Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco
Encyclopedia
Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco was a widely noted Los Angeles
nightclub on the Sunset Strip
from late 1972 until early 1975. It catered to the Glam Rock
movement.
moved to London after becoming fed up with the American music industry. While in England he saw the birth of the Glam Rock
movement and David Bowie
suggested Bingenheimer open a Glam club in Los Angeles. In October 1972 he and his record producer partner Tom Ayers opened the E Club club on Sunset Boulevard
. In late December they moved the club further down the strip to 7561 Sunset Boulevard with the new name, Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco. Kim Fowley
later recalled, "The English Disco was more a public-toilet version of the E Club. The new location gave it the teenage stench it needed. Everybody had great hair and great make-up, and there were Lolita girls everywhere. People worked at it." It soon became the center of the new Glitter Rock movement in Los Angeles. Bowie's biography noted, "The crowd at the club ranged in age from twelve to fifteen... nymphet groupies were stars in their tight little world. Some dressed like Shirley Temple; others wore dominatrix outfits or 'Hollywood underwear,' a knee-length shirt, nylon stockings, and garter belts. These stargirls streaked their hair chartreuse and like to lift their skirts to display their bare crotches. As they danced they mimed fellatio and cunnilingus in tribute to David's onstage act of fellatio on Ronno's guitar."
Watney's Red Barrel beer imported from England was served on tap at the club, but the underaged groupies' favorite drink there was cherry cola
. Sometimes the house DJ Chuck E Starr would perform a striptease
down to a gold or silver lamé
bikini
.
In 1987 Pamela Des Barres
wrote, "...they called me awful names at Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco, old being the most popular odious declaration of loathing. I let them get to me; they told me I was over the hill, and I looked in the mirror, inspecting my twenty-five-year-old face for early stages of decrepitness. The most hideous of these tartlets was Sable Starr
. She thought she invented nipples and pubic hair."
Newsweek
magazine reported in January 1974 that "The dance floor is a dizzy kaleidoscope of lamè hotpants, sequined halters, rhinestone-studded cheeks, thrift-store anythings and see-through everythings. During the breaks, 14-year-old girls on 6-inch platforms teeter into the back bathrooms to grope with their partners of the moment. Most of the sex is as mixed as the drinks and the drugs the kids bring with them. Twenty years later, author Pleasant Gehman
recalled, "I was in the age group of people who were sophisticated enough to be experimenting with drugs and sex, but way below the age to legally be participating in any of this debauchery. Not only that, it being the Swingin' '70s and all, our very sexuality was one big, fat gray area. Most of us couldn’t decide if we were gay, straight, or bi – and nobody was really keeping tabs, either. Our adventurous spirit actually fit in with the prevalent freewheeling attitude of the time, and mixed with the handfuls of pills we were taking, as well as the Olde English 800s we guzzled in back alleys, it made sexual classifications totally irrelevant. A Newsweek reporter wrote, "Young men who dress like transvestites but almost invariably maintain that they are straight. 'I may dress flash, but I’m no faggot,' sniffs 18-year-old Kenny (Doll) Malloy, sporting a Lurex halter and tight satin pants. 'I do, however, think you’re simply stunning,' he added to Newsweek’s Peter S. Greenberg. Adds Chuck Starr, a 17-year-old prep-school student: 'I'm the No. 1 male groupie in the United States. Last year I had a thing with Mick Jagger. But it wasn’t a physical thing—it was all mental. Me and Mick just lay there and talked all night. 'I'm not gay or bisexual. I’m just glamorous.'" Cromelin also noted at the time, "There are two distinct modes operating at Rodney’s. The more obvious is the extreme narcissism. The kids dress up so painstakingly not to be admired by their friends, but so they may admire themselves. Even if they ostensibly have a partner on the dance floor, each glistening form is alone, drinking in his or her own image that fades to faceted infinity in the three mirrored walls that surround the floor, fading like the British single whose last distant note will be instantly overwhelmed by the opening bass of the next song before silence is allowed to. At this first level there’s no interest in hustling or in picking up, but there’s plenty of that coexisting. After all, this is Hollywood, where self-furtherance permeates the air like the smog.
In 1989 former Runaways
lead singer Cherie Currie
wrote of her experiences at the club, "Marie likes Bowie, but she doesn't go all out-not as much as I do. I'm dressed up as wild as can be—I've practiced at Rodney’s. I am a glitter queen: satin pants, silver five-inch-high space boots, a glitter T-shirt, and make-up so bright it looks like I’m radioactive – When I'm done I admire myself in the cracked bathroom mirror. I look like an alien princess from a faraway planet. For a while-for tonight – I am no longer Cherrie Currie, the sweet little Valley Girl. I am the Cherie-thing; something weird and something wild. Iggy Pop
, who had become a forlorn figure in the glam world, was often seen at the club. Kid Congo, later guitarist with The Cramps
and Gun Club, remembered "Iggy on the street outside the Disco, pulling his dress up and exposing himself, and Rodney crying because he thought he was going to be arrested." Writer Nick Kent
also recalled, "I saw Iggy there many a time, stoned out of his gourd, lost to the world and to himself as well, staring at his face and form in those mirrored walls – staring at his reflection like Narcissus drugged out in teenage-disco-hell. The club had its dark side, however. In 1999 writer Lisa Fancher wrote how Joan Jett
"was walking up to Rodney’s one Friday night when she saw a dead body out front, an obvious OD, and nobody was paying any attention at all. The kids just kept walking into the club. The Sweet was flooding out the door and everybody just kept on dancing..."
, with performances by the New York Dolls
, Iggy Pop and Silverhead
. Rodney's deejay Chuck E Star recalled, "All over Hollywood
that night it was glitter! Glitter! The line to get into the Palladium was incredible-everyone in LA knew it was their last chance to wear platform shoes and eyeshadow. This was it! Surfers from Malibu were there in midriff shirts, silver space boots, and blue eye makeup, hugging their girlfriends as they waited to get in." The New York Dolls ended the show as Chuckie Star was carried onto the stage in a glitter coffin, into which the crowd threw roses, glitter and lipstick. Nick Kent wrote, "If it wasn’t quite The Beautiful and the Damned it was certainly the pretty and the damned – everyone was, you know, 'going to hell' and nobody cared. It was if they'd all taken up residence in Lieber and Stoller’s 'Is That All There Is?' To me, that was the song of the seventies, even if it was written in 1966. Remembering the end of the LA Glitter groupie scene Pamela Des Barres wrote, "You couldn’t trust the new LA groupies, who were desperate, discouraged, groveling ego seekers. The love of music had become secondary to preening in Star magazine, standing next to Anybody In A Band. It was scary out there. It was fictitious and haunted." Her feelings were shared by Bebe Buell
, who recalled, "There were also a large number of strange-looking young girls dressed up like Christmas ornaments rushing around, or just camping around in front of some rock star’s (hotel) rooms with their coolers and radios. This was a new breed of groupie. They were about fourteen (sometimes twelve) and were aggressive. They were harsh on other females attached to their heroes. You could easily get tripped, kicked, smacked, or have your hair pulled."
Partnership and licensing problems led Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco to close in early 1975. Pleasant Gehman later wrote, "We were a crowd of groupies, teenage hustlers, bisexual schoolgirls, and fringy, juvenile sluts looking for a good time. We’d hang out at weird coffeeshops (like Arthur J’s, the Gold Cup, and Danielle’s, where drag-queen hookers would meet their tricks in the bathroom), or we’d go to Westwood to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show for the millionth time. These places didn’t serve alcohol, so of course they didn’t card you. And you could feel totally at home in your fishnets, heavy makeup, and divinely decadent attitude. I mean, who was going to hassle you over your hair color? A drag queen? Rodney’s English Disco had closed down, and the Masque wasn’t yet open so these were our haunts." Gehman further hinted at how the underground was splintering in 1975, with roughly half of the former Glitter babies turning punk and wearing garbage bags at the Masque, the other half wearing designer jeans and getting swept up into the craze that became disco
.
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
nightclub on the Sunset Strip
Sunset Strip
The Sunset Strip is the name given to the mile-and-a-half stretch of Sunset Boulevard that passes through West Hollywood, California. It extends from West Hollywood's eastern border with Hollywood at Harper Avenue, to its western border with Beverly Hills at Sierra Drive...
from late 1972 until early 1975. It catered to the Glam Rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
movement.
Early background
In late 1971 music industry publicist Rodney BingenheimerRodney Bingenheimer
Rodney Bingenheimer, born December 15, 1947, is a radio disc jockey on the long-running Los Angeles rock station KROQ who is notable for helping numerous iconic bands become successful in the American market. His contribution to the music business has been described as important...
moved to London after becoming fed up with the American music industry. While in England he saw the birth of the Glam Rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
movement and David Bowie
David Bowie
David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...
suggested Bingenheimer open a Glam club in Los Angeles. In October 1972 he and his record producer partner Tom Ayers opened the E Club club on Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard
Sunset Boulevard is a street in the western part of Los Angeles County, California, that stretches from Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Pacific Coast Highway at the Pacific Ocean in the Pacific Palisades...
. In late December they moved the club further down the strip to 7561 Sunset Boulevard with the new name, Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco. Kim Fowley
Kim Fowley
Kim Vincent Fowley is an American record producer, impresario, songwriter, musician, film maker, and radio actor. He is best known for his role behind a string of novelty and cult rock pop singles in the 1960s, and for managing The Runaways in the 1970s...
later recalled, "The English Disco was more a public-toilet version of the E Club. The new location gave it the teenage stench it needed. Everybody had great hair and great make-up, and there were Lolita girls everywhere. People worked at it." It soon became the center of the new Glitter Rock movement in Los Angeles. Bowie's biography noted, "The crowd at the club ranged in age from twelve to fifteen... nymphet groupies were stars in their tight little world. Some dressed like Shirley Temple; others wore dominatrix outfits or 'Hollywood underwear,' a knee-length shirt, nylon stockings, and garter belts. These stargirls streaked their hair chartreuse and like to lift their skirts to display their bare crotches. As they danced they mimed fellatio and cunnilingus in tribute to David's onstage act of fellatio on Ronno's guitar."
Watney's Red Barrel beer imported from England was served on tap at the club, but the underaged groupies' favorite drink there was cherry cola
Cherry Cola
Cherry cola is a soft drink made by mixing cherry flavored syrup into cola. It is a popular mixture that has been available at old-fashioned soda fountains for years. Several major soda manufacturers market their own version of the beverage, including Coca-Cola Cherry, Pepsi Wild Cherry and Cherry...
. Sometimes the house DJ Chuck E Starr would perform a striptease
Striptease
A striptease is an erotic or exotic dance in which the performer gradually undresses, either partly or completely, in a seductive and sexually suggestive manner...
down to a gold or silver lamé
Lamé (fabric)
Lamé is a type of fabric woven or knit with thin ribbons of metallic yarns, as opposed to guimpé, where the ribbons are wrapped around a fibre yarn. It is usually gold or silver in color; sometimes copper lamé is seen. Lamé comes in different varieties, depending on the composition of the other...
bikini
Bikini
The bikini is typically a women's two-piece swimsuit. One part of the attire covers the breasts and the other part covers the crotch and part of or the entire buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two. Merriam–Webster describes the bikini as "a woman's scanty two-piece bathing suit" or "a...
.
Peak
In November 1973 writer Richard Cromelin reported, "Once inside, everybody's a star. The social rules are simple but rigid: All you want to hear is how fabulous you look, so you tell them how fabulous they look. You talk about how bored you are, coming here night after night, but that there’s no place else to go. If you're not jaded there's something wrong. It's good to come in very messed up on some kind of pills every once in a while, and weekend nights usually see at least one elaborate, tearful fight or breakdown. If you're 18 you're over the hill.In 1987 Pamela Des Barres
Pamela Des Barres
Pamela Des Barres aka Miss Pamela is a former rock 'n' roll groupie, author, and magazine writer.- Early life :...
wrote, "...they called me awful names at Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco, old being the most popular odious declaration of loathing. I let them get to me; they told me I was over the hill, and I looked in the mirror, inspecting my twenty-five-year-old face for early stages of decrepitness. The most hideous of these tartlets was Sable Starr
Sable Starr
Sabel Starr was a noted groupie, often described as "queen of the groupie scene" in Los Angeles during the early 1970s...
. She thought she invented nipples and pubic hair."
Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazine reported in January 1974 that "The dance floor is a dizzy kaleidoscope of lamè hotpants, sequined halters, rhinestone-studded cheeks, thrift-store anythings and see-through everythings. During the breaks, 14-year-old girls on 6-inch platforms teeter into the back bathrooms to grope with their partners of the moment. Most of the sex is as mixed as the drinks and the drugs the kids bring with them. Twenty years later, author Pleasant Gehman
Pleasant Gehman
Pleasant Gehman is a magazine writer, poet, actor, dancer and musician from Los Angeles.In the 1980s, she was the singer for the punk rock band Screamin' Sirens, and later, The RIngling Sisters and Honk If Yer Horny. All three bands have released numerous titles on vinyl, as well as cd...
recalled, "I was in the age group of people who were sophisticated enough to be experimenting with drugs and sex, but way below the age to legally be participating in any of this debauchery. Not only that, it being the Swingin' '70s and all, our very sexuality was one big, fat gray area. Most of us couldn’t decide if we were gay, straight, or bi – and nobody was really keeping tabs, either. Our adventurous spirit actually fit in with the prevalent freewheeling attitude of the time, and mixed with the handfuls of pills we were taking, as well as the Olde English 800s we guzzled in back alleys, it made sexual classifications totally irrelevant. A Newsweek reporter wrote, "Young men who dress like transvestites but almost invariably maintain that they are straight. 'I may dress flash, but I’m no faggot,' sniffs 18-year-old Kenny (Doll) Malloy, sporting a Lurex halter and tight satin pants. 'I do, however, think you’re simply stunning,' he added to Newsweek’s Peter S. Greenberg. Adds Chuck Starr, a 17-year-old prep-school student: 'I'm the No. 1 male groupie in the United States. Last year I had a thing with Mick Jagger. But it wasn’t a physical thing—it was all mental. Me and Mick just lay there and talked all night. 'I'm not gay or bisexual. I’m just glamorous.'" Cromelin also noted at the time, "There are two distinct modes operating at Rodney’s. The more obvious is the extreme narcissism. The kids dress up so painstakingly not to be admired by their friends, but so they may admire themselves. Even if they ostensibly have a partner on the dance floor, each glistening form is alone, drinking in his or her own image that fades to faceted infinity in the three mirrored walls that surround the floor, fading like the British single whose last distant note will be instantly overwhelmed by the opening bass of the next song before silence is allowed to. At this first level there’s no interest in hustling or in picking up, but there’s plenty of that coexisting. After all, this is Hollywood, where self-furtherance permeates the air like the smog.
In 1989 former Runaways
The Runaways
The Runaways were an American all-girl rock band that recorded and performed in the second half of the 1970s. The band released four studio albums and one live set during its run. Among its best known songs: "Cherry Bomb", "Queens of Noise", "Neon Angels On the Road to Ruin", "California Paradise"...
lead singer Cherie Currie
Cherie Currie
Cherie Currie is an American singer, actress and chainsaw artist. Currie was the lead vocalist of The Runaways, a hard rock band from Los Angeles in the mid-to-late 1970s.-Life and career:...
wrote of her experiences at the club, "Marie likes Bowie, but she doesn't go all out-not as much as I do. I'm dressed up as wild as can be—I've practiced at Rodney’s. I am a glitter queen: satin pants, silver five-inch-high space boots, a glitter T-shirt, and make-up so bright it looks like I’m radioactive – When I'm done I admire myself in the cracked bathroom mirror. I look like an alien princess from a faraway planet. For a while-for tonight – I am no longer Cherrie Currie, the sweet little Valley Girl. I am the Cherie-thing; something weird and something wild. Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
, who had become a forlorn figure in the glam world, was often seen at the club. Kid Congo, later guitarist with The Cramps
The Cramps
The Cramps were an American rock band, formed in 1976 and active until 2009. The band split after the death of lead singer Lux Interior. Their line-up rotated much over their existence, with the husband and wife duo of Interior and lead guitarist Poison Ivy the only permanent members...
and Gun Club, remembered "Iggy on the street outside the Disco, pulling his dress up and exposing himself, and Rodney crying because he thought he was going to be arrested." Writer Nick Kent
Nick Kent
Nick Kent is a British rock critic and musician.-Career:Along with writers including Paul Morley, Charles Shaar Murray and Danny Baker, Nick Kent is seen as one of the most important and influential UK music journalists of the 1970s. He wrote for the British music publication New Musical Express,...
also recalled, "I saw Iggy there many a time, stoned out of his gourd, lost to the world and to himself as well, staring at his face and form in those mirrored walls – staring at his reflection like Narcissus drugged out in teenage-disco-hell. The club had its dark side, however. In 1999 writer Lisa Fancher wrote how Joan Jett
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
"was walking up to Rodney’s one Friday night when she saw a dead body out front, an obvious OD, and nobody was paying any attention at all. The kids just kept walking into the club. The Sweet was flooding out the door and everybody just kept on dancing..."
Decline
By the fall of 1974 Glitter Rock was waning in popularity. In October a "Death of Glitter" night was held at the Hollywood PalladiumHollywood Palladium
The Hollywood Palladium is a theater located at 6215 Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California. It was built in a Streamline Moderne, Art Deco style and includes an 11,200 square foot dance floor with room for up to 4,000 people.-History:...
, with performances by the New York Dolls
New York Dolls
The New York Dolls is an American rock band, formed in New York in 1971. The band's protopunk sound prefigured much of what was to come in the punk rock era; their visual style influenced the look of many new wave and 1980s-era glam metal groups, and they began the local New York scene that later...
, Iggy Pop and Silverhead
Silverhead
Silverhead were a British band, fronted by the singer/actor, Michael Des Barres. The other members of the band were: Robbie Blunt , Rod Rook Davies , Nigel Harrison and Pete Thompson...
. Rodney's deejay Chuck E Star recalled, "All over Hollywood
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Hollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
that night it was glitter! Glitter! The line to get into the Palladium was incredible-everyone in LA knew it was their last chance to wear platform shoes and eyeshadow. This was it! Surfers from Malibu were there in midriff shirts, silver space boots, and blue eye makeup, hugging their girlfriends as they waited to get in." The New York Dolls ended the show as Chuckie Star was carried onto the stage in a glitter coffin, into which the crowd threw roses, glitter and lipstick. Nick Kent wrote, "If it wasn’t quite The Beautiful and the Damned it was certainly the pretty and the damned – everyone was, you know, 'going to hell' and nobody cared. It was if they'd all taken up residence in Lieber and Stoller’s 'Is That All There Is?' To me, that was the song of the seventies, even if it was written in 1966. Remembering the end of the LA Glitter groupie scene Pamela Des Barres wrote, "You couldn’t trust the new LA groupies, who were desperate, discouraged, groveling ego seekers. The love of music had become secondary to preening in Star magazine, standing next to Anybody In A Band. It was scary out there. It was fictitious and haunted." Her feelings were shared by Bebe Buell
Bebe Buell
Beverle Lorence "Bebe" Buell is an American fashion model and singer, and Playboy magazine's November 1974 Playmate of the Month. She is also known for dating rock musicians. She is actress Liv Tyler's mother from a brief relationship with Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler...
, who recalled, "There were also a large number of strange-looking young girls dressed up like Christmas ornaments rushing around, or just camping around in front of some rock star’s (hotel) rooms with their coolers and radios. This was a new breed of groupie. They were about fourteen (sometimes twelve) and were aggressive. They were harsh on other females attached to their heroes. You could easily get tripped, kicked, smacked, or have your hair pulled."
Partnership and licensing problems led Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco to close in early 1975. Pleasant Gehman later wrote, "We were a crowd of groupies, teenage hustlers, bisexual schoolgirls, and fringy, juvenile sluts looking for a good time. We’d hang out at weird coffeeshops (like Arthur J’s, the Gold Cup, and Danielle’s, where drag-queen hookers would meet their tricks in the bathroom), or we’d go to Westwood to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show for the millionth time. These places didn’t serve alcohol, so of course they didn’t card you. And you could feel totally at home in your fishnets, heavy makeup, and divinely decadent attitude. I mean, who was going to hassle you over your hair color? A drag queen? Rodney’s English Disco had closed down, and the Masque wasn’t yet open so these were our haunts." Gehman further hinted at how the underground was splintering in 1975, with roughly half of the former Glitter babies turning punk and wearing garbage bags at the Masque, the other half wearing designer jeans and getting swept up into the craze that became disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
.