Playlist for RtP Celebrates the 30th Anniversary of the Trocadero Transfer

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

I really wish all of you could join us. But, since you can't, I'll do my best to bring RtRP to you! :icon_biggrin: I've got the batteries for my camera and camcorder charging, lots of memory cards and blank tapes, a brand new package of blank CD-Rs for the CD recorders, a notepad and pen, and now, hopefully, Dansez! to help report to all of you the highlights of the evening.

I must admit that, when Keefe, Marky, and all you other West-Coast boys, go deep into the SFO and Troc history, I hover quietly in a corner. Reading every word and taking-in every recollection. Feeling every bit, "the stranger".:icon_redface:

For all my experiences and time in the business, the San Francisco Experience eluded me. I played the music from there... I knew the artists from there... I remixed tracks and produced recordings for the record companies there... But I never got there. Save a 2-week stint, in January of 1983. When I played at Castro Station and Daddy's. (I think...:icon_confused: Lord knows, at the time, I spent every moment there, a bit... hmmm... shall we say "impared"?) I was a New Yorker, in a strange land. And to say I was intimidated, would be a gross understatement. I'd grown accustomed to following Leslie, Burgess, Wise, Thode... They were the Kings of my turf and I could hold my-own against them. But... In The Castro...?:icon_eek: This 23 year old, blonde, blue-eyed Manhattan-Disco-Dolly, felt like a complete fish-out-of-water. I wussed-out and ran back to the safety of NYC. (And gave-up an apartment next-door to the Castro Theater!!! I could kill myself for that, alone!)

I mean... As a New Yorker, I had Studio, Ice Palace 57, The Anvil, The Saint (though, honestly, I preferred 12 West) and all the wonderul mid-70's NYC/NJ haunts. But there always seemed to be something about The Troc. It was just in people's eyes, when they talked about it. I knew I was missing something very special. And unlike anything The Big Apple had to offer.

Anyway... I guess I'm just waxing nostalgic. As a career-DJ, the clubs, not just the music, were my life. And I want to express my appreciation for all the effort that goes into your posts... and clips... and lists... and recollections... that allow me a peek at a time and place that I truly envy you guys, for experiencing.

Maybe I'll see you all there, next year?

[markydefad]

So Stephen-- not clear on what you were saying---you actually moved to SF in the 1970s?--and moved back to NYC after 2 weeks??? What year were you there? :icon_confused::icon_question::icon_confused:

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

So Stephen-- not clear on what you were saying---you actually moved to SF in the 1970s?--and moved back to NYC after 2 weeks??? What year were you there? :icon_confused::icon_question::icon_confused:

It was January of 1983. And there was one other reason I left...

In a moment of God-given clarity, I realized that the drugs my particular crowd were using, were a lot stronger in SFO. And being thrown at me from all sides.

As much of a partier as I was, I knew I couldn't keep pace with the crowd I'd moved there to work & hang with.

Isn't that funny??? I moved back to NYC twice during my DJ career, to sober-up!:icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol:

[markydefad]

It was January of 1983. And there was one other reason I left...

In a moment of God-given clarity, I realized that the drugs my particular crowd were using, were a lot stronger in SFO. And being thrown at me from all sides.

As much of a partier as I was, I knew I couldn't keep pace with the crowd I'd moved there to work & hang with.

Isn't that funny??? I moved back to NYC twice during my DJ career, to sober-up!:icon_lol::icon_lol::icon_lol:

Oh I see. Yes, it was a hard party town--but I thought NYC woulda been just as hard-- if not harder??? This was also the time of AIDS really hitting the community--very sad & scary since no one knew what was causing it until the spring of 1984. I was still living there in January 1983--did you visit Aloha Records on 18th & Castro???? I spent time Standing & Modeling at BOTH Castro Station & the Detour on Market....maybe I heard you play during the 2 weeks you were there??? :icon_confused: Maybe not.

[keefelc]

Hey Stephen! Thanks for your sweet comments! I always hope I'm not boring people to tears, so I appreciate everybody's comments.

And, you know we would love to see you at a future RtP. Hopefully, there will be more!

You raised such interesting comments about your brief San Francisco experience. I have to say with all of your ties to the SF disco scene (especially Hot Tracks), I thought you lived here for many years!!

And as for your comments about being intimidated by the Castro when you were 23 years old. Well, you were alot braver than moi! I moved back here from suburbia in the late 70s when I was 22 to start a job. For the longest time, I would rarely go over to the Castro! That scene was just too intense for me. Like you, I felt like I would not fit in. Plus, Polk Street was still going strong at that time, and the really good records stores were in that area! So, I had the good fortune to gradually get into the whole scene.

As for the drugs being stronger over in SF, maybe that had something to do with the whole 60s scene in SF, particularly the Haight Ashbury?? Psychedelia anyone? :icon_lol: Those drugs could only get more sophisticated in the 70s, right? And, as you experienced, "good stuff" was so easy to get. It seemed like everybody had a great connection.

As for our beloved Trocadero, well, maybe the difference between SF and NYC was that for many years, we basically only had Trocadero as our after hours club. You guys had such an incredible variety.

We were lucky that Dick Collier Jr. and the Troc staff kept the Troc experience fresh and exciting. Then in conjunction with their DJs, most notably Bobby Viteritti, they were masters at messing with our minds while we danced!!! All that truly made us "Wrecked For Life"!

So, maybe that's why there's a twinkle in our eyes when we talk about Troc???

Oh, by the way, this Saturday, Oct. 11th, a bunch of us from White Light Productions (several worked at the Trocadero!), who bring you the Remember the Party events, will be on the radio! Our friend Sergio is a DJ at a Berkeley radio station, KALX. He LOVES Disco and he's only in his early 30s. Anyway, he invited us to be on his show Saturday afternoon. We're suppose to be there by 4:30 pm. I'm completely nervous about this and I'll probably sit there like a rock!

However, you can listen to Chris, Carla, Richard and Jerry Bonham talk to Sergio. You can even listen on the Internet. The site for the station is:
http://kalx.berkeley.edu

Bye for now!
Keefe

[Chala]

Oh, by the way, this Saturday, Oct. 11th, a bunch of us from White Light Productions (several worked at the Trocadero!), who bring you the Remember the Party events, will be on the radio! Our friend Sergio is a DJ at a Berkeley radio station, KALX. He LOVES Disco and he's only in his early 30s. Anyway, he invited us to be on his show Saturday afternoon. We're suppose to be there by 4:30 pm. I'm completely nervous about this and I'll probably sit there like a rock!

However, you can listen to Chris, Carla, Richard and Jerry Bonham talk to Sergio. You can even listen on the Internet. The site for the station is:
http://kalx.berkeley.edu

Bye for now!
Keefe

So Keefe, are you saying Saturday all of you folks will be on together including Chris, Carla, Richard and Jerry Bonham?

[keefelc]

So Keefe, are you saying Saturday all of you folks will be on together including Chris, Carla, Richard and Jerry Bonham?

Yes indeed, Chala. All of us in the studio together. I surely would not do something like this by myself! I'm already nervous about doing this show with the group!! :icon_lol:

Hey! The issue of San Francisco's leading weekly LGBT newspaper, The Bay Area Reporter, that was distributed today has a fun article about San Francisco's Disco Renaissance this week. Here's the text if you would like to read:

Boogie nights
San Francisco's becoming a disco inferno (again!)
Published 10/09/2008
by Robert Sokol

You don't need the white suit. Really! Just stand, legs apart, bend your right knee and thrust your right index finger heavenward, and you've made the leap. No, not to "The Time Warp" that's just a jump to the left! but to the hottest scene of three decades past. John Travolta, Saturday Night Fever in a word, disco!

With wide-ranging influences from funk to soul and salsa unified by a driving beat, disco emerged as a unique musical genre in the 1970s, and quickly became a worldwide phenomenon. By the end of the decade, legendary clubs like New York's Studio 54 were the place to see and be seen in your Angels Flight pants, Qiana shirt and Halston gown if you could get through the velvet rope. Fueled by Barry Gibbs' falsetto, Saturday Night Fever became the biggest-selling soundtrack of all time, and a Boston girl named LaDonna Gaines moved from the German productions of Hair and Godspell to a worldwide spotlight, where she loved to love ya as Donna Summer. Of course, it was the divas, and some select divos, that made you pull up to the bumper on the disco highway. Bad girl Summer led the hustle that included Gloria Gaynor, Alicia Bridges, the Village People, SalSoul Orchestra, Barry White, Vickie Sue Robinson and many more, including San Francisco's own Sylvester.

Like a convergence of mechanized lights on a glittering mirrored ball, Baghdad by the Bay is currently enjoying a mini-Renaissance of "four on the floor" events featuring some of the top-charting artists of the genre. A wildly enthusiastic audience broke out their boogie shoes for the inaugural presentation of Disco Divas: Unplugged and Amp'd Up! at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko two weeks ago. Linda Clifford's friends could see her now and hear her in a set combining standards from a wide range of styles (Linda sings "Let's Stay Together" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlwG-tr4_YI&fmt=18 and "Smile" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjJveN_g0Qk&fmt=18 ) to track-backed renditions of her genre hits. Clifford was joined for an impromptu LaBelle tribute of "Lady Marmalade" by sistahs Thelma Houston, just launching her extended run at Teatro Zinzanni, and friend-of-Sylvester Jeanie Tracy that brought down the house (See this terrific trio for yourself at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uACu_gMwjI0&fmt=18) . The next edition of Divas on October 13 features Pamala Stanley ("This Is Hot") and special guest Paul Parker ("Right on Target"), with pre-show spinning by world-renowned mix master DJ Paul Goodyear (Watch Paul as the Man In The Mirrorball from Troc's 30th Anniversary at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDLGbM1ycZQ&fmt=18 ) .

The night before, Remember the Red Party , the latest edition of an annual tribute to SF's legendary Trocadero Transfer, offers nine hours of foot-stompin' nostalgia at the Glas Kat, site of the original Trocadero, at Fourth and Bryant. "You can't really recreate something," says Chris Njirich, co-producer of the event with Richard Guile, "but you can tip your hat to it!" Njirich and many of his team are original Trocadero staffers, working from the playlists, lighting plans and other elements saved over the decades. "Our slogan is, 'It's all about the trip!'" he says. "Trocadero Transfer was living art!"

Disco allegedly died in 1979, prompted by derision from the rock-music sector and a riot in Chicago's Comiskey Park. "My first album came out in September of 1979," remembers Pamala Stanley, "and in November, there was a big headline that said, 'Disco Died!' I was on the road, called my label, and asked for my producer. They told me he wasn't there anymore, so I asked for anyone in the disco department, and the person on the phone said, There is no disco department.' So they dropped it that fast. Then I went on to have the biggest 10 years of my life in the 80s, after they said disco died," she laughs. "In my opinion it never died, never went away. They just changed the name to Dance."

"It's a number of things, really," says Michael Williams, co-owner of Medium Rare Music in the Castro and producer of Divas, about the renewed popularity of the genre. "Disco has a 'feel good' appeal. The songs are real songs, with a beginning, middle and end. There's a musicality that is sorely lacking in most dance music today, where it's just about the beats." Stanley calls it "happy music," and Linda Clifford says, "It warms you. People have a wonderful time, and this is certainly a time when people want to feel good. A lot of the newer music can be a downer and very blatant," she says of rap and hip hop. "It seems like there's no room for imagination." Thelma Houston doesn't even try to define it. "I don't know," she says with a smile that suggests otherwise. "When I do 'Don't Leave Me This Way' at Zinzanni, people just start dancing. Whatever it was, it still works, so I don't question it!" Notes Njirich of the motivation behind his annual dance fest, "It's like church for people of that era. We do it because we missed having fun!" Paul Parker, who divides his time now between real estate and music projects with Utmosis, credits the Internet. "The fans have always been there," he says, "and now with the Internet, they can find out what's going on with the artists they loved." Parker not only faced the challenge of being a man in a female-dominated idiom, but also being out. "It wasn't difficult in the dance music sector, but is was harder when I tried to find a new label. Producers felt it was a risk to take on a gay singer in the 80s. By the 90s, it didn't matter." Approached to join the Village People, Parker opted to work under the auspices of the late Patrick Cowley, who produced hits for the likes of Sylvester and Sarah Dash of LaBelle.

"I love the concept of Unplugged and Amp'd Up!" says Houston. "Most of the artists from back in the day could really sing. It wasn't done through mechanics. These girls and guys could really sing, and it's great to show other sides of a performer, so I hope the series continues." Stanley concurs, "I've traveled with all these women Gloria, Thelma, Vickie Sue and we'd be booked together in concerts that were just phenomenal. You had to be good to make it then, not just be pretty and have great tits!"

Disco lives!

Remember the Red Party at the Glas Kat, 520 4th St., Sun., Oct. 12, 6 p.m.-3 a.m. Tickets ($20, advance) at Medium Rare Music, 2310 Market St., or www.remembertheparty.com, or $25 at the door.
Disco Divas: Unplugged and Amp'd Up! Pamala Stanley with Paul Parker at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko, SF. Mon., Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. Tickets ($35): (866) 468-3399 or www.therrazzroom.com.

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

You raised such interesting comments about your brief San Francisco experience. I have to say with all of your ties to the SF disco scene (especially Hot Tracks), I thought you lived here for many years!!

Actually, I didn't come on-board with Hot Tracks, as a Co-Producer, until the late 80's. When Steve Algozino's family took control of the company, moved it to Las Vegas, and brought Chris Cox and myself, in to re-build it. My first track for them was supposed to be Carol Jiani's "Hit 'N Run Lover" in 1981. But the Moby Dick Remix was released at the same time, and the structures were so similar that Lester Temple (albeit VERY graciously) pulled mine from the issue it was on.:icon_sad: It wasn't until 1984 that I first got released on Hot Tracks.

And as for your comments about being intimidated by the Castro when you were 23 years old. Well, you were alot braver than moi! ... I would rarely go over to the Castro! That scene was just too intense for me. Like you, I felt like I would not fit in.

The thing was, I'd never really partied-with-the A-Gays, (as we called 'em, in NY). I was working pretty steadily from 1976 on thru. But I wasn't making THAT kind of money! Eventually, through cross-country promotions work, I got hooked-into the folks from Megatone, Moby Dick's, The Sister of Perpetual Indulgence, Al Parker... You know... SFO's version of the A-Gays. I got offered the Castro Station gig and jumped at it! But it didn't take long for me to realize that I was WAY outta my league, as far as the intensity of the lifestyle! I'd crashed-and-burned in 1981 from MDA, in Miami. And saw it happening all over again. I was too young and, on that level, too socially naive. Back in NY, in the 70's...? LOL! My idea of a hot night was a slo-gin fizz and a diet pill! WOO-HOO! I was off-and-running. But these girls were playing hard-ball!

this Saturday, Oct. 11th, a bunch of us from White Light Productions (several worked at the Trocadero!), who bring you the Remember the Party events, will be on the radio! Our friend Sergio is a DJ at a Berkeley radio station, KALX. He LOVES Disco and he's only in his early 30s. Anyway, he invited us to be on his show Saturday afternoon. We're suppose to be there by 4:30 pm. I'm completely nervous about this and I'll probably sit there like a rock! :eek

However, you can listen to Chris, Carla, Richard and Jerry Bonham talk to Sergio. You can even listen on the Internet. The site for the station is:
http://kalx.berkeley.edu

I'm assuming that's 4:30pm PCT. I'll be listening! And if there's call-ins...you can bet I'm gonna try to get through and say "hi" to ya!

[drlove]

what a glorious time to be in San Francisco these days --- have fun !!

. . . and I'm just with envy !

[STEPHEN L FREEMAN]

Hiya, Keefe!

Listening to Marlene Shaw's "Love Dancin'", at the close of the RtP show, with DJ Sergio. LOVED it!:icon_biggrin:

I called-in, but Sergio (who is as sweet as can be, b.t.w.!) said he wasn't set-up to put me on-the-air. But he did say he'd send along my best wishes to all the guys in the studio... "especially Keefe".:icon_mrgreen: I hope you got the message.

I thoroughly enjoyed the program. And I've made a personal commitment to attend next year!

MUAH!

Stephen L.

[keefelc]

Awww Stephen! That was so sweet of you to call us. We were all so delighted when Sergio told us he just talked to you!

The studio was fun. It's in the heart of the Berkeley campus. Kinda trippy roaming around the school hallways! Right next to the studio was a FABULOUS store room for all of their records and CDs - everything perfectly shelved and organized. Very impressive!

The tunes that Sergio played during the portion of the show when we were on were all picked by Mr. Bonham himself!! Jerry getting everyone in the mood for Sunday night.

Did you happen to catch the project Sergio said is now in the works???

We're all totally ramped up for RtRP! The tickets at Medium Rare Music have already SOLD OUT! The first time that's ever happened for us. So, let's hope that's a good sign as San Francisco goes into full swing with it's disco renaissance!

Okay, I'd best sign off now and try to get some shut eye. I have a feeling I need to be fully rested for tomorrow's festivities!

Thanks again for calling Stephen! We'll see you next year!!

Be back soon to give everyone a full report!

Disco lives!
Keefe

[markydefad]

Keefe, best wishes for a most excellent RtP event!!! I'll be thinking of you guys "dancing the night away"...and waiting with bated breath for your recap of evening...

Biggest Question: what will Jerry play this time????