MEREDITH Music Festival’s decision to ban Native American hipster headdresses last August seemed a surprisingly PC move for an event based around staying up for two nights listening to loud music and consuming heroic amounts of alcohol and other substances.
So when sister festival Golden Plains booked disco stalwarts Village People, more than a few pundits wondered how they’d reconcile the two. “Are Indian Headdresses still banned from Golden Plains/Meredith?” entertainment website Poncho asked, among others. “Guess Village People will have to play without the chief.”
Not so, says Village People’s military man Alex Briley. “He is Native American,” Briley explains of the befeathered Felipe Rose. “As far as I know, Felipe is still going to wear his feathers and still going to be the perfect Native American that we’ve always known.”
Rose’s father is Lakota Sioux so while his headdress isn’t entirely uncontroversial among Native-Americans, it’s entirely possible he’ll be the only person at Golden Plains with the heritage to legitimately claim to be offended by it anyway. Briley says Rose has a strong connection with many tribes and is entitled to wear the war bonnet. “Most definitely, he has visited many of his tribes in the states and we’ve met many, many across the country,” says Briley.
The group will also play a series of dates across the major capitals.
French producer Jacques Morali formed the group in 1977, hiring original lead singer Victor Willis to sing on debut album Village People. When the LP became a hit, Morali and business partner Henri Belolo hastily threw together a group of dancers for live appearances, famously taking out an ad saying: “Macho Types Wanted: Must Dance And Have A Moustache.” Rose was the first on board, quickly followed by Briley, who sported an athletic outfit before eventually graduating to military man. The pair are the only original members left. The big hits all appeared in the first three years: Macho Man, YMCA, In the Navy and Go West, before the wheels fell off when Willis left in 1979, replaced by current lead singer Ray Simpson.
Feature film Can’t Stop The Music bombed (though it spawned a No. 1 hit in Australia), and the disco backlash saw their popularity wane reaching a hilarious nadir when they went New Romantic for album Renaissance. But virtually ever since they’ve been putting smiles on the faces of audiences around the world trading on their status as pop culture icons. They still play up to 50 shows a year, and Briley says they may even tour as long as the Stones. “Hopefully we’ll reach that status,” he says. “As long as someone wants to hear those (1970s hits) we don’t mind doing them over and over. People will say: ‘don’t you get tired of singing that song?’ And we’ll answer: ‘Well, do you like it?’ ‘Well yes, my friends and I love that song’. “Yeah OK fine, we’ll keep doing it as long as you love it. And then we’re also constantly looking for the new YMCA, or that song which will take us over the top.” In 2013 the put out their first single since 1988, Let’s Go Back to the Dance Floor written by Harry W. Casey of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. It’s been “getting a wonderful response from different audiences, and we look forward to performing it when we get there.”
The group’s popularity within the gay community is no surprise given Morali was inspired to put Village People together after attending a costume ball at a gay disco in Greenwich Village and deliberately targeted that audience. What is surprising — borderline unbelievable really — is that straight former lead singer Willis has repeatedly claimed that none of the group’s hits — YMCA, Macho Man and In The Navy included — were originally written with gay subtexts. Hanging with all the boys and having some fun at the YMCA? Willis says he literally meant enjoying the company of his straight mates at the Y.
“People have interpreted that song to whatever they think it could apply to and the important thing is do you like the song or not” says Briley. “So if you decide you have a particular meaning for something, you apply it if you want to — it wasn’t there originally.”
See Village People:
QLD Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane, February 28. Bookings (07) 3325 6777
NSW Enmore Theatre, March 5, ticketek.com.au
VIC Melbourne Zoo, March 6, zoo.org.au/melbourne/whats-on; Golden Plains (SOLD OUT) March 8
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