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Bbc Documentary - The Joy Of Disco Bbc4 Friday 02/03/12 21.00


Mick Sway

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Guest daz mycroft

Sounds good just hope it doesnt degenerate into the whole Studio 54, Saturdaynight fever, Chic,Village People fest that these type of Progs have a habit of doing :g:

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Sounds good just hope it doesnt degenerate into the whole Studio 54, Saturdaynight fever, Chic,Village People fest that these type of Progs have a habit of doing :g:

its on beeb 4, so I hope, no expect, better, hoping to see a bit on the sanctuary and francis Grasso. As well as credit to Patrick Adams, Tom Moulton, Walter Gibbons and of course Levan, Dj's cant get too much credit in the development of Disco imho.

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Guest Matt Male

just hope it doesnt degenerate into the whole Studio 54, Saturdaynight fever, Chic,Village People fest that these type of Progs have a habit of doing :g:

It did. :(

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It did. :(

Yep. The Soul content was negligable. It was OK for me from a commercial viewpoint 'cos I've got another 4 Disco Discharge albums coming out (no pun intended) so it certainly hit that audience head on (once again no pun intended).

However, at least Kenny Gamble and Earl Young were featured early on, which were the best bits of the show for me.....

Ian D :D

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Guest Polyvelts

I thought it was ok, but right now watching 'disco at the bbc', classic footage of cleethorpes finest Rod Temperton playing keyboards for Heatwave, nice Tash !

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:g: Question for Mr Dewhirst or any other knowledgable fellow who doesn't shy away from the commercial side of things. The guitar work in the clip that featured A Taste Of Honey was very very reminiscent of that in Babe Ruth's "Elusive". Was there a connection between the two?

Answers on a postcard to.......... :hatsoff2:

Steve.

Edited by soulman
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Guest posstot

I saw the part where Ian Levine, mentioned phasing out Northern Soul altogether, to establish the Mecca as a disco venue.

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Stock footage from Blackpool and clips from This England outakes in a pristine print....can anyone confirm the outakes are not on the Tony Palmer DVD.Also footage from the Omnibus documentary..............I'm on to this. :wicked:

They released it on DVD and included the outtakes I think

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Sounds good just hope it doesnt degenerate into the whole Studio 54, Saturdaynight fever, Chic,Village People fest that these type of Progs have a habit of doing :g:

And, i depressingly predictable fashion, that is exactly what happened. What did anyone really expect? :sleep3: :sleep3:

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:g: Question for Mr Dewhirst or any other knowledgable fellow who doesn't shy away from the commercial side of things. The guitar work in the clip that featured A Taste Of Honey was very very reminiscent of that in Babe Ruth's "Elusive". Was there a connection between the two?

Answers on a postcard to.......... :hatsoff2:

Steve.

Mmm. Never really connected the two. Both records on Capitol and only a few years apart............. :g:

Ian D :D

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It's like any program about any music genre, they never let the facts get in the way of a good story. I was surprised it took so long to get to the Bee Gees and John Travolta :rolleyes:

Yes The Bee Gees,the singing sheep.

The BBC,love the Gay angle on any story aswell.

Kev.

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But the the show came over if you went to a Disco you was Gay,what a load of Bollocks.

I was thinking that too. If that was the case, our youth club disco was a gay heaven - practically every record featured in that program up until 1978 was played there, all the Philly ones, the Northern ones, people forget that the charts in those days were crammed with soul records. I watched 1977 Top Of The Pops last night and the chart was almost 50% black/soul artists.

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If you didn't expect too much, then it was fine. I think on these forums we always feel sold short by such documentaries, but we're in a minority as we know a bit about it.

For me, these things are about the rare footage......if you want to get the right story you need to read the books.....Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, Love Saves The Day etc, etc

Would have liked more reference to the DJ's/remixers etc, but nice to see Mancuso and Siano included at least......maybe simply because they are still alive to interview??

Cheers,

Mark R

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Guest ashleysoul

Overall I think it was pretty good. If you watch a film about disco and expect it not to include the likes of the bee gees and the village people then you are asking alot. Regardless of what we want they are part of its history. And as for the gay angle, same again, it was music created and initially championed by the gay community.

The high point for me was seeing an interview with mancuso - what a legend.

The Down point, no mention of paradise garage and levan.

All in all though, quality tv!

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Well I really enjoyed it , I never expected too much , I was surprised by the fact disco was born out of the gay scene , I thought the gay community embraced it , but wasn't aware its roots came from it? To me disco was just an evolution a hybrid of black music. I really liked seeing the emotions , they looked so energetic singing with what had to be the showmen of disco Earth wind and fire.

What was missing ? The Uk disco scene ... Tavaras, the Ojays even ..Cool and gang , underground disco like Jackie Moores this time baby , GQ disco nights , make my dream a reality . I don't think the non commercail stuff got much of a mentionand really that was the best of disco.

Also who remembers the disco dancing championships.... I bet a certain Dj cringes when he is reminded of these :)

The programme did inspire me to ask Nige to order the Philly CD ( thanks Ian) and also see if I could still get an old album I used to have by a band called By All means... which I did :)

I also loved seeing Car wash being sung :) some singers just ooooooooze soul don't they .

I think the death of disco was when they lost the real instruments and it went "Euro" and it was manufactured with synths and booms and bleeps from out of space.

But on the whole it made a saturday more interestng than normal on the box... better than Quiz shows and competion TV.

It always seems as the BBC have a gay agenda,but it is a show business thing.

Kev.

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Guest ashleysoul

To suggest the BBC has a 'gay agenda' is pretty peculiar. Anyone with an ounce of understanding knows that disco was originally the preserve of the gay community. All the the djs that championed it and gave it quality were gay, the clubs where it started were gay and it only went down hill when it was embraced wholesale by a White straight community in manhattan as opposed to the ,underground' downtown.

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To suggest the BBC has a 'gay agenda' is pretty peculiar. Anyone with an ounce of understanding knows that disco was originally the preserve of the gay community. All the the djs that championed it and gave it quality were gay, the clubs where it started were gay and it only went down hill when it was embraced wholesale by a White straight community in manhattan as opposed to the ,underground' downtown.

That's a bit an overstatement too, some of the DJs and early adopters of the disco scene were gay for sure, but by no means all of them, and entirely the preserve of a gay scene.....no. They are more broad brush generalisations just like Pete Waterman's ridiculous breakfast TV comment of "everyone into Northern were miners" to conveniently simplify a complex music scene.

An underlying theme in the documentary was the change from a ground roots scene in to one of mass awareness and commercial hype that ultimately caused it to no longer be cool, then instigating a new underground scene. That should have struck a familiar chord for many of us.

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Guest daz mycroft

Am i haveing deja vu or is it groundhog day :g: the programme was trash when it was first Broadcast 4 years ago, how can a Programme on disco be Brodcast without mentioning Levan/ Pardise Garage.Watchable only for its cringe factor and the clips of Nicky Ciano and the Gallery. :) what would the Majority of the people on this site be saying if The Beeb did a docu on the Northern secne, :ohmy: Maybe Clips of Wigans ovation singing sking in the Snow.. :shhh:

Narrated by Paul o grady featuring tracks such as "Theme from Joe 90 or , whats behind the Green door dubbed over excerpts from "the hit man and her" Thought disco at the beeb was a joke also only saving grace was Taste of Honey playing live to totally of the hook Audience.Not the Totp audiences i remember :g:

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Guest daz mycroft

Well I really enjoyed it , I never expected too much , I was surprised by the fact disco was born out of the gay scene , I thought the gay community embraced it , but wasn't aware its roots came from it? To me disco was just an evolution a hybrid of black music. I really liked seeing the emotions , they looked so energetic singing with what had to be the showmen of disco Earth wind and fire.

What was missing ? The Uk disco scene ... Tavaras, the Ojays even ..Cool and gang , underground disco like Jackie Moores this time baby , GQ disco nights , make my dream a reality . I don't think the non commercail stuff got much of a mentionand really that was the best of disco.

Also who remembers the disco dancing championships.... I bet a certain Dj cringes when he is reminded of these :)

The programme did inspire me to ask Nige to order the Philly CD ( thanks Ian) and also see if I could still get an old album I used to have by a band called By All means... which I did :)

I also loved seeing Car wash being sung :) some singers just ooooooooze soul don't they .

I think the death of disco was when they lost the real instruments and it went "Euro" and it was manufactured with synths and booms and bleeps from out of space.

But on the whole it made a saturday more interestng than normal on the box... better than Quiz shows and competion TV.

was the Ojays who recorded "This Time Baby" first, imho far superior to the 4/4 Jackie Moore version :shhh:

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Guest daz mycroft

how come Tom Moulton And Rip Bill Tarmey ( jack Duckworth} where never seen in the same place together :yes:

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The programme did inspire me to ask Nige to order the Philly CD ( thanks Ian) and also see if I could still get an old album I used to have by a band called By All means... which I did :)

.

Why did that programme inspire you to listen an old By All Means LP? Great band but nothing to do with disco.

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It inspired me to go forward 10 /20 years . I get so wrapped up in 60's rare soul I forget that some good came out of black artists beyond 1979 . I left By all means behind so to speak , today I have rekindled an ear for someone I had also forgotten about Al Broomfield , Freddy Jackson , Alexander Oniel. I wouldn't have done that If had not watched last nights disco.

I know you will find it hard to understand , but its personal to me ...and it did. sometimes images or sounds have a sort of indirect domino effect , they make you think and give you little sparks of memories ...the disco thing lead me into thinking of another time.

I guess we all have forgotten Albums ... I have been trying to remember for years the Al Broomfield surrender album , could I remember his name ? Kept thinking he was a bobby somebody ...today I found it whilst clawing through By all means on utube... along with Badusium :)))

So last nights viewing had a positive result for me ...

Edited by Carms
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For what its worth I thought the Joy of Disco was very good and went a little further ,esp in the first 20 mins or so, into its subject than a lot of other things. Anything on mainstream telly will have to give village people a nod, saturday night fever etc a nod to get past the boardroom otherwise its an extreme niche documentary. But the Stonewall interviews, Nicky Siano and Mancuso interviews were tremendous.

As has been mentioned twice already, Love Saves The Day by Tim Lawrence is an absolutely belting book and I think the best music book (full stop). The story of disco is as much the story of New York and dragging redundant attitudes into the modern era.

What gets me though is 'disco' did not stop when a bunch of ignorants blew up boxes of records in Chicago- it was no longer Bianca Jagger going to a club on a horse- and from that came Paradise Garage, The Warehouse, Larry Levan, Frankie Knuckles, Detroit techo ,8 ball records, King Street records, Glenn Underground, Strictly Rhythmn......( you can keep going here)--. It was never a nostalgic or regressive thing and still is not today, as we all know its dance music, club music- call it what you will-

Although its not a great film at the end of 'The Last Days of Disco' there is a great speech along the lines of 'disco will never die etc' its made in a dead straight way but its tremendous.......

just my thoughts

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It inspired me to go forward 10 /20 years . I get so wrapped up in 60's rare soul I forget that some good came out of black artists beyond 1979 . I left By all means behind so to speak , today I have rekindled an ear for someone I had also forgotten about Al Broomfield , Freddy Jackson , Alexander Oniel. I wouldn't have done that If had not watched last nights disco.

I know you will find it hard to understand , but its personal to me ...and it did. sometimes images or sounds have a sort of indirect domino effect , they make you think and give you little sparks of memories ...the disco thing lead me into thinking of another time.

I guess we all have forgotten Albums ... I have been trying to remember for years the Al Broomfield surrender album , could I remember his name ? Kept thinking he was a bobby somebody ...today I found it whilst clawing through By all means on utube... along with Badusium :)))

So last nights viewing had a positive result for me ...

Fair enough. Just curious. :D

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Guest ashleysoul

Wrong crowd, clearly it is a mass generalisation, but I think I'm pretty accurate when i say that disco came to life at the loft, paradise garage and the gallery and the majority of people that went to these clubs were gay. Although I never personally went to them, so I may be way off course.

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