Les Poppeurs’ Most Outrageous Moments in Italo and hi-NRG

It goes without saying that the late ‘70s and well, pretty much all of the ‘80s had some of the most amazing, outrageous, avant-garde, fabulous fashion and music history has seen. And we at Les Poppeurs love to splash about in the spangly, chiffon end of that. Ahead of our FIRST BIRTHDAY EXTRAVAGANZA this Saturday we’ve picked the campest, most outrageous moments in disco, Italo and hi-NRG that are almost too good to be true. Let us take you into our (slightly flammable) world of big hair, smoke machines, sneaky hits of liquid gold and shiny metallic catsuits…

 


Rachael:

1. THE SPACESHIP DJ BOOTHS AT COSMIC CLUB

Italians love outrageous DJ booths. It’s possible this trend started with the booth at Baia Degli Angeli that was located inside a glass elevator that played to multiple floors, but it definitely reached its zenith with not one but TWO spaceship-shaped DJ booths at Cosmic Club in Lake Garda. It’s only fitting that this was where Daniele Baldelli developed his signature “cosmic” sound.

 

2. THE VIDEO FOR HYPNOTIC TANGO BY MY MINE

This video opens with a bunch of people in crazy outfits dancing on a beach. It could be a Cornish pagan dance. It could be people still up after an insane fancy dress party. I don’t know because they never come back to those people again. It’s never explained. The rest of the video is the band playing in hall. There are what looks to be giant posters of poppers bottles on either side. Coincidence? I think not…

 

3. MIQUEL BROWN

Miquel Brown is a Canadian singer whose parents named her Michael. But so that people didn’t get confused with a children’s author and producer of the same name they changed the spelling to Miquel. But y’know, it’s still pronounced Michael. She makes this list by worthy of her fabulous ditty “So Many Men, So Little Time.” A feeling I think you all know too well. Oh, and she’s Sinitta’s mum, so there’s that.

 

4. SHEILA AND B DEVOTION’S OUTFIT IN THE VIDEO FOR SPACER

Not quite Italo but it is way cosmic. And oh boy is Sheila’s outfit is impressive. Girl knows how to rock a metallic jumpsuit. In this case she’s paired with a pink mosiac shoulder detailing that is amazing and I’m a bit jealous. Also she’s got a poor man’s light sabre to dance with so that’s pretty cool. Plus her B(lack) Devotion back-up trio to make her look that bit more blonde and French.

 

 

Whitney:

5. RAFFAELLA CARRA’S DANCE MOVES

If you are only familiar with her as a host on the Italian version of The Voice, you need to recontextualize. Raffaella Carra elevated camp to exciting new heights, which is quite an achievement when you look at the musical audiovisual landscape of Italy in the 1970s. During one particularly frenetic rendition of her fabulous English-language song “Black Cat,” Ms. Carra channels Liza at her jumpiest and whips a cape around with aplomb, perhaps temporarily forgetting that the song is about a cat and not a bat, before doing some impressive floorwork. This is further accentuated when the guy operating camera one clearly tries to take a small bump, ends up inhaling his entire bag of drugs, and then gets really into aggressive zooming for the remaining 70 seconds.

 

6. THAT TIME MAN 2 MAN PERFORMED MALE STRIPPER ON TOP OF THE POPS

God bless the UK, where a song like “Male Stripper” can somehow go from club hit to crossover pop sensation, eventually landing one-half of Man to Man (Miki Zone had passed away a year prior) on television to perform for straight people with perms. Go-go boys in leather and military garb add to the atmosphere while Paul Zone strips off his leather to reveal more leather, then flannel, then a vest, then some bondage accessories to the delight of the squealing and oblivious girls in the crowd.

 

7. PATRIZIA PELLEGRINO’S SONG-WRITING SKILLS ON MUSICA SPAZIALE

Each of Patrizia Pellegrino’s records is a moment of shimmery poppers-soaked genius, but if you do not speak Italian, you are missing out on the best parts: what she’s actually singing about. On “Musica Spaziale,” Patrizia implores you to follow her into the elevator, where you’ll find a natural blonde, cosmic and cordial (once can only assume she’s talking about herself). The best part about this is that natural blonde rhymes with cordial in Italian.

 

• Join Rachael and Whitney this Saturday 6th February for Les Poppeurs at Dalston Superstore (217 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB),9pm – 4am.  Free before 10, £7 after. Special guests include Christian S, Dan Beaumont and Joe Roberts.

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