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The influence that 80s gay nightlife had on electronic music, pop music in general and the evolution of clubbing for subsequent generations is pretty much incalculable. In spite of the shadow of AIDs and reactionary political and media forces both at home and in the USA, the period 1980 1990 bore witness to a dazzling explosion of dance music that artfully drew a line from the peak of late 70s disco to the emergence of house and its 90s glory days. The art of the 12” single, the thrill of the remix, the rise of the superclub, the electronic spark of chart pop, the challenging of gender barriers… all had their origin in the gay clubs. It’s not unreasonable to make the claim that by the end of the 80s, virtually ALL chart pop music sounded like it had its origins on the dancefloors of Heaven nightclub! Over 4LPs and 24 tracks, ‘Box Of Sin’ strives to tell the story of that decade, and to tease apart the strands of 80s gay clubbing to show a period of unrivalled creativity and disco diversity. Via the box’s themed discs it shows how high energy became house, how gender bending synth bands took over the pop charts, how pop stars the whole world over found a route to fame via the gay clubs, and how the era’s biggest producers aimed their masterworks purely at the dancefloor. High energy, deep house, Eurobeat, synthpop, divas, acid house… all combine to paint a picture of a rich and vibrant lifestyle. Along the way, ‘Box Of Sin’ unearths some overlooked gems rarely compiled today: meanwhile some of the decade’s biggest names in club music gather to get into the picture from Whitney Houston to Dead Or Alive, Bananarama to Bronski Beat, Aretha Franklin to Inner City. Based on the actual club charts at the time and with a stunning design package inspired by the small ads section of 80s gay press, ‘ Box Of Sin’ comes fully annotated and with an introduction by renowned gay author Paul Burston. Throughout, it’s illustrated with photography documenting 80s gay clubbers in action, provided for Demon by The Bishopsgate Institute, the UK’s LGBTQ+ archive. The project also resurrects the much loved brand ‘Disco Discharge’, a recognisable hallmark of quality among collectors and aficionados of club music heritage.
