Wednesday 9 December 2009

REFORM!


REFORM!
Johannesburg's only 50s-80s
funk//pre&postpunk//disco//townshipjive//sa&radiohits//northernsoul//raregro
ove//nigeria70s//reggae//girlgroups party

When: Thu 10 Dec
where: Kitchener's Carvery
Address: Milner Park Hotel Juta str Braamfontein
Time: From 9pm
Cover: R10
DJs: Marc Latilla & Charles Leonard

REFORM's goes back to a time when it was illegal to play black & white music
back to back in a small room to a mixed races. In the continuing saga of
police harassment and intimidation, word is out that a raid is brewing. But
there is a plan...
It involves Virginia Lee, a fake Indian big band and special non-spill
brandy and coke glasses.


Posted via email from Marc Latilla's Alerts

Monday 7 December 2009

Thursday 3 December 2009

REFORM!
and we're not gonna let the fuzz drag us down...

Thu 10 Dec Kitchener's Carvery (Milner Park Hotel)
Juta Str Braamfontein
From 9pm. R10 cover

Wednesday 28 October 2009

Story of REFORM!

REFORM!

The seeds of REFORM came from a combination of the Junction tapes I compiled some months back (details of which are posted as an earlier note) and a book called ‘Last night a DJ saved my life’.

The magic of the Junction was being able to play wildly different music almost back to back like it belonged. Nowhere else could you hear 10CC, Doobie Brothers, Alien Sex Fiend and Marianne Faithfull in that order and all this back in 1989.

The book traces the history of the DJ from the beginnings of the phonograph record and radio right up to the superstars of today. What interested me was the middle bit being the story of Jimmy Saville and his early tea room romps, the Northern Soul story and the mish-mash that was the 70’s and early 80’s.

Going through the set lists of the different clubs and their infamous DJs I felt like a philistine only recognizing less than a third of the tracks. So I hit the music and blog sites trying to find as much as I could. What I found was mind bending. How could some of these tracks have evaded me for so long? (beside the fact that I was 3 when all this was going down…) What struck me again was the Junction principle where these DJs played seemingly unrelated music back to back…Clash into Grandmaster Funk into Rolling Stones into Manu Dibango into Blondie into Iron Butterfly. There was also a strong African influence across the lists, especially Nigerian funk/pop. This got me thinking.

Would it be possible to put a night together playing elements of proper Northern Soul, Motown, Disco, 70s/80s alternative/pop/rock, 60s girl groups/garage and 50s rock n roll interlaced with South African township music, popular ‘white’ radio hits and some North African funk?

With the combined force of Charles Leonard – respected journalist and DJ – it could be done.

I remember sitting for hours on end at Abelarde Sanctuary in Brixton and early Tokyo Star listening to Charles play his eclectic mix of soul/jazz/funk/hip-hop and reggae. We’d both have to make some adjustments, but we’d be the perfect match to pull this off.

Law of averages says:
There were probably parties like this in Johannesburg in the 70s/80s and they were probably raided and closed down. It’s so much easier these days.

The only question now is will anyone come…

NEXT REFORM! PARTY:


Thu 10 Dec
From 9pm R10 entrance
Kitchener's Carvery (Milner Park Hotel) Juta St Braamfontein

First REFORM! held at same venue on 3 Nov was a great opening night!

Join the facebook group/event page or mail
marc.latilla@gmail.com for more info
If it works, we’ll do it monthly.

Wednesday 21 October 2009

REFORM artwork

**REFORM** Thu 5 Nov Kitchener's Carvery Braamfontein Charles Leonard and myself join forces for an illegal gathering playing an eclectic mix of 50's - early 80's Soul/Funk/Rare Groove/RocknRoll/Post Punk/Psych and odd South African Radio Pop/Township SwingJive.
R10. From 9pm

Reform flyer

This is new territory. There is no template or safety net.
YOU NEED THIS. WE NEED THIS. THEY DON'T WANT THIS

Milner Park HotelCnr Juta & De Beer str Braamfontein

Wednesday 2 September 2009

New parties and stuff Oct 09

An update from the sleepy party land:

ELECTRIC AFFAIR will happen again in November or December 2009 when King Of Town visits from the UK. Someone mentioned the other day that we kicked off the whole Italo/HiNRG revival here in SA...very flattering but inaccurate. It's never gone away. We just reminded some and exposed others. A name credit on the new HI NRG 2CD set just released was kinda cool though.

REFORM is a new party night/collaboration between myself and Charles Leonard. Expect an illegal gathering dropping an eclectic mix of 50's - 80's Soul/Funk/Rare Groove/RocknRoll/vintagedisco/Post Punk/Psych and odd South African Radio Pop and TownshipSwingJive.
First party Thu 5 November 2009 at Kitchener's Carvery (Milner Park Hotel) in Braamfontein. R10 cover. It may become every first Thursday of the month if the support is there.

Artwork to be posted shortly

kidofdoom's Johannesburg album launch is happening at Back2Basix in Westdene on Thu 29 Oct. Myself and Sassquatch will be dropping a late set

INDIEBLEEP is the name of my first DJ mix compilation. It's scheduled for Feb 2010 and will feature a few exclusive mixes of Zebra & Giraffe and Thieve along with mostly remixed tracks by Desmond & the Tutus, kidofdoom, The Units, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, White Lies, The Horrors, Santogold, Fever Ray, Kite In The Air, Metric and Vampire Weekend to name a few. It's all subject to clearance of course, so anything can change but there has been some confirmations already.
Going on the licensing groundwork done for the two Cellardoor compilations, most of the clearances will come through.

Tuesday 10 March 2009

Beardo Weirdo postponed

Due to venue issues (regular police raids and closures of various Newtown venues), we've had to postpone Electric Affair 2.

Good news is that the Go-Go Bar will be having a grand re-opening weekend in about 8 weeks time and Electric Affair are on the bill, so all is not lost.

Sure, we could have just used another venue, but what is on offer just doesn't feel right. Sunningdales Hotel, the host to the 1st party, is getting more rundown by the day. A bit of danger is always good for the experience, but I fear the venue is now beyond use for our little party.

88 - Ceiling to low
Bohemian - Too 'rawk' for Italo disco
Tokyo Star - Too Fashion TV
Roxy's - No comment
Cool Runnings Melville - No aircon, too small
Gin - Too small
Alexander Theatre - Too big
Anything in Newtown - Too risky until further notice
CCHQ - Too far

We'll be back!

Wednesday 4 March 2009

Electric Affair 2 presents Beardo Weirdo


ELECTRIC AFFAIR


It's all happening on Fri 13th March at the Go-Go Bar in Newtown. R30 gets you in.

Here is the official press release:

Date: Fri 13th March 2009
Venue: Go-Go Bar
Address: Corner Bree/Henry Nxumalo (under the M1 Highway), Newtown
Cover: R30
DJs: King Of Town, Marc Latilla, Sassquatch, Beroldski, Young Smuts
Music: Disco/ Electro of the Italo, Cosmic, Space, Mutant, Vintage, Philly, Muscleman and Just Plain Ridiculous variety.

There was a time when Kris Kristofferson was considered to be a man amongst men, an icon, a hero, a lady’s man and all-round cosmopolitan Hercules. That time was the 1970s, and what a time it was: tight pants, pastel coloured jumpers, corduroy, and, sometimes, if you were lucky, tight pastel coloured corduroy pants.

But what really made the 1970s – and Mr. Kristofferson – great was the facial hair. Gone were the days of handlebar moustaches, wispy villainous face curtains sported by Fu Man Chu, and ill advised sideburns that never made it quite to the chin. Instead, the 1970s had its own marker, its own hairy identity: the beard. Full, rugged, masculine (and feminine too, if it was on a woman, such was it’s magical power of transformation), sometimes itchy, always hot hot hot.

Sadly, beards have gone out of fashion. In the 1980s, beards and moustaches parted ways; in the 1990s, Chris Cornell goaties ruled the roost; and in our current era, anybody with any hair whatsoever is considered a freak. But remember this: Limp Bizkit, Madonna, MC Hammer, Milli Vanilli were all crimes committed in a beardless world.

No longer! Come and join Electric Affair as we reinvent the facial wheel, and bring back the beard! With a soundtrack of proper vintage italo, mutant, space and cosmic disco (and a touch of the best electro-disco of the past decade), we will transport you to that magical past without internet, when you could smoke freely on a plane, and did not need to battle with 4-bladed razors shaped like sports cars. Electric Affair is your one-way (smoking) ticket to the land of the beard.

Electric Affair: Embrace Your Inner Kristofferson.

Pre-op Steve Austin, Megatron Man and DIE MAN VAN INTERSEK are on the guest list.


CHAIRKICKERS


Sadly, the genius invention of new music exposure that is CHAIRKICKERS is on hold until further notice. A new venue is needed that doesn't attract the FTV overflow...

Even though technically, the first night was a roaring success (well, the place was packed), the crowd was completely wrong and only a handful of people were there for the right reason.
As Ben pointed out, we should be proud that we rocked a club full of PCD & KOL requestees with our brand of indie/bleep/funk/disco/punk. We did, but it wasn't the point.

We'll be back...
Oh, we also collected a whole bunch of much needed stuff for Hole In The Wall and about R400 cash. All dropped off the following Sunday.

Saturday 24 January 2009

Upcoming Gig Updates

CHAIRKICKERS


chairkickers


Fri 30 Jan Tokyo Star Greenside Gleneagles Drv
8pm - 2am. No Cover
DJs Marc Latilla, Shande Durrant (Desmond & the Tutus), Sassquatch

We'll be accepting donations for the HOLE IN THE WALL charity. Cash or goods (it is a free party afterall) Got some Radiohead & White Stripes vinyl to give aways to early donators.
www.holeinthewall.org.za for list of needs and more info about the charity.

PIXEL POP

Sat 31 Jan at The Woods 66 Carr Str Newtown. No Cover.

9pm - 11pm Sassquatch vs. Marc Latilla
11pm - 12am Desmond & the Tutus LIVE
12am - ????? Richard Tha IIIrd


ELECTRIC AFFAIR

Confirmed for Fri 13th March at the Go-Go Bar in Newtown. R30 cover
DJs Marc Latilla, King Of Town, Sassquatch, Beroldski & Young Smuts.
Horror disco anyone? Artwork and more soon.

Monday 5 January 2009

Quick update

Chairkickers:

Opening night is set for Fri 30 Jan 09 at the new TOKYO STAR in Greenside 8pm - 2am.

The idea is to try and fuse an early 'listening' set with a dancefloor orientated set as the night progresses.
I hope to cover a wide range of music early in the night with a focus on the interesting newer and/or underplayed...the kind of stuff you don't normally get hear because it's to slow or unknown or unpredictable to drop into a normal set.
The later set is made up of music to dance to drawing from the trusty Indie/Bleep/RnR banner.

So...you'll be able to lounge and impress early-on while savouring the strains Fleet Foxes, Magnetic Fields, Lykke Li, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, Feist and Johnny Cash and then lose yourself on the floor to The Foals, Soulwax, Digitalism, Vampire Weekend, Ladyhawke and so on.

Guest DJ's will add a slant to both slots. Early setters (unconfirmed) so far are Shane Durrant (Desmond & the Tutu's) and Lloyd Gedge (Pavement Special). The only rule is "Play what you love, what moves you and what makes it all worth it". The early set guests will mostly not be regular DJ's, but rather people from all walks with impeccable music taste.
The late set guests will draw from the current pool of DJ's we know and love and hopefully some new up and comers.

Important to me is to try and give something back. I'd like to set-up a collection tin for my favourite charity "Hole In The Wall' in Berea. Since there is no entrance fee, I'd like to encourage everyone to donate R10 or R20 or items that the charity use on a day to day basis (they look after abandoned babys) at each party.

All will be revealed shortly.

Electric Affair:

Coming up is part 2 of the revivalist Italo-Cosmic Disco/Hi NRG/vintage Electro influenced night with King Of Town, Sassquatch, Young Smuts, Beroldski and myself.
We meet soon to discuss venues options and dates.