november-books

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

Dominique Lauga - Au Bout De La Nuit... Le Palace

Scarce. One of the definitive books about nightclub and club culture, shot entirely at Le Palace in the late seventies. Killer get ups, faces including Amanda Lear, Warhol, Anna Piaggi, Djemila, Edwige Belmore, Kenzo, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre et Gilles, Paco Rabanne, Paloma Picasso and the list goes on. Really really brilliant.

Way before dance music was all over Radio 1 FM or whatever it is these days, Swindells was documenting the club scene in London. In 1989 he spent the summer in Ibiza. "With this series of images Dave Swindells shows the nightlife of Ibiza in the late ‘80s, with its open-air dance floors for those hot Mediterranean nights, drawing a polysexual, all-ages crowd in an easy-going hippie-inspired atmosphere which was nonetheless self-consciously stylish (unlike many of the dressed-down Brits)... ...The clubbing culture was very different too. ‘In these photos you won’t see people texting or tweeting, videoing their mates or posting on Facebook,’ explains Swindells. ‘Nobody had mobile phones, and the only person likely to be taking pictures was the club’s own photographer. So there was nothing else to do but live in the moment, enjoy the parties or watch other people having fun while dancing the whole night.’ These pictures will give you a taste of what London ’s club culture was like at a time when it was undergoing a seismic musical and social shift at events like The Shoom, Future, Spectrum and The Trip, helping to kick-start a raving revolution." Innocent and rather beautiful.

Much underrated photobook of 'The World'- A club that seemed to span the twilight years from the end of disco to the beginnings of house music. Run from a disused 1920's dancehall, and attracting a diverse clientele of Banjees, Voguing houses, straights, fags, the staff of the Tunnel, the Rock 'n' Roll Fag Bar crew, Larry Tee in a silk flared jumpsuit and a bunch of famous people (Keith Haring, Madonna, Brooke Shields, Prince, Stephen Sprouse etc.) So- the book- full of amazing images, few quotes at the front and back, and a killer colour section in the centre. Very atmospheric and cool as hell.