Ed LeBrun owned the
music store Spins in
Greensboro,
NC (USA) and
promoted parties in Greensboro, NC (USA)and the surrounding region until August of 1999. He was
murdered, on
16 August 1999, in his home for something
tasteless and
tactless:
money.
What his
murderers failed to understand , apart from the
sanctity of life, was Ed's
impact on the
people living and raving in the region, and the people who traveled to the region to attend
parties and buy
records and
dj equipment at his store.
LeBrun began promoting parties in the very
early 90s. Some of his parties took place in an
automobile trim shop and are fondly referred to as
The Trim Shop Parties by
old school ravers now. He also instigated the
Masquerave parties which were held at
Halloween time. The first two, Masquerave I and II, were held at the trim shop, subsequent Masqueraves were held at Babylon.
Under his
promotion company UNITY, his parties grew to be an
ongoing event called
First Friday, which was a collaboration with
Babylon, a local nightclub in Greensboro, which shut its doors in May 2000.
The first First Friday was in June 1994, the last First Friday was held May 2000. Ed had many faithful friends, and they continued the parties in his honor as long as they could.
So what did Ed leave as his
legacy? Well, probably thousands of close
friendships were
forged at his events. I met my
spouse at the August 1994 First Friday.
Aside from all the individual
human relationships he touched, he
fostered many a budding
dj struggling to figure out the
music, the
equipment, the
scene, and the
lust for
mixing wax.
Ed's family was Jewish and he is burried in a Jewish cemetery here in Greensboro.
Spins, his store, is still open and he is still fostering budding djs, in a way. The same people work there and continue to promote the music ideals he strived to bring to our area. It's an uphill battle, the scene effectively died when he did. It just took a little longer to fade away.
Edit: Spins is closed now. 12-25-2007
Any loss of human life is terrible, but somehow, it just seems worse when its someone like Ed.