Moss Side ravers 1986

From A Guy Called Gerald, this is ACE. Original ravers havin it large to Chicago house back in 1986, two years before it hit London, in the Manchester suburb of Moss Side. That's just up the road from me! I am actually working on some old school house influenced by Manchester, so this is pretty inspirational:

Hypnosis on Glasgow clubbing (1993)

See - an important part of Glasgow's clubbing history! See - local characters complain about the licensing law that threatened to ruin everything! See - some badly dated clothes and graphics! See - Judge Jules being a complete bellend - even back then!

Javier Ninja Hands Performance

From the legendary House of Ninja vogueing family, here's Javier Ninja throwing some incredible hand and arm moves to "Din Da Daa" by George Kranz:

Voguing / Paris Is Burning

Voguing is awesome - people should do it more! Hipsters should love it cos it's the perfect mixture of dancing and fashion posing. Dancers should love it cos it's like a strange mixture of ballet and uprocking. And the competitive element should keep the crowds happy. "Instead of fighting you take it out on the dancefloor."



Thankfully, the artform is alive and well - mostly of course in the black gay clubs of the States, though the music has changed form disco and house to more booty and ghetto sounds. If you click on "Watch on Youtube" for this clip you will see that there's hundreds of similar videos linked in the various sidebars. The audio's not great though.



The history of the dance is fascinating - originating as it does from drag queen walk offs in the way underground NY clubs of the 70's. The documentary PARIS IS BURNING is fantastic - as well as being the document of the dance and clubbing movement it offers valuable sociological insight into a world very far removed from the mainstream. The whole thing is on Youtube. Here is part one, with the other parts linked below. If you have any interest in dance/club culture, black history, gay history or hell even just people in general, this film is godamn essential viewing.



P.I.B. Pt 2
P.I.B. Pt 3
P.I.B. Pt 4
P.I.B. Pt 5
P.I.B. Pt 6
P.I.B. Pt 7
P.I.B. Pt 8
P.I.B. Pt 9

The News.

“So, there are 7 Optimos left. Hopefully we will see some of you before the end. We absolutely intend to go out with a bang.”


Other people talking about it.

Break spotting 3

Different kind of breaks this time - I'm wondering how many edits are in the video for Single Ladies? Even though the video is designed to look like a one-shot/one-take effort, there's definitely some edits in there. Can you spot them? And yes, I know it's really hard to watch this video over and over (right guys?) but have a shot.

Sex Offender Shuffle

We Love You Dancers

So you think you've got it hard? Then have a look at these dudes, and see how they've managed to overcome their problems. This is a great clip - the dancing is wicked not because both of these b-boys are handicapped, but because it's just great dancing period. Hourth (the one legged dancer) kills it with his crutches at 1.20, while Lazy Legs' Canada underwear gag is awesome. the tunes are pretty rad too. Check it! [You did know that we love dancing round these parts, didn't you?]