A Disco Ball: Divas Love the Nightlife

It’s the best of times, or the worst, depending on your taste for disco.

Remember Studio 54? The fabled New York ‘70s nightclub has been documented in a coffee-table tome and virtually reincarnated in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the era is re-created in the movies “Boogie Nights” and “The Last Days of Disco,” the new musical “Saturday Night Fever” and, right here at home tonight, Disco Divas will get down at the Orange County Fair.

The touring group’s members and the iconic hits they’ll reprise are Vicki Sue Robinson, “Turn the Beat Around”; Thelma Houston, “Don’t Leave Me This Way”; Evelyn “Champagne” King, “Shame”; and Musique, “In the Bush” (as in “push, push”).

The ensemble, to sing to a recorded backup at 7 and 9 p.m., was put together by New York talent agency TCI (Talent Consultants International). Their official debut came earlier this year, the eighth or so year of a “revival” that has lasted twice as long as the original disco era, said Larry Flick, dance editor for Billboard magazine.

“The myth is that it was rediscovered by the gay community,” which has always supported the cause, but Flick said the fashion industry should get the credit.

And what accounts for the current inferno, burning nightly in dance clubs throughout Orange County and beyond?

People want to cast off the pall caused by the pre-disco era AIDS epidemic, constant admonitions to eat right, exercise and practice safe sex, and, as Kool & the Gang sang, to celebrate, Flick said.

“Disco started as direct result of the Vietnam War, and people were sick of being told the world [looked bleak]; they wanted to get dressed up, go dance, and have sex, and that’s what all disco songs are about.”

But who better to ask about the resurgence than the Divas themselves, three of whom talked to The Times about it. (Houston could not be reached.)

King, 38, a native New Yorker who started singing in her teens like her two cohorts, lives in the San Fernando Valley. She cut “Shame” at 16 in ’77.

Robinson, 44, cut “Turn the Beat” in ’76 at 21. She lives in Connecticut.

Mary Seymour, the only remaining original member of Musique, cut “In the Bush” in ’78. She gives her age as almost 50 and her home as Manhattan.

All three said they have been particularly busy touring since the early ‘90s.

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Question: How do you explain disco’s current popularity?

Robinson: It’s that personal touch; the music was [made] before all this mechanical programming, when all the instruments were live and the records weren’t producer-driven records that sounded alike. They were songs done by people you could touch, feel, relate to--and songs that were fun, and not so serious. It was pre-AIDs, and before all these guns, and there wasn’t so much news coverage every single second.

Seymour: Good music always lives on, and we came out of the ‘70s, and the people in their 40s now are reliving their youth, and the kids like it because it has a happy energy. There’s lots of dance music out today, but the energy back then was lighter, it was a fun time, and I think the music is associated with the era. Times are good now, but back then . . . the consciousness was lighter. I just think we didn’t think as much.

Q: So today’s audience for disco is wide-ranging?

King: I’ve got a new generation of children out there, and I love it, and they’re listening to what you have to say. I’ll get on stage and see someone 14 or 15 singing “Love Come Down,” and love songs are better than cuss words, which I never brought to the stage--it’s not me.

Robinson: We have a large gay contingent that’s always supported us through the years. [But] these kids, 16, 18, it’s like they’re discovering it, saying, ‘No this is my music now.’ There’s only so much rap or grunge you can listen to. There isn’t a joyousness to it, and that’s what I see in those faces out there, and it’s so much fun for us because it’s a little bit like retribution, like, ‘Yeah, check this out, all you white male rockers!’ You hear them going on about how the music had nothing to do with anything, but people were dancing, and you see a lot more combinations of people, you see black, white, yellow, green, all dancing together.

Q: Did disco kill soul music, as some critics contend?

Seymour: I say that no music dies, period. Soul, R&B;, disco, hip-hop, the music always lives in the hearts of whomever likes it. So kill? Get out of here; music doesn’t die.

King: I don’t think so, because disco and soul connect. I never liked being called just disco because I never sang just that. I kept [the two styles] close. It’s what you bring to the forefront with your vocals. When I sang a mid-tempo ballad, the sound was very soulful.

Q: How do you like playing reunion gigs?

Robinson: It’s been great. I think the best thing about it is the women. Last year, I did stuff with KC and the Sunshine Band and the Village People, so this year it’s the women’s time.

Q: What’s your favorite memory of the era?

Seymour: Playing a place called the Poledra in Caracas, Venezuela [in the late ‘70s]. We got on stage and there were like 20,000 people singing [another Musique hit] “Summer Love” with us, and I felt that was the ultimate high of love, where you fill people’s hearts with happiness. Music sends love out in the energy in the air, and I was overwhelmed.

Q: What else have you been up to lately?

Robinson: I did a one-woman show in New York in March, and I’m revamping it for the end of September. Also, I cut an original song called “House of Joy” last year with Junior Vasquez [known for dance and techno music]. It went No. 1 in the U.K., so we’re really excited. “Turn the Beat” is on the “The Last Days of Disco” soundtrack, and I’m in the process of working on my next single.

Seymour: Musique stopped around 1981. I kept trying to get gigs, but I became an agent to make a living and raise my kids. Then we signed with TCI in ‘91, myself and two new singers, Althea Rogers and Edna Holtz [although Kim Miller, appearing tonight, occasionally takes Holtz’s place]. We usually tour May through September, just in the [United States]. Next year, though, TCI is sending us to South America and South Africa. “In the Bush” was No. 1 in Brazil and Venezuela for a year [‘78-79]. It’s very rhythmic, with a Latin beat.

King: I’ve been blessed. I have not stopped traveling since the ‘70s. Right now, I’m working on a new album for next year. It’ll be some original songs, some with other writers. It won’t be disco, more of what they call hip-hop for the younger generation.

On stage tonight, though, the retro glitter will shine.

“I’ll wear like a sequined top, and some nice tight black pants,” King said. “I love to dance, so whatever I wear has to be movable.”

* Disco Divas--with Vicki Sue Robinson, Thelma Houston, Evelyn “Champagne” King and Musique--perform at 7 and 9 tonight in the Arlington Theater at the Orange County Fairgrounds, 88 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa. Free with fair admission, $2-$6. (714) 708-3247.