A trip down glitzy, kitschy memory lane
Forty-somethings are in for a trip down bell-bottom lane as disco group extraordinaire Boney M, with Bobby Farrell, is coming to town to perform at the capital’s Club 22. After starting out in 1976, Boney M – composed of Marcia Barrett, Maizie Williams, Liz Mitchell and Reggie Tsiboe – began producing fun catchy tunes and glitzy, kitschy shows, with songs inspired by history, such as «Rasputin,» and even Christmas carols, such as «Mary’s Boy Child.» If one were to examine why Europop became so popular in the 1970s and early ’80s, as performed by Boney M, Abba and Giorgio Moroder – who also wrote the unforgettable 17-minute «Love to Love You Baby,» sung by the definitive disco queen Donna Summer – it would have to be the music’s positive, cheerful feel that filled hundreds of discos around the world. Hundreds of young men in bell-bottoms and tight shirts with big collars, and girls in huge shoulder pads and lamé, would dance the nights away under the revolving lights of the disco ball. In America, where Boney M never really took off, disco fever was expressed with the soundtrack to «Saturday Night Fever» and the song «I Will Survive.» New York alone had 100 big discotheques at the time. By the early 1980s Boney M began to lose its edge and in 1981, Farrell left the band and tried to strike out solo. Nevertheless, Boney M’s songs have a lasting worldwide appeal and few parties are really complete without at least one playing of «Rivers of Babylon» or «Daddy Cool.» Boney M are playing on Wednesday at 10 p.m. at Club 22 (22 Vouliagmenis Avenue, tel 210.924.9814). Tickets cost 20 euros and can be purchased in advance at Ticket House (42 Panepistimiou, tel 210.360.8366) or Metropolis music stores.
