THE DISCO ITINERARY
Jason Gagliardi染上了帶有2018年特色的《周末狂熱》JASON GAGLIARDI looks to catch a little Saturday Night Fever, 2018-style
JASON GAGLIARDI revels in a little Saturday Night Fever 2018 style
IN 1976, NIK Cohn wrote a piece for New York Magazine called Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night.
The story became the basis for the film Saturday Night Fever. Shame it was mostly a crock. Sure, disco was becoming a thing, seeping out of darkened basements in cities like Philadelphia and from Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage in Manhattan. But the Bee Gees’ high-pitched soundtrack, John Badham’s taut direction and John Travolta’s iconic dance routines made the gasoline that started a disco inferno.
Twenty years on from the film’s release, Cohn ’fessed up. He had just landed in New York and his only experience of disco was a visit to Brooklyn’s 2001 Odyssey, where someone threw up on his shoes. After talking the magazine’s editor into letting him pen a piece on the scene, Cohn proceeded to make the rest of it up.
‘As for Vincent, my story’s hero, he was largely inspired by a Shepherd’s Bush [in London] mod whom I’d known in the ’60s,’ Cohn admitted.
Travolta’s rampantly heterosexual version of Vincent, ‘ Tony’, actually sprang from New York gay clubs of the early ’70s – places like Loft and 12 West, with the earliest records by divas like Donna Summer and Gloria Gaynor captured on white labels and passed around those in the know. Others contend that the scene started even earlier, in 1960s New York, with discos like Regine’s, Le Club, Cheetah, Ondine and Arthur, which was opened by Sybil Burton after Richard Burton left her for Elizabeth Taylor. DJ Terry Noel spun the decks at Arthur, and may have been the first person to play two records at the same time, giving birth to the mix.
It might be tempting to view the 1977 opening of Manhattan’s Studio 54 as a cynical cash-in on Saturday Night Fever’s
success, but Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell had spotted the trend, quit practising law and opened Enchanted Garden in Queens in 1975. In Studio 54’s celebrated hedonism, captured in Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco (a much better film than the Travolta tosh), disco simultaneously reached its apex and nadir.
Hong Kong, too, has etched its name in disco’s annals. For a few years in the late ’80s, Canton Disco was quite possibly the coolest place on the planet. DJ Andrew Bull, who made his name at Gordon Huthart’s infamous Disco Disco and still spins around the region as DJ El Toro, conceived a marketing masterstroke, launching the club with a media blackout save for a single ad in the (now- defunct) London culture mag The Face. ‘More than 11,000 people turned up, far exceeding the club’s capacity. To this day I’m not sure how there wasn’t a riot,’ he recalled recently.
Disco has splintered and fractured into a thousand genres under the banner of electronica: but some clubs, exhausted by the dead end of so-called EDM, are looking back to the movement’s heyday. Fingers, long stuffed in pockets, are once more reaching skyward in supplication to the disco gods. Here are five places to ride the new wave of disco.
記者Nik Cohn於1976年為《New York Magazine》誌雜 寫了一篇文章，名為〈Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night〉（新星期六晚的部族儀式）。
這篇文章後成來 了電影《週末狂熱》的藍本，可惜文章大部分都是說胡 八道。的士高在當年的確是一股正在崛起的時尚潮流，從費城這種大城市內幽暗的地室下 ，或者曼哈頓區內音樂人Larry Levan開設的Paradise Garage的士高場蔓延開去。不過，由Bee Gees樂隊尖假唱以 聲 音 出的插曲、John Badham緊湊的導演手法加上John Travolta的經典舞姿，才是燃點的士高狂熱之火的主要。燃料
電影上映20年後， Cohn坦承然認，當年他剛踏足紐約，前往布魯克林的2001 Odyssey是唯他 一一次的士高體驗，那裡還有個人喝醉了嘔吐在他的鞋上。後來， Cohn說服雜誌輯肯編 首 ，讓他寫一篇關於的士高流潮 的文章，不過內容大部分都是憑他 空杜撰出來的。
他坦承：「至於故事的主角Vincent的 原型實，其主來要 自我於1960年在代 倫敦Shepherd's Bush區認識的一個新潮青年。」
電影中Travolta飾演的主角Tony，將Vincent變成徹頭徹尾的異性戀；者 但其實像Vincent這類人都是1970年初代紐約同性戀會所如Loft及12 West的常客，那裡播的都是天后級歌手如Donna Summer及Gloria Gaynor等最早期的歌曲。這些歌曲都翻錄到只有白標籤的唱片上，在這個小圈子內流有傳。 些人認為的士高流潮可以追至早溯 更 的1960年代，當時紐約有些播放唱片供人跳舞舞如的 廳 Regine’s、Le Club、Cheetah、Ondine和Arthur等。Arthur的老闆娘是星影 Richard Burton的第一任妻子Sybil Burton，她於丈夫改投Elizabeth Taylor的抱懷 後開了這家舞廳。DJ Terry Noel在那裡負責打碟，可能是第一個同時播放兩張唱片、混開創音河先的人。
位於曼克頓的Studio 54於1977年開幕有， 些人將之視為趁著《週末熱賣狂 》座而機乘 大刮一筆的投機行為，可兩是位辦創人Ian Schrager與Steve Rubell於1975年就已洞燭，先機 觀察到熱潮將至，於是辭掉在法律界的工作，於皇后區開設了Enchanted Garden的士高。Studio 54內奢華逸樂、夜夜笙歌的氣息，被導演Whit Stillman捕捉到電影《The Last Days of Disco》裡去。這部電影比空洞的《週末狂熱充》 實得多，而的士高時代亦在這一刻同攀高時 上 峰和跌低到 谷。
香港當然亦於的士高史冊上留名。1980年代末， Canton Disco有個時期可能是地球上最有型有格的地方。負當年為責 這家的士高宣傳的DJ Andrew Bull曾在Gordon Huthart著名的Disco Disco擔任DJ而廣人為識，現仍以DJ El Toro的藝名在區內打碟。他想出了一個非常高明的宣傳，招數 不在地本傳媒做任何宣傳，只在（現已停刊的）倫敦潮流文化雜誌《The Face》登內刊 了一個全版廣告。他日近 回憶當年開幕的盛況時說「： 逾11,000人來前 ，遠遠超出的士高內可以容納的人數。直到今天我然仍 想，不通 為何當年沒有出現暴動場面。」
在電子音樂這面大旗幟之下，的士高不斷演變和分裂無出 數的類型；不過有些的士高已被所謂的電子跳舞音樂帶進死胡同內於， 是懷愐起當年的黃金歲月，並且熱切地盼望能回喚 昔日的士高的靈魂。以下是五個追種尋這 氣氛的好去處。
BERGHAIN, BERLIN
A Stalinist-style powerplant-turneddebauched-vision-fromHieronymus Bosch, the music might be more ear-bleeding techno but the deeds within make Studio 54 look like a church social. berghain.de
ZOUK, SINGAPORE
A temple to the fine art of house music that has seen fads come and go, the rise and fall of the superstar DJ and the advent of the aforementioned scourge of EDM. The place to dance away until the wee hours in Singapore’s Clarke Quay nightlife hub. zoukclub.com
XS, LAS VEGAS
The name might give you a clue to the aesthetic – gold- drenched interiors, over the top accents, romanesque pillars and a massive pool inspired by the ‘sexy curves of the human body’, into which revellers giddily jump to cool off. xslasvegas.com
MAHARAJA GION, KYOTO
Reputed to be the best disco in the East during Japan’s boomtime in the 1980s, Maharaja packed away its glitter ball in 1996 during the country’s economic slump. But since last year, the famed club is back in business in its original premises in Kyoto’s Gion district, complete with a stage for dancers, costumed maiko (apprentice geisha) and coloured spotlights.
B1F Gion Hall, 323 Giommachi Kitagawa, Higashiyama-ku
PETTICOAT LANE, HONG KONG
Okay, it’s more hole-in-thewall than cavernous disco palace, but the original was an icon and it’s packing them in again with a heaving dancefloor, fabulous DJs, regular drag shows and an outdoor area. facebook.com/petticoatlanehk
柏林， Berghain
由東德時代遺留的發電廠改建而成，驕奢放的面逸 畫有如來自Hieronymus Bosch的畫作。這裡播放的是耳震 欲聾的techno音樂，縱情色聲 的程度若與Studio 54相，比者後就變成有如教會的茶聚一般平淡。berghain.de
新加坡， Zouk
位於新加坡夜生活集中地克拉碼頭，可以跳舞至凌時晨分。這裡是室浩 音樂殿堂曾， 經歷各種潮流興替，見證超級DJ明星冒起與消失，以至迎來前文提及由電子跳舞音樂所造成的困局。zoukclub.com
拉斯維加斯， XS
店名能你可 令 大概猜到 裡面的裝潢風格：到處金光閃閃張，誇 過火的裝飾和羅馬式巨柱有，還 一個受「人體性感曲線」發啟 的大型池泳 ，讓過度興奮的客人可以跳進去，令自己冷一下。xslasvegas.com
京都， Maharaja祇園
於1980年代日本經濟最繁榮的時候， Maharaja被譽為東方最佳的士高後。 來日本陷入不景氣，這家的士高於1996年將舞池上的鏡面球收起，關門大吉。不過去年Maharaja捲土重來，在京都祇園的原址內再度開業，設有供人跳舞舞的 台，還有盛裝打扮的舞（伎見習藝伎）以及五顏六色的燈光效果。京都市東山區祇園町側北 323祇
園會館B1F
香港， Petticoat Lane
雖然地方算不上寬日，但是極具代表性。舞池上人群不絕， DJ非常出色，更會定期行舉 易服表演，並設有一個供人流連的戶外空間。facebook.com/petticoatlanehk