Fat Lynn & Lynn Blouwildebeest
D
isco had the whole world dancing in the seventies, from New York to LA, Munich to Montevideo, Yokohama to Johannesburg and Paris to Pretoria. Club Athos in Schoeman Street, Pretoria provided the disco pulse in the capital city with tracks like I Need A Man by Grace Jones, Miss You by the Stones and Brown Girl in the Ring by Boney M. Andy Gibb and the Bee Gees had the patrons dancing in formation while Donna Summer’s version of Je T'aime (Moi Non Plus) and porn star Andrea True’s What’s Your Name, What’s Your Number? competed with local hits like Oom Jan by die Disco, the story of a country naïf who one night strayed from his hotel room into the surreal world of a gay disco. Club Athos was frequented by legendary lessbears like Elvis, Jakes, Jungle, Prowler, Shane and my friend Bro who was an early sufferer from road rage. Driving with Bro through the streets of Pretoria exposed one to aggressive gestures and curses like “poes!” Most of them used Brylcream, and lots of them smoked Lexington and marijuana. Many had motorbikes, some wore safari suits and others preferred the uniform of blue denim trousers and white tops. Besides the butchery of dykes, many beverleys of lipstick lesbians and a bitchery of queens transformed the club into a fairytale high on a Friday and Saturday night. Tall blonde Penny was the most imposing drag queen while the name of Ms Athos 1978 was Mary. She shared a flat across the street from ‘bunny park’ in Arcadia with her lesbian friend Poppie who worked for the far right political party, the HNP (Herstigte Nasionale Party). Athos was also quite popular among the art and drama students of Pretoria University, and plenty of national servicemen got their muscles admired there. The whole municipal area of Pretoria was represented at Club Athos, from the blue collar suburbs of Hercules and Hekpoort through the middle class ‘Moot’ to upper class areas like Lynnwood, Queenswood and Faerie Glenn. Joburgers loved Athos too; loyal patrons included Sheree, Tracy and Vesta who were students at the University of Johannesburg. Their greatest thrill was hitch-hiking to Athos on a Saturday night. Their red Beach Buggy made Fat Lynn and Lynn Blouwildebeest stand out among the machos. They were also somewhat confusingly called Fat (Blouwildebeest) and Fatterer because Fat Lynn was taller and fatter than the stocky, swarthy Blouwildebeest. Fat Lynn with her fair skin resembled the Oros Man. They had a similar ‘shaggy dog’ hairstyle and both wore sorely challenged hipster trousers that failed to contain the belly or the bum. 4
