To celebrate the 21st birthday of the opening of legendary New York nightclub Studio 54, the Star and Shadow presents a night of unbridled hedonistic disco pleasure.

We'll be showing The Last Days of Disco (Whit Stillman, USA, 1998, Cert 15) followed by cocktails, dancing and debauchery.

DJ is Star and Shadow favourite DJ Michael Clunkie Vinyl Junkie, and your hostess is Lady K.

There will also be a raffle and prizes for the best dressed, the greatest dancers and the sexiest bus-boy!

And entry is only £5 - about what you've have paid in 1977! Oh what a night!!
_ _ _

STUDIO 54

Founded in 1977, Studio 54 became not only the world's most famous disco, but a byword for excess and hedonism.

Riding on the back of one of the finest periods of pop music, and fired with inspiration by the great gay/black music producers and musicains of the era, Studio 54 was a magnet for the rich, famous, eccentric and outcast New Yorkers.

The opening night boasted attendees including Mick and Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Jerry Hall, Diana Vreeland, Margaux Hemingway, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Salvador Dali, Brooke Shields, Martha Graham, Debbie Harry, newlyweds Donald and Ivana Trump. Many others were refused entry due to the draconian door policy.

Nonetheless, the following weeks and years saw Studio 54 become the club of choice for Michael Jackson, Rudolf Nureyev, Elton John, Truman Capote, Margaret Trudeau, John Travolta, Jackie Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor etc etc etc.

Buzzing with musical life, the disco world's top performers also graced the club's stages:

Donna Summer
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band
Grace Jones
Gloria Gaynor
James Brown
Phylis Hyman
Amii Stewart
Chic
The Ritchie Family
Rick James
Sylvester
The Village People, and
Arthur Russell all sang their signature tunes during the endless nights of partying.

The balconies were known for sexual encounters, and drug use was rampant, though ironically it was tax fraud that closed the club down in December 1978 - it seemed that anything went at Studio 54, but the IRS wanted a cut!!
_ _ _

THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO (Walt Stillman, USA 1998, Cert 15)

During "the very early 1980s," friends gather at a popular Manhattan disco club reminiscent of Studio 54, where getting past the velvet ropes and inside was the first step.

Edgy ad-exec Jimmy (Mackenzie Astin) can sometimes get his clients in with the help of the club's womanizing assistant manager, his pal Des (Chris Eigeman), who lets them enter via the rear door.

Beautiful brunette Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) and her former college classmate Alice (Chloe Sevigny) move about the club during the 24-minute opening club sequence.

Attorney Tom (Robert Sean Leonard) takes an interest in calm, reserved Alice. Both Alice and the opinionated, assertive Charlotte hold day jobs as entry-level editorial associates at a small book publisher. With Holly (Tara Subkoff) as a third roommate, the trio rents a railroad flat in the Manhattan's Yorkville neighborhood. Charlotte throws dinner parties in an effort to solidify a social circle as an alternative to "the ferocious pairing off" around her.

http://www.lastdaysofdisco.com/trailer/trailer.mov
_ _ _

www.kotadesigns.wordpress.com
www.daisygreenmagazine.co.uk
www.bestvintageuk.com/