The sleeve notes to the Film- Enjoy

[straight acting]

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To: <jan.friedmann@charly-acquisitions.com>
Subject: Initial Sleevenotes For "High Energy - The Classics"



Sleevenotes For "High Energy - The Classics"


I first attended Heaven Nightclub in January 1980. It had opened in Londons Charing Cross on Dec 6 1979, inspired by Clubs such as The Flamingo, Infinity and 12 West in New York City and pre empted by Londons Embassy Club ( some would say the equivelant of New Yorks Studio 54). Heaven was, many years before the Ministry of Sound had even been thought of, Britian's and therefore Europes first superclub.My first visit to Heaven was a total eye opener , unashamedly gay, incredibly chic, with a sound and light show to die for, I was amazed by the dancefloor reaction to records that veered from Classic disco grooves to obscure euro disco style tunes from places like Italy to obscure Canadian Album tracks. The night seemed to fly by and I barely stopped dancing , I was to return on many many occasions over the next six or seven years.

The man responsible for the seething , heaving dance floor was already known to me by reputation only, as for some years previousley I had followed Ian Levine as he had virtually brought Disco single handedly to Britain, turning the Northern Soul scene on its head with his embracing of New York Disco and the Sounds of Philadelpia. Heaven was made for Levine, and, as the first British Disc Jockey to really embrace the relativley new concept of seamlessly mixing records together to keep the dancefloor moving, Levine was made for Heaven.

We had been told at the end of the seventies that " Disco was finished" American radio stations were holding " Death to Disco" shows and public burning of Disco records were taking place. Saturday night Fever had arguably destroyed the credibility of Disco music and turned it from a hip underground scene into a commercial nonsense that saw the likes of Rod Stewart and Cliff Richard attempting to make Disco records There were a few records being made that still were unashamedly "proper" disco, Madleen Kanes " Forbidden Love " certainly comes to mind as a classic from that time.

As I left Heaven that evening, I left with the true belief that far from being finished, disco was truly about to enter a new era. Over the next couple of years the music seemed to grow, getting faster and changing from a lush orchestral disco sound to a more electronic beat.It also acquired a new name , Hi NRG . This reflected perfectly the style of music becoming popular at Heaven and its soon to be New York equivalent "The Saint". The crowd loved it, the sight of 2000 men with their shirts off on a Saturday night became the norm as that chugging beat never seemed to end, on occasions Levine seemed to take us on a soaring sweeping musical trip, enhanced by the smell of Amyl nitrate , the beat went on and on.



As a genre , Hi Nrg music was to grow quickly , and eventually explode. Ian Levine had enjoyed success as a writer and producer of both Northern Soul and disco music , enjoying a massive hit in America with amongst others Barbara Penningtons "24 Hours a day " in 1977. By 1983 he was keen to make records again, but Disco was still considered unfashionable and finding a record company to back a project was virtually impossible. London based Dance music specialists Record Shack were providing Ian Levine with many of the import records he was playing at Heaven, and eventualy a deal was struck for Ian to make a Hi NRG record to be released by the newly emerging Record Shack Label which until that point had enjoyed small success licensing and releasing Dance records from America.

A tiny budget of £2000 was allocated and Ian was given the opportunity to team up with Miquel Brown to record a song he had written called " So many men, so little time".Expecting to Sell about 10'000 copies, the record was premiered at The Saint night club in New York on Easter Saturday night 1983,by legendary Hi NRG DJ Robbie Leslie. Ian recalls, " The place was plunged into Darkness at about 3am , the suddenly the record came in , boom , boom, boom and the place just went wild, at that point I knew I had a major hit on my hands." The record went on to sell two million copies worldwide.Hi Nrg had truly arrived

>From then on it was all change at Record Shack, due to the success of "So many men", money was available to sign up a whole roster of artists many of whom appear in this DVD tribute to a unique style of dance music, that whilst being underground became massivley influential in the overall scheme of British and indeed world wide pop music.

Ironically, listening back now to some of the records from the Hi NRG era, its hard to believe that more of them didn't cross over and become major worldwide pop hits, although the influence of Hi NRG with bands such as the Pet Shop Boys and Bronski Beat are undeniable, as is the influence on the "Hit Factory" of Stock Aitken and Waterman. Acts like Seventh Avenue, whose Hi Nrg smash " Loves Gone Mad" also undoubtdly laid the foundation for the success of boy bands such as " Take That" and "Bad Boys inc".



Come with us then, on a journey through the years when Record Shack and many other similar labels provided the soundtrack to a generation , enjoy once again Evelyn Thomas and her world wide smash hit " High energy", Angie Golds wonderful " Eat you up" or Carol Jianis "Hit and run lover", just a few of the great songs encapsulated within this documentary. Enjoy also the videos from timeless gems from Nightmare records, Ian Levines later Hi NRG label, monster dancefloor hits which topped the then famous "High Energy Chart" in weekly pop publication Record Mirror.

Interviews with the scenes movers and shakers, interspersed with 55 of the songs that made Hi NRG so special to a whole generation of dancers make up the six hours of entertainment you are about to enjoy, its all here a unique and memorable tribute to the times when we danced all night, hoping to find some one special to go home with.

In a way, the way we were during that era had been summed up with great eloquence some years previousley by Andrew Holleran in his seminal book Dancer from the Dance " We would not stop dancing"he wrote." We moved with the regularity of the Pope from the city to Fire Island in the summer, where we danced till the fall, and then, with the geese flying south, the butterflies dying in the dunes, we found some new place in Manhatten and danced all winter there."

Music by its very nature has to move forward, change , reinvent itself , and by the late 1980's Hi NRG was all but over, replaced by Chicago house as the dancers music of choice, looking back now though I realise we enjoyed ten great years though, ten years of very special music. I hope you enjoy this DVD as much as I have.

Touch me in the morning.

Jeremy Hanson - London 2003
Leading High Energy Expert


Track by track description to follow

[Energyguy]

** WOW** - Thanks for that Jeremy ! that makes great reading !!

[straight acting]

Originally Posted by Energyguy

** WOW** - Thanks for that Jeremy ! that makes great reading !!

"
Thats "straight acting "to you, Neil. When I used to DJ Hi Nrg I used to work under the name Roger Imhada, often raised a chuckle....

[Energyguy]

Originally Posted by straight acting

"
Thats "straight acting "to you, Neil. When I used to DJ Hi Nrg I used to work under the name Roger Imhada, often raised a chuckle....

I did not mean to cause offence by using your name but it is clearly shown at the end of the sleeve notes...

[straight acting]

Originally Posted by Energyguy

I did not mean to cause offence by using your name but it is clearly shown at the end of the sleeve notes...

I was just joking matey :D peace out dude, as they say over here.