The series of the week: DISCO | Happiness is in the disco

In the 1970s, Montreal was at the heart of the disco revolution. A real hub of this movement born in the underground of homosexual nightclubs, which quickly became mainstream in Quebec and North America. Overview of a new documentary series that focuses on the musical and social phenomenon.

Luc Boulanger
The Press

The godfather of disco

Died suddenly at the age of 74 on April 21, Robert Ouimet is considered “the Montreal godfather of disco”. He is also an influential mentor for generations of young DJs in Quebec. As an expert and resident DJ at the Lime Light until 1980, he appears in this five-episode documentary, shot last fall in Montreal. It’s touching to see other interviewees, like the very relevant producer and artist Christian Pronovost, talk to us about Ouimet in the present; recalling his feats of arms for the profession, and especially for the history of electronic music in the country. One fine evening at the end of the 1970s, tired of playing disco, Robert Ouimet decided to put on his turntable a record he had just received from Europe. “I put on a New Wave piece… and the dance floor was completely empty! “, he recalls. A few months later, Ouimet left the Lime Light to work at Studio 1. And popularize this new music.

the party

Disco is a big party which lasted five years. The second episode of the series, Sex, drugs and disco, is also devoted to these magical nights, well watered and well powdered. “I remember going to a party at a producer’s house. He offered guests lines of cocaine on a silver platter, like canapes,” host Danielle Ouimet said. For her part, the singer Patsy Gallant says that people made pure coke, in the form of a large rock and that you had to take a cheese grater to cut it! The production has the merit of having put all the witnesses of this time in confidence in front of the camera. Everyone recounts their crazy nights of youth without pretense. Because disco is also synonymous with excess and recklessness.

Acceptance…

Disco is rhythmic like heartbeats. And this music also serves as a human binder. All colors, origins and sexual orientations combined. “During the disco era, for the first time, you could be whoever you wanted, when you wanted. And disco, for a drag queen, was nirvana! “Summarizes Mado Lamotte. The “queen mother of drags” adds that she has always included disco in the shows at her cabaret since it opened in 2002. For their part, Kim Richardson, Pierre Perpall and Freddie James (Get Up and Boogie) tell us about the direct musical connection of disco with funk, Motown, R&B. From the opening of the Montreal music scene of the 1970s for black artists who had started at Rock Head Paradise or at 217 Club, boulevard Saint-Laurent. At night, all cats are gray. And disco is unifying.

…and rejection…

One of the owners of Lime Light, Claude Chalifoux, remembers hearing people say that they were going to “laugh at the fags” at the Garden [la discothèque pour hommes seulement, située à l’étage en dessous du Lime Light]. “I told them there are no fags here. Everyone respects each other and lets others live. Otherwise, it’s the door! In July 1979, the Disco Sucks event, a record burning on the grounds of a baseball stadium in Chicago, was seen as the beginning of the end of disco. “For me, it was not an anti-disco demonstration, explains singer France Joli. It was a gesture against blacks, women and gays who were associated with this music. “The disco was a pretext to justify a hateful act,” adds Robert Ouimet.

Recovery

Fly, Robin, Fly ; Born to Be Alive, Your Love… In the 1970s, these titles were enormous successes and… without a future. From “ one hit wonders in the careers of their performers. Martin Stevens admits having been the singer of a hit that he has taken up constantly for decades. Scalded by the rapacity of the music industry, the interpreter of Love Is in the Air preserves beautiful memories, but also regrets. All the record companies wanted their Bee Gees. And everyone started singing disco. If disco has lost its luster, it’s because the industry has squeezed the lemon too much, and associated the genre with any products and artists… Ma’m Thibault of Monsieur Tranquille (Roger Giguère), does that ring a bell?

Happiness

“Disco isn’t dead, it just evolved,” it says at the end of the series. “Music is moments of pure happiness,” says former record store Guy Brouillard. Disco is not cheesy, if not joy and happiness are too. “Let’s give the final word to the interpreter of Toulouse, Judi Richards:” Disco, whatever its form, will always come back. Because people will always want to have fun. »

DISCO Directed by: Charles Gervais. Based on an idea by Éric Hébert. Available on Vrai, Videotron’s subscription content platform.