.
The owners of the Sound Factory were at risk of losing their cabaret license and decided to close the club in 1995.
[5] The club was previously called Private Eyes which was a popular nightspot in the late 1980s and the early 1990s that for its time had an unusually advanced state-of-the-art video and sound system.
Wednesdays housed the recently resurrected Underground Network parties, hosted and promoted by recording artist Barbara Tucker and Don Welch, with Grammy Award winner Little Louie Vega as resident DJ.