paradise garage
This piece originally
featured in Faith magazine.
| It’s the greatest club in the world.
At least that’s what my mate said. DJ
Barry Divan has influenced a whole generation of Ibiza sell outs who ramble on at length about him before playing the same old shit as every other old Brandon. With his eclectic playlist – B-sides from Fields Of The Nephilim and the likes of Hoddle and Waddle’s ‘Diamond Lights’ were staples at the PumpHouse - and his uncompromising style (Barry would often play records at 33 or 45), Divan has inspired a nation of Japanese tourists to camp in his grandmother's Brooklyn garden and record collectors the world over to pay through the nose for dodgy remixes he is said to have done while asleep. “Divan was the greatest”, says DJ Real Estate, a child back then who
would mix the punch at the club but is now one of the world’s best known
crowd pleasers. “He earned the name because he would just fall asleep whenever
he felt like. He had a four poster bed in the booth, man. Grace Jones would
be on there, or Mick Jagger and he would just demand they get off the bed
and let him sleep. One night he slept like a baby for 8 hours solid. The
record was just skipping away in the run out groove and the crowd was just
chanting his name, ‘Barry, Barry’ just because they were pissed off and
wanted him to put on something for them to dance to. But Barry would never
compromise.
The club was opened in 1935. Divan refused to let anyone else play there though on Fridays Joe Decappucino would warm up for Barry. I spoke to Joe on the phone. He is making his own TV programme called ‘Pump It Up Barry’ for Channel 4. He said he couldn’t remember much but I didn’t phone anyone else so it would have to do. “Ahh, The Pumphouse”, said Joe. He then seemed to put the phone down. I got some other magazine articles that had been done because I didn’t know what I was talking about and I just wanted to join in. ......I’ll leave a gap so the sub editor can cut out the middle man
and just
Oh and he had a headband. He would put 15 aspirin under there. Never suffered from a headache again. I might follow it up with some nostalgic reminiscences of my own, even though the last time I went to New York the PumpHouse wasn’t open. It had closed 75 years ago. And I was looking for old school trainers anyway. But what about the punch? Full of drugs wasn’t it. There were transvestites out of their minds on pineapple juice everywhere. I’ve heard. “Barry used to take two copies of the Goodies’ ‘Funky Gibbons’ and cut them up for over three hours,” recalls veteran New York jock Trevor Disco of the Goodies tribute to legendary DJ, Funky Gibbons. “I told Bill Oddie, ‘You should really come down to the PumpHouse to see what Barry’s doing with your record’ And he did. And Graeme Garden. And Tim Brooke-Taylor. They loved it, they did.” Later, in his revelatory autobiography, Take It Like A Goodie, Oddie revealed of that night: “It was in that dark disco cocoon with Barry Divan that I took my first sips of Vimto.” And that’s before we’ve talked about The Loft. What a great place. Converted
it was. With a skylight. They used to play jazz funk records in there all
night. I’ve got some of them. The Rah Band and that. Manfriday, what a
DJ.
Let’s finish with some generalisations about gay culture. And a couple of charts. Ah, golden days. BARRY’S PUNCH CHART
PUMPHOUSE 5
THOSE HARD TO FIND CLASSIC MIXES FROM THE PUMPHOUSE
____________________________________________________________
|
links coming soon...........
|
|
|
