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HIGH GEAR

JOE COSTA

The editors of High Gear have been kind enough to ask me to write a monthly article on some facet of the disco world for publication in this newspaper. However, before I plunge into that, I think I should let you know something about myself, what I have done in the past, and what I would like to do in. the future.

I was born in Cuba on Sept. 11, 1945, and arrived at Miami International Airport on March, 1961. My first few years in this country were somewhat trying, to say the least, not because of financial necessities, since I was brought here by an orgnaization that was trying to get as many young people out of Cuba as possible due to the political situation and Communism, but because it is a shock to anybody to go through that kind of experience.

After High School, I got a full scholarship to study at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, where I majored in English Literature and Theater Arts. Theater is what first gave me a background in Lighting and Design in general.

After moving to Miami, coming out in gay life, finding out that all my friends from Cuba were gay also, working in

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Interiors and Displays, came that fateful day when I was asked to co-design a gay disco with a friend of mine. This friend of mine, Frank Monteagudo, with whom I had gone to school in Cuba, was to do the sound and lights, and I was to do the interiors. He and I were very close friends and had similar ideas where design was concerned, and had done some work together before. Well, suffice it to say I got hooked.

My interest in discos has been a part of my life since then. Not only that, but it has been my. livelihood. Frank and I have designed five discos since that time, and acted as each other's consultant for a few more. It was not until the Bayou Landing in Cleveland that I was able to realize a private dream of mine; that of building an entirely new lighting system from scratch. Until then it had been a matter of buying several kinds of lighting fixtures, connecting. them to a commercially available control system, and turning the whole thing on.

I am now sort of at a crossroads; the next few months will decide which way I am to go. Personally, I would prefer to design discos full time. I have a few in mind that I would love to

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The word "Discotheque". comes from the French, and it means literally "library of records". In this country they originated about fifteen years ago in New York gay bars, although they were not as we know them now. At the time, the

emphasis was still on live performances. The rising cost of those live performances was what pushed discos into existence. Someone at some point realized that instead of a band that takes a break every so often, and a juke box that stops at the end of every song, (thus interrupting the musical flow of the evening), was not as exciting as someone playing the people's favorite dance tunes in a continous fashion. The first disco mixers were machines designed for other purposes and "made to fit" a disco situatoin.

Today, most reputable manufacturers of sound equipment have machines designed

with the disco world in mind. There are even some companies that have come into existence with the craze that is now sweeping not only this country, but also the whole world, that manufacture products strictly with the disco market in mind. There's a whole array of turntables, mixers, pre-amps, am-

plifiers, speakers and lighting controllers made to last under the rough disco situation.

The success of discos is due to various reasons. In the first place, you can hear your favorite performers in a situation that falls short of the actual live performance by very little, if at all. Most of these disco hits actually sound better on a good disco sound system than they do on the live stage thanks to the unbelievable things than can be done to a recording track through the use of electronics once that track has been recorded.

The cost of live performances is still rising. And there is also the somewhat elusive fact that the star of the night in a disco is not someone on the stage, but yourself. The lights are designed for the people to look good under, and the whole situation is one that permits a good dancer to make a good show, a beautiful body to look even better and don't forget that almost pagan rite that takes place on a crowded, hot, jumping dance floor.

Dancing is second only to sex. That pagan rite is something every gay person, or almost every gay person, dearly loves. Disco started in New York gay bars, and even though a lot of straight discos exist, not a single one will have that frantic feeling that gay discos have until straight people have learned to be as brazen and uninhibited as we are. Today the best discos are still gay ones.

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DISCO

TOP TEN DISCO TUNES

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1. SHACK UP-Barbara Redd 2. GIMME SOME MO--Redd Holt

3. DISCO FEVER **** Tina Charles

4. DO IT WITH FEELING --Michael Zager's Moon Band 5. TURN THE BEAT AROUND ---Vickie Sue Robinson 6. UNION MAN Brothers

Cate

7. DANCE, DANCE, DANCE --Charlies Calello

8. THANK YOU BABY Quickest Way Out

9. (DON'T YOU WANNA) GET DOWN--South Side Coalition 10. MORE, MORE, MORE --Andrea True Connection

LOVE BUT A PART OF LIFE By Tim

Most men know love but as a part of life.

They hide it in some coroner of the breast.

Even from themselves; and only when they rest

In the brief pauses of that daily strife.

Where with the world might else not be so rife. They draw it forth (as one draws forth a toy to sooth Some ardent, kiss-exacting boy) And hold it up to father, brother, or lover.

Ah me! Why may not love and life be one?

Why walk we thus alone, when by our side love

Like a visible god, might be our guide?

How would the

marts grow noble; and the streets worn Like a dungeon floor by weary feet, seem then a

Golden court-What of the sun?