“They Only Come Out at Night”: 1970s, 80s, and 90s Queer DJ Set List Ephemera as Bibliographical Evidence

This article studies a largely overlooked queer, serial form of print culture from the 1970s, 80s, and 90s: one-page music charts and playlists with titles like Top Thirty and Master Mix, distributed in a range of gay spaces and record stores. DJ set lists were primarily designed as advertising for bars and clubs, but also served an important purpose as scrap paper for flirtatious exchange of phone numbers or messages between patrons and reference material for DJs. In an era before mobile apps that could readily identify songs, these documents offered clientele convenient song manifests. Each dated page offers set lists for particular weeks and months. Discussing the collection of set lists at the ArQuives (Toronto) donated by a local DJ of the period, this article situates queer print ephemera in relation to Heather Love's approach to the archive, José Esteban Muñoz's notions of queerness and ephemera, and Carolyn Dinshaw's call for the queer “touch across time.” These ephemeral, era specific, and quickly discarded documents offer rare insight into the musical atmosphere at gay spaces from past decades.