IN THE GROOVE:BP Fallon, remember him? Brian Boydcatches up with the 'vibe-guru' to learn what's in store at tomorrow's 'Death Disco' in Dublin
‘MAXIMUM ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. Minimum bullshit. Shaking out the achin’, loading up on the vibes, grooving for the flipsters and the tripsters. Simply deciphered, this mission statement lets us know that the semi-legendary club-night that is Death Disco is returning to Dublin this weekend.
Set up by two music industry mavericks, Alan McGee (the founder of Creation Records and the man who discovered Oasis and more) and vibe-guru BP Fallon, Death Disco is the indie Studio 54. A street-glam mix of “musique sans frontiers” that attracts not just the self-respecting clubber around town, but has also featured DJs such as Kate Moss, Ronnie Drew, Courtney Love and Shane McGowan, Death Disco is now a travelling road show and has been staged everywhere from Budapest to San Francisco (with most points in between being catered for as well) and bands making live appearances over the years have included The Killers, Glasvegas and The Libertines.
McGee and Fallon (combine their address books and you’re looking at the definitive rock music directory) pride themselves on keeping Death Disco “below the corporate radar” and out of the “so cool it hurts” category. The night is all about the music bouncing off the walls and a bringing together of disparate elements – Irish trad followed by Philly soul, segueing into hardcore punk and Euro-pop.
“Death Disco is a bit mad but tons of fun,” says the now New York-based Fallon. “Alan McGee came up with idea seven years ago and we always said we’d do it as long as we got a kick out of it – and we still very much do. Alan does it every week in London, I do it whenever and wherever I fancy. Bringing it to Dublin is obviously a bit special for me.”
Fallon, one of the music industry’s most interesting characters, has been around the music block for a couple of lifetimes. Back in the early 1970s he was the press officer for Led Zeppelin and T.Rex and once even appeared alongside John Lennon on Top Of The Pops. “It’s mad, jumping on a plane across the Atlantic to play a bunch of CDs,” he says, “but it’s a wonderful madness, because it’s all to do with music and the way music affects people. The Death Disco concept is simple – freedom through music and the chance to dance. It’s all an act of faith, what I do. There’s no major plan except to continue trusting in the angels and to never panic. Music will outlive all of us and rock ’n’ roll has kept me going all my life. I’ve kept a bit of rock ’n’ roll going too and there’s no time – yet alone inclination – to stop now. And on we choogle.”
Because Fallon and McGee have crossed paths with many of the rock illuminati over the years, just about anyone can turn up to do a guest DJ turn at Death Disco.
“Kate Moss came to a Death Disco which was an after-party we threw for The Kings Of Leon,” he says. “Of course she ended up in the DJ booth and was DJing by proxy, asking me to play certain tracks – the Stones, Bowie, Grace Jones, every track a scorcher. And the next time she came she quickly got the hang of how to work the faders and knobs. She’s a real rock ’n’ roll girl, mega to the max, and I love her.”
Once, in London, Courtney Love turned up and demanded to be that night’s DJ. “She arrived like a tornado,” he says. “The DJ booth was a literal cage with wiring all over the front of it. Paps were trying to stick their cameras though the wire and the audience were poking their hands through, so there’s this whole wall of wiggling fingers as you try to look out. Very Fellini. I’m DJing and there, crouched on the floor under my feet pulling stuff out of plastic bags is Courtney, pulling out this dress, another top, different knickers, some tights, the whole boogaloo. She changed her clothes at least three times and then she played Nirvana’s You Know You’re Right, which hadn’t been released yet and everyone went bonkers. Then Courtney leapt onto the dancefloor to shake a tail feather with Anita Pallenberg before retreating back into the DJ cage to play The Heartbreakers’ Chinese Rocks and change her dress again.”
One of the most memorable nights was when Ronnie Drew showed up at a New York Death Disco. “Ronnie was over doing his one-man show and I said ‘Come by and DJ’. It was St Patrick’s Night and Jaime Coon was DJing and prancing about dressed in black pants and shamrocks made of glitter to mark the night that was in it. Ronnie got right into the spirit of it, dancing around with a twinkle in his eyes. And the records Ronnie played were great. He’d speak into the microphone like a DJ on the radio and say: ‘Here’s a song written by an Irishman who used to be my neighbour, Jimmy Kennedy’, and play Dinah Washington’s scorching version of Red Sails In The Sunset, or he’d say: ‘Here’s a song written by Brendan Behan. This is a song I’ve been associated with, but this time it’s not by me,’ and it was The Auld Triangle sung by Bob Dylan.
“This Manhattan rock club is quelled, everyone taking in the music and smitten by the charisma of this man on stage. Ronnie had never DJed before, and then he did a couple of gigs at Death Disco Dublin. It was like the second coming, Ronnie singing along to tracks like The Grape And Barley Rag by Ronnie and Rory Gallagher or Me And Bobby McGee by Janis Joplin, everyone joining in, that unique Dublin voice leading the rock ’n’ roll congregation. Magic.”
If you want studied music cool, avoid Death Disco. Anything goes and usually does. Sometimes even the punters get a bit upset: “At the last Death Disco in Dublin, I played Amii Stewart’s Knock On Wood and Michael Jackson’s Beat It and The Bee Gees’ Stayin’ Alive,” he says. “It was real disco cheese, but brill, and the music matched Buck Whaley’s multicoloured moving dancefloor, a Saturday Night Fever vibe. The punters loved it – hijinks all around. And a bloke comes up to Alan and says: ‘This isn’t Death Disco’ and Alan says: ‘I am Death Disco. And you see that guy BP Fallon playing the music? We formed Death Disco together and we are Death Disco.’ We don’t have rules like ‘It must be punk rock’ or ‘Cutting-edge music only’. It’s whatever happens.”
Join BP Fallon and Alan McGee for Death Disco Dublin, tomorrow night, at Buck Whaley’s, Leeson Street. Doors: 10pm till very late. Special guests on the night include Bonehead (ex-Oasis).