Special Gallery Talk
Featuring Tom Broeske, Paul Faber, Jim Hewitt, Rose Marshack, Della Perrone, Mark Rubel, Paul Sabuco, Phil Strang, and Rick Valentin
April 19, 2014
3:00-4:30pm
Sousa Archives and Center for American Music
1103 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, Illinois
Admission: Free

With the conclusion of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War in 1974, America’s popular music tastes began to shift away from the excessive psychedelic rock performances of the late 1960s and early 1970s.  During the late 1970s disco briefly reigned supreme throughout most of the country including Urbana-Champaign, and with it many rock and roll musicians and their fans felt their music was being painfully silenced by disco’s repetitively syncopated beat.  However on July 12, 1979 a riot broke out among disgruntled rock and roll fans at Comiskey Park during a double-header baseball game, and this date is now considered the “day disco died.” By September 22, 1979 no disco melody appeared among the US Top 10 charts, and by 1980 live rock and roll performance was returned to America’s center stage.  Join Tom Broeske, Paul Faber, Jim Hewitt, Rose Marshack, Della Perrone, Mark Rubel, Paul Sabuco, Phil Strang, and Rick Valentin in a gallery talkback about some of Urbana-Champaign’s local rock and roll bands and musicians, music venues, recording studios, and record shops during the 1980s and early 1990s.  The general public is invited to attend this free-form discussion to learn more about our community’s vital local music scene and its influence on American popular music.  After the gallery talkback visitors may tour the exhibit of Della Perrone’s photographs, “Live from the Crossroads: A Snapshot of Champaign-Urbana’s Local Music Scene 1981-1986.”  For more information call 217-333-4577.