The original idea of the Loft derives from David's childhood in foundling hospital. He got inspiration from a picture- a table of children having a home party (later David used this picture as a flyer). His concept of "house party" was derived from this picture.
During the 1960's, David organized home parties, mainly to pay his rent. In 1965 the venue changed to the former factory building, which was at 647 Broadway in NYC. Through organizing parties, he formed his concept. With the success of his "Love Saves the Day party" in 1970, David started organizing weekly parties, which later became prototypes of the Loft.
In this weekly party David realized his basic party concept- "no commercialism, no one genre of music, a pure house party" (from liner notes of the conpilation album David Mancuso presents the Loft).
The party was an invitation only private party. A free food and drink service was provided. The Membership fee was payed at the onset, then a membership card was sent quarterly. A non-member could not enter the party without being accompanied by a member. The name of the party was changed to the loft in 1970. This 1st period lasted until 1974. Because of the inspection by the Ministry of Construction, the Loft had to close.

In 1975 the party moved its venue to 99 Prince Street and restarted in 1978, after a 17 month renovation period. During this 2nd period, David organized Record Pool to support DJs, whose number increased rapidly. The activity of Record Pool consists of "gathering promo copy records from Labels, and distributing them to subscribed members". David considered this Pool to be an organization that supported both DJs and Labels. This 2nd period was ideal- everybody thought it lasted forever. But in 1984 the owner of the venue sold the building. As a relult, that the Loft had to close
once again.

Then the Loft changed it`s venue to the East Village area. David held the party at 240 3rd Street from 1984 to 1995. In spite of his efforts, the number of members started to decrease, partly because of its location. The East Village was not a safe area at that time. After that the party moved to 81A Avenue A (1995-1996), and to 225 Avenue B (1996-1998). In 1998, he closed the party once and for all. In January 2001 I had the opportunity to talk with David. He was still preparing to re-open the Loft, and according to him "it's about to restart".

Everybody who went to the Loft talks about its sound- in fact David used a great sound system. The reputation was, "at the Loft, the sound of the vynyl I heard millions of times sounded totally different each time". Also the Loft had a unique idea about music- almost no decorations except balloons and a mirrorball. Non-fashonable? Yes, but definitely a music oriented space. David has a certain philosophy about the sound and the sound system: he realized his own with the help of Alex Ronsor, sound engineer of the Loft. At the Loft, they don't use EQs and mixers to make the sound pure. In this way, they created a pure listening space. Here is a list of the equipment used at the Loft.

Amplifier- Mark Levinson Amplifiers
Speakers- Klippschorn Speakers (designed by Paul Klippsch)
Turntables- Mitchel Cotter
Stylus- Koetsu

To enrich the bass, David put speakers close to the walls to make echos. Also as you see, with this stylus, so-called DJ techniques (back queue etc.) are impossible. Tweeters were put on each speaker, these too contributing to the "Loft Sound".

With this sound system, people danced to the music, while others just listened, sitting on sofas. At the close of each song, the crowd usually cheared and applauded as if they were at a concert.