The Village People and The Bacchae - Chapel Hill, Carrboro, & UNC

[SmilingJack]

The very first time I went to "Town Hall" was when some friends of mine, who had formed a band, "One Night Stand" IIRC, played there. "One Night Stand" also played in an upstairs bar, "The New E" IIRC, on the opposite side of Franklin Street. At the time, I thought the "Town Hall" was a big step up from "The New E." That band disbanded a short time later.

I recall seeing the Dixie Dregs there back in the day but it was a long time ago. Met Mike Strong later and he’s still the only person born in Bermuda I’ve ever known. Interesting guy.

 

[donbosco]

I recall seeing the Dixie Dregs there back in the day but it was a long time ago. Met Mike Strong later and he’s still the only person born in Bermuda I’ve ever known. Interesting guy.

I saw the Dixie Dregs there as well. Vassar Clements too and Brice Street and a band called Razzmatazz. Those are occasions that I recall though the name might have been changed to The Mad Hatter by the time that I saw those acts.

My wife lived in Bermuda for two years and worked at an oceanographic institute. Her Carolina roommate was from there. We visit them fairly often. It is a truly 'lovely' place. And to be there with big-time Carolina fans (roommate married another Bermudan who went to Carolina) is great.

 

[SmilingJack]

I saw the Dixie Dregs there as well. Vassar Clements too and Brice Street and a band called Razzmatazz. Those are occasions that I recall though the name might have been changed to The Mad Hatter by the time that I saw those acts.

My wife lived in Bermuda for two years and worked at an oceanographic institute. Her Carolina roommate was from there. We visit them fairly often. It is a truly 'lovely' place. And to be there with big-time Carolina fans (roommate married another Bermudan who went to Carolina) is great.

“It’s a Bermudaful day!” Was my favorite! My sister had her second marriage there and my dad sent us siblings to surprise her.
Carolina was playing

I saw the Dixie Dregs there as well. Vassar Clements too and Brice Street and a band called Razzmatazz. Those are occasions that I recall though the name might have been changed to The Mad Hatter by the time that I saw those acts.

My wife lived in Bermuda for two years and worked at an oceanographic institute. Her Carolina roommate was from there. We visit them fairly often. It is a truly 'lovely' place. And to be there with big-time Carolina fans (roommate married another Bermudan who went to Carolina) is great.

Pretty sure it was the 1984 game vs. Arkansas? But the game was only on at the north end of the island and I got there at the end when lost but memory is a sketchy resource.
Hated the Arkansas coach and his lizard taint boots!

 

[donbosco]

Bermuda actually has a historic connection to North Carolina that dates back to shipping. Wilmington is the closest US port to the island.

During the Civil War with Wilmington being one of the last Confederate ports still open (somewhat) after the Union closed down the vast majority of shipping, blockade runners staged from Bermuda mainly. There is a Civil War Museum on the island in fact that focuses on that relationship.

 

[donbosco]

We didn’t know much what to do with Disco in #DeepChatham. Frankly, the whole Tar Heel State had some adjusting to do. My first recollections of a particular sound filtering into that world are from the school year 1974 with Kool And The Gang - “Jungle Boogie,” Average White Band - “Pick Up The Pieces,” and Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting.” In the Summer of 1975 I attended the Belmont Abbey Basketball Camp with my Chatham Central High hoops teammates and I very clearly remember KC & The Sunshine Band’s “That's The Way I Like It” and “Get Down Tonight” along with Earth Wind and Fire’s “Shining Star” dominating the radio play among the boys in the dorm and on the court during those transistor radio days.

By the time we were back in school for senior year (‘75-‘76) music was sufficiently scrambled as to pit The Sylvers’ “Boogie Fever” with Stephen Stills and Neil Young’s “Long May You Run,” and Charlie Daniels’ “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” in the competition for the CCHS “Class of 1976 Song.” “Long May You Run,” thankfully, won the day but not by much.

Arriving in Chapel Hill in August of 1976 after spending summer weeks with cousins at RAF Woodbridge in England, with a goodly amount of time listening to permutations of radical — to me at least — broadcasts on the Pirate stations, Radio Caroline and Radio Luxembourg, I had heard some sounds there that were mainly unnamed and fitfully germinating that would quickly boom (bloom?) into Punk and New Wave. I’d been inexplicably tuned in to David Bowie since 1974 and followed along when the glam-rock of ‘Diamond Dogs’ briefly morphed into the disco leaning ‘Fame.’ Bowie was a modern Mozart.

In Chapel Hill I imprinted on two very different college party scenes that first year — the dorm-rat and fratty duet of Kirkpatrick’s Bar and The Shack, and, across a parking lot, the lit-up dance floor, cosmopolitan disco glitz of Mayo’s ‘Bacchae.’ (Troll’s came later) An occasional weekend back in Chatham introduced me to a raucous scene I never fully explored but have heard-told many tales of — The disco paradise of ‘Crash Landing’ in Southern Pines.

It was also during that time that I made my personal discovery of used records. With great joy I dug into the into the bins (thank you @Dennis Gavin) at The Fair Exchange. There, everything from novelty to deep Delta Blues came into my life.

I also tuned into the forward projections in the very air (thank you WXYC) and even bravely started hitting the smokey little clubs where live music was happening (thank you Town Hall/Mad Hatter and Cat’s Cradle).

Jukeboxes were a thing and that could mean that in the college bars of Chapel Hill that you were at the mercy of the tastes and emotions of friends and strangers alike. Likewise, in the dorm, stereos battled and genres clashed. Most radio stations weren’t fully tracked into genres yet and potpourri was the disorder of the day. The Walkman was in the future (‘79) so we were all still stewing in the goulash of the collective soundscape. So many tunes to love, to hate, to space out to. I can’t say if the ‘70s had the greatest music - but that decade without a doubt was an utterly unplanned and anarchic mashup.

I’ve not mentioned SO much — so many songs and artists. If you listen closer next time you’re doing your grocery shopping chances are you’ll catch some strains of once-controversial ‘70s hits and near-hits. Really. Try it.

#OTD (Sept. 13) in 1952, Randy Jones-The Cowboy-was born in Raleigh. After Enloe High, NC School of The Arts, and UNC, he headed to NYC. Jones was a member of The Village People from 1977 thru 1980 and they say that he still performs — and lives — in Greenwich Village. Village People’s Cowboy Hailed from Raleigh

BTW, if you want to catch up with Mr. Jones check out this 2023 interview/article by David Menconi: Pop Icon: The Village People’s Randy Jones - WALTER Magazine