New
York City Girls
 We
landed at JFK, this was our first trip to the
big Apple…..The Face magazine had organised a
British invasion of the city and we where along
for the ride to represent dance and delight from
the London club scene…..Pride was the main
attraction and seven strong we hit the American
soil running….Helen one of our singers had
flown out ahead of the main party I guess that
if there was going to be a disaster then the
goddess would be saved, however she was on the
hustle with boyfriend Robert Elms and had
business to attend to….Robert Elms self made
intellectual and acclaimed style guru, was
rubbing shoulders and swapping ecstasy with all
the wanabees in Manhattan, his main mission, to
promote his mistress…Most probably from some
of the proceeds Helen and Bob got a trip to LA,
but then Helen always got the lions share of the
booty even then…. So I`m around twenty one
years old sat in a yellow cab with some of the
band, "Dink Dank" aka Paul Denman and
"Stewie" aka Stewart Mathewman…Somehow
we where accompanied by two girls one of them a
horny Puerto Rican bar top dancer from Alphabet
City…..When the cab stopped I went ballistic
and shot out of the cab promptly doing an Arab
spring down the street….We ran headlong into
our home for the next two weeks "The
Danceteria", this was Face HQ for the next
two weeks at least….On at least four levels
the club was run by some demented European
character, and was a blast..Lifts to each floor
where fun and it was department store heaven of
the narcotic kind….
Flesh
to flesh the place was rocking, and you could
quite clearly smell the chemicals in the
air….Moving towards us with a sheep like grin
on her face was our singer Helen, tripping her
tits of on Acid, we didn't get any sense out of
her whatsoever and dived deeper into the
crowd… We hit the Jack Daniels hard and put
ourselves about laughing at our diva trying to
socialise whilst totally out of her tree,
finally they left with Cindy Ecstasy an old
friend who's flat they had blagged for the
duration….Lee Barrat our manager finally
appeared with the obligatory cocaine smile
etched on his face, evidently the band hadn't
any where to stay and Lee was hustling like
crazy…We followed him out of the club to our
destination, this was some package deal but when
your twenty one who gives a shit….Our two
companions where still with us and we got
ushered into a loft around about Delancey and
Pitt, this was well before it got
trendy…Overlooking some projects, the kids
where on the street two decks, mixing beats a
piece of cardboard some guy spinning furiously
on his head….we where witnessing the birth of
the biggest revolution in Black Music
culture…..Hip-Hop…
Our
host was a schizophrenic kind of guy, as
straight as a die during the day, suit and tie
type job in the city area, but at weekends and
evening he was a homicidal maniac…The massive
loft was strewn with mattresses everywhere and
centre stage was a meat hook a chain and some
hoist type gizmo, this guy was into some serious
pain etc…We crashed to the sounds of
"Dink Dank" screwing the Puerto Rican
dancer, he always got his man….hahahaha,
another story….As I awoke there was a creature
with enormously ugly eyes and large antennas
sticking out of it's head, I didn't move and it
just sat there staring back at me, finally as I
made a move to attack it jumped and scurried of
across the floor, roaches tons of them and
everywhere, Cockroach Motels full to the brim,
with the amusing adage "Cockroaches check
in but they don't check out" Yeah
right…These guys weren't going anywhere, in
the toilets in the kitchen area this joint was
jumping, literally….
We got ready for our shops and hung around Face
HQ we had two shows a week scheduled and a gig
in Philly to do….Lee our manager even handed
over some of the money, so we had to be earning
some serious amount as we all knew Lee was
tighter than a camels arse in a sandstorm….The
first week was cool we went down well Pride was
a hit, then the Sade set was aired to the New
York scene and we where a huge success, the
Americans just loved us and still do it
seems….I remember at one point a young wanabee
Madonna being in the audience, desperately
seeking stardom I suppose, I wonder, did we give
her any inspiration? I think Trouble Funk played
on the same night at one point and they where
blinding, "Drop the Bomb"…those guys
knew how to funk…Philly here we come.
All
Rights Reserved, Paul Anthony Cook, 2002. |
