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press release September 20,2005
DISCO-DISCO.COM is proud to have a report from the 2'nd
Dance Music Hall of Fame
Awards which took place last night (Sep. 19, 2005) in NYC.
Reported by our man of the streets and Disco pioneer - Barry Lederer.
This time they upped the event by having it not in a club but in a Ballroom with a live band and live performances.
As the evening ended, I rode down the elevator with Gloria Gaynor. What a thrill.
So here it goes:
The Show was hosted by Cousin Brucie. For those of you not from the States, He is a Major Radio DJ
for the last 50 years. He is known primarily for his radio shows in the 50's and 60's, but has never stopped as a radio
host and is still active today.
The show opened up with Gloria Gaynor singing "I Will Survive" and
getting a standing ovation at the end.
They then proceeded to induct the first of five records. The records were: "I Will Survive", "Got To Be Real",
"Good Times", "Stayin' Alive" and "Disco Inferno".
Besides having Cheryl Lynn singing "Got To Be Real", the remaining members of
Chic sang "Good Times", while other performers sang a Medley of
Trammps' hits plus a video of the 'Bees' doing their big hit.
Patrick Adams, producer of Black Ivory, Indeep,
Musique and Sister Sledge (among others), intruduced the first Award which was to
Francoise Kevorkian for DJ and Remixer inductee.
Then Randy Jones from the Village People
inducted the song "I Will Survive" and Ms. Gaynor came out again.
Several singers paid tribute to Chic, another inductee and the Awards was presented by one of the original vocalists of
the group, Fonzi Thorton, to Nile Rodgers for the song "Good Times".
Judy Weinstein and David Morales then presented the 2nd DJ award to
Frankie Knuckles.
Pat Monaco from Universal/Motown presened a Lifetime Achievement Award to
Mel Cheren.
Martha Wash, one of the Weather Girls did an intruducation for Sylvester,
another Artist Inductee. Accepting for Sylvester was his brother. Then Martha, Byron Stingly and
Alyson Williams sang several of Sylvester's songs in tribute to him.
Denise Richards who has written songs for Patti LaBelle, Natalie Cole
and Sister Sledge, presented John "Jellybean" Benitez
his Award as a DJ inductee.
Followed was the Award for artist inductee Gloria Gaynor.
Then one of the highlights of the evening was a tribute to the Trammps. They actually had all the original members there
on stage for the first time in many years. Their song "Disco Inferno" was another inductee.
We had a surprise when Carol Douglas came out and sang "Doctor's Orders", who introduced
Cheryl Lynn, whose song "Got To Be Real", to which Cheryl preformed.
One more surprise was then CeCe Peniston came out and sang "Finally".
The next award of the evening was to Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff who were in
attencance.
The final Award to producers Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards
was accepted by Nile Rodgers.
The evening was exciting to say the least. I took many photos which will be put on this site for you to see...
Well that is it. It was a great experience.
Barry Lederer
Your Pioneer man on the street.
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