Nini Nobless, left, who died Aug. 21, at 74, with then-wife Denyse LePage, who together comprised Montreal disco duo Lime.Claudine LePage/The Canadian Press
Disco producer Nini Nobless had a knack for drawing revellers to the dance floor, and in the heart of Montreal’s pumping 1980s nightlife, the musician’s hitmaking skills were unmistakable.
With a stream of Billboard chart hits, Ms. Nobless helped define an era of Canada’s discotheques as part of the duo Lime. Ms. Nobless, who identified as non-binary and previously went by the name Denis LePage, died of cancer on Aug. 21 at age 74, said former manager Yvon Lafrance.
Ms. Nobless’s infectious synthesizer hooks made Lime’s songs favourites at dance clubs around the world.
“[She] was a genius,” explained Claude Chalifoux, who co-owned Lime Light, the bustling Montreal dance club that regularly spun Lime’s dance tracks.
“All of the music that [Nini] did was a smash hit. People went crazy when they’d play Your Love, You’re My Magician and Guilty.”
Years before those electronic disco favourites, Ms. Nobless was already chasing a music career.
As a teenager, she performed in the band the Persuaders, and by the mid-1970s had formed the jazz-fusion act Le Pouls with then-wife Denyse LePage, a singer-songwriter in her own right.
A few years later Ms. Nobless secured her first hit with the funky 1979 single The Break, released under the name Kat Mandu. The cowbell-fuelled song peaked at No. 3 on Billboard’s U.S. disco chart.
The success put some wind into the sails of Ms. Nobless’s second project with Denyse, which caught the wave of the synthesizer revolution sweeping through the industry.
Inspired by the sounds of Giorgio Moroder and Kraftwerk, the duo recorded an electro-disco project together. But they hadn’t settled on the title of their new act the night they walked into the Lime Light with a promotional copy of their first vinyl, Mr. Chalifoux said.
Lime Light, a downtown Montreal discotheque that welcomed gay and straight clubgoers alike, proved a fruitful inspiration in more ways than one. Opened in 1973, the venue began hosting an exclusive, fashion-forward patronage four years before New York’s Studio 54 would cater to a similar crowd.
When in-house DJ Michel Simard played Lime’s 1981 debut single Your Love on the turntables for the first time, he was instantly convinced they had a hit on their hands, Mr. Chalifoux remembered.
As the disco pair chatted with Mr. Simard, it became clear they were somehow connected to the venue in a special way.
“When the people came to the Lime Light a lot of [them] said, `We’re going to the Lime tonight,”' Mr. Chalifoux added.
And so a shortened version of the club’s name stuck to the couple.
A night at the Lime Light soon became synonymous with hearing Lime’s hits over the sound systems on one of the venue’s two levels of dance floors.
By the end of 1981, Your Love had spread beyond Canada’s borders, landing atop the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart for one week.
Lime delivered another floor filler with 1982′s mirrorball booty shaker Babe, We’re Gonna Love Tonight, which peaked at No. 6 on the dance chart.
The pair also found success outside Lime when they wrote Dancin’ the Night Away for the duo Voggue. The 1981 single held at No. 1 on the Billboard dance chart for three weeks.
They also continued making music as Lime into the 1990s, though friends say financial problems led Ms. Nobless to sell music copyrights to Unidisc, a Montreal record label that specializes in sounds of the era.
“My parents’ relationship was not easy,” said Claudine LePage, the couple’s child.
“They continued making music together ... and then [Ms. Nobless] continued producing music but used other singers. Or my mom would sing by herself on songs with other artists. The goal was just to continue making music.”
Around the early 2010s, Ms. Nobless began to publicly identify as a woman, taking the name Nini Nobless and recording new material. The music struggled to find an audience for a variety of reasons.
“I felt that the people didn’t like that [Nini] went from a man to a lady,” Mr. Chalifoux said.
“[Her] music was good, [she] had the same voice as when [she] was singing with Lime, it was only a physical change ... [but] the sound was too much from the ‘80s.”
Still, Lime’s sound has reverberated in contemporary circles with the help of Unidisc. The company’s ownership of Lime’s catalogue meant the label could reissue and rework past recordings.
In recent years, that included recruiting Canadian dance producers Jacques Greene and Tiga to produce remixes of the duo’s classic singles.
Francis Cucuzzella, who manages artist relations at Unidisc, said there was a documentary on Lime being made in co-operation with Ms. Nobless. While the project is now in limbo, he hopes it will one day be completed and released.