DISCO GOERS WERE OUT OF THEIR HEADS, WHAT ABOUT THE DJs?

[QUINNY]

Several regular posters have talked about the drugs that were consumed at certain discos/in certain scenes. Other than that, I guess most people looking to have a good time would get well oiled on a heady mixture of booze.
I just wondered if the drug culture was as rife among the Djs who had to spin the records or whether DJs would get regularly drunk. It's one thing to be on the dance floor and completely out to lunch, but spinning records when your livelyhood might depend on it?
From my own perspective, in England I would normally limit myself to just a few drinks and then maybe have a few in quick succession apres disco, in order to chill out. Of course this was stupid, as I then drove home more likely to fail a breathalizer if I were stopped by the police. Thank goodness it never happened.
However, when I worked in Spain it was difficult not to drink fairly heavily, 'cos the whole holiday culture was working against being sober. The barman would always give me double the normal amount and all my drinks were free. It made it difficult to ask for an agua con gas or chocolate 'cos the macho Spanish would really take the piss out of me. From memory, there were probably 4 or 5 nights when I virtually lost it, but it was amazing how concentrated the mind could become in such circumstances. I vividly remember one occasion when I drank so much tequila that I couldn't walk anything like a straight line, but I still managed to DJ ( and so I was told the next day, better than usual.....hell that's a dangerous place to be).
The most bizarre experience I ever had was once when I had food poisoning. An hour or less into the evening, I had been sick and to the loo several times. My boss, who was only a few years older and took uppers and downers like eating sweets, completely freaked out when I suggested he'd have to take over. After a while he got himself together, made a phone call, got me to put some whole album side track on the turntable and whisked me off to his doctor. There, within half a minute I was face down on the couch with my pants down having 2 large injections put into my butt. I was then whisked back to the disco and told to carry on as I'd soon feel well. The two shots were some kind of stomach settling concoction and a heavy, heavy dose of antibiotics, mixed I suspect, with some sort of uppers to make me feel good. The rest of the evening I was in a state of serenity, the likes of which I have never experienced since. Apart from that, I did very occasionally take the odd small amount of speed, when I was soooooo doggone tired through burning the candle at both ends. By the end of the season it seemed like the whole damned disco was speeding, 'cos every person working in that holiday environment partied heartily and over did things. You had to keep going, somehow.

[DanceMan]

Do I hear Betty Ford in the background?

[QUINNY]

Dance Man: Please elaborate. :)

[DanceMan]

Betty Ford Clinic....

I just find it amazing that so many that danced in the 70s were supposedly always high, strung-out, smoked, coked, ecstasied and way-qualuded out.....

As I have stated before, I never could equate disco music and getting high in the same realm.....what has one got to do with the other?....not that I am so naive to know that many folks did so...I just never understood why and to me "wasn't the music good enough on its own merits without adding insult to a non-injury"....I always felt sorry for those guys who needed these extra stimulants and later said they had to do it because of how sad their lives were and this made it palatable.....that is such bullshit....Maybe if I had to listen to punk all through the 70s I would need to trip also, but this was DISCO........

So Quinny, if you feel you needed to overdo things in order to keep going and also needed to follow the crowd who kept feeding you and made it difficult for you to turn down, that is your choice, but you asked for me to elaborate and I find it sad that some people needed these crutches in order to "enhance" their good time. I will never buy that explanation, but I am thankful that you and others are still here and have gotten through it.

[QUINNY]

DanceMan: Peer pressure can be a strange thing. I don't think I ever got to the stage where I became dependant on booze or any other stimulant. It was just there in the background. In my own mind I think I came through relatively unscathed.
Knowing that a large proportion of the crowd you played to were partly inebriated or worse can have a weird effect on you if you remain stone cold sober. It's a little difficult to explain, but a crowd that's partly stoned can behave in a peculiar way. Perhaps having a few drinks or whatever helped me get into their state of mind a little better.

[Leanmean]

QUINNY,

Some of our DJs got high in the booth, takin' a toke, sniffin' poppers or doing a snort along with drinking. I read that Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage in New York was always drugged up and would sometimes leave the booth with one record playing over and over again. Believe me, we wouldn't have put up with that shit in Orlando!

To comment on what DanceMan said:
Things were totally different in Orlando compared to New York City back in the 1970s and today. Here in O'Town, there weren't(and still aren't) any clubs that did not serve booze except for a youth center for teenagers under the age of 16. Even the two after hours clubs we had (one straight, one gay) served mixers expressly for the booze you brought in. So it was a whole culture of alcohol.

Regarding drugs, we were all coming of age following the peace and love generation. We got their sex, drugs and rock n' roll! Before disco, we danced to dance rock from groups such as Free, Pacific Gas & Electric, Spencer Davis Group, Sly & the Family Stone, Chicago, Grand Funk Railroad and so forth. "Everyone" did drugs back then. So, when disco came along, naturally, we continued taking our drugs. There was no reason to stop! Ecstacy as it is known today was not popular with the bar scene back then and was called something else. It was considered very hardcore as was heroin. It was quaaludes, acid, pot, speed, reds, yellow jackets and occasionally, coke with several drinks as chasers!

All of us drove drunk back then as it was a fairly forgiveable offense if you got caught until Mothers Against Drunk Drivers came along. I would probably be in jail many times over with a permanently revoked license if I still carried on today the way I used to!

Regarding needing to drink & drug to cover up our feelings about our sad little lives, I don't think that's accurate. The attitude was: "Ain't nothin' but a party!!" We did not think anything would harm us and it made us feel good, so a little more must make us feel even better! Shoot, years before disco hit the scene, I was mixing quaaludes with acid. I was too loaded to get up, but I was tripping my brains out! I also would drop acid just before going to sleep so I could wake up tripping. It was all one big experiment!

Gay liberation, women's liberation, black pride and the sexual revolution all hit at once and we got swept up in the euphoria. Anything went! We partied to excess and indulged our every delight.

As I've said before, it's a wonder we survived -- and sadly, some of us didn't. I hope this helped your understanding of the climate during those times.

[jazz_pilgrim]

Quinny,

For me it was quite simple really. If I got too pissed, then I wouldn't be able to dance, and I used to get my real highs from dancing and from the music... That is not to say that I didn't enjoy a beer or two ... :)

Some of my friends did take drugs - speed etc. I remember at one of the Caister Soul Weekenders - our JP's "leader" and representative DJ got really stoned out of his mind on speed that night and we left him wondering about the holiday camp alone ...about 3am he actually turned up on the Caister holiday camp radio station - still absolutely stoned out of his brains!! That was so funny! :lol: :lol:

[DISCODISK]

Originally Posted by jazz_pilgrim

...about 3am he actually turned up on the Caister holiday camp radio station - still absolutely stoned out of his brains!! That was so funny! :lol: :lol:

nice one jazz! i remember a mate of mine went missing all night at the casino it appeared he was taken away by some religeous group as he was so out of it,he returned at about 7.30 a.m covered ALL OVER with jesus loves you badges and he was walkin round tapping people on the shoulders and asking them if they wanted to go to church :o

[QUINNY]

One of the most terrifying ordeals of my life was when a Spanish guy who hang out at the Disco and did a little DJing himself offered to give me a lift to the next town so that we could continue drinking (until 11am the next morning). This guy was about 19 years old and took speed in big doses. He was the sort of guy who was right in your face and overdid everything.
Anyway, I was eager to continue the vibe of the evening (10pm - 4am don't forget) and so agreed to him giving me a lift.
Holy S***!!!!! He had a Citroen 2CV and his idea of fun was to either head for a canal (there were a few of them where I worked) and swerve just at the last millisecond, or to deliberately try and overturn the damned thing or to try and do both after just switching the lights off. This he continued to do for about half an hour until he got bored, then we drove to the all night bar. Coming home when he was pretty drunk was also a brown trouser experience.