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West and Mid-West Disco DJ
JERRY BONHAM BIO
My love of Disco music started in of all places, Grand Forks, North Dakota. It was a time when even the radio station in Grand Forks would play everything, before radio was segregated by what style of music they played. My friend Don and I would go to the mall and buy all the LP’s with the cool covers, cool to us were the covers of LPs like “Migration” by The Creative Source, Yvonne Fair, (the one with the pills around the edge, before they censored it and took the pills off!) Donna Summer “Love to Love You Baby” LP, MFSB, The Ritchie Family “Brazil”, Parliament (tear the roof off the sucka!) and of course those sexy Ohio Players LP Gatefold Jackets.
I moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1976 and was inspired to DJ by local Minneapolis DJ Jim Wessels at Suttons. Jim was a masterful DJ. He kept up with the new music by going to New York and bringing back musical gems he had discovered.
Later that same year a new bar opened down the street from Suttons, THE YA’LL COME BACK SALOON at Ninth and Hennepin, where it still stands today. I applied to be one of the DJ’s and lo and behold, having absolutely no experience, I was hired! I held my residency there for 12 years,with a year in New York at the Ice Palace in the city and on Fire Island in 1979.
I would take trips to Chicago and go to places like The Bistro, and watch the Bearded Lady freak out to ”Spring Affair “and “Summer Fever”, and dance all night to songs like: “My Sweet Summer Suite”, “Quiet Village”, “Native New Yorker”, and “Trouble Maker” by Roberta Kelly, and Alfies, where Michael Graber was the DJ. He was the first DJ I heard blend records together in a cohesive fashion, and he was amazing. Michael Graber (check your 12” of “Have a Cigar, he did the remix) was my inspiration to learn how to mix.
I started to experiment with the music and began blending songs together, and playing sound effects over songs, much to the surprise and joy of the dance floor. For me, it was like discovering the music all over again.
Some Saloon classics are: “Victim” Candi Staton, “From Here To Eternity”/ “Evolution” Giorgio Moroder, “Was That All It Was” ,Jean Carn, “Walk The Night” “Life At The Outpost” Skatt Brothers, any Cerrone, Boris Midney and Alec R. Costandinos production, “Do You Have The Force” The Droids, “Risky Changes” Bionic Boogie, “Deputy Of Love” Don Armando, “The Visitors” Gino Soccio, “Lay All Your Love On Me” Abba, “Carry On, Turn Me On” Space, to name just a very few.
Before I left for New York in 1979, my fellow DJ’s and Billboard magazine voted me Best Regional DJ for Minneapolis and St. Paul 1979.
In New York I played at Harry’s Back East, Ice Palace 57, and Ice Palace on Fire Island.
Roy Thode was the main DJ that summer ’79 at the Ice Palace on Fire Island, Warren Gluck was spinning at the Monster, and Howard Merrit was at the Sand Piper in the Pines. I remember one the nights Jim Burgess played on the Island at The Palace, and played “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) at the wrong speed, on purpose of course, and did an exquisite mix into “Love For the Sake Of Love”.
I moved to San Francisco in 1989 and began spinning at Dreamland. My first night to play was Halloween, it was fantastic, the room was huge and it was packed. It reminded me of The Ice Palace on Fire Island. I also landed a gig at another club in San Francisco a few months later, Colossus, which was originally in the space formerly known as The Trocadero, it later moved to 1015 Folsom. I played the 2 –6 a.m. set.
I was asked to be a resident at The Pleasuredome after playing at Colossus for about 2 years. Bill Camillo was the manager and creator of Pleasuredome, and it was here that I made my home for many years, playing from 6 in the afternoon till 12 in the morning, when DJ Alec Cunningham would take over the shift, and wow the crowd with his blend of funky house music. The light jocks at the Pleasuredome where none other than Chris and Bob Bear, of Bear Essense fame and now producers of the REMEMBER THE PARTY events celebrating the TROCADERO.
The music was changing and I was experimenting once again. I started playing more progressive music, like B.T. “Embracing the Sunshine”, and “Last Rhythm” by Last Rhythm. This lead to my leaving the Pleasuredome and floundering for a while, till the producers of a new underground club, SPUNDAE came into the Record Rack where I was working and dropped off flyers for their events. I looked to see who was playing, and was shocked to see it was DJ’s like Sasha and Nick Warren, this was around 1996 and the beginning of a whole new era for DJ’s. I gave them a mixed tape and again the music Gods were smiling on me. I was given a chance to prove myself by opening the club one night. Apparently I did the job, as I was then offered a residency the next day.
I continued to Spundae’s resident and opening for DJ’s like John Digweed, Sasha, Sander Kleinenberg and Paul Van Dyk till 2002, when I became a free agent. I have been on the road with Paul Van Dyk for the past 2 years opening for him, and doing solo gigs in Mexico, Peru, Turkey, Argentina, Colombia and the states.
Recently I was given a chance to play at an event that I hold very near to my heart, the REMEMBER THE PARTY producers approached me, after again handing them some CD’s I had put together of some of my favorite disco songs for a trip I was taking to Brazil. They were of the opinion that the selections were very Trocadero, and would I consider playing at their event. Needless to say I jumped at the chance! Disco is the music I grew up with and it still speaks to me today.
I have played at two REMEMBER THE PARTY events, Soul Recharge, and Remember the Troc (read Black) party, and we are gearing up for the 5th installment this October 8th 2006.
Website: http://www.jerrybonham.com
DISCOGRAPHY
Singles
1. Jerry Bonham “Vispera” (OAM)
2. Jerry Bonham “Liquid” (Vapour)
3. Jerry Bonham “Grounded” (Vapour)
4. Jerry Bonham “Sequence” (Looq Records)
5. Jondi and Spesh “Copenhagen Express” (Looq Records)
6. Expansion “Listen” (Funked Up Records)
7. JSJ “Deep Love 9” (Renaissance Records)
8. Jerry Bonham “Erendira” (Bedrock Records)
9. JSJ “Ghost Of You” (Renaissance Records)
10. Jerry Bonham “Seventh Seal” (SAW Records)
11. Dirtyhertz and Jerry Bonham "Rattlehead" / "Vertigo" DORIGEN records U.K. 2004
Albums
1. Spundae Interpretations 1 (Spundae Recordings)
2. Transglobalnation Vol. 3 (Arcade America)
3. Spundae Interpretations 2 (Mute/Spundae Recordings)
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