A few years back the jazz clarinet player coined the expression "Bug Music". I believe his premise was that every generation produces its own special brand of "Bug Music" to confound the critics and aggravate the previous generation's musicians and audiences. How often have we heard the lament? – "they don't write songs the way they used to". After the "British Invasion" of the 1960's and the whole genre of music now known as Classic Rock saturated the scene, an outrageously flamboyant "Bug Music" called Disco roared onto the scene and really upset the applecart. You either liked or loathed the music. It started out as a reaction to the music of the counter culture of the previous generation. It eventually went mainstream and finally faded away, like all pop music, when a new generation proceeded to develop a new form of music to bug the previous generation.

Mind you, I don't remember too much about the Disco Era (1974-1984). Musically I was totally pre-occupied by the Celtic Renaissance and the music literally bursting out of Ireland during that period. I do remember the song "Y.M.C.A" by the Village People, the falsetto of Barry Gibbs in the Bee Gees and, of course, the blonde Swedish girls in ABBA. I guess you had to be in the right age group to really remember the era.

Singer Billy Jive (Shane Berry), guitarist Disco Dave (David Dragon, a.k.a David Phillipe) and Drummer Hi-ya Karate (Keon Chung) are older musicians (but not so old) who remember the Disco era vividly. It was the music of their youth. To them Disco is real music played by real musicians. To them it is also fun and challenging music to play. The dancing and the outrageous clothes are all part of the attraction of the music. Their chosen mission in life is to bring back some of that sense of craziness and fun for the generation that remembers and for a younger audience attracted to the fun of the music and the era. To this end they have recruited some younger musicians into the now well known 6 piece show band called BILLY JIVE AND THE FUNKTASTICS.

In Disco the bass guitar is ace. It, and the drums in rhythmic lock step, is the foundation of the style. Without the bass player, Janice Jackson (Janice Nicli), coming on board the band would have been still born. Disco was way before her time. It is not the music of her youth but, having said that, her all time favourite band is ABBA. Even the vocabulary of the era some times stumps her ("what actually is an 8 track player?"). For her the music involved a very steep learning curve and, as most bass players will attest, to really play the music in style the bass player really has to move. Janice, who looks like she just stepped out of an Al Capp comic strip (anyone remember Daisy Mae from Li'l Abner?), has the musical skills and the flamboyant moves that is a perfect fit for Disco.

During the hey-day of the era some of the traveling bands were huge. There were lots of keyboard players, guitar players, horn sections, string players, drums, percussion, everything, excluding the kitchen sink. It is no longer logistically or economically possible to tour with such large organizations. To the play the music in an authentic style the band makes use of pre-recorded midi-tracks to fill out the sound. Front and fore-most over the top of this cauldron of bass drums, guitar and midi-sound is the live horn section of Heather "Hot Lips" Hoolahan (Heather Berry) on trumpet and Blowin' Berndawg (Shane Berry) on baritone sax. These musicians, who graduated high school in 2000, are the mere babies of the organization. There are no youthful memories to draw upon. Only the collected experience of the older musicians and of course, the wealth of video and recorded music of the era.

So along with the sounds of the era the band indulges in all the craziness of the era. The disco ball, afro-hair, platform shoes, the outrageous clothes and last, but no least the dance steps, that are all part of the package. This is not a cover band per se, or even a tribute band for that matter, but rather it is a show band that attempts to recreate the ambience and fun of a not so distant era in pop music history. It is a show for nostalgia freaks and for anybody that enjoys fun music. Disco has outlived the "Bugg" phase.

Billy Jive and the Funktastics will be appearing at the Key City Theatre, January 15th, 2010.