NEWS from the INTERNETS abt Miss Lady Kier

Long live disco Dancefloor pioneers Donna Summer and Robin Gibb both died recently, but the beat goes on – disco has become the foundation of modern pop Dorian Lynskey guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 May 2012 13.55 EDT Towards the end of Whit Stillman’s 1998 movie The Last Days of Disco, Matt Keeslar’s manic depressive character Josh Neff stands on a Manhattan street corner and delivers an impassioned monologue on the importance of a form of music that, at the time of the movie’s early 80s setting, seemed to be fading into history. “Disco will never be over,” he begins. “It will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big, and this important, and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years – maybe many years – it’ll be considered passé and ridiculous. It will be misrepresented and caricatured and sneered at, or, worse, completely ignored. “But we had nothing to do with those things and still loved disco. Those who didn’t understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone for ever! It’s got to come back someday. I just hope it will be in our own lifetimes.” His friends look at him as if he’s crazy but, whether you saw the movie in 1998 or just the other week, you knew he was right. Disco came back all right and it’s hard to believe it ever went away. Just look at the size of the coverage afforded to the deaths of Donna Summer and Robin Gibb. It’s not just because they did some wonderful things 30-odd years ago; it’s because those wonderful things are always with us, on the radio or at weddings , an element of pop’s vocabulary that is as ubiquitous as the Beatles. Furthermore, its ideas and innovations have metastasised throughout pop music, inspiring new iterations every year. When disco crashed in the early 80s it lost the battle but it went on to win the war. Last weekend, producer Giorgio Moroder discussed his work with Donna Summer and contrasted the backlash against disco with the charts in 2012: “It’s really funny because dance music now is pop music.” To understand the scale of disco’s triumph you have to appreciate the magnitude of its initial rise and fall. Pop music has always been susceptible to fads but disco’s imperial phase is the closest it has ever got to the irrational exuberance of a stock-market bubble.  At the same time it was hated: by older black artists who resented the way it replaced the muscle and grit of funk with a mindless, frictionless groove; by punks who saw it as crass, bubbleheaded capitalism incarnate; by macho rock fans who believed its effeminacy was infecting even some of their favourite artists; by pundits who made it a cultural lightning rod for their growing angst about national decline and America’s place in the world. In a telling coincidence, the summer of 1979, when baseball fans trashed disco records at Chicago’s Comiskey Park and the Knack’s My Sharona ousted Chic’s Good Times from the top of the Billboard chart, also saw the launch of Jerry Falwell’s ultra-conservative lobby group The Moral Majority. And of course some people hated it, as people tend to, simply because it was everywhere.  ”Disco was dead by 81,” says pioneering house DJ Frankie Knuckles. “Overnight it went from disco to country-and-western and heavy rock. The industry was trying to get 360 degrees from what was going on the day before and they didn’t want anything that in the slightest way resembled disco.” Knuckles and the other gay African Americans who invented house music began the process of rescuing disco from its own excesses by stripping away the cliches and reconnecting it with its subversive counter-cultural roots. Tough and electronic, house was disco in the raw. But disco bounced back quickly in the mainstream, too, just with a different identity and updated production. Michael Jackson’s Thriller retained the lessons he learned on Off the Wall , Billie Jean and Into the Groove were disco records in all but name. “No one has named the dominant trend in 80s music because they’re afraid to: it’s disco, and all the critics know it,” wrote proud fan Bentley Boyd in 1987. “They know it and fear it. It is the strange uncle who lives in the attic and can’t be acknowledged.” This was the strange thing. Disco had so thoroughly reconfigured pop that even as some of the biggest musicians of the 80s assimiliated its tenets – the synthetic four-to-the-floor beat, the celebration of dancing and community, the dominance of black and female artists, the hints of sexual ambiguity in someone such as Prince – audiences regarded their music as a different entity because nobody was wearing polyester jumpsuits and employing a Barry Gibb falsetto. It was just a matter of time before the spectre of ridicule passed and the continuum became more obvious. During the late-80s acid house’s chart invasion, Deee-Lite’s Groove Is in the Heart blatantly updated disco’s ultra-bright hedonism. Throughout the 90s, disco anthems provided hits for the Pet Shop Boys (the Village People’s Go West) and  with the likes of Daft Punk’s Around the World, Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You, Spiller’s Groovejet and Madison Avenue’s Don’t Call Me Baby, all built on whacking great samples from the late 70s. Sampling is one way of illustrating the breadth of disco, but in all the myriad offshoots and curios that thrived in the genre’s heyday. It wasn’t one sound, but several different ones running in tandem. You can hear yet another dimension in Hercules and Love Affair’s Blind, which captures the tingling melancholy of many of the best disco records – the sense that you can escape for a night but you still have to come to terms with the world in the morning.  Freddie Mercury and Liberace ended with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Bronski Beat in the Top 10 (the UK one at least), and disco was the engine of change. Uncloseted homosexuality in pop still isn’t universally accepted but,  it’s now a major part of the conversation. The Scissor Sisters can be witty about such developments. Their disco version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb plays out like a retrospective peace treaty between the two perceived poles of music in 1979 – earnest, weighty rock and flibbertigibbet pop – which demonstrates that the distance between them was probably illusory anyway. Disco has become, in its many forms, a musical Esperanto, which creates a dialogue between multiple genres. If you see the recent infiltration of hip hop and R&B by dance music (think Rihanna’s We Found Love) as one of its legacies, then there’s pleasure to be had (from the concept if not always the actual music) from cultural collisions such as rapper Flo Rida sampling Dead or Alive’s camp Hi-NRG. Or take Lady Gaga marrying disco with E Street Band  on parts of her Born This Way album (which, incidentally, is named after an out-and-proud 1977 disco record by Carl Bean). Moroder is right: dance music now is pop music. Now, as then, the children of disco don’t always get it right and sometimes you get a record such as Snoop Dogg and David Guetta’s Sweat, which is the modern equivalent of The Ethel Merman Disco Album. It’s the promise that matters: a vision of the dancefloor as a multiracial, pansexual, empathetic space where you can be who and what you want to be. It’s a vision that musicians continue to chase,  and will continue to, because disco was too big and too important and too great to let go. Its most beloved practitioners may die but, like Gloria Gaynor’s indefatigable heroine, it will survive.

Long live disco


Dancefloor pioneers Donna Summer and Robin Gibb both died recently, but the beat goes on – disco has become the foundation of modern pop

Towards the end of Whit Stillman’s 1998 movie The Last Days of Disco, Matt Keeslar’s manic depressive character Josh Neff stands on a Manhattan street corner and delivers an impassioned monologue on the importance of a form of music that, at the time of the movie’s early 80s setting, seemed to be fading into history.

“Disco will never be over,” he begins. “It will always live in our minds and hearts. Something like this, that was this big, and this important, and this great, will never die. Oh, for a few years – maybe many years – it’ll be considered passé and ridiculous. It will be misrepresented and caricatured and sneered at, or, worse, completely ignored.

“But we had nothing to do with those things and still loved disco. Those who didn’t understand will never understand: disco was much more, and much better, than all that. Disco was too great, and too much fun, to be gone for ever! It’s got to come back someday. I just hope it will be in our own lifetimes.”

His friends look at him as if he’s crazy but, whether you saw the movie in 1998 or just the other week, you knew he was right. Disco came back all right and it’s hard to believe it ever went away. Just look at the size of the coverage afforded to the deaths of Donna Summer and Robin Gibb. It’s not just because they did some wonderful things 30-odd years ago; it’s because those wonderful things are always with us, on the radio or at weddings , an element of pop’s vocabulary that is as ubiquitous as the Beatles. Furthermore, its ideas and innovations have metastasised throughout pop music, inspiring new iterations every year. When disco crashed in the early 80s it lost the battle but it went on to win the war. Last weekend, producer Giorgio Moroder discussed his work with Donna Summer and contrasted the backlash against disco with the charts in 2012: “It’s really funny because dance music now is pop music.”

To understand the scale of disco’s triumph you have to appreciate the magnitude of its initial rise and fall. Pop music has always been susceptible to fads but disco’s imperial phase is the closest it has ever got to the irrational exuberance of a stock-market bubble. 

At the same time it was hated: by older black artists who resented the way it replaced the muscle and grit of funk with a mindless, frictionless groove; by punks who saw it as crass, bubbleheaded capitalism incarnate; by macho rock fans who believed its effeminacy was infecting even some of their favourite artists; by pundits who made it a cultural lightning rod for their growing angst about national decline and America’s place in the world. In a telling coincidence, the summer of 1979, when baseball fans trashed disco records at Chicago’s Comiskey Park and the Knack’s My Sharona ousted Chic’s Good Times from the top of the Billboard chart, also saw the launch of Jerry Falwell’s ultra-conservative lobby group The Moral Majority. And of course some people hated it, as people tend to, simply because it was everywhere.

 ”Disco was dead by 81,” says pioneering house DJ Frankie Knuckles. “Overnight it went from disco to country-and-western and heavy rock. The industry was trying to get 360 degrees from what was going on the day before and they didn’t want anything that in the slightest way resembled disco.”

Knuckles and the other gay African Americans who invented house music began the process of rescuing disco from its own excesses by stripping away the cliches and reconnecting it with its subversive counter-cultural roots. Tough and electronic, house was disco in the raw. But disco bounced back quickly in the mainstream, too, just with a different identity and updated production. Michael Jackson’s Thriller retained the lessons he learned on Off the Wall , Billie Jean and Into the Groove were disco records in all but name. “No one has named the dominant trend in 80s music because they’re afraid to: it’s disco, and all the critics know it,” wrote proud fan Bentley Boyd in 1987. “They know it and fear it. It is the strange uncle who lives in the attic and can’t be acknowledged.”

This was the strange thing. Disco had so thoroughly reconfigured pop that even as some of the biggest musicians of the 80s assimiliated its tenets – the synthetic four-to-the-floor beat, the celebration of dancing and community, the dominance of black and female artists, the hints of sexual ambiguity in someone such as Prince – audiences regarded their music as a different entity because nobody was wearing polyester jumpsuits and employing a Barry Gibb falsetto. It was just a matter of time before the spectre of ridicule passed and the continuum became more obvious.

During the late-80s acid house’s chart invasion, Deee-Lite’s Groove Is in the Heart blatantly updated disco’s ultra-bright hedonism. Throughout the 90s, disco anthems provided hits for the Pet Shop Boys (the Village People’s Go West) and  with the likes of Daft Punk’s Around the World, Stardust’s Music Sounds Better With You, Spiller’s Groovejet and Madison Avenue’s Don’t Call Me Baby, all built on whacking great samples from the late 70s.

Sampling is one way of illustrating the breadth of disco, but in all the myriad offshoots and curios that thrived in the genre’s heyday. It wasn’t one sound, but several different ones running in tandem. You can hear yet another dimension in Hercules and Love Affair’s Blind, which captures the tingling melancholy of many of the best disco records – the sense that you can escape for a night but you still have to come to terms with the world in the morning.

 Freddie Mercury and Liberace ended with Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Bronski Beat in the Top 10 (the UK one at least), and disco was the engine of change. Uncloseted homosexuality in pop still isn’t universally accepted but,  it’s now a major part of the conversation. The Scissor Sisters can be witty about such developments. Their disco version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb plays out like a retrospective peace treaty between the two perceived poles of music in 1979 – earnest, weighty rock and flibbertigibbet pop – which demonstrates that the distance between them was probably illusory anyway.

Disco has become, in its many forms, a musical Esperanto, which creates a dialogue between multiple genres. If you see the recent infiltration of hip hop and R&B by dance music (think Rihanna’s We Found Love) as one of its legacies, then there’s pleasure to be had (from the concept if not always the actual music) from cultural collisions such as rapper Flo Rida sampling Dead or Alive’s camp Hi-NRG. Or take Lady Gaga marrying disco with E Street Band  on parts of her Born This Way album (which, incidentally, is named after an out-and-proud 1977 disco record by Carl Bean). Moroder is right: dance music now is pop music.

Now, as then, the children of disco don’t always get it right and sometimes you get a record such as Snoop Dogg and David Guetta’s Sweat, which is the modern equivalent of The Ethel Merman Disco Album.

It’s the promise that matters: a vision of the dancefloor as a multiracial, pansexual, empathetic space where you can be who and what you want to be. It’s a vision that musicians continue to chase,  and will continue to, because disco was too big and too important and too great to let go. Its most beloved practitioners may die but, like Gloria Gaynor’s indefatigable heroine, it will survive.

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Creative Director of British Vogue and founder of TEST London  http://testmag.co.uk/ Jaime Perlman tweeted this photo today  March 16th 2012  of me from British Vogue 1991

Creative Director of British Vogue and founder of TEST London  http://testmag.co.uk/

Jaime Perlman tweeted this photo today  March 16th 2012  of me from British Vogue 1991

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A day with Lady Miss Kier…   March 2012 The divine Lady Miss Kier in action It’s always going to be Awkward when you finally get the opportunity to meet someone you have idolised since you were a teen. Think about it, you have loved them for their “persona” no matter how “real” they profess to be, you have fallen in love with an act, an act that for some reason has struck a chord with you.My time had finally arrived to meet one of my idols. After tweeting Lady Miss Kier for quite some time and getting lovely responses, I learned that she would be in Australia for the Sydney Mardi Gras. When the offer came for me to help out with some video footage and still shots of her gig, I jumped at the chance. Needless to say, I started to rethink what I had committed to. I mean what happens if I totally stuff up the footage? What happens if god forbid, Miss Kier doesn’t like me? Not to sound conceited, I am pretty sure that all my worries fell on deaf ears.Miss Kier invited me to come and meet her at her hotel in Darling harbour to which I happily jumped at the chance to do. On arrival, she was mid way through an interview and greeted me (computer in one hand) with a hug and a kiss. So far, so good. “Deep breathe Matthew, Miss Kier is sitting on the couch in front of you and yes, she can see you!”my inner voice was doing its best to calm me down. All the fuss was totally unwarranted as Miss Kier is one of the friendliest people I have come across in a while.She wrapped up her interview and then came over to the table I was sitting at to “formally” meet me. I nervously gave her a bag of goodies I had put together for her and she excitedly opened the bag and everything that was in there. “I love this ring” she exclaimed! Phew. The rest of the goodies were opened with a delicate inquisitiveness that I wasn’t really expecting from this “house music legend”. After numerous conversations on a range of different things from her days in Deee-Lite to Madonna, she brought me back to the music, her music. I was indulged in some tracks that were new and in the process of hopefully being released this year (awesome is an understatement to say the least) and I also got to see some photographic concepts Miss Kier is working on. If there ever was a time that the word “amazing” would be considered overused, it would be now. I am not sure if I was just plain old star struck, but everything Miss Kier (so kindly and trustingly) showed me just seemed to be nothing short of amazing.The time had come so quickly for me to leave and I felt there was so much more to talk about and explore, especially the creative process, this ladies mind works in ways that I have only dreamed of and yet, somehow she is able to transcend them into her music and also provide her audience a visual feast for the eyes (think of any video from Deee-Lite or photo shoot you have seen of Lady Miss Kier and you will know what I mean). Lady Miss Kier was so obliging and generous in her time with me and I was even fortunate enough to take video footage of her at her Mardi Gras gig, which really was a surreal experience for me. Watching her work that crowd at one of the largest parties in the world (especially as it was so dark and she had very little props to work with) made me realise that I have so much more to learn about this business. I guess you could say that a “lucky lady” had granted me an opportunity to get an insiders glimpse on just how hard it is to be a performer, and yet she made it look so easy. A true professional.I have woken up today with the realisation that meeting an “idol” really is no different from meeting a stranger, you never know what you really are going to get, but in my case, I got so much more than I could have ever imagined. I got to meet one of my idols and she was beautiful from the  inside all the way through to her stunning exterior. It almost felt like an old friend, someone I had not seen for years and had so much to catch up on. A “warm heart” is something that I would gladly use when describing this lady.Thank you Lady Miss Kier for your kind words, generosity with your time and allowing me to be apart of your world, even if it was just for one day. You really are a true “Lady” in every sense of the word. FROM  THE BLOG :  It’s me matty! Music feeds my soul. Get your groove on!

A day with Lady Miss Kier…   March 2012

The divine Lady Miss Kier in action


It’s always going to be Awkward when you finally get the opportunity to meet someone you have idolised since you were a teen. Think about it, you have loved them for their “persona” no matter how “real” they profess to be, you have fallen in love with an act, an act that for some reason has struck a chord with you.

My time had finally arrived to meet one of my idols. After tweeting Lady Miss Kier for quite some time and getting lovely responses, I learned that she would be in Australia for the Sydney Mardi Gras. When the offer came for me to help out with some video footage and still shots of her gig, I jumped at the chance. Needless to say, I started to rethink what I had committed to. I mean what happens if I totally stuff up the footage? What happens if god forbid, Miss Kier doesn’t like me? Not to sound conceited, I am pretty sure that all my worries fell on deaf ears.

Miss Kier invited me to come and meet her at her hotel in Darling harbour to which I happily jumped at the chance to do. On arrival, she was mid way through an interview and greeted me (computer in one hand) with a hug and a kiss. So far, so good. “Deep breathe Matthew, Miss Kier is sitting on the couch in front of you and yes, she can see you!”my inner voice was doing its best to calm me down. All the fuss was totally unwarranted as Miss Kier is one of the friendliest people I have come across in a while.

She wrapped up her interview and then came over to the table I was sitting at to “formally” meet me. I nervously gave her a bag of goodies I had put together for her and she excitedly opened the bag and everything that was in there. “I love this ring” she exclaimed! Phew. The rest of the goodies were opened with a delicate inquisitiveness that I wasn’t really expecting from this “house music legend”.

After numerous conversations on a range of different things from her days in Deee-Lite to Madonna, she brought me back to the music, her music. I was indulged in some tracks that were new and in the process of hopefully being released this year (awesome is an understatement to say the least) and I also got to see some photographic concepts Miss Kier is working on. If there ever was a time that the word “amazing” would be considered overused, it would be now. I am not sure if I was just plain old star struck, but everything Miss Kier (so kindly and trustingly) showed me just seemed to be nothing short of amazing.

The time had come so quickly for me to leave and I felt there was so much more to talk about and explore, especially the creative process, this ladies mind works in ways that I have only dreamed of and yet, somehow she is able to transcend them into her music and also provide her audience a visual feast for the eyes (think of any video from Deee-Lite or photo shoot you have seen of Lady Miss Kier and you will know what I mean). Lady Miss Kier was so obliging and generous in her time with me and I was even fortunate enough to take video footage of her at her Mardi Gras gig, which really was a surreal experience for me. Watching her work that crowd at one of the largest parties in the world (especially as it was so dark and she had very little props to work with) made me realise that I have so much more to learn about this business. I guess you could say that a “lucky lady” had granted me an opportunity to get an insiders glimpse on just how hard it is to be a performer, and yet she made it look so easy. A true professional.

I have woken up today with the realisation that meeting an “idol” really is no different from meeting a stranger, you never know what you really are going to get, but in my case, I got so much more than I could have ever imagined. I got to meet one of my idols and she was beautiful from the  inside all the way through to her stunning exterior. It almost felt like an old friend, someone I had not seen for years and had so much to catch up on. A “warm heart” is something that I would gladly use when describing this lady.

Thank you Lady Miss Kier for your kind words, generosity with your time and allowing me to be apart of your world, even if it was just for one day. You really are a true “Lady” in every sense of the word.

FROM  THE BLOG :  It’s me matty! Music feeds my soul. Get your groove on!

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from the music issue of LOVEKAT magazine FEB 2012

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Once the dee-groovy and dee-gorgeous lead singer of ’90s dance pop group Deee-Lite, DJ Lady Miss Kier is now making it on her own. And this year she’s bringing her alternative taste in music to the Sydney Mardi Gras Party, playing Mardigrasland’s T.G.I Retro in the Hi-Fi. “I am always happy to support my gay brothers and sisters by celebrating rare musical gems from artists who have also struggled by being pioneers,” Kier said. “I’ve found it more important to share my opinion of what good music is and not follow the mediocre lame-stream artists that the old machine music industry promotes, or what the circuit parties play.” With six number one hits on the US Billboard dance/club charts, Deee-Lite are still known and loved by Aussie fans for their ’60s-inspired number one single, Groove Is In The Heart. The track still fills an empty dancefloor more than two decades after its release. And while Kier admits Groove Is In The Heart and its album World Clique are both considered classics, “the one album that continues to sell and is considered a cult classic is named Dewdrops In The Garden. It is the album that the younger kids always send praises for”. Kier said the hit helped push her solo career. “It opened up the entire world to knowing who I am and the songs I write and produce,” she said. “It enabled me to travel the world.” Deee-Lite — comprised of Super DJ Dimitri, Lady Miss Kier, Japanese DJ Towa Tei, and DJ Ani — broke up in 1995 due to artistic differences. Towa Tei was the first to depart, famously working with Kylie Minogue on two of her more cultish tracks, German Bold Italic and Sometime Samurai. Kier hung on to her signature retro music and personal style while transitioning her fashion and music into the new century. “I prefer performing as a solo artist,” she said, “but doing so rejuvenates my soul and allows me to move the crowd in an entirely different way.” Kier has performed in Australia at the annual Good Vibrations music festival. “I performed my disco act in 2006 as part of a festival that James Brown was headlining and so I have fond memories of him right before he died,” she said. “The people are very down-to-earth, friendly and speak their mind.” Asked whether she was an advocate for LGBTI rights, Kier was quick to respond. “Do you have to ask? Yes, I’ve been supporting gay rights since the early ’80s. “I believe lovers are the luckiest people, and if they want to get married, they should have the right — no matter what their sexual preference is. “I’m not the wife type though, and I’m not a traditionalist at all.” While Kier hasn’t been asked to march in the Mardi Gras Parade, she said she would “definitely be open to that”. Originally a designer, Kier was known as one of the club kids, creating her own outrageous outfits that were later to become part of the cult look that was Deee-Lite. And Sydney Mardi Gras’ will be no different, with Kier saying she would “of course be making a new outfit”, but refused to spill any details. “You’ll have to wait for the show.” Kier said partygoers can expect to hear her play some “rare disco, Italo disco, and late ’80s house, with some acid house,” which is sure to diversify the typical Mardi Gras fare. She may even relive those Deee-Lite days and perform Groove Is In The Heart, “depending on the sound system available”. INFO: Party with DJ Lady Miss Kier alongside Horse Meat Disco and RuPaul at the T.G.I Retro in the Hi-Fi this Sydney Mardi Gras Party at Mardigrasland. www.mardigras.org.au http://www.starobserver.com.au/play/entertainment-play/2012/02/15/groove-is-still-in-her-art/71827www.mardigras.org.au http://www.starobserver.com.au/play/entertainment-play/2012/02/15/groove-is-still-in-her-art/71827 

Once the dee-groovy and dee-gorgeous lead singer of ’90s dance pop group Deee-Lite, DJ Lady Miss Kier is now making it on her own. And this year she’s bringing her alternative taste in music to the Sydney Mardi Gras Party, playing Mardigrasland’s T.G.I Retro in the Hi-Fi. “I am always happy to support my gay brothers and sisters by celebrating rare musical gems from artists who have also struggled by being pioneers,” Kier said. “I’ve found it more important to share my opinion of what good music is and not follow the mediocre lame-stream artists that the old machine music industry promotes, or what the circuit parties play.” With six number one hits on the US Billboard dance/club charts, Deee-Lite are still known and loved by Aussie fans for their ’60s-inspired number one single, Groove Is In The Heart. The track still fills an empty dancefloor more than two decades after its release. And while Kier admits Groove Is In The Heart and its album World Clique are both considered classics, “the one album that continues to sell and is considered a cult classic is named Dewdrops In The Garden. It is the album that the younger kids always send praises for”. Kier said the hit helped push her solo career. “It opened up the entire world to knowing who I am and the songs I write and produce,” she said. “It enabled me to travel the world.” Deee-Lite — comprised of Super DJ Dimitri, Lady Miss Kier, Japanese DJ Towa Tei, and DJ Ani — broke up in 1995 due to artistic differences. Towa Tei was the first to depart, famously working with Kylie Minogue on two of her more cultish tracks, German Bold Italic and Sometime Samurai. Kier hung on to her signature retro music and personal style while transitioning her fashion and music into the new century. “I prefer performing as a solo artist,” she said, “but doing so rejuvenates my soul and allows me to move the crowd in an entirely different way.” Kier has performed in Australia at the annual Good Vibrations music festival. “I performed my disco act in 2006 as part of a festival that James Brown was headlining and so I have fond memories of him right before he died,” she said. “The people are very down-to-earth, friendly and speak their mind.” Asked whether she was an advocate for LGBTI rights, Kier was quick to respond. “Do you have to ask? Yes, I’ve been supporting gay rights since the early ’80s. “I believe lovers are the luckiest people, and if they want to get married, they should have the right — no matter what their sexual preference is. “I’m not the wife type though, and I’m not a traditionalist at all.” While Kier hasn’t been asked to march in the Mardi Gras Parade, she said she would “definitely be open to that”. Originally a designer, Kier was known as one of the club kids, creating her own outrageous outfits that were later to become part of the cult look that was Deee-Lite. And Sydney Mardi Gras’ will be no different, with Kier saying she would “of course be making a new outfit”, but refused to spill any details. “You’ll have to wait for the show.” Kier said partygoers can expect to hear her play some “rare disco, Italo disco, and late ’80s house, with some acid house,” which is sure to diversify the typical Mardi Gras fare. She may even relive those Deee-Lite days and perform Groove Is In The Heart, “depending on the sound system available”. INFO: Party with DJ Lady Miss Kier alongside Horse Meat Disco and RuPaul at the T.G.I Retro in the Hi-Fi this Sydney Mardi Gras Party at Mardigrasland. www.mardigras.org.au http://www.starobserver.com.au/play/entertainment-play/2012/02/15/groove-is-still-in-her-art/71827www.mardigras.org.au http://www.starobserver.com.au/play/entertainment-play/2012/02/15/groove-is-still-in-her-art/71827 

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I am not sure if i signed off for this one! 

I am not sure if i signed off for this one! 

(via 90s90s90s)

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Downtown Signs Deee-Lite Catalog Feb 10, 2012- Downtown Music Publishing has announced a worldwide publishing agreement with the eclectic dance/funk group Deee-Lite, best known for their 1990 worldwide hit single “Groove Is In The Heart.” Taking the sounds of the Greenwich Village club scene and bringing it to the international stage, Deee-Lite merged 70s funk with 90s house and club culture. “In marrying a broad range of influences, Deee-Lite managed to create a catalog that is both timeless and evocative of the era, said Justin Kalifowitz, President, Downtown Music Publishing. “We are looking forward to working closely with the group in marketing and promoting these unique copyrights.” Downtown will now publish the band’s entire output, which, in addition to “Groove Is In The Heart” includes a string of #1 dance hits such as “Good Beat,” “Power of Love,” and “Runaway.”

Downtown Signs Deee-Lite Catalog

Feb 10, 2012-

Downtown Music Publishing has announced a worldwide publishing agreement with the eclectic dance/funk group Deee-Lite, best known for their 1990 worldwide hit single “Groove Is In The Heart.” Taking the sounds of the Greenwich Village club scene and bringing it to the international stage, Deee-Lite merged 70s funk with 90s house and club culture. “In marrying a broad range of influences, Deee-Lite managed to create a catalog that is both timeless and evocative of the era, said Justin Kalifowitz, President, Downtown Music Publishing. “We are looking forward to working closely with the group in marketing and promoting these unique copyrights.” Downtown will now publish the band’s entire output, which, in addition to “Groove Is In The Heart” includes a string of #1 dance hits such as “Good Beat,” “Power of Love,” and “Runaway.”

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THE RETURN OF THE 90’S           at CLUB 1994   san fran    2009 - 2012

I need to listen to DEELITE right now! I think it is time for a comeback! 90’s retro is next. - caseyspooner on January 29, 2012

Deee Lite - Power Of Love
By dirtywest(dirtywest) 
Lady Kier’s voice is so infectious, and I particularly like this version which is different than the mix on the LP release. I’ve really been reconnecting with this part of my past; I love the old house & techno jams!

Djehuty’s blog

de-grooovy   DJ ehuty’s blog

I remember this fondly from a number of dance floors! Trace and I used to go to a club called “The Lodge” which was done up like the gambling den “One-Eyed Jack’s” from the series “Twin Peaks”. That all must have been around the time this song was popular. Aaah! She’s a cutie that Lady Miss Kier.

http://dj3huty.vox.com/library/post/degrooovy.html

“My supperdish, my succotash wish (Sing it Baby) I couldn’t ask for another”
Whenever I hear this awesome song, I  get the feeling Andy Warhol will appear out nowhere to dance. It’s groovy baby. Three DJs make up the band headed by vocalist and psychedelic fashion extraordinaire, Lady Miss Kier.

Importing Infinity Within
By presspound(presspound) 
This morning I came across Deee-Lite’s “Infinity Within” in Cara’s room and instantly imported it. Overshadowed by the mind-boggling success of the debut “World Clique”, the follow up remains one of my favorites. …
Press Pound - http://presspound.blogspot.com/index.html

TOP TENS: 1990-2012
By Nate P.(Nate P.) 
1990 SINGLES Bell Biv Devoe, “Poison” Joey Beltram, “Energy Flash” Bobby Konders, “The Poem” The Charlatans UK, “The Only One I Know” Deee-Lite, “Groove is in the Heart” Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing” Lush, “Leaves Me Cold” …
rebel machine - http://natepatrin.blogspot.com/index.html

one of the few songs to mix rap and totally different music in a way that works.-

http://prof-vencire.livejournal.com/1013594.html

By welshy 
Deee-Lite - Groove Is In The Heart featuring Lady Miss Kier. (this was her first 12″ - the b-side to “what is love” ). We’re going to dance, We’re going to dance, We’re going to dance And have some fun. The chills that you …
IYouTubed - http://iyoutubed.com

Too Much, Too De-Groovy
By lisa schamess 
… and the roots of House and Rave music in the 90s. Which has spawned me a decadant and unhealthy fascination with the return of Lady Miss Kier, who fronted Deee-Lite in the 90s, to the US. I will come back soon to fill in links.
Journal - http://truthup.squarespace.com/journal/

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Philly J’s Pop Blog

How do you say Deee-Groovey?

“ the eternally timeless and fabulous Deee Lite…” Deee-Licious!

Phunk Me!
By Daibh(Daibh) 
I had a crush on Lady Miss Kier; who hails from my hometown (but I never held that against her). Digital Underground, “The Humpty Dance” More rap than funk, but I like that monstrous bassline that anchors the song. …
Everydaibh - http://everydaibh.blogspot.com/index.html

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MAX DABBS SCRAPS BLOG

MUSIC/ART & DESIGN+STUFF

TUESDAY, 9 FEBRUARY 2010

Lady Kier and Emilio Pucci

At the moment I’ve been listening to loads of early 90’s stuff including Dee-Lite. While browsing through some of their videos I came across this amazing video tribute to Italian fashion designer Emilio Pucci (1914 –1992), who designed garments baring his iconic geometric prints. The clip was created for Pucci when he won a CFDA lifetime achievment award in 1991.http://maxdabbs.blogspot.com/2010/02/lady-kier-and-emilio-pucci.html

The era is seeing a resurgence thanks to the cast of Glee, Jedward andDizzee Rascal all covering tracks from those years. Many are featured on this album – From ‘Ice Ice Baby’to ‘Dirty Cash’, ‘I Wanna Sex You Up’ to the album title track, Salt n Pepa’s ‘Push It’.

There are alot party anthems from Dee-lite, Livin Joy and 2 Unlimited. It’s the perfect retro collection for any get togetheor just to sing-a-long with in your car.

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From:   in the news.co.uk          review of PUSH IT    by Lee Davis

Push It ! offers up sexy, sassy female pop-rap from Salt N Pepa, hilarious white boy pretending to be from da ghetto rapping from Vanilla Ice through to radio-friendly dance ditties from Rozalla, Stevie V and N-Trance. There’s also utterly bonkers classics from Black Box and Deee-lite nudging against curiously misplaced Lionel Richie with All Night Long, and Rick James’ Superfreak, given a new lease of life in superb indie flick Little Miss Sunshine. It was the end of the 80s and the start of the 90s, and neither decade had any idea how to relate to one another.These 40 tracks have apparently been inspired by a recent revival in all things late 80s/early 90s thanks to vacuous X Factor lightweights Jedward and E4’s Glee. We also get one of the best party songs ever here with Yazz’s The Only Way Is Up which lit up the rather rainy summer of 1988. Still wanna party? Then skip over to Lionel Richie’s All Night Long and turn of the decade psychedelic-pop curiosity Groove Is In The Heart courtesy of Deee-Lite.-  Lee Davis

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HOUSE OF THROB   posted the BACKSTAGE  Grace jones and Lady Kier Attach video: http://ouchmyheart.com/

HOUSE OF THROB   posted the BACKSTAGE  Grace jones and Lady Kier

Attach video:

http://ouchmyheart.com/

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From The NY Times  Feb 10 , 2012 15 classic disco floor fillers We defy you to listen to the glitterball hit and not get up and dance . Deee-Lite: Groove is in the Heart (1990) - this won the hearts of nightclubbers the world over.

From The NY Times  Feb 10 , 2012

15 classic disco floor fillers

We defy you to listen to the glitterball hit and not get up and dance

. Deee-Lite: Groove is in the Heart (1990) - this won the hearts of nightclubbers the world over.

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SHE WAS THE OPENING NIGHT DJ

Let’s face it, Disco is in, and has been for quite a while. We’re not mad, either. From the beginnings of the whole DFA movement, through to the current state of disco drenched clubdom world-wide, the kids (and adults) love their throbbing house and disco. The Horse Meat Disco crew has been cranking out disco events in London for 5 years. Their whole concept is strongly founded on the same principles that were present at legendary New York clubs like The Loft, The Paradise Garage and Area. They pride themselves on creating a space where “disco fans of a heterosexual persuasion could live out their fantasy of going to a gay disco club without feeling totally out of place”.

The guests that the Horse Meat Disco party has had are a heavy lot of hipster disco pied pipers, including Dimitri From Paris, Derrick Carter, Daniele Baldelli, James Murphy, Prins Thomas, Todd Terje, Tim Sweeney, Lady Miss Kier, Luke Unabomber, Maurice Fulton, Rub ‘n’ Tug, Cosmo, Daniel Wang, Gerry Rooney, Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair), Honey Dijon, Greg Wilson and DJ Spun.

Strut Records, as always, is bringing something new to the forefront with a release from Horse Meat Disco that  marks their HMD’s first official mix CD. A two disc set featuring both the DJ mix, and the full length versions of the songs will be out August 4th on Strut. This cd will celebrate the 2 year anniversary of their current club night. Horse Meat Disco will also be celebrating with a club tour that will take them jet-setting around to a pile of countries around the world. You can find more info about this release and their tour at Strut Records.  BY FRANKGREEN

POSTED ON 2.14.12 

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“My favorite dance/house group is the ever deee-lovely Deee-Lite! Don’t miss their final CD, Dewdrops in the Garden, one that I consider a masterpiece of dance sound. It delivers with the first beat until the final note. Be sure to hear “River of Freedom”, “Music Selector is the Soul Reflector”, and “Bring Me Your Love”.” from the Dancing Queen at Owl (oliver walcott library) 2/11/2012

“My favorite dance/house group is the ever deee-lovely Deee-Lite! Don’t miss their final CD, Dewdrops in the Garden, one that I consider a masterpiece of dance sound. It delivers with the first beat until the final note. Be sure to hear “River of Freedom”, “Music Selector is the Soul Reflector”, and “Bring Me Your Love”.”

from the Dancing Queen at Owl (oliver walcott library) 2/11/2012

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Minnesota Orchestra :  U.S. BANK POPS SEASON Groove is in the Heart: Hits of the ’90s with the Minnesota Orchestra FRI FEB 2, 2012  The Auditorium at the Minneapolis Convention Center DESCRIPTION Minnesota Orchestra Sarah Hicks, conductor “Groove is in the Heart”—and center stage! Our ever-dynamic Conductor of Pops, Sarah Hicks, leads the Orchestra and special guest vocalists in a night of hits from the 1990s. Hear the music made famous by all your favorite artists of that decade: Nirvana, U2, Ricky Martin, Annie Lennox, Cher, Sinéad O’Connor and more!

Minnesota Orchestra : 

U.S. BANK POPS SEASON

Groove is in the Heart: Hits of the ’90s

with the Minnesota Orchestra

FRI FEB 2, 2012 

The Auditorium at the Minneapolis Convention Center

DESCRIPTION

“Groove is in the Heart”—and center stage! Our ever-dynamic Conductor of Pops, Sarah Hicks, leads the Orchestra and special guest vocalists in a night of hits from the 1990s. Hear the music made famous by all your favorite artists of that decade: Nirvana, U2, Ricky Martin, Annie Lennox, Cher, Sinéad O’Connor and more!

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From the Blog : EAST VAN DISCO                         FEB 14th 2012 For many Deee-Lite was an introduction to dance music of sorts; let’s call them a gateway group. Because even thoGroove Is In The Heart became a crossover pop hit and is still a club classic, many of their subsequent singles and album cuts directly reflected what was happening in underground dance at the time (not to mention their tracks were always tastefully rendered too). They exposed everyone in their path to the wonders of combining House, Disco and Funk, collages made through sampling and drum machines, mysterious producer/remixer names, plus club fashion and dance fads too. In 1990 the dance world was blowing up and Deee-Lite was right there.By making accessible dance jams and with a striking visual aesthetic in their videos and LP artwork they piqued the interest of a younger generation who maybe prior weren’t into dance music per se (a lot from the Hip Hop world to be sure, maybe thanks to Q-Tip and Bootsy Collins appearances on the Groove Is In The Heart song/video), opening them up to the early 90s New York club scene that otherwise would have been out of reach. Kids like myself who were too young to know what a night club was but liked what they were hearing.Deee-Lite’s discography is def worth your time (do your research!), more to come on EVD soon too. Anyway here on the 12” mix of Good Beat they switched up the piano roll and generally extend the beat (natch). One of my favourite cuts from their first LP, it still sounds fresh and fun after over 20 years. Enjoy. Deee-Lite - Good Beat (Extend The Beat Mix) Huggs: Twitter + Facebook | EVD: Twitter + Facebook ++ http://eastvandisco.blogspot.com/2012/02/deee-lite-good-beat.html added comment from Lady kier for further clarification:   : before we were signed ,  we were playing the same clubs with Jungle brothers, opening up for De La Soul, at the same time as Lolitta Holliway and Liz Torrez and ESG. My mission was to fuze all styles and therefor create our own sound. it was no mistake that Q-tip asked us to be included in ‘groove is in the heart”. We has a large following before we were signed. When I asked Bootsy what he thought of our demos , he responded ver positively and asked us for sessions if we ever got signed. - Lady Miss Kier  Posted 1 week ago by HUGGS Labels: deee-lite elektra 12 inch mix 90s dance

From the Blog : EAST VAN DISCO                         FEB 14th 2012

For many Deee-Lite was an introduction to dance music of sorts; let’s call them a gateway group. Because even thoGroove Is In The Heart became a crossover pop hit and is still a club classic, many of their subsequent singles and album cuts directly reflected what was happening in underground dance at the time (not to mention their tracks were always tastefully rendered too). They exposed everyone in their path to the wonders of combining House, Disco and Funk, collages made through sampling and drum machines, mysterious producer/remixer names, plus club fashion and dance fads too. In 1990 the dance world was blowing up and Deee-Lite was right there.

By making accessible dance jams and with a striking visual aesthetic in their videos and LP artwork they piqued the interest of a younger generation who maybe prior weren’t into dance music per se (a lot from the Hip Hop world to be sure, maybe thanks to Q-Tip and Bootsy Collins appearances on the Groove Is In The Heart song/video), opening them up to the early 90s New York club scene that otherwise would have been out of reach. Kids like myself who were too young to know what a night club was but liked what they were hearing.

Deee-Lite’s discography is def worth your time (do your research!), more to come on EVD soon too.

Anyway here on the 12” mix of Good Beat they switched up the piano roll and generally extend the beat (natch). One of my favourite cuts from their first LP, it still sounds fresh and fun after over 20 years.

Enjoy.
Deee-Lite - Good Beat (Extend The Beat Mix)

Huggs: Twitter + Facebook | EVD: Twitter + Facebook

++
http://eastvandisco.blogspot.com/2012/02/deee-lite-good-beat.html
added comment from Lady kier for further clarification:   : before we were signed ,  we were playing the same clubs with Jungle brothers, opening up for De La Soul, at the same time as Lolitta Holliway and Liz Torrez and ESG. My mission was to fuze all styles and therefor create our own sound. it was no mistake that Q-tip asked us to be included in ‘groove is in the heart”. We has a large following before we were signed. When I asked Bootsy what he thought of our demos , he responded ver positively and asked us for sessions if we ever got signed. - Lady Miss Kier 
Posted 1 week ago by 
Labels: deee-lite elektra 12 inch mix 90s dance

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http://www.musicweek.com/pagenotfound.asp

ALSO FROM DOWNTOWN’S WEBSITE:

Downtown Music Publishing has announced a worldwide publishing agreement with the eclectic dance/funk group Deee-Lite, best known for their 1990 worldwide hit single “Groove Is In The Heart.” Taking the sounds of the Greenwich Village club scene and bringing it to the international stage, Deee-Lite merged 70s funk with 90s house and club culture. “In marrying a broad range of influences, Deee-Lite managed to create a catalog that is both timeless and evocative of the era, said Justin Kalifowitz, President, Downtown Music Publishing. “We are looking forward to working closely with the group in marketing and promoting these unique copyrights.” Downtown will now publish the band’s entire output, which, in addition to “Groove Is In The Heart” includes a string of #1 dance hits such as “Good Beat,” “Power of Love,” ,”What is Love”,  “Runaway””How do you Say… Love”, “Thankyou Everyday ” as well as other 90’s classics classics “Deepending, “Smile On”, “who was that “ 

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