On her 60th birthday, check out this video of Madonna’s first gig.. [December 1982]

Question. What links pop siren Madonna and Factory Records’ post punk faves A Certain Ratio?

The Material Girl, who celebrates her 60th birthday today, was quite the ‘face’ on New York’s nightclub scene in the late 70s and early 80s, a period of decadence immortalised in venues such as Studio 54 and Danceteria.

The latter was the Michigan-born Madonna’s personal favourite following her arrival in New York in 1978.

“Danceteria was its own beautiful thing,” Steve Lewis, former nightclub impresario, told Vice in 2014.

“It was so inclusive of ideas and people, just an incredible burst of creativity. The VIP’s weren’t the most successful or famous people, it was the ones who were on the verge of something”.

In other words, a young Madonna Louise Ciccone.

And thus, when on December 16, 1982, when Factory brought A Certain Ratio to the Danceteria, it was Madonna who would support the Wythenshawe band; performing just one song, the recently-released Everybody, as the clock struck midnight.

The performance, immortalised forever thanks to the medium of YouTube, hints at the soon-to-be Queen Of Pop’s future career path, with well-structured choreography and a classic fade to black outro.

She may have been just 24 at the time, but already there were signs that the world hadn’t heard the last of Madonna Louise Ciccone. As the lone voice bellows just before the music starts… “Go on girl!”

As for Danceteria? The club closed in 1986, with the building now playing home to an outlet of New York Stone, ‘one of the largest natural stone wholesalers on the East Coast‘ of the US. For a venue previously renowned for its dancefloor, it’s perhaps apt that one of the business’ specialties is floor tiles.

Happy birthday Madonna!

[Flyer taken from Record Mecca, video from absmadonna‘s YouTube page]