A Little Respect
with Andy Bell
Format: 3x 1hr Documentary Series
Services: Full Production and Writing
A Little Respect is a 3-part music documentary we produced for Virgin Radio UK in the summer of 2021. Narrated by Andy Bell from Erasure, it's a celebration of the history of dance music and club culture through the eyes of the LGBTQ+ community. It was an incredibly powerful and fascinating story to tell.
Read about how the series came about below.
Our Story
Virgin were launching a digital pop-up Pride station to celebrate LGBTQ+ culture over a 3 month period. They asked us to create a flagship documentary series that could serve as an anchor point for their Pride station, but also be aired on the main Virgin Radio UK station.
As passionate fans of electronic music and nightlife history, we'd wanted to create something to tell the origin story of the scene for a long time, so it was a perfect opportunity to write a series that shines a light on the incredible legacy that queer culture and gay people have had on the music that’s made us dance for the last 50 years.
Over 180 minutes we tell the story of how dance music came from the decadent discos of New York in the 1970s, the flamboyant electronic pioneers of the 80s, the explosion of house music and acid house in the 90s, right through to the modern day scene.
From Studio 54 and The Loft, to Trade and Heaven in London, Frankie Knuckles, Canal Street, Larry Levan, Voguing, The Hacienda, Tony De Vit, Horse Meat Disco, Glitterbox, The AIDs epidemic, The Blitz Kids and much more.
It’s hosted by Andy Bell - singer, songwriter, gay icon and one half of Erasure who have sold over 28 million albums and had 24 UK top 40 hits, and features contributions from dance music legends like Roger Sanchez, Sister Bliss and Crystal Waters, and some amazing people who were there to witness some of the most important moments of the culture.
Distorted researched, wrote, scripted and recorded the entire series. We delivered ready for brodcast on Virgin in August 2021.