FOCAL PRISM
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MY STORY

Written By Victor Modlinski




I have always loved Rock and Roll music.

In fact, I was raised on rock...

I remember listening to it on WLS on a small portable AM/FM radio in grade school during our lunch breaks. I grew up on it and thought it was the music everyone was listening to...

I went to a Catholic grade school and was taught by nuns, priests and lay teachers. Religion was a big part of the daily school routine. I don't know if this type of up-bringing was good or bad, but I seem to have more discipline in my personal life as compared to other people I know.

Rock and Roll music was always the opposite of what people in power were telling us in school. It gave us a different view of life from what we were being taught. It was dangerous in their eyes and thats one reason I loved it so much.

When I went to high school I had the choice of going to a Catholic school or a Chicago Public School high school. My parents preferred the public high school because it was cheaper than paying tuition.

Public school was a real eye opener and a life changing experience. It was everything that Catholic schools were not. There was a wide diversity of races, colors and people in general. It was like a factory for education.

I continued to listen to Rock and Roll throughout high school, but in the era of 1973 to 1977 the pickings were slim as to the quality of the bands and music available.

In the summer of 1976, I started to work full-time at the bank as a teller. It was then that I made a lot of new friends at work and I started focusing less on what was happening at school. I worked through that summer and then went "part-time" back in the fall. I got so used to having money and a new car, "part-time" now meant that I worked as many hours as I could to maintain my new lifestyle.

The half-school day/half-work day program at school limited the number of part-time hours of work to 20 hours a week. I was putting in nearly 40 hours a week and working Wednesdays and Saturdays to keep my income at the level that handled all my bills.

This went on until my graduation in 1977, at which time I continued on working full-time at the bank.

At one of the golf outings sponsored by the bank, I was put on a foursome with some other guys that I knew at the Main Office, but never really knew them on a personal basis.

That's when I first met Greg Braun, who worked in the mortgage department at the Main Office. He was always dressed up in a suit and tie and presented himself as very business like at work.

He was totally opposite that day, he was hilarious... a lousy golfer like me, but he liked to have a good time and party. We almost immediately kicked it off as friends. We were both in the same cart so we had a lot of time to talk. He was also a fan of Rock and Roll and asked me if I ever was to a concert. This was 1978 and I had never been to a live concert.

He told me that we should both go to the first ChicagoFest at Navy Pier in August. Mayor Bilandic had announced the creation of this new festival and it was all over the radio, TV and newspapers.

ChicagoFest came and Greg and I went on the worst possible day ever. It rained and rained and we only spent a few hours there drinking some beers and seeing some Country and Blues performers.

It was not what I expected and that was the only day we went for that first ChicagoFest. I did not think at the time that this festival would be around very long. I was not impressed and that was it.

Then came 1979 and everything started changing. The Loop FM98 started to dominate the radio waves with their promotion of local rock bands and stimulated the interest of young people by the promotion of special events, on-air contests and other fun events.

Disco music was being pushed by the big record companies and discos began to pop up everywhere.

Steve Dahl was fired from WDAI when they changed their format to disco. Steve then moved his show over to The Loop, where he ultimately paired up with over night jock Matthew Meier. They soon became the Steve Dahl and Garry Meier show in the morning. Their listenership skyrocketed with Steve doing on air disco album demolitions and Garry making his hilarious dry commentary to go along with the flow.

In July, 1979, Steve announced that there would be a Disco Demolition Night between games of a White Sox Doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers. The first phone call I get at work is from Greg and he says we have to go, we have to go!

The Disco Demolition Night would be on Thursday, July 12, 1979 and for me it kind of worked out because I worked Wednesdays at the drive through and Thursday was a half-day so I would be able to go. But Friday could be a bear for me, it was the busiest day of the week and I would be working a full 9AM to 8PM long day shift. This may not be good, but what the hell... you only live once.

I told Greg that I was all in and he said he would get a few guys from the Main Office to go as well.

We would all meet at Greg's house that evening and Greg would drive to the event, he was a native South Sider now living on the North Side, that knew all the back roads to get to Comiskey Park if the traffic became an issue.

So Disco Demolition Night was upon us, and it was Greg, Victor, Rich, John and Harry that made that historic trip to Comiskey. We were all a little bit buzzed and had a few beers each before we left. It was a decent ride to the ballpark, we had no tickets, but we all had a disco record and at least 98 cents in our pockets to get in.

So we eventually get there and parking is nowhere to be found. Greg pulls down some alley and a guy is waving us down... we end up parking in someones backyard for $50 split among the five of us.

We count our blessings, paid the parking freight and started our walk to the park... we were about six blocks from Comiskey down some dark alley parked in someones backyard waiting to destroy disco records. You can't make this shit up, because we lived it... this could only happen in Chicago!

We had to ask the guy for his address so that we could find our way back to the car. We probably all would be in a more intoxicated situation on the way out and may not remember where we left the car.

As we got closer to the park, we saw an enormous crowd heading for Comiskey, with all the Loop Shirts, Disco Sucks signs, shirts and banners. People were chanting "Disco Sucks, Disco Sucks" as they were walking.

Everyone had smiles on their faces, they were all buzzed like us and we all knew we were going to be a part of something... but not quite sure of what just yet.

We finally got to the front of the line where we gave up our disco records and paid our 98 cents to get in. We were told that seating was first come, first served general admission, find seats wherever you can.

So after getting a couple of beers each we headed to the center field bleachers where there were a lot of open seats. Most people on the main level had reserved ticket seats for a regular season game, but there were usually a lot of empty seats at the Sox games in 1979.

We found a row of seats in the bleachers that had five seats open and sat down to watch what would happen next. All was fine and the first game started on time... the White Sox ended up losing the first game 4-1 to the Tigers.

So now during the mid-game break was when Disco Demolition was to happen. It was taking some time for them to set up everything and that's when the activity around us started happening. People just drank beer like it was free and things just happen when a large crowd of people drink lots of beer.

Disco records and albums started to "wing-zing" passed our heads and people were getting hit by them. It began to get dangerous around us as the frenzy around the arrival of Steve and Garry began to build throughout the park. We decided to move out of there to avoid a direct hit by a disco record in the face or eye.

We tried to move down to the main level but were stopped by the ushers and Chicago's finest. They told us we could go to the right field upper deck or leave the park. No one else would be allowed to go down to the main level. I think they had an idea of what was about to happen.

We opted to go to the right field upper deck so that we could witness what we came to see. We did not come all this way to miss the main event of the night. We could care less about the second game, the Sox were already losers once... we wanted Demolition now!

You can watch videos on YouTube and see everything that happened on the field that night and most people get the Disco Demolition thing right. Many have skewed viewpoints, accusing the event of being anti-gay, anti-black... hello bright eyes, wake up, this was all about the Disco music.

I know many people look at this event through the lens of morality that exists today. It is total bullshit and everyone knows it, but is afraid to speak out.

From my perspective, as a person that was there that night, race or sexual preference was not the target of this event, it was the blatant and excessive push by corporate interests to change the public appetite for a different genre of music. They were trying to cancel Rock and Roll.

This was an attempt to dictate the music you should be listening to along with the promotion of an elite lifestyle to those that were susceptible to this kind of brainwashing. Unfortunately, Rock and Roll was a very robust format and Steve Dahl was coming up to destroy disco and put a nail in its coffin.

When the event started on the field and then the big explosion came, everyone freaked out and wondered what would happen next. Once it was over, all these people either would have to stay for the second game, leave the park or as we all saw, storm the field and celebrate the death of disco.

People chose to storm the field and make a scene for everyone to see... thus making this an infamous mark on the history of Major League Baseball for all time.

My friends and I were shocked by what happened. We did not go on the field... we all felt that the field should be respected. But tonight was different, other people did not share in our respect for the game.

Although it was an event that needed to happen and was a literal blast to have been a part of, I fear that history will remember it in every way that it will be skewed to fulfill a certain point of view.

Yes, Disco Demolition became a spectacle, but there were other demonstrations since then that have been deemed peaceful but property was destroyed and people lost their lives.

It was fun gone wrong... but achieved the desired result of bringing the scourge of disco to an end.

Many radio stations changed their formats almost over night from Disco to Rock. Discos were closing left and right and Rock and Roll began to thrive again.

We left that night peacefully, found where we parked the car and went home.

We all waited for the next morning for the aftermath.

That's my Disco Demolition story...

Victor Modlinski
One of the Original Insane Cohos.

"Disco Still Sucks"

"Rock and Roll Forever"