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‘Johnny Rotten tore my record off the deck’: the superfan at the centre of disco and punk
Alan Jones somehow straddled the riotous noise of the Sex Pistols, the fetishism of Vivienne Westwood and the hedonism of disco and gay clubs. A new book tells his story
Every night meant a different location, but usually the same crowd – friends who only existed in the smoke-filled haze under the kaleidoscopic light show As well as the history of a much maligned but still highly relevant musical form, Jones reveals under-explored elements of the period’s gay lifestyle: out singers such as Chris Robison (who toured with the New York Dolls), cheap flights to New York, the relationship between the Gay Liberation Front and disco drugs, and the London club merry-go-round: Bang on Monday, the Sombrero on Tuesday, Glades on Wednesday, Napoleon’s on Thursday, Adam’s on Friday and The Embassy on the weekend. At the same time, Jones was working in the Portobello Hotel, which he calls “a mega-celebrity watering hole: I partied with everyone from Abba and David Bowie to Queen and Jack Nicholson.” He also met the science fiction author Harlan Ellison, who encouraged him on his long career as a cult and mainstream film reviewer. After Rolling Stone writer Vince Aletti caught the rising tide with an article headlined Discotheque Rock ’72: Paaaaarty!, the wave broke in 1974 and early 1975, as US No 1s by Love Unlimited Orchestra, MFSB, George McCrae, the Hues Corporation, Barry White and Labelle attracted mainstream music industry acknowledgement and defined the form as disco.
Or read this on The Guardian
