If you were asked about your dancing skills, and the answer is “Yes Sir I Can Boogie“.

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If people exclaim Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah! when you hit the dance dance dance floor, if your a star in New York and also a star in L.A., if you know how to Knock On Wood and own a pair of Boogie Shoes, then here’s the party you’ve been waiting for.

Local community radio station 89.7FM is holding a Studio 54 themed fundraiser. The station broadcasts in the Joondalup and Wanneroo area and the party’s being held at the Joondalup Resort.

They’ve got a stack of talented acts lined up including Amy Housewine, a contingent of Drag Queens and a Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin tribute act.

DJ Marcel will be playing all the classic 70s disco, while The Dance Collective who will show everyone how to perfect those ’70s moves.

The party is on 28th April, 2018 at you can secure tickets via the station’s website. 

What was Studio 54?

When disco tunes were dominating the airwaves, the epicentre of the party was in New York on West 54th Street.

In 1977 Studio 54 opened its doors, and became one of the most famous nightclubs of all time, people wrote songs about it, movies were made about it, and the parties were legendary.

The club occupied a building which was originally a theatre, and throughout most of the 1950’s it was a television studio. The space already had fly wires and lighting grids, allowing the owners to stage elaborate and ever changing set ups.

They didn’t do things by halves at Studio 54, for one New Year’s party they brought in four tons of glitter to cover the dancefloor, another time Bianca Jagger ride a white horse around the club, while down in the basement people cavorted in dark corners.

In his diaries artist Andy Warhol documents nights at the club with Truman Capote, Diana Ross and fashion designer Halston.

The club was packed with celebrities, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Elizabeth Taylor, Diana Vreeland, Grace Jones, Divine, Debbie Harry and more than one of Charlie’s Angels hung out at Studio 54. Not to mention Elton John, Michael Jackson and Olivia Newton-John who might have dropped by from time to time.

The biggest names in disco appeared at the venue including Donna Summer, The Weather Girls, Linda Clifford, The Ritchie Family and Anita Ward.

The club was also famous for its eccentric clientele. Sally Lipmann was in her 70’s when she became a fixture of New York’s disco nightlife. Having retired from a successful career, the recently widowed lawyer found fame as Disco Sally – spending her nights showing that she could get down and boogie better than any of the twenty years olds frequenting the club.

The club was famous for being a place where the rich, the famous, and everyday New Yorkers mingled – that was if you could get past the rope line.

When Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from disco group Chic went to meet Grace Jones at the club, with a view to producing her next album, they couldn’t get in. Jones had forgotten to put their names on the door.

After waiting outside for hours in the freezing cold, the frustrated that the bouncers wouldn’t let them in, the pair headed back to Rodgers apartment, and started jamming, yelling profanities while they played, chanting “fuck ’em, fuck those scumbags, fuck off.”

They soon turned their “fuck off” lyric into “ahhh freak-out” and Chic’s Le Freak, one of the defining songs of the disco era, was born.

Studio 54 was depicted on the big screen in the 1998 movie 54 which starred Neve Campell, Salma Hayek and Ryan Phillippe. Mike Myers played the club’s owner Steve Rubell.

SBS Viceland recently screened the director’s cut of the film, which included all the gay sex scenes which were cut out of the original film prior to its release.

Want to perfect the disco moves?

Want to hit the dance floor looking like you just stepped out of a time amchine from 1977, this video may be of use.

OIP Staff