Disc hit hard in late ‘76 but we were playing disco songs in ‘75 and didn’t know it: Jive Talkin’ (BeeGees) and One of These Nights (The Eagles). And as much as purists were screaming, “Disco Sucks!” bands like the Rolling Stones were pumping out 45rpm big disks like Emotional Rescue which disk jockeys played just as hard as Disco Inferno!

I personally liked discos. There were a couple of reasons:

  • First, girls started dressing up again and wearing heels. Now, this is a male chauvinist thing but overnight the girls went from jeans and sneakers to dresses and spikes. Guys had to dress up too to get into the place. My corduroys were borderline but the bouncers let me in.
  • Second, people started dancing again. For a few years very few people would dance so in some instances girls got up and danced together. It was dancing With the stars but even guys wanted to learn how to move on the floor because the women were looking for a sharp-dressed dancer like Tony Manero.

In Vancouver in 1978 I would play at a downtown pub on Hornby Street like the Hungry Pilgrim until midnight. Then I would walk outside and go right to the rock club, The Body Shop, If the band was good (Fosterchild, or Bowser Moon) I would stay there. Otherwise, I would ricochet down Hornby Street where there was a disco on every corner. The big ones like Pharaohs and Misty’s were huge palaces and required a cover charge. Being that I as with the”night people,” bar tenders and servers from the places I played, I usually got in free. At the end of the strip was The Cave which had great live acts like Paul Revere and the Riders and Ray Charles.

When John Travolta’s new movie, Urban Cowboy, came out Vancouver discos changed to country music clubs overnight and the disco craze was gone. The country phase barely made it six months but the clubs never came back like they were n the late ’70’s.

Disco was fun and it sharpened up the bands too. When I played in the showband, Sensation, in 1980 we had to recreate the disco songs on stage. But you could see it on the horizon: the wonderful age of live music was ebbing. Disco was just the first bell.