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"
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