Claes, aka Discoguy, was born and raised in Stockholm, the capitol of the kingdom Sweden. Other [!!! ;-) ] famous swedes are for example Anne-Frid Lyngstad (OK - she was born in Norway), Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Agneta Faltskog - most people know these guys as the super pop-group ABBA.
Other swedish music acts that are well known all over the world would be Roxette, Ace of Base, Army of Lovers, Alcazar, the Cardigans and many others, including Blue Swede (Bjorn Skifs) who was the first Swedish act to reach the #1 spot in the US Charts with his song "Hooked on a feeling"...As born in 1966 I actually was born right into the Disco era. When starting listening to popular music in the mid 70's - you had two choices... Either Rock or the more uplifting new Disco music. And as you all know by now - I choose the later.
Disco music got me hooked right away. The first real Disco tune I loved, was the now classic Penny McLean's "Lady bump". I still get the chills every time I hear that song...The only concern in my young teenage mind was money (later it became girls - but that's a different story)...
I really wanted to buy myself all of that great Disco music I heard. Specially when we started to get around my favorite Disco years - the Disco music from around '77-'81. That's "real" Disco to me! Happy, pumping, up-tempo tunes filled with all these syn-drum sounds like in Frisky's "You've got me dancing in my sleep" . That's a great piece of work. WOW!
Anyhow... I started out buying me the 7"singles (45's) of the songs and started recording tapes to myself and all my friends.
One thing led to another and then I wanted to become a DJ. I wanted to be able to mix songs together in a way that people could continue to dance and hopefully not really notice when I changed track.
I bought me a mixer and a cheap turntable. My folks already had bought one good Technics turntable with a pitch control
(this was before the SL-1200). I hooked everything up and now started to mix tapes for myself and my friends. I have to admit that the first attempts wasn't really THAT good - but later on I got better and better.
It was now I noticed I wanted to get longer versions with nice intro's and breaks to be able to mix the records together in a nicer way and I discovered something called a 12"single - a longer version of the 7" but still just one track at each side... That became my addiction - Disco music on 12"singles. I would say that I became a "Disco-holic"!My DJ'ing at home became better and better and I started DJ'ing in clubs and parties on a more regular basis and then the 12"s became a essential tool for me as well as the great Disco music and Technics SL-1200 (of course).
Later (in the early '80s), "Disco died" and the Disco music just got other names like Hi-Nrg, House, Garage, Italo/Euro
disco, Dance... I continued to play all the new "dance" music as well as my beloved Disco tracks. And I still do - even though I (unfortunatly) don't play as a Club DJ anymore. But I love the dance music of today - specially the Disco-House and vocal Garage stuff.Unfortunatly (or fortunatly - I don't know) there was so much good (and bad) Disco music released during the Disco era that lots of good stuff never got the proper attention it deserved. Lots of GREAT songs, often on small independent labels, was missed in the never ending river of records released. That's why I still in the new Millennium and some 30 years later still find and get recommended "new" awesome Disco 12"s I never knew of before. So... Keep those recommendations comin'.Now as a married man with wife and 2 lovely kids, I don't DJ any more - except at home for my own pleasure. But I still would if anyone would ask... These days I would consider me a "12-inch collecting Disco-holic". I still try to get hold of my Wants and thanks to my disco-disco.com web-page that work has gone better than expected - but also the list has expanded because of all the great stuff you guys have played me.
One thing, or actually - two things I haven't done with Disco music so far - is remixing a record and having my own Disco radio show. That's something I'd really love to do - I'm open to any offers... ;-)
Seriously, I really would love to do both those things. I'd love to create a dance remix and try to get something together like the fabulous work of my long time hero
Tom Moulton - who was the guy that really invented the Disco mix.
Or... to get on the air and play people all that great Disco music they haven't heard for a while or stuff they didn't even know existed, but that rocks their socks off...Well... This was a little about me - Discoguy. I don't know what else to say than;
Take care and Disco-on !
