Chapter 12 – Stayin’ Alive – Disco Culture Of The Late 1970s

Chapter 12 – Stayin’ Alive – Disco culture of the late 1970s There are various claims as to the origins of venues known as discothèques, including that they started in France in the 1940s when Parisian nightclubs and dance halls resorted to playing records... More

Chapter 12 – Stayin’ Alive – Disco culture of the late 1970s There are various claims as to the origins of venues known as discothèques, including that they started in France in the 1940s when Parisian nightclubs and dance halls resorted to playing records instead of having live dance bands during the Nazi occupation. But it is also claimed that the first disc jockey or DJ, playing records, was the latterly disgraced celebrity Jimmy Savile at something he called the Grand Record Dance which took place at the Bellevue branch of the Loyal Order of Shepherds in Leeds. The word discothèque is French and means a library of phonographic records but wherever and whoever discovered the idea that records could be played in quick succession and amplified through speakers as a form of public entertainment, the concept went up several notches with the emergence of discothèque venues in the United States in the early 60s, beginning with the launch of Le Club at 416 East 55th Street in Manhattan whi Less