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ROMANCED ON THE DANCEFLOOR


The classic house and funky disco of Andy Butler’s band, Hercules and Love Affair, has captured the imagination of a new generation.


Words: ELE BEATTIE Pics: BETH CROCKATT


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p on the rooftop of their hotel, Hercules and Love Affair gather around their Mount Olympus, aka Andy Butler, who, at plus 6ft and the mastermind behind the project,


deserves the title. Whilst posing for photos, we notice that he and the only other original member of the clan, Kim Ann Foxman, have matching tattoos. On their forearms in italics, “My Friend” is etched in eternity. “One day he just sat up and started bugging me, saying, ‘I want a tattoo! I want one now!’” says Foxman. Best friends for years, these two are tight, but so are the new additions to their ever shape-shifting collective. Whilst they giggle together at our requests for them to vogue for the camera, you can’t help but want to be one of their gang. These are the kind of pals that welcome you for who you are. The more extraordinary, the more defiant, the better.


BALEARIC TRADITION Whilst dancing late into the night on the White Isle, it’s unlikely that we’ll pause from fist pumping the air to ponder on where today’s nightclub culture first begun. But Ibiza hasn’t always been the epicentre for clubbing... it spawned long ago in the dark, heady recesses of the lofts of 1970s NYC. Long before Es Paradis and DC-10, it was all about Paradise Garage and Studio 54. They eliminated the days of conventional dancing partners, one boy, one girl. When disco landed, you didn’t dance with someone — you danced with everyone! No silence between records, instead


selectors began to seamlessly blend track-after-track, with the sole intention of never letting the party stop. And it didn’t matter if you were a girl or a guy, gay or straight, black or white. There was only one rule: if you wanted to get down, then you were in. Do not underestimate the revolution that was disco. When Hercules and Love Affair stormed onto the scene and into our hearts in 2008 with their self-titled album, these guys weren’t attempting to recreate the era’s irresistible swing: they fully embodied it in both sound and soul. The line-up no longer includes Antony Hegarty (of... and the Johnsons), but instead opens its arms to Sean Wright, Aerea Negrot and Mark Pistel, who together brought us ‘Blue Songs’ early this year. Still throbbing with a disco sentimentality, this album saw them up the 4/4 and evolve into Chicago house. “A lot of the older generation in Ibiza are aware of that history, because of the Balearic tradition, that cosmic tradition that Daniele Baldelli was pushing in Italy,” says Andy Butler, “...and if Frankie Knuckles has played here as many times as he has, then for sure there is a reverence for disco classics. The older generation know, but the younger generation just want boom boom boom.”


But Butler loves the boom boom too. “I’ve played at Space, We Love... a couple of times. I love it! They have a great curatorial aspect. Serge Santiago played right after me and I ended my set with one of his tracks called ‘Bad Passion’. He loved that!” Unfortunately there’s no time for DJ sets during this flying visit. The band are only in town to play the IMS


www.djmag.com


Grand Finale party and then they are off again. “This is the hardest part of the tour — late flight, followed by late flight, followed by two shows in one day. But in a weird way, it’s the chaos that’s the most fun. That’s why I love festival season so much — it’s chaotic! You roll up, don’t get a sound-check and are pushed on stage in front of a ton of people, thinking, ‘What the fuck is going to happen?’ Sometimes it’s brilliant. We played the Electric Picnic in Ireland and there were about 4000 people in the tent and we were just on!”


ON TOUR The flamboyancy and up-for-it attitude of the festival might be the optimum conditions for a Hercules show, but they also love the challenge of breaking a crowd. “We recently did a party in Russia for Audi, they were presenting a new car. Everyone was in suits, drinking Martinis,” Andy says. “We had our voguers out from NYC. These kids never leave Brooklyn and they were in Moscow tearing it up. I had an amazing time watching them freak people out by dipping and vogueing and duck-walking like crazy! We got them dancing eventually! But of course, we prefer a crowd that’s ready than one that’s not... “We opened for Mika once... oh, it was awful! There was a bunch of six-year-old girls staring at us like, ‘What is techno?’ They were ready for bubblegum and lollipops and we were like, ‘We’re not gonna give you lollipops unless they are laced with LSD and as responsible people, we’re not going to do that!’ But when the kids


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