My history of Italo Disco

It was in 1985 when i heared on a local radio station some music that sounded very nice. It was a kind of music that made you feel happy, and reminds you of the summertime. The name of the station was "radio coolsound" and they even had their own top 20. The music they played i liked a lot and soon i started to buy some tapes that they made. On the tape was the name "italo disco" and that was for me the first time that i got in touch with this great style of music. A lot of my friends also listened to the same radio station and the latest songs where taped with our own cassette recorder.

At the time i did not had so much money to spend so i buyed every 4 weeks 1 record. And even at that time i buyed german pressed records from zyx because they where less expensive as the original italian pressed records. I remember well that my first original Records where Max him – lady fantasy on cruisin’ records and Cyber people – void vision on memory records. Also some other friends buyed records but we all buyed different ones because we recorded the records from eachother.

During the period 1985 till 1987 i buyed italo disco in Rotterdam at "Hotsound" a store where i saw for the first time so many italo disco records and italo disco collectors  together. It was always nice at the day when the new import came in.. people almost fighting for the newest releases of time records, memory records, and power records.

After those years i noticed that the music was getting more and more the same. And i stopped collecting of italo and started to collect some other styles of music like acid, house and just normal dance music. In the times of italo collecting i listened also to some other not italian products but whith the same passion as italo like Bobby Orlando productions, the twins , alphaville, and some more elektronic music like kraftwerk and J.M. Jarre.

Also in that time i visited italo disco parties in Den Haag. Where also many collectors came from. I think that in that time Den Haag, and Rotterdam where the places where Italo was played a lot on local radio stations, and on a lot of illegal radio stations. At the parties sometimes you could be lucky if some people selled records. And you just had the change to buy a records that you missed or stil where looking for. Also the knowledge of unknown songs was well spoken at parties and in the records shops. Some people went to Italy for record hunting, and came home with many unknown songs. I guess that also in that time the Iventi d’azzuro was the best source for new unknown records. Also people visited eachother to see what other collectors had in their collection and what was unknown to them.

I think it was in 1993 when i really started to look for records again in second hand shops and i went on Holliday in Italy. I visited the record fair in Linate, and over there it looked like paradise. All the disco records where italian press. The biggest catch that day for me was a mint copy of Ricky maltese – all the night ( time records ) One of my most wanted records at that time.

For my work i frequently came in Germany. And like all collectors, i looked on flea markets and in second hand shops to find some more italo for my collection. My biggest catch i had in Switserland, where in one shop i buyed about 400 records. I just had the luck that an old dj sold his collection and i was in the shop the next day. I could not believe my eyes when i saw the boxes with all those italo in them. It looked like i was looking in somebody’s private collection. A lot of  records from the same artists like Valerie dore, Fake, Danny keith, Den Harrow, Miko Mission, and also a lot of records that i did not knew at the time like for example Larry day and Lucien David.

Now in the beginning of 2005 my collection of original italo disco records is about 1600 and still growing :-)
 

Dennis v.d. Berg