HISTORY

Jeffrey Hinton . Cha Cha. Scratch Video. Hydraulic Disco. John Maybury. Bloolips. Words Andy Thomas Portrait Owen Harvey Images copyright Jeffrey Hinton

When he was once asked for a Opening in 1981 after the closure Through Subculture: 1980s defining club experience, Jeffrey Hinton of the Blitz, Cha Cha was fronted by to Now’. Also at the exhibition were replied: “I used to love lying flat out Scarlett Cannon, with Judy Blame and Hinton’s videos of Bodymap’s 1980s on the dance floor with my friend Space Michael Hardy (aka Maria Malipasta). catwalk shows (such as ‘The Cat In at the club. They used to have Like them, Hinton had experienced the Hat Takes a Rumble With the the most amazing disco lighting rig the creative energy of punk, and its Fish’) that he soundtracked. and we would just look up and bathe intersection with London’s gay scene. While these mid-1980s works in music and lights, while people Clubs such as El Sombrero (also known provide a defining snapshot of London danced and stepped over us.” The as Yours or Mine) on Kensington High subculture at its creative peak, Hinton London DJ and video artist has been Street provided the teenage Hinton does not believe in living in the past. working in the intersection of music with ideas of his own. As did the Blitz And he continues to take inspiration and visuals for nearly 40 years now, and a few years later, where he received from late night London – whether his passion for lighting has culminated another education through DJ Rusty spinning at Old Street’s East Bloc or in a new film,Hydraulic Disco. Egan. Although he was inspired by the creating the soundtrack for fashion duo Hinton earned his legendary electronic futurism of the Blitz, the Meadham Kirchhoff ’s Taboo-inspired status as DJ at Taboo, ’s soundtrack he would go on to create collections. We catch up with him as famously decadent London club of was far more deviant and playful. “Very he takes a break from production for the mid-1980s. In an interview with trippy and some of it was completely his new film. writer Bill Brewster, DJ out of beat, but it didn’t matter. Totally described Hinton’s innovations. “I think suited Taboo,” wrote Moore. Growing up, your brother was an what made it so great was Jeffrey would With fellow including important figure to you. do his own edits where he would filmmaker John Maybury, milliner Yes, my brother Stephen was a really elongate the best bits with these mad , David Holah of fashion early member of the Gay Liberation sound effects over the top.” To label Bodymap, stylist Kim Bowen, and Front and used to bring loads of accompany his heady mix of music long time friends Jeremy Healy and literature home; International Times, at Taboo (heavy on Italian disco and Princess Julia, he joined the creative Oz and all this other stuff about trashy pop) and bewildering edits, community at the famous Warren countercultures from around the world. Hinton created his own video collages Street Squat. Barriers between artistic At the time I had all these health projected above the dance floor. These forms were being broken down and problems and I was really bullied at films chopped up TV shows and pop Hinton began to experiment further school. I would look at people at school videos with horror films and gay porn, with film, becoming a pioneer of scratch and think I didn’t want to be like them. mixing pop and underground sources video, alongside the Duvet Brothers, I’d had all this knowledge passed on to create darkly playful montages. Gorilla Tapes and George Barber. from my brother and I knew there was His mix of music and videos were Throughout the 1980s right up another world out there. deliberately unsettling. “It was very to now, Hinton has also used video disorientating, but in that kind of to document the creativity of London’s At what age did you start soaking place it really worked,” Hinton told gay counterculture – from Taboo to all that up? writer Tim Burrows. “It reflected the Kinky Gerlinky. His recent films Oh my god, from forever. I was really chaos. If you went down there feeling include a collection from his archive fascinated by all of it. And then I used normal, it would mess you up. But most that documents the drag scene and its to hang around the streets a lot with people arrived messed already, so it importance to gay club culture. Along him and I met all these different suited them.” with his Taboo Scratch Video, this was people. We used to go to this squat in Before Taboo he was a DJ at Cha one of the highlights of the ICA Off- Powis Square, which was like the first Cha, held in the back bar of Heaven. Site exhibition of 2013, ‘A Journey kind of gender fuck squat. It was where >

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ever heard. I was fascinated by the way he would always play the whole side these machines and how to take them the song would suddenly deconstruct. of a record. So 16 minutes of Amanda apart and put them together. And I Lear’s ‘Follow Me’ or Dee D Jackson was fascinated by that and would spend You’d been experimenting with your and all these other concept albums that hours in the cellar at home taking apart own tape deconstructions from a very were coming out by the likes of Love & radios and that. So I always loved how early age. Kisses. Although he didn’t mix as such things worked. My dad gave me a reel-to-reel tape and was very relaxed, he was a great DJ recorder when I was about five or six. in the way he provided the whole What equipment did you use? I had this tiny little round microphone dancing experience. For editing I had this amazing portable and I would tape everything; the TV, Sony tape recorder specifically for people in the street, just everything, How did the Sombrero differ from sound effects. It had this massive Film still from Alternative Miss World. Peter I loved sounds. And then I instinctively other places you had been? microphone and was huge and weighed Hammond, aka Space Princess, backstage, 1989 found a way of wiring it into the back It was very sexually charged so that was a ton. And it had this really precise of the hi-fi where the speakers go, and different. It had a round, lit-up dance little pause button. I am quite specific all the [gay cabaret troupe] Bloolips lot feeding it back through the speakers floor and alcoves all around it. You can as to what I am listening to and where lived so I met Bette Bourne and all of then playing a record over the top. And sort of see it in Adam & the Ants’ points are, so I would do these real them. I then went to see their show The I did that at the age of about six, just ‘Antmusic’ video. There were these very funny edits, chopping up sounds and Ugly Duckling at the Tabernacle near to mush and mix things together. camp Spanish waiters and it was just music and then re-editing and also their squat. the most fun, social playground you overlaying odd tracks. Film still from Bodymap catwalk show. Nick and Barry Kamen modelling, 1984 Did anyone influence that? could imagine. That’s also where I met Were they a bit like San Francisco’s Kenny Everett had his radio show my first boyfriend. They didn’t really You said before that you’ve always had Cockettes? where he used to make these mad have a licence so you had to have a plate a very visual mind. When did you Yes very much – but in a very English jingles, and I loved the way he mixed of cheap spam and coleslaw. Being quite become aware of that? way. Bette Bourne had been in the New his talking over the music. His whole poor at the time I would eat it and We went travelling across Europe on York-based gay cabaret group Hot everyone else would throw it away. camping holidays as a kid. I remember Peaches, who I had seen perform at it really well, the roads in France and the ICA. When he got back from New Who did you go there with? all the trees and I had this filmic York he set up the Bloolips. The Ugly ‘I HAVE I originally went there with these impression of everything. And I’ve Duckling was the most amazing thing queens who were trolley dollies and always had that, even with music, it’s that this 12-year-old boy could have A HUGE also Princess Julia, who I have known very visual. When people are telling seen. It was just about the beauty of since forever. And I just met a lot of me stories I’m always visualising being you, no matter how different you ROMANTIC interesting people there. It was a very everything. But those trips really were are. The message of that to me was PASSION FOR underground club and you were a feast and totally influenced me and incredible. It was visually stunning and theoretically meant to be a member, as again I knew there was another world so playful, and that is something that HYDRAULIC with most of the clubs in the 1970s like out there. has always interested me. I remember the Embassy, Copacabana and Bangs. they finished with T-Connection’s ‘Do DISCO That whole visual thing links into What You Wanna Do’ and everyone What was the crowd like? your love of disco lighting and your was dancing, and I was jumping all LIGHTING’ You had a great mix of people – an first time at Heaven. around. It really was a total liberation unforced high life meets low life. I I went there soon after it opened and Film still from Bodymap catwalk show. Dancers Michael Clark and Les Child modelling, 1986 and a language I could understand. always think to be a great club you have it really was an incredible place. I have concept of jingles was so energised to have a big mixture. So multicultural a huge romantic passion for hydraulic late 1960s. And here I was hearing this this guy at some party and he lived in What was your introduction to clubs? and playful. And I was always attracted outcasts, gay, bi and straight, but disco lighting and Heaven was the first amazing music in Heaven and I had this place on Bleecker Street and he It had always been around me. I didn’t to playfulness. He always had a great especially sexually confused, trannies, place I had seen that. That was the start a friend who had been to New York. knew William Burroughs. So I ended make a distinction between where rhythm and the way he would deliver old money rich people, prostitutes, rent of me seeing all this mechanical, heated, At the time Laker Airways were doing up staying with William Burroughs in I heard music. I just danced wherever words and weave in the music was boys, drug dealers, actors/singer types, motorised lighting that was timed £55 one-way fares. That was the only his apartment called the Bunker on the I was – and I was obsessed with dancing great. He was a master of all that and and a few confused fillers that are there to the music. They were buying all time I’d sold any records in my life but Bowery. Then I was introduced into the for as long as I can remember. You really influenced me. Everyone is doing by mistake. And then at the Sombrero these pieces of equipment all the time I had to get there. CBGB and the Mudd, so all that punk really couldn’t keep me still. But the those kinds of mash ups now, but he you had all the more gay experimental and there would always be something thing, and then of course Studio 54. So first big club I went to in London was was doing that quite instinctively way end of punk, which was what I was new to wow you. It was all part of the How long did you spend in New York? I’d met this poetry lot, this punk lot, Global Village, which eventually back then. involved in. excitement – new visuals and music. I was there for a year and thought I was then the gay disco lot. That experience became Heaven. I was about 13 or 14 going to stay forever. There was this was really influential. and I remember being in this space and Who was the first DJ to have an When did you start making the tapes Why did disco become so important real, strong and liberated gay scene that feeling the reverbs of the sound system, impact on you? you became known for? for you at this time? was so right for me. I went to all these When you returned to London it was soaking in the music and thinking, wow. The first DJ I was properly aware I always made tapes for myself and I immediately latched onto it because it places like Anvil and other really the time of Warren Street Squat. of was this guy called Rudy, who used other people and these were a real mash was a musical movement that spread so extreme places. And I was just like, I guess what I had seen with the Were there any records that stand out? to play at the Sombrero on High Street up of loads of things. So I was pause quickly across the world and had such wow this is incredible. I loved the Bloolips in the early 1970s was kind I remember one track that was playing Ken. He was really interesting. That editing and adding feedback and stuff. a strong simple message – and that was energy and again the visual aspect. The of like a blueprint to what happened and it’s called ‘Pipeline’ by Bruce club and his music – I honestly thought Any piece of equipment I got I would liberation. Disco was so energised and clones [gay American style movement] at Warren Street. So I felt very at home Johnston. There is this breakdown in it I had died and gone to heaven. Rudy always use it to the max. I was always spoke of freedoms – it was letting you over there were always very detailed and when I first walked through the door where it’s very percussive and rhythmic; played this incredible mix of early very mechanically minded because my be whatever you were. And it all comes accessorised. They always worked on there. I had just got back from New so that would have been the first break I Italian disco, so very landscapey. And dad was a plumber. He would show me from gay and black struggles from the their look. It was beautiful. Then I met York and I had no home so I stayed >

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Jeremy Healy and Jeffrey Hinton, 1978

Jeffrey Hinton and Kate Garner of Haysi Fantayzee backstage at Top of the Pops,1982 Tasty Tim’s Birthday Disco Hospital at Planets, London, 1985 Photograph Fiona Cartledge with Jeremy [Healy]. I visited, then with smell. There wasn’t a washing and John Waters. I was always basically never left. machine so you would pick up what interested in that side of DIY smelt the least and then made it work filmmaking. And of course John dance at all. That’s when I famously When did you start documenting the maintenance cost. But tragically all this Can you describe the squat? or made something new. I also attribute Maybury and Cerith [Wyn Evans], played the slip mat while tripping off scene with video and how did you do stuff was completely ripped out of clubs The front part of the building was all some of what became known as the they were all into their Super 8 films, my head and people just danced anyway, that without being intrusive? worldwide and replaced by the same fashion, film, music and design people, look to this theatrical and so I helped them with their set ups because that grinding noise was not I was always taking pictures and videos generic Gobo projectors. Now and then at the back it was a bit more shop that was closing down. It was part and that. I think John influenced me that different to some of the things and it’s hugely important now that we everywhere has flat, cold, LED-lit of a punky druggy vibe. There was this of Charles Fox near Covent Garden and a lot in terms of just doing it. But the I was doing. Taboo was great. have that as a record. I’ve collected patterns projected from the same point great constant energy, similar to what we would take all these clothes from whole of Warren Street was like that things for my whole life and was always all night long and not even timed to the I had experienced in New York. There there and adapt them. We also helped and it cemented the thing I had always How important was Leigh Bowery? known as a hoarder. Now it’s called music. This cannot compare with the was no morning, noon or night. It really ourselves to the make up. The had. And that was, don’t think about Leigh was just such an amazing strong an archive because it holds a lot of stuff overwhelming drama, noise and thrill was just constant and I was naturally important thing with all these clubs was doing something, just do it. Everything presence in my life. He was just this that wasn’t documented at the time. of the original hydraulic lighting. attracted to that. That house was alive that we were doing them for ourselves; I have ever done, whether filming, incredibly energised child. I would I wish I’d had a camera in New York, I haven’t seen anyone else really with everything going on. It had this editing or DJing, has come from that. see these amazing outfits he wore, but as there were so many things I saw cover this subject, but when you do osmosis of energy and everyone was I have never studied it as such. The I would also always see Leigh coming there. But then in some situations, speak to people who experience it they equal, because no one had any money. minute I got a video, I began pause out of them. He had such a sharp wit, like at the Anvil and the more extreme get really passionate. So I just want to And that is where you find the most ‘THERE WAS editing instinctively. It was the same no matter what drugs he was on. He environments, it isn’t appropriate to celebrate what was lost because for me creativity, when everyone is on the same shit I was doing with the music tapes, was so clever at situations. Some people film. And I know the difference. Also it is such an emotional memory. Why page. It was a great mix and everyone NO MORNING, mixing things up, and juxtaposing thought he was quite bitchy or catty, most of the people I have filmed know I wanted to create a homage to that was was involved in everyone else’s things that don’t necessarily go together but he never was. He was just really me and they are not conscious of me to give people a sense of what it felt creativity. So I naturally dived in. Then NOON OR playful and loved getting a reaction. filming them, it’s just a natural thing like. The way all these massive lighting we were all going to the same clubs. NIGHT. IT When did you start playing your So if you are really uptight he is going because we are in each other’s world all machines above you were kind of woven There were just so many creative people videos at clubs? to look for a reaction from you. But not the time. I tend to capture things as just into the music, and woven into the around at the time. Space Princess WAS JUST The first film things I did specifically so different to a lot of people who went fragments of what is around me. energy, and the smell and sexuality [Peter Hammond] also has to be for an environment was at Circus to Taboo. It was not like, here’s this of the environment. The way the lights mentioned because he was a huge CONSTANT’ [ Jeremy Healy’s club]. I did these four really extreme person. He was also Why do you think your film Hydraulic would move to the music was basically person in my life. He was so very or five hour-long tapes all made by a great person to work with. Disco is needed? like having another dance partner. And creative and gave me a lot of confidence pause editing. These things took All the industry behind the hydraulic if you have a great sound system, all this in what I wanted to do. it was to entertain us rather than for fucking weeks to do. And then the next You’d previously played at Cha Cha. disco lighting has gone. There was noise and light and energy, when that is publicity. Nobody did anything for time was Taboo, when I was really given How important was your time there? a huge industry around this, it was all merged into one it is so intoxicating. You’ve spoken before about how the anyone else’s appreciation. carte blanche to do anything. That was That was the first club I had really operators, mechanics, maintenance, It would just draw you into the dance styles at Billy’s and the Blitz were very great because they had a big screen DJ’d at, so it was very important. inventors, and it doesn’t exist any more. floor and you would totally lose spontaneous. How much of that came When did you start making videos? above the dance floor, so I could control It gave me the opportunity to There was a big lighting invention yourself. And the whole idea of being from the creative, communal living? I was always obsessed with videos. My the sound, visuals and lighting. I was experiment, so I did lots of chop-up curve between the 1970s and early lost on a dance floor is one of the My favourite thing about Warren Street brother took me to see these avant- basically mixing everything. I was tapes. Lots of long mixes, stuff that let 1990s. The hydraulic disco lighting biggest highs I have ever experienced. was we all wore each other’s clothes. garde films all the time, so I was going taking the sound from the videos, along me jump down on the dance floor and industry were making bespoke, and ever Everyone thinks we made these to film clubs very young, places like the with my cassettes of sound effects, plus roll around with my mates. But Cha more dynamic, mechanical machines Jeffrey Hinton’s film Hydraulic Disco amazing looks and I guess we kind of Paris Pullman in Earls Court. I‘d seen the records, and mixing it all together. Cha was definitely me being given and rigs. This came to an abrupt end is currently in production did, but really a lot of that had to do all the Warhol films, Kenneth Anger I’ve no idea how anyone managed to the freedom to experiment. mainly because of operational and jeffreyhinton.co.uk

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