The real gigolo history movie
Helmut Josef Geier, or Hell as he’s now fondly known, is surely one of the most stylish men in dance music. An icon in his own right, his recent collaborations on his much acclaimed Teufelswerk album with P Diddy and Bryan Ferry only accentuate that which we have always known, Hell is a true International Deejay gigolo
Freak Show was released in 2005, eight years after Hell founded IDG in 1997, to celebrate the label’s 150th release. Five years on this ~70min DVD is still as entertaining as ever, providing a great insight into Hell’s life on the road and life as a label manager. The DVD also features archive footage from some of gigolos early artists including a very early Miss Kittin and The Hacker live show and the hedonism of a Fischerspooner concert. Following Hell’s freak show around the world were taken to a Detroit that looks “like Bavaria, just flat with bigger trucks”, to a conference hosted by Hell in Mexico, to the madness of the 2000 Love Parade and finally to the unadulterated carnage of Sonar Sunday. Along the way Hell provides us with stories of how he started the label including how Jeff Mills gave him some of his unreleased material for free “if it would help get things started”. We’re also told about how Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to sue Hell for 40,000 german marks for using a photo of him as the Gigolo logo. Freak show comes across as more than a simple documentary about a dance music label; the footage seems very personal and uncontrived giving a small peak into what is clearly a very loving but dysfunctional family.
