It's A Disco Inferno

Here's a shot of the Disco Prophets, that I took last night at the Riverside Festival.

A slightly different line up since the last time that I saw them at a gig.

They were still great to listen too, which their interpretations of 70s classic tunes like Chic's Le Freak, to more modern songs, such as Get Lucky by Daft Punk.

The audience that was watching them, were soon on their feet and jiving away to the songs. I meanwhile was trying to stay as still as I could, as besides taking some photos, I was also videoing some of the concert.

The stage lighting was great, and really added to the effect of being in Studio 54. Although the mirrored ball was really just there for effect.

D.I.S.C.O

You may remember a band that I mentioned last year called the Disco Prophets. They are a local group that play well known disco songs from the 1970s and 80s.

They went quiet for a while, but I have been in regular contact with their leader Rupert, who I knew when we were both children in London. He said that he's had a change of line up and got rid of the horn section.

So as a first outing and warm up gig for a charity night next week, they played at a pub in town for an hour or so. The Disco Prophets usually have a male singer as well called 'The Soul Panther' but as they didn't have one at that point, Fay, a singer from another band was borrowed for the evening. And very good she was too. Singing songs that were around probably before she was born.

They also had a new bass guitarist called Heather, who is Paul the keyboard player's partner. She was also excellent, thumping away on an instrument that was nearly as big as she is.

It was a great gig, and I think the smallish audience enjoyed their unique take on all those hits from all those years ago

Dancing The Night Away

This is local band The Disco Propets who we went to photograph at an awards ceremony at a local hotel.

The awards were for foster parents which had been organised by Nottingham City Council, and the Disco Prophets were providing the entertainment. I know the group's leader, and he asked me if I could come along to take some photos, as Rupert has big plans for the group this year.

The band had changed a bit since we last saw them at a gig last summer. They had lost a female singer, gained a keyboardist and swopped a saxophonist. They had also been lent a percussionist. But they still had that great 1970s disco sound.

Lots of the audience got up to dance along to the tunes and the conference room had turned into Studio 54. So it was Boogie Nights all the way until late in the evening.

Studio 54 Reborn

West Bridgford tonight wasn't exactly downtown New York, but it was the nearest thing you could get to take you back to the heady disco beat of the 1970s.

Gail and I went to shoot a 70s night at a local pub. We were invited to by Rupert, the leader and guitarist of the band that were playing. They are called The Disco Prophets. In fact Rupert and I used to play together as children in London, back in the real 1970s. Alas not musically. Just kids stuff.

Strangely enough, he and is wife moved to Nottingham earlier this year for his job. I didn't know until his aunt told me, when we went to visit her in Rye, where she lives earlier this year.

It was a good night too. With plenty of tunes from that era going down nicely with the audience. Many of whom had dressed up for the occasion.

There was a dancing competition too. Gail had paid to enter. Not that she had any intention to do any dancing, unless it was with her OM-D. But she wanted go pay, as the money was going to charity. Oddly she won, as no one else in the audience had entered, even though they were all happily dancing away all night to the tunes. The band gave her a cup as a prize. Not a silver one, but a drinking one, with instructions of how to moonwalk on the side. Someone also won a cup for the best 70s outfit.

A Musical Interlude

I was intrigued by this little sticker that I spotted on a lamppost. I like synthesiser music, but had never heard of Swingrowers. So a visit to their website was needed.

Apparently they are an Italian group that have updated the old dance music of the 1930's and 40s by adding a modern disco beat in the background.

It seems that it is the "in thing" at the moment to live in the past. A friend of mine likes dressing up like she lives in the 1950s. I have another friend who is a mod, even though she wasn't born when there was all that trouble on Brighton beach.

If I could choose an era, I would go for the 1930s. All that art deco architecture and the development of the Leica camera.

Should you be curious about the music of the Swingrowers, they of course have a website, with the link being here.