DISCOMANIA is an enormous, 450-page large format full-colour celebration of disco, punk and horror by the man who mixed them together to invent an extraordinary genre, one he has made all his own –Alan Jones.
But Jones was also one of the original punks, working for British designer icon Vivienne Westwood in her World’s End boutique SEX, a DJ for the Sex Pistols at their formative gigs, and appeared in their controversial biopic The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. Not to mention his landmark, front-page ‘Naked Cowboy’ T-shirt arrest, his role in the infamous ‘God Save the Queen’ Jubilee Boat Party and his close friendship with neighbour Sid Vicious.
So why did he also embrace the strobe-lit glamour and glitz of the thrilling Disco movement? Through 100-plus deluxe reviews of his all-time top Disco movies from 1973 to the present day, the international film critic, broadcaster, festival organiser and pioneering horror journalist reveals all – about his life, loves and scandals in the two exciting musical genres that have marked his extraordinary Dance Card.
Sure, you know Saturday Night Fever, The Bitch, Thank God It’s Friday, Xanadu, 54 and Can’t Stop the Music. But what about White Pop Jesus, Podium, La discoteca del amor, Don’t Go in the House, Brigade mondaine, The Face with Two Left Feet, and Bet on My Disco?
Why is this little-explored, often maligned, yet exhilarating pop enclave so important culturally? What keynote and classic Disco songs of the Golden Era do they feature? What do the author’s chosen favourite Disco Icons think of their own work in innovatively contouring the inspiring four-to-the-floor sonic landscape? And what Punk memories does this unprecedented and highly original appraisal evoke, one going way beyond the velvet ropes and epitomizing the Disco zeitgeist?
With a foreword by S’Express frontman Mark Moore.
Fab Press, 448pp, 21.5cm x 30cm, illustrated hardcover, 2025
