How Many Forum Members Are Or Were Disco DJs?

[Bernie]

If any forum members are or were Disco DJs please respond and tell me what clubs along with dates you worked at and any other tidbits.

ONLY RESPOND IF YOU ARE OR WERE A BONAFIDE CLUB DJ!!!

Thanks you!

[The Lord of Flatbush]

Back in the days, I was a resident @ the Brooklyn Warehouse & Smalls Paradise in Harlem.

Remember those Mobile DJ days, when you would bring two speakers, an amp, mixer, two turntables (Quanta 500), a fan and a microphone to rock the house.

Oh, how things have changed?

[Greg Wilson]

Just had a weird one. I had to look up the date I started at the Hacienda in Manchester for an interview someone's doing with me. Would you believe Saturday August 13th 1983, exactly 20 years ago to the day. Time flies!

Now I've just come here and seen this thread. Very strange!

Anyway, here goes:

The Hacienda is the most famous club I worked in (I was the first dance resident, it was very much an alternative venue back in those days), but the best clubs were Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier, where the Electro-Funk scene took root and I played to a mainly black (and highly knowledgeable) audience.

Quick rundown:
1975 - started deejaying professionally, first residency was the Chelsea Reach in my hometown of New Brighton.

76 -80 - The Golden Guinea in New Brighton - this was my home from home back then, and where I made my name locally. I also worked in other clubs in the area but this was where my heart was.

78 - I was away for a few months deejaying in Denmark and Norway before returning to the Guinea.

80 - back to Europe to work in Denmark and Germany before landing the residency at Wigan Pier, an American styled disco in the UK (with a sound and lighting system second to none in this country).

81 - took over Wednesday Jazz-Funk night at Legend in Manchester (I already did a successful Tuesday Jazz-Funk night in the Pier - Legend was owned by the same company, another amazing venue).

82 - gave up Pier residency (but kept Tuesday and, of course, Wednesday at Legend) to concentrate purely on black music (including Electro-Funk, which was just emerging). Worked at other clubs during the next couple of years in areas like Huddersfield, Manchester, Liverpool and Bolton, and was also a fixture on the All-Dayer scene in the North and Midlands (events in places like Preston, Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Derby etc)

Aug 83 - Started Friday Funk night at Hacienda - also played Legend type tunes for an hour every Saturday.

1984 - retired from deejaying professionally.

[efunk_adelic]

Hi Bernie,


I started DJing in the fall of 1980. I became the friday night jock at a club that I was dancing at. I was bringing records to the friday night jock to play because he wasn't getting to the new stuff quickly.... but overall, he was the best of the 2 jocks they had... The name of the club was Stratus. The club brought in approximately 500 guests with ages ranging from 18-23. This was the hottest spot in the east county.
The owners of the club ran a recording studio above the club in a seperate room. They used to make their own custom commercials and had an awesome relationship with the local radio station. Between 1980-86, I must have only missed 8 times. I did double duty for a short while after the Saturday night jock was ready to call it quits. During the early part of '83, the mod scene was starting to get in full gear here in the states. The owner decided to make Saturday night dedicated to this group of young kids... This new jock played groups like "Tin Tin, Cure, Dead Or Alive, etc. etc." ...
It was time for me to move on during the early part of '86. I decided to give this concert/club promoter a try. I worked one particular club that was red hot for about 1 1/2 years. I worked several other shows for him on other nights at so many various clubs that I can't remember all the names. But it didn't matter where he promoted, he always had the crowd follow him. I've worked along side many many jocks (from radio stations) cross promoting with him, I'd be the jock, they'd so the voice overs... We had some special guests. I met Howard Hewitt & Miki Howard (elektra records) at the clubs...
I gave up working in clubs in 1988. I think I needed a break from it all. Cafe Vid , was the common club I played at after I left Stratus... :D

[NickNack]

Hey Boss,

Don't forget about me! :lol: :lol:

You can check out your interview for the dates and places cause I can barely remember last week. :( :D

[flow1]

Hey, I spun disco at the dances at our small college. We had hundreds there at the dances, and it's how I met my wife. (Both Disco lovers.) If I was old enough at the time, I would have spun in the 70's. as it was, I just listened to my radio all night. They charged money to the townspeople, so I guess you could call it a club.
In heart, it was a club :)
We've spun a few club nights since then, and plan to get it banging again when we move closer to a real city!

[mrbmarco]

Started spinning Nov 1974 at THE D. O. K. WEST in Garden Grove Calif. (Orange County)
Went over to NEWPORT STATION July 1976 in Costa Mesa Calif. (Orange County)
Was one of the founding members of SCDDJA (one of the first record pools)
Worked at the Motherlode in West Hollywood Oct 1979 to May 1981
Then Oil Can Harry's in Studio City 1984 to 1994.
I attended the Billboard Disco Convention here in LA in Feb 1980
I was profiled as a DJ in a Billboard Disco Special Issue in the 70's

[Art Figueroa]

I guest DJ'd at the River Club and Alex in Wonderland during the 1982-1984 period. I also shared DJ duties with NickNack during some of those special "tea dances" at Sneakers.

[DJ-Pir]

Hm,... lets see if this qualifies as bonafide... if not please delete

Some overlaps but i'll try to remember some

'77-'81 Small disco/bar "Cosmopoliet" ~200 people
Played Soul/Disco/Top40, most memorable tracks :
Jean Knight - Mr Bigstuff
Supremes - Baby love
Joe Simon - Step by step
All Donna Summer, EWF, Tavares, Trammps, Barry White tracks
Started buying imports around summer of '78, and try to get people to dance to them :roll:

'81-'02 Multi disco venue "Lunenburg" ~2500 people
Played Disco/Rock/Dance, most memorable tracks :
Forecast - Happy days
The Smiths - Bigmouth strikes again
Softcell - Tainted love
Harlow - Take Off
All Patrick Cowley tracks

'82-'89 Disco "La Cortical" ~500 people
Played Funk/Disco/Dance
This was the first gig where mixing was the rule, we played mostly imports and new dance stuff. :lol:
Most memorable tracks :
Colonel Abrams - Trapped
First Choice - Let no man
Shannon - Let the music play
Farley Jackmaster Funk - Love can't turn around
Starpoint, Peter Brown, Gino Soccio, Total contrast, etc.

'93-'98 Disco/Danceclassics parties at "Jayselings Royal Palace" a large party venue ~400-3500 people
Played all danceable old and new "old" tracks.

'95-'96 disco "Rockefeller plaza" ~1100 people
Played Dance/House
Most memorable tracks :
All Faithless, Masters at Work, Tom Wilson - Techno Cat

'97-'01 venue "Time Out" ~1800-2500 people
Played Rock/House, no memorable tracks.. :(

Add ~500 gigs with drive inn disco (mostly ~1000-1500 people) playing anything that you can imagine :roll:

Currently i play as a substitute in a few places at irregular intrevals playing Dance/House/R&B or Rock
Why do people like System of a down, Dropkick Murphy's or Spineshank :roll: :evil: :evil:

Just to top things off i've been collecting Disco records since '79.......
Found heaven here in terms of knowledge from you all... 8)

[Bernie]

Thanks to all who've responded so far. If there are others on the forum who are or were DJs then please reply and tell us a little about yourselves. Thanks.

[NickNack]

I also shared DJ duties with NickNack during some of those special "tea dances" at Sneakers.

"Chiffon and no drawers, girlfriend!"

Don't worry guys, Art knows what I mean. :lol:

[QUINNY]

I used to think I was a club DJ from '72 - '87 until I started visiting this site. Now I'm not so sure. :lol:
All the venues I played were relatively small, the very first being the smallest (120 on a good night), although we did have Bob Marley & The Wailers play live to an audience of about 60 in 1973 at the time of Catch A Fire.

I then went to Spain for the best part of the next 3 years (Marbella [20 months] & Puerto Alcudia,Mallorca [ 3 seasons], both upmarket although Marbella was ultra glossy) with the odd mobiles and odd club nights in my local area in between. Both these clubs had a capacity of about 400

Then, from early '78 I had about 20 months back in Southampton (capacity 250) followed by a year in London's West End (capacity 200) 'til the end of '80, both with the same manager.

1981 was the worst year of my DJ life when it was hard to get any decent work, I had some but not enough. I played odd nights at two Southampton clubs (capacities 400 and 300), but nothing seemed to gel.

Then in February '82 I landed a club in Winchester (capacity 250) that took me through to New Year '83.

From then until my eventual retirement in June '87 I worked two venues for the same company in Eastleigh and Portsmouth (capacity of both 600).

In my career I auditioned for work twice. The first time I got the gig (in '72) the second time I didn't and so I retired. I also answered adverts in National Music papers twice (and got the gig both times) and a local newspaper once and got that gig too. I was poached on a few occasions and saw my earnings more than triple in my 3 seasons in Mallorca.
I guess I did something right although was I ever there? :lol:

In all that time I was fairly broke most of the time (too many records bought, too many drinks consumed) but I lived the life and was happy doing it.

[Art Figueroa]

I also shared DJ duties with NickNack during some of those special "tea dances" at Sneakers.

"Chiffon and no drawers, girlfriend!"

Don't worry guys, Art knows what I mean. :lol:

You forgot the wind tunnel!

[originalbigm]

Ok NickNack.Meant to get around to this.It seems like another lifetime ago but I can fondly say that I was an original DJ in the early days of disco prior to it being the world wide phenomenon it became.
I first became resident DJ in 1972at a small upstairs club called Stop 33 in Toronto.It was the creation of a restauranteur who had a well known Italian restaurant called La Grotta that had an empty space upstairs.Travelling to New York City he had seen the emerging trend of people spinning records in small clubs foe entertainment called discotheques.So he brought the idea back home.I laugh when I recall my days spinning on that equipment.A Fisher Amp maybe 100 watts max output can't remember the speakers of which there were only two full range hanging from the ceiling.Turntables(?) were belt driven with ceramic needles.(Ohh the wear and tear!)Mixing was not an established artform yet.You simply let the record end and switched the output via the dial selector on the amplifier to the other record.Tunes for dancing were strictly R&b or Soul.James Brown was the king in those days to get the dance floor filled.Others were Sam & Dave,Wilson Pickett,Donnie Elbert,Bobby Bare etc.This venue sat at 33 Dundas Street W. in Toronto and was sold to developers in 1973 to begin the construction of the Eaton Centre.At this time there were probably only a few discos in Toronto.Notably The Scene,Le Spot and Jo Jo's all offering the same type of venue .100 people capacity when packed and lineups that lasted hours to get in.

I moved on to JoJo's in 1973 .To me this is what disco's were all about small,intimate where everybody knew each other and just wanted to dance and enjoy the music.It had state of the art equipment at the time.MacIntosh Amplifiers on a Biamped system that featured JBL scooped bass bins with radial horns.Spent two glorious years there.Owners sold the business to gay interests .

I moved on to what was then the premier entertainment club in Toronto.Koutoubia in the Roehampton Hotel.This was designed in the Casablanca theme with Moorish columns middle eastern tapestries on the wall and waitresses dressed in harem outfits.Yowsah!They outdid Hooters when it came to waitress appeal.Anyways this venue combined live entertainment with disco and brought in the disco artists of the day.Gloria Gaynor,Crown Heights Affair,Disco-tex and the Sex-o-lettes,Carol Williams,Ecstasy,Passion and Pain to name a few.This place as they say was the bomb.It featured a tri amped system.Cerwin Vega Earthquake bass bins,Klipsch horn Voice of The Theatre midrange with electovoice horns.This club held 400-500 people whicj was huge in those days.

Moved onto Faces in 1978 which was at the HOJO's by the airport and began the Sunday disco happening which became huge as most places in Toronto were shutup tight on Sundays.Thursday and Saturdays I was resident DJ at Greystones in Aurora.

I then began mobile work and mixed it in with club gigs here and there through the eighties.during the nineties did strctly mobile work and retired from the business entirely in 1998.

26 years.Where has the time gone?

So I guess I like others feel blessed in having been there at the beginning of the disco phenomenon and having seen the evolution and sadly the demise of a great era in music.It certainly had it's influence from a social and musical standpoint and it's great to see some of the younger forum members rediscovering it.My only wish is that they could have experienced the vibe.

Bernie you are to be congratulated on keeping disco music alive and kicking and for pulling together a wealth of talent and experience amongst the members who some of which I am truly in awe of with their knowledge and have great respect for because I know what they've seen and done.Thanks for allowing me to be part of this great group.

[PhyllisHyman]

First gig was at the gay 'centre ' in Dublin (there were no bars or clubs) back in 1980 and i was crap :( Then moved to London, have worked at:
Substaion,
Reserection
Glory Hole
The Mens Room
Powderbubble (Dublin)
Ham(Dublin)
Arena (Barcelona)
Mediterraneo(Sitges)
XXL (Sitges)
Love Muscle
and various parties.
Started of playing hi-energy then moved into house with a bit of disco thrown in. Worst period was when Trade/Hard House was popular as that was all people wanted.
Currently still playing regularly but not frequently :-).
I was inspired by the clubs I visited when I lived in NY in 81 & 82 such as The Saint, River Club, The Anvil, Alex in Wonderland & Kamikaze. When I moved to London in 85 there was nothing like them there and no-where to dance after 3.30am. It wasn't til the advent of House and a club called Troll that I got excited about music again.
Now I love my funky house and old school disco

[midas]

20 years ago i played in a disco in iceland.
my total nights where no more than 8,
most of them when i was 17 years old (19 years ago).

i was into introducing new tunes then and
concentrating on good mixes.

2 things that got me out of that buissness

a, people where not open to new tunes,
wanted more sing-along tunes.
b, I didnt want to be working while my
freinds where partying

also i did mixes for a tv breakdance-show.

from then on i mixed for myself,
and to tape for friends.

this was around 84, im 36 now.
getting 12" was very hard here then.
friends of my mother where in airline-companies.
and i gave them a list of records to buy for me.
if it was hot i got same records from usa and uk.

and also i ordered records from usa as well.
some off them went to custom, so i payed doubble
price. so at that time all my money was spent on 12"
(working with school)

98% of what i ordered where records i never heard before,
just read the charts and description in magazines,
mostly "melody-maker".

and then a sad ending, a friend of mine was involved
in starting a radiostation borrowed all my collection
and only returned 50% of it year later............
some friend !

[Tony West]

A good topic Bernie, funny that there was not many replies ?

Anyhow I started in around 1977 just after I finished school doing the odd party etc with an old 3 in 1 for 1 turntable and a Garrard for another with a 3 chan. mic mixer with Radio Shack phono preamps. When I reached drinking (club) age my mates took me to the local Pub Disco which just blew me away, well the music did anyway, so after that i was really hooked. Got the job in the Pub Disco after the original guy left to go to radio. Mark Girdwood, anybody know him?

So it was various Pub discos - Hampton Hotel (City Limits Disco) 1979 -80. Matilda's 82-84. Chart House 84-87 then mainly mobile's and the odd club for a few months here and there. Retired in '96 when my first son was born.

The best was from 1980-82 at a no alcohol venue called "Contact" (Thanks Edwin) in South Yarra, Victoria, which started at about 8.00pm for all the under 18's whom were too young to get into the licenced clubs and then after 3.00 am when the clubs closed we got all the club crowds whom came in for a coffee, toasted sandwitches etc. That's all the place was is a Diner serving cappachino, hot dogs and milkshakes! Just as well, I usually did not get out of there untill sunrise. 10 hours mixing and groovin', man it was heaven. :o

Man did it rock, usually about 500 people in this joint and the main musical flavour was funk and Euro disco.(A big ethnic population in Victoria and they were the main ones to disco, the Aussies mainly went to the live band venues). So artists like Lakeside, T-Connection, Barkays, Sylvester and Patrick Cowley were the order of the day. And everyone was there to dance and to hear the latest cuts and have a good time, not to get smashed 'cause there's ain't no alcohol there to do so! :P :P

Anyone whom is reading this actually went to Contact, let us know so we can share some stories. And is there anyone else whom has worked in a non alcohol venue with a similar theme to it?

Cheers for now. Tony.

[JussiK]

For me deejaying started right after high school, too, in 1977 in a sleazy hotel disco. The first record spinned was a bad euro instrumental cover of Bee Gees "You should be dancing" by some act now forgotten. With no mixing skills and a peculiar passion for long thumping instrumentals played in full I must have been a pain for many dancers. How many people really wanted to jump all thru Jumbo 76's "Turn On To Love"?
Since that I jocked in all sorts of clubs until around '82-84. Then I got dragged back into action around 5 years ago. That meant gigs in London and Rome too where the event was broadcast live on RAI 2 tv - a show complete with a line of dancing girls in silver bikinis, as it is customary in Italy.
I'm still at it doing gigs for kids who wear woolly hats and baggy jeans, though every month I swear I'l never do another night ever as my ears are half way damaged. Yet mention a soiree dedicated to action movie themes from the early 70's, euro sleaze, afro drumming plus a change to spin lots of Amanda Lear and I'll say yes in an instant.

[originalbigm]

Just had a weird one. I had to look up the date I started at the Hacienda in Manchester for an interview someone's doing with me. Would you believe Saturday August 13th 1983, exactly 20 years ago to the day. Time flies!

Now I've just come here and seen this thread. Very strange!

Anyway, here goes:

The Hacienda is the most famous club I worked in (I was the first dance resident, it was very much an alternative venue back in those days), but the best clubs were Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier, where the Electro-Funk scene took root and I played to a mainly black (and highly knowledgeable) audience.

Aug 83 - Started Friday Funk night at Hacienda - also played Legend type tunes for an hour every Saturday..

Talk about strange.I happened to watch on the Movie Channel last night a movie entitled "24 Hr Party People" which was the story behind producer/manager and club owner of The Hacienda Tony Wilson.He also was the founder of Factory Records and managed Joy Division the precursor to New Order.Towards the end of the movie there was a club scene of the Hacienda and a song was playing that I really liked and wanted to know what it was but could only make out the word Hallelujah being repeated.I also remembered one of the groups featured in the film was Happy Mondays.Anyways while going through some of my 12" records today I happened to come across much to my surprise the 12" promoof Hallelujah by Happy Mondays.I had overlooked this cut many years ago it was a 1985 release by them and the A side had the MacColl mix which I am sure I listened to but ignored because it had that alternate rock sound to it and was not particularly outstanding.However the B side featured the Club Mix which was the one I had heard in the movie and it was totally different.I really liked it.If anyone wants to get a feel for the flavour of the Hacienda ,try and catch this movie.I really enjoyed it and found it very interesting.
Greg,have you seen the movie and would it be a fair portrayal of the Hacienda and Tony Wilson?Not related are you?

[Greg Wilson]

Hi originalbigm: I enjoyed '24 Hour Party People', it definitely caught a flavour of The Hacienda. It was done in a tongue in cheek way, which I think worked (rather than it being a straightforward account). Some of the portrayals were excellent, my favourite being the late Rob Gretton (New Orders manager) who I think they got spot-on.

On the downside, the film didn't go into how the club went from being a poorly attended 'alternative' venue to becoming one of the worlds most famous dance clubs. It pretty much jumped from 83/84 to 87/88. It was the influence of the black audience in Manchester that would set the right conditions for the Rave scene to explode at The Hacienda, but this is rarely touched upon (not only in the film, but in general). Both Mike Pickering and Laurent Garnier have pointed out that the original House crowd at the club where mainly black, but this fact is usually skipped-over. As I've often said, The Hacienda didn't instigate the dance era in Manchester, but responded to it.

For another perspective see Simon Reynolds's article:
http://members.aol.com/blissout/24hourpartypeople.htm

Talking of The Happy Mondays, the video to their classic dance single 'WFL', was filmed at my main Manchester club, Legend, in 1989, and captures the essence of whole Ecstasy period better than any other video I've seen. What particularly struck me when I first saw it (the only known footage shot in Legend) was that here was a dancefloor packed with mainly white kids that had been the domain of black kids earlier in the decade. It was symbolic of how the whole dance thing had evolved in Manchester.

BTW I wasn't related to Tony Wilson.

[Rugger57]

Nice thread. I'm going to add my 2 cents worth.

I started DJing in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1981. I was captivated several years earlier by one song leading to another. I went out and bought a cheap mixer and two cheap Techniques turntables and became a bedroom mixer...spending hours and hours perfecting my mixing ability.

My first actual spinning at a venue came in the spring of '81 at a bathhouse.(I feel so Bette Midler!) The owner was a frustrated DJ and had his own disco housed in the bathhouse, and I basically spun for no dance floor, but the music went out throughout the bathhouse. The bathhouse also housed a record store as well, and we got a lot of the newer dance stuff as well as imports as they rolled off the presses. I only payed for a piece of music if I wanted to house it in my own collection.

I moved from there to a dump called Johnny's Place, disco with the Urban Cowboy theme. It attracted transvestite streetwalkers and drag queens. I had enough of that in pretty short order (remember playing Tyrone Brunson "The Smurf" and Angela Bofill's "Too Tough")

I moved to Chattanooga, Tennessee and started playing at Charles Sisson's, a dinner/bar/dance place. Dance floor was about 10 feet by 10 feet and people wanted to hear 60's music. I had to bite my lip at times, but as a good dj, I complied.

Was only there several months and got a big break and spun at the biggest straight club in Chattanoona....City Lights. A bonafied club and I was playing things like Sylvester, P. Cowley, La Cage Au Faux, almost anything high energy. I was quite stunned, as I didn't think high energy clubs existed in the straight world!

From there I came back to Indiana and spun at the 21 Club. This place has quite the reputation and is still talked about until this very day. This was when I Like You, Down and Counting, the PWL sound, (I Know) I'm Losing You, and things like that were popular. Quite the feather in my cap! I worked here 3 1/2 years, which brings me to 1990.

From there it was downhill to smaller clubs and quickly changing music, until I gave it up in about 1992.

I had my day in the sun. I enjoyed it. Sweet memories....(are made of this)