Morning 313, In the DUST's Some History, please find enclosed...
http://dustscience.heypod.co.uk/gregwilson/greg1.zip http://dustscience.heypod.co.uk/gregwilson/greg2.zip http://dustscience.heypod.co.uk/gregwilson/gregwilson-ukelectro.zip Part 1 of 3 GREG WILSON VARIOUS MIXES PLUS INTERVIEWS 1983-2002 1. BUFFALO GALS¹ MALCOLM McLAREN & THE WORLD¹S FAMOUS SUPREME TEAM LIVE MIX 1983 Live mix from Legend¹ in Manchester using 3 turntables. Recorded onto cassette, so apologies for the poor sound quality. The track at the beginning is Klien & MBO¹s Dirty Talk¹. 2. D¹YA LIKE SCRATCHIN¹¹ - PICCADILLY RADIO B-BOY MIX 1983 In the summer of 83, when breakdancing began to hit the streets of Manchester in a big way, I put this together with the breakers and poppers in mind. As with all my Radio mixes, the equipment I used were two Technics SL1200¹s and a Revox B77 reel-to-reel. Tracks are D¹Ya Like Scratchin¹¹ by Malcolm McLaren & The World¹s Famous Supreme Team, The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel¹ by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Break Dancin¹ Electric Boogie¹ by the West Street Mob, The Wildstyle¹ by Time Zone, Rockit¹ by Herbie Hancock, I¹m The Pacman¹ by The Pacman, and Hobo Scratch¹ by Malcolm McLaren & The World¹s Famous Supreme Team. 3. FREAK-A-ZOIDS¹ PICCADILLY RADIO DANCE MIX 1983 One of a number of mixes I did for Piccadilly between 82-84 (beginning in May 82). The mixes were the first of their type in the country, and were aired on Mike Shaft¹s specialist black music show, T.C.O.B¹ (Taking Care Of Business). This mix features many Legend¹ and Wigan Pier¹ classics from 82/83, including Freak-A-Zoid¹ by Midnight Star, Beat The Street¹ by Sharon Redd, Confused Beats¹ by New Order. Walking On Sunshine¹ by Rockers Revenge, Body Work¹ by Hot Streak¹, The Return Of Captain Rock¹ by Captain Rock, Heat You Up¹ by Shirley Lites, Makin¹ Music¹ by Gary¹s Gang, Jingo Breakdown¹ by Candido, It¹s Passion¹ by The System, Weekend¹ by Class Action, Chocolate Milk Who¹s Getting¹ It Now¹, Toney Lee Reach Up¹ and others, plus snippets of some of the more innovative pop 12² mixes of the period, Don¹t You Want Me¹ by the Human League, The Look Of Love¹ by ABC, Chant No 1¹ by Spandau Ballet and Situation¹ by Yazoo. 4. I FEEL FOR YOU¹ CHAKA KHAN PICCADILLY RADIO TURNTABLE EDIT 1984 One of a series of mixes I did for Piccadilly in 84 where I took a well-known track and put together my own version. I called them Turntable Edits¹ because I¹d use 2 copies of the same record for repeat and phase effects, and the Revox for cutting it up. Others included New Order, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and Scritti Politti. 5. THE WORD¹ KISS 100 ELECTRO INTERVIEW 1994 6. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CLUBLAND¹ RADIO 1 ELECTRO INTERVIEW 1994 In 1994 I compiled Classic Electro Mastercuts¹, which prompted much media interest in the Electro period. I¹ve included two of the radio interviews I did that year, one for Kiss 100¹s Electro special, the other for Radio 1¹s club history, The Gospel According To Clubland¹. It¹s interesting to note that while Radio 1 cite their own presenter, Tim Westwood, as the pioneer of the London Electro scene, Kiss¹s Gordon Mac places its origins with George Power and Paul Anderson. Whatever the disagreements about the roots and development of the Electro movement in the capital, there¹s no such argument regarding the North. Much of the confusion surrounding the London scene is because it was fragmented and without a focal point (until Mike Allen¹s Capital radio show finally filled the void towards the end of 1984), whereas Legend and Wigan Pier were central to the club scene up-North, and known to pretty much every DJ in the region, if not the country. On top of this, the Piccadilly radio mixes allowed me to take Electro-Funk to a wider audience at a time when Mike Shaft¹s Soul show contemporaries in London, Greg Edwards and Robbie Vincent, would never have entertained such an idea. 7. MONASTIC MIX¹ 1996 Although my DJ appearances since 1984 have been few and far-between, from late 96 through 97 I was involved in an experimental monthly club night on Merseyside (plus specials at London¹s Mars Bar¹) called The Monastery¹. The basic premise was that we didn¹t play any four-on-the-floor (as this was being played pretty much everywhere else at the time), concentrating instead on groove-based music from the 60¹s to the 90¹s. A free cassette was given away to everyone who attended the first night, with the Monastic Mix¹ filling one of the sides. It was the final mix I put together using my Revox, and is just about as eclectic as it gets (although more recently Soulwax¹s brilliant 2 Many DJ¹s¹ mix had a similar anything goes flavour), featuring 60¹s Soul, 70¹s Funk, Electro-Funk, Hip-Hop, Indie-Dance, Trip-Hop, Drum & Bass and more. I put it together with a Liverpool DJ called Matt Shannon, and it became cult listening for the people who got hold of a copy of the cassette. I wanted to reference as many of my musical influences as I could (far too many to begin listing). Listen for yourself; a surprise is never far away! 8. GUESS WHO¹S BACK?¹ 2002 I did this for an internet site specialising in edit mixes as an example of the way I work nowadays, using a computer rather than the Revox for editing. Main ingredients include Malcolm McLaren, Eminem, Pink Floyd, The Streets, Rose Royce and The Prodigy, but the overall vibe is Electro-Funk dominated, with numerous samples from the period. GREG WILSON [EMAIL PROTECTED] DECEMBER 02 GREG WILSON MANCHESTER DJ GURUS THE FACE 1990 ³Greg Wilson is an honorary Manc born in Liverpool who is generally acknowledged as the godfather of the early eighties Manc electro scene. He is one of the first British DJ¹s to have used three turntables. Remembered for his nights at Legend and the Hacienda². FROM SLEAZE NATION MAGAZINE (AMANDA CAZA) 1998 ³By 1982 he was established at Wigan Pier, thrilling all and sundry with his brew of electronica and soul. He was given a dying Wednesday at Legend, Manchester¹s most influential black music venue, and blew enough life into it to spread queues round the block and gain punters countrywide. Forget the Hacienda, where Wilson began the first full-on dance night Legend was the start of it all. His secret? The dastardly mixing techniques he¹d picked up in Europe plus this weird and wonderful new form of music sweeping across from New York². FROM THE BOOK THE NINETIES WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT ALL ABOUT¹ (JOHN ROBB) 1999 ³Greg Wilson was entranced by the stripped down electronic sounds that were coming out of New York where, in one of the weirdest quirks in rock history, black kids in the ghetto started to get hip to Kraftwerk. Taking the atmospheric synth music of the German outfit, they re-invented it as a dance music of their own. The computer age was dawning and here was a music that matched the nu digital timesElectro is one of the key forbears of nineties pop culture². FROM THE BOOK MANCHESTER, ENGLAND THE POP CULT CITY¹ (DAVE HASLAM) 1999 ³Wilson¹s work on the decks every Wednesday (at Legend) drew the attention of Mike Shaft, who was then fronting a black music show on Piccadilly Radio. Although not a big fan of the new dancefloor sounds, he invited Wilson to do mixes for the radio show. These were probably some of the most taped programmes in Manchester radio history² FROM REVIEW OF CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS¹ BLUES & SOUL (BOB KILLBOURN) 1994 ³Compiled by famed deejay Greg Wilson who was one of the chief protagonists in the early development of electro in the UK. Greg helped pioneer the early stages as resident deejay at the legendary Wigan Pier and Manchester Legends venues. Greg was one of the first British deejays to consider seriously the art of deejaying and mixing was beyond the simple act of sticking a platter on a turntable before swilling ale and checking out the available talent (although I¹m pretty sure Greg did his fair share of these activities too!). Greg¹s mixes on Manchester Piccadilly Radio were significant interludes and he was also the first British deejay to mix live on TV when appearing on the now defunct The Tube show². FROM THE BOOK AND GOD CREATED MANCHESTER¹ (SARAH CHAMPION) 1990 ³¹The whole black side of Manchester has been completely ignored¹ says Greg Wilson, Manchester¹s first electro DJ, on the wheels of steel at Wigan Pier and Legends in ¹82. A disco-chemist, he experimented with mixing and NY¹s new stylesLegends stepped out a whole 18 months before The Face¹s cover feature caught upBy the start of ¹83, white hipsters were changing channels, switching from doom-rock to dance beats. ACR, New Order, Swamp Children and the like tuned into Legends¹In all things that have been written about Manchester, the thing that led the way hasn¹t even been mentioned! The black-white mix! Even when the students arrived (on the scene) the black side kept its identity and everyone began bouncing ideas around¹ argues Greg². FROM THE BOOK SHAUN RYDER, HAPPY MONDAYS, BLACK GRAPE & OTHER TRAUMAS¹ (MICK MIDDLES) 1997 ³Kermit was here there and everywhere. Everyone knew Kermit. Everyone knew Kermit stories. Everyone knew that one day this man would turn into something important. The story begins way back in the early eighties, at Manchester¹s Legends nightspot. On Wednesday night Manchester grandmaster of Electro, Greg Wilson, held hardcore funk sessions sussed enough to educate even the hippest of dudes from old Hulme. All the while, down the road, the Hacienda remained a vast, cold, empty shell, full of echoey indie sounds and a few straggly raincoated students. Greg Wilson was where it began and Kermit would soak in his influences². FROM THE SLEEVENOTES OF CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS¹ (IAN DEWHIRST) 1994 ³Before retiring from deejaying in 1984, Greg had kicked off the first weekly dance night at The Hacienda and was managing Britain¹s best known breakdance crew, Manchester¹s Broken Glass. In ¹84 he produced Street Sounds¹ experimental UK Electro¹ album, and has since produced the Ruthless Rap Assassins². FOR FURTHER INFORMATION E-MAIL: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ELECTRO-FUNK - WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN? Electro-Funk is undoubtedly the most misunderstood of all UK Dance genres, yet probably the most vital with regards to its overall influence. Central to the confusion is the term itself, which during 82/83 (before it was shortened to Electro) was specific to the UK. From a US perspective this music would come under a variety of headings (including Hip-Hop, Dance, Disco, Electric Boogie and Freestyle), arriving on import here in the UK, mainly on New York labels like West End, Prelude, Sugarhill, Emergency, Profile, Tommy Boy, Streetwise, plus numerous others. Just as Northern Soul was a British term for a style (or group of styles) of American black music, so was Electro-Funk, and, like Northern, the roots of the scene are planted firmly in the North-West of England. Although this has been documented in a number of books and publications down the years, often with a fair degree of insight, the subject is rarely approached with any true depth and attention to detail, the information all in fragments. Perhaps the main reason that Electro-Funk remains a mystery to so many people is because it¹s audience was predominantly black at a time when cutting-edge black music (and black culture in general) was very much marginalized in the UK, and as a result essentially underground. To keep up to date with what was happening on the British black music scene in 82/83 you¹d have had to have been a reader of a specialist publication like Blues & Soul or Black Echoes. In the UK scheme of things Electro-Funk eventually took over from Jazz-Funk as the dominant force on the club scene, but not without major controversy and upheaval. The purists regarded electronic¹ or electric¹ (as they called it) with total contempt, rejecting its validity on the grounds that it was, in their opinion, not real music¹ due to its technological nature (although Marvin Gaye¹s Sexual Healing¹ would put paid to that theory). However, as time went on and audience tastes began to change, even the most hostile DJ¹s were forced to play at least some Electro-Funk. Despite all the resistance, the movement slowly but surely began to gain momentum, sweeping down from the North, through the Midlands and eventually into London and the South. The reason the Electro scene took so long to fully establish itself in the capital was down to the stranglehold the all-powerful Soul Mafia DJ¹s held on the Southern scene. The Soul Mafia, with big names like Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent, Froggy, Jeff Young and Pete Tong, continued to concentrate on Jazz-Funk and Soul grooves (later referred to as 80¹s Groove¹). It wouldn¹t be until 84 that their virtual monopoly of the clubs, radio, and the black music press began to erode as a new order of music replaced the old, laying the foundations not only for Hip-Hop, but also the subsequent UK Techno and House scenes. As has often been said, Electro is the missing link of Dance music. All roads lead back to New York where the level of musical innovation and experimentation throughout the early 80¹s period was quite staggering. It wasn¹t one narrow style that never strayed from within the confides of an even narrower BPM range, Electro-Funk was anything goes! The diversity of records released during this period was what made it so magical, you never knew what was coming next. The tempo of these tracks ranged from under 100 beats-per-minute to over 130, covering an entire rhythmic spectrum along the way. There was no set template for this new Dance direction, it just went wherever it went and took you grooving along with it. It was all about stretching the boundaries that had begun to stifle black music, and its influences lay not only with German Technopop wizards Kraftwerk, the acknowledged forefathers of pure Electro, plus British Futurist acts like the Human League and Gary Numan, but also with a number of pioneering black musicians. Major artists like Miles Davis, Sly Stone, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, legendary producer Norman Whitfield and, of course, George Clinton and his P Funk brigade, would all play their part in shaping this new sound via their innovative use of electronic instruments during the 70¹s (and as early as the late 60¹s in Miles Davis¹s case). Once the next generation of black musicians finally got their hands on the available technology it was bound to lead to a musical revolution as they ripped up the rule book with their twisted Funk. Before Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force¹s seminal Electro classic, Planet Rock¹ (Tommy Boy) exploded on the scene in May 82, there had already been a handful of releases in the previous months that would help define this new genre. D Train¹s You¹re The One For Me¹ (Prelude), which was massive during late 81, would set the tone, paving the way for Time¹ by Stone (West End), Feels Good¹ by Electra (Emergency) and two significant Eric Matthew / Darryl Payne productions, Sinnamon¹s Thanks To You¹ (Becket) and, once again courtesy of Prelude, On A Journey (I Sing The Funk Electric)¹ by Electrik Funk (the term Electro-Funk originally deriving from this track, electric-funk¹ being amended to Electro-Funk following the arrival of Shock¹s Electrophonic Phunk¹ on the Californian Fantasy label in June). However, the most significant of all the early releases was Don¹t Make Me Wait¹ by the Peech Boys (West End), for this was no longer hinting at a new direction, it was unmistakably the real deal. An extreme chunk of vinyl moulded by Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan, Don¹t Make Me Wait¹ would quickly become a cult-classic, and eventually even manage to scrape into the top 50 of the British Pop chart, purely on the back of underground support (as would a number of subsequent Electro-Funk releases). As the first British DJ to fully embrace this new wave of black music, I came in for a lot of personal criticism. Having already become an established name on the Jazz-Funk scene, I was seen as a heretic for playing these soulless¹ records, especially those that were regarded as the more blatant¹ ones (for example, the dreaded Planet Rock¹ and the rest of the Tommy Boys stuff, Warp 9 Nunk¹ (Prism), Extra T¹s ET Boogie¹ (Sunnyview), Man Parrish Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don¹t Stop)¹ (Importe/12), and Italian Zanza 12², Dirty Talk¹ by Klien & MBO). I generally opted for the Dub or instrumental versions, mixing them in alongside the more orthodox Funk, Soul and Jazz-Funk releases of the time at my weekly residencies, Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier, where the scene first took root. These venues, both state-of-the-art US styled clubs, would become central to the movement throughout the 82-84 period, attracting people from all over the country. The music would also gain further exposure via my regular mixes for Manchester¹s Piccadilly Radio (beginning in May 82), and in August 83 I¹d introduce Electro to a new audience, when I became the first Dance resident at the now world-famous Hacienda club. Electro-Funk¹s legacy is huge. It announced the computer age and seduced a generation with its drum machines, synthesizers and its sequencers, its rap, cut and scratch, its breaking and popping, its Dub mixes, its bonus beats and its innovative use of samples. Made to be mixed it inspired a new breed of British DJ¹s to cut the chat and match the beats. Now legendary names like Grandmaster Flash, Tee Scott, Tony Humphries, Larry Levan, Francois Kevorkian, Shep Pettibone, John Jellybean¹ Benitez and Double Dee & Steinski became role-models for tuned-in DJ¹s and would-be remixers, whilst pioneers of the new digital sampling technology, including New York producer Arthur Baker and his collaborator John Robie, British producer Trevor Horn (via Buffalo Gals¹) and, of course, the Herbie Hancock / Bill Laswell combination, with their Grammy winning Rockit¹ (Columbia), not only revolutionized black music but instigated a whole new approach to popular music in general. Electro-Funk was the channel that finally brought the Hip-Hop movement, and all its various creative components, firmly into the UK mainstream, helping to spread its message throughout Europe and beyond. To all intents and purposes Electro-Funk pre-dates Hip-Hop in a British context, the term not coming into common use here until much later. We were more or less clueless when it came to Hip-Hop until late 82, when Charisma Records in the UK unleashed Malcolm McLaren & The World¹s Famous Supreme Team¹s Buffalo Gals¹ video, which came as something of a culture-shock to say least, bringing the full-force of NYC street-style out of The Bronx and into our living rooms, and inspiring a carnival of breakdancing in cities and towns throughout Britain during the summer of 83. Eventually we¹d learn of its origins with Kool DJ Herc, spinning his famous merry-go-round¹ of breaks for the b boys. Before this, most people had presumed that the break in breakdancing referred to the damage you might do to your bones if you got the move wrong! Although the media gradually latched onto this new dance craze¹, the scene that surrounded it wouldn¹t receive any serious attention here in the UK until 1984. This followed the runaway success of the Street Sounds Electro¹ compilations (Volume 1 released in October 83), which would take the music to a much wider audience, and result in The Face announcing Electro The Beat That Won¹t Be Beaten¹ across its entire front page in May 84, a full two years on from the US release of Planet Rock¹. This substantial delay in recognition went a long way towards obscuring Electro-Funk¹s essential role in kick-staring the 80¹s Dance boom, with many UK club historians bypassing the pivotal early 80¹s period and mistakenly citing Detroit Techno as the trigger. Even the track that gave birth to Techno, the Juan Atkins / Rick Davies 12² Clear¹ by Cybotron (Fantasy), was regarded as an Electro classic here in 83, way before the Techno scene began to take shape, and would feature on the first Street Sounds Crucial Electro¹ compilation the following year. Little mention is ever made of the fact that its remixer, Jose Animal¹ Diaz, was immersed in NY Electro, with previous mix credits including We Are The Jonzun Crew¹ for Tommy Boy, and Hip Hop Be Bop (Don¹t Stop)¹, which gained a new lease of life following his much sought-after limited edition mix for Disconet (the DJ Only format affiliated to Sugarscoop). Electro¹s star burnt very brightly, initially on the underground and eventually with the club masses. In 1984 the London scene took off in a big way, both in the clubs and on the radio, with the emergence of DJ¹s like Herbie from Mastermind (who mixed the Street Sounds albums), Paul Anderson, Tim Westwood and Mike Allen confirming a radical shift in power on the capital¹s black music scene. With the substantial weight of London behind it, the Electro movement quickly went overground enticing an ever-increasing number of switched-on white kids in its on-going search for the perfect beat. With a significant proportion of the British youth, regardless of colour, now grounded in Hip-Hop culture, the new UK Dance era was well and truly under way and it wouldn¹t be long before musicians and DJ¹s here began to create their own hybrid styles, most notably in Bristol where Electro was fused with the Reggae vibes of Dub and Lovers Rock, to bring about a unique flavour that would later be known as Trip-Hop. By the end of the decade cities like Manchester and London had become major players on the now global Dance scene, with the UK a veritable hotbed of creativity both in the clubs and the recording studios. Electro-Funk was the prototype, and Hip-Hop, Techno, House, Jungle, Trip-Hop, Drum & Bass, UK Garage, plus countless other Dance derivatives, all owe their debts to its undoubted influence. Without it¹s inspiration, it¹s unlikely that British acts such as Coldcut, 808 State, A Guy Called Gerald, Soul To Soul, Massive Attack, The Prodigy, William Orbit, Goldie, the Chemical Brothers, Underworld and Fatboy Slim, to name but a few, would have emerged. When all¹s said and done, Electro-Funk (or Electro or whatever people choose to call it) was the catalyst, the mutant strain that bridged the British Jazz-Funk underground to the Acid-House mainstream, Until this fact is fully recognized the UK Dance jigsaw will remain incomplete and confused, with countless clubbers, twenty years on, having no idea of the true roots of the music they¹re dancing to. Copyright Greg Wilson November 2002 E-MAIL FOR LIST OF ESSENTIAL BEATS 82/83 (100 of the biggest tunes played at Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier during 1982 and 1983): [EMAIL PROTECTED]
