30th Anniversary / First Impressions

Greg Wilson · #1 December 5th, 2005, 10:18 PM

Today (Dec 6th) is the 30th anniversary of my club debut, way way back in 1975.

To mark the occasion I’ve put together a selection of 25 of the tracks I was playing back then, which Six Million Steps kindly offered to host. You can listen here:
http://www.sixmillionsteps.co.uk/Gre...nniversary.mp3

The full-length version is the one currently online, but in the next few weeks pts 1 and 2 will be added – apart from fitting onto CD, these will also be better quality downloads.

I’ve written an accompanying piece, which can be read below:

Greg

GREG WILSON
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
A 30TH ANNIVERSARY SELECTION

Records from December 1975
Revisited December 2005

On December 6th 1975 I made my debut as a club DJ at the Chelsea Reach in my hometown of New Brighton, Merseyside. Three decades on, to mark the occasion, I’ve put together a selection of 25 of the tracks that I would have had in my record crates that night.

‘First Impressions’ (named after one of the tracks included) is something of a time capsule, providing a snapshot of what many would describe, with hindsight, as the Proto-Disco period, before the 12” single became commercially available, although, for those who were there at the time, the Disco age was already well underway. Donna Summer, whose breakthrough single, ’Love To Love You Baby’, wouldn’t be released in the UK until the following month, is widely regarded as the ‘Queen Of Disco’, but the original title was bestowed on Gloria Gaynor and this was still very much the era of her reign.

The number one Soul single in the UK that week was ‘Hold Back The Night’ by The Trammps, with ‘Best Of The Stylistics’ the top album, whilst, on the Pop side, ‘Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ was the best selling single, with Perry Como’s ’40 Greatest Hits’ at the summit of the album chart.

In compiling ‘First Impressions’, I’ve presented the music not as a mix, but a reflective selection, with each track played in its entirety (some from 7”, others via the full-length album versions). This, I feel, was the right approach, because we didn’t mix in those days – the closest we got was ‘three in a row’ or a ‘Motown spot’, uninterrupted by the usual verbal interludes. For DJ’s in this country, the microphone was an essential tool of their trade and it wouldn’t be until later in the decade that UK DJ’s began to experiment with mixing. Even then, the overwhelming majority dismissed it as a US fad that would never really catch on here. Although I’d eventually become known for my mixes during the early 80’s, both on the radio and in the clubs, it wouldn’t be until the Rave explosion, later in the decade, that mixing really began to take off with the majority of British DJ’s.

In 1975, we didn’t know the first thing about mixing – we’d yet to see a vari-speed turntable and it would still be a number of years before we began using slipmats, DJ’s starting their records via on/off switches for each of the decks. The equipment we used was very basic, the sound system usually being an afterthought in most clubs. Club managers would often talk about DJ’s being ‘ten a penny’ – it certainly wasn’t considered a serious career move back then, ‘any fool’ apparently ‘could play some records’! For many years, when people asked me what I did for a living and I told them I was a DJ, I could put money on their next sentence being ‘yeah, but what’s your proper job?’.

30 years ago I was 15 and still at school (I wouldn’t leave until the following summer). At the start of the 70’s I’d ‘inherited’ my brother and sister’s 7” singles. I was extremely fortunate that my older siblings were blessed with such good taste, as the majority of these records were by Soul artists, on labels like Tamla Motown, Stax and Atlantic, with a smattering of Trojan Reggae for good measure. At 11 years old I began to spend all my spare money on vinyl, so by 1975 I already had a healthy collection.

Before this, from 1966 until my Father died in 1973, I’d lived in a pub that also housed two functions rooms (located next door to the Royal Ferry Hotel, which, in 1971, would become the Chelsea Reach). Pretty much every weekend there would be wedding receptions and 21st birthday parties held in one, or both, of the functions rooms, with mobile discos booked to play the music. It was in this environment, spending countless hours sat behind the bar with my Mum, bottle of coke in hand, that I would have, at one point or another, got to hear most of the mobile DJ’s on this side of the River Mersey. Even when I went upstairs to bed I could still hear the muffled rhythmic thud coming through the floorboards and make out what tunes were being played.

Often the DJ’s would leave their equipment at the end of the night, still set up, to pick up the following day, and, in the morning, I’d sometimes seize the opportunity to have a look through their records and spin a few tunes, turning on the microphone and playing DJ!

Further to this, there was a jukebox in the bar, which my Dad used to give me the odd shilling for so I could put some records on. When the ‘Jukebox man’ came to change them, I’d hang around and, if I was lucky, he’d let me take a few of the ones he was replacing. Ex-Jukebox singles were sold in quite a few record shops back then (and through to the 80’s), costing about half the price of a new single. The centres were obviously dinked out and they’d have a bar through the middle of a row of records, to stop people pinching them (although, having said that, where there’s a will there’s a way).

Even when I wasn’t at home, music was all around me. New Brighton was a seaside town, a kind of poor man’s Blackpool back then, with a pier and fairgrounds, as well as the largest outdoor swimming pool in the country. Everywhere you went you could hear great Pop or Soul playing from a fairground ride or a radio, so, as a kid growing up in the 60’s and early 70’s, I was like a sponge, absorbing it all.

Then when I was 11, I became friends with a lad called Derek Kelsey, who would go on to DJ under the names Dee Kay and Derek Kaye. We went to the same school and initially hadn’t seen eye to eye, almost coming to blows on a couple of occasions, but once we’d discovered we had a mutual love of records, we were virtually inseparable. Not only this, but Derek, who, unlike me, is technically minded, actually built his own mobile disco! It was more or less two old turntables in a console made out of a wooden drawer, with a switch, so you could change between them - hardly the height of hi-tec, but, nevertheless, I thought it was all extremely inventive.

Derek, with help (as well as hindrance) from his Dad, would go on to upgrade his mobile, adding an impressive ‘lightshow’, and begin to take bookings as Sound Machine Mobile Disco. I’d actually make my DJ debut with Sound Machine 1973, but I wasn’t content with simply joining Derek behind the decks from time to time, what I really wanted was my own mobile. Getting the money together to do this myself wasn’t possible at the time, but in 1975, when Derek invested in a new console (by this point his third), I, along with another school friend, Paul Bernard, bought the old one with the help of a loan from my Mother, changing the name to Dancin’ Machine, after the Jackson 5 track. With the help of another friend, Timmy Collins, we built some light boxes and, working after school in my Mum’s garage, got everything set up and ready to go. Eventually we printed up cards to hand out and put in shop windows, securing our first booking at a party upstairs in one of the functions rooms at the Chelsea Reach on Sept 20th 1975.

In the summer of ‘75, around the same time that Paul and I were setting up Dancin’ Machine, Derek landed a weekly residency at the Chelsea Reach, not upstairs with his mobile, but downstairs in the main ‘Disco’ room, playing every Monday and Thursday.

The Chelsea (as we called it) was somewhere both Derek and I had been managing to get into since we were 14 - we obviously looked older than we were, passing for 18. Back then nightclubs on Merseyside had a 2am license, with pubs having to close at 10.30pm. The Chelsea Reach was open until around 11.45pm and, as such, was extremely popular – I suppose it was an early example of what would later be termed ‘Disco Pubs’. It opened every night, and was usually full. To our young minds, it was the place to be, especially as most of our contemporaries couldn’t dream of getting into anything more than a youth club.

When I was asked to fill in on that first Saturday night by the manager of the Chelsea, Bill Traynor, following a further mobile booking upstairs, it was an opportunity, although pretty daunting at the time, that I made the most of. I’d be asked back the following week and would end up working there until 1978.

Eventually I’d make my mark along the promenade, as the resident DJ at the Golden Guinea (1977-1980). It was here that I really flourished, building my reputation not just locally, but throughout the Merseyside region, as a Disco, Funk and Soul specialist. Apart from a short stint in Scandinavia, my life, throughout the late 70’s, revolved around the Guinea, where, as I’ve previously put it, ‘I became a big fish DJ in a small club pond’.

The new decade emphasised the need for fresh challenges, and I finally left the Guinea and New Brighton for good, heading overseas once again for a few months, before getting my big break as resident at Wigan Pier, one of the most impressive clubs in the country back then. I’d go on to develop the North’s leading black music nights of the era, at the Pier and Legend in Manchester, whilst later launching the first specialist dance music night at the now fabled Hacienda, before retiring from DJ work and the end of ’83 to concentrate on production and the management of the Manchester breakdance crew, Broken Glass.

But back to 9 years earlier, when I was about to embark on this DJ adventure, receiving the princely sum of £6 for my club debut at the Chelsea Reach. The following month I was also approached to work at another local nightspot, the Penny Farthing Club, run by brothers Danny and Tommy Tsang, and by the time I left school I was deejaying most nights of the week – this had become my career and I was probably the youngest professional DJ in the country at this point in time. It’s funny nowadays when people show surprise when they find out my age – exactly the same thing happened back then, but in a completely opposite way!

At a time when I should have been revising for my O Levels, I’d more or less totally stopped attending school. When I did make the effort to go I’d be falling asleep in class, having worked the previous night. When I could no longer continue to burn the candle at both ends, I simply abandoned the final months of my education. Needless to say that I left school with next to no academic qualifications, failing to even turn up for some of my exams - not that I’d need them for the path I’d chosen. Before things began to take off for me as a DJ, I remember telling the Careers Officer at school that I was interested in doing some journalism, and was told to forget this, unless I serious applied myself to studying for the necessary qualifications, yet, in April ’76, while I was still at school and before I’d even taken any exams, I became the Youth and Pop Music columnist for the local newspaper. I’d later write a Disco column for another local newspaper, following on from the commercial success of the movie ‘Saturday Night Fever’ in 1978.

Back in 1975 Disco music was almost exclusively black music, Soul and Funk being the mainstay of a nights dancing. Disco wasn’t regarded as a specific genre at this point, but a catch-all title for the type of music played in clubs and discotheques. From a UK perspective, the dawn of the Disco era can be pinpointed to July 1974, when George McCrae’s ‘Rock Your Baby’ topped the chart and was accordingly dubbed ‘the first Disco hit’. This was obviously debateable, as the Philly Sound was already in full swing by this point, laying the blueprint for Disco music as we’d come to know it, although we still regarded acts like the O’Jays and Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes as Soul. When ‘Rock Your Baby’ was replaced at number one in August by the Three Degrees and their Philly classic, ‘When Will I See You Again’, it was clear that change was in the air. This feeling was cemented the following month, when the British produced ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas made it a third club geared UK number one in as many months, whilst going on to top the US chart as well. As a result, the London based record companies would begin to take club promotion much more seriously and, before long, most were mailing out singles to club DJ’s nationwide in advance of their release.

Being already grounded in black music, I’d begun to buy Blues & Soul magazine. This was not only the premier Soul music publication, but reported on the specialist black music clubs – it was pretty much regarded as the essential DJ magazine until the mid 80’s, when a new generation of dance publications, led by Mixmag, the Street Scene and Jocks, began to erode Blues & Soul’s once all-powerful influence.

I was also tuning into Terry Lennaine’s Monday night Soul show, ‘Keep On Truckin’’, on our only local radio station at that time, BBC Radio Merseyside. Later on I’d get to know Terry, plus Liverpool’s leading Funk and Soul DJ, Les Spaine, whose nights at The Timepiece, one of the most influential black music venues of the 70’s, were an inspiration to many Merseyside DJ’s, myself included.

The Northern Soul scene never took root in Liverpool. Whilst half an hour along the East Lancs Road, Wigan Casino was playing obscure 60’s stompers, the clubs where I started out were more about Funk and contemporary (rather than retrospective) Soul releases. We might have played some of the chart hits that had broken via clubs like the Casino, but that was pretty much the extent of it. The Northern Soul movement itself was experiencing a schism at the time, with DJ’s, Ian Levine and Colin Curtis, causing controversy amongst the purists by beginning to include new US Disco releases on their nights at the Blackpool Mecca. A number of these records were also being played in the black clubs, like The Timepiece, giving two otherwise contrasting scenes a new common ground.

Colin Curtis would move away from Northern Soul, becoming one of the big names on the North’s Jazz-Funk scene during the late 70’s / early 80’s. Our paths would eventually cross following the success of my weekly Jazz-Funk night at Wigan Pier, which elevated me onto the All-Dayer circuit, playing alongside Colin and other leading Jazz-Funk specialists throughout the North and Midlands. But this was all to come.

The opening track on ‘First Impressions’, ‘OK Chicago’ by Resonance, is included, as much as anything else, in recognition of my great friend Derek Kelsey, for he used this single as an alternative to his usual opening tune, Chiquito’s version of the ‘Hawaii Five-O’ theme, before I picked up on it myself. Derek had first heard it played by a popular Liverpool DJ of the period called Pete Crystal. This is the only track from ‘First Impressions’ that wasn’t current in December ’75 (having been issued on 7” in the UK the previous year). However, at the time DJ’s used instrumental ‘theme tunes’ at the start of the night when they went on the microphone to welcome people to club, talk about what was happening during the night ahead, invite requests and dedications etc, and ‘OK Chicago’ is a perfect representation of this. Other opening tunes I particularly favoured during the coming years included ‘Lipstick’ by Michel Polnareff, ‘Satin Soul’ by Gene Page, ‘Blue Eyed Soul’ by Carl Douglas and ‘Inside America’ by Juggy Jones. Years later, I was intrigued to discover that ‘Yellow Train’ by Resonance, the flip side of ‘OK Chicago’, had gained classic status at David Mancuso’s seminal Loft parties across the Atlantic in New York.

I’ve also made a symbolic selection for the closing track, one of the greatest ‘slowies’ I ever had the pleasure of playing, Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘That’s The Way Of The World’. Slowies were an integral part of a DJ’s playlist, for this allowed the guys to get right up close to the girls in what was a nightly mating ritual played out to the sweetest Soul. Outside of the black clubs, and specialist scenes like Northern Soul and, later, Jazz-Funk, guys only generally took to the dancefloor when they were trying to move in on a girl they liked (or when their girlfriends dragged them up). Most white guys suffered from a notorious lack of rhythm, looking extremely awkward when dancing, so shuffling around in a circle holding onto a girl, which is basically what a slowie entailed, was pretty much manageable for anyone. The smoother guys would bring a little grind into play, along with the obligatory ‘wandering hands’. If the couple hit it off, some pretty full-on kissing (or, to use a term from back then, ‘knecking’) might ensue, but with the lights down low and the music slow, inhibitions were put aside. Slowies were always played at the end of the night, usually in sets of three or four tracks, but also with an hour or so to go, giving the girls and guys a chance to get together ahead of the final hour, when the DJ built back into a more uptempo vibe, before bringing it right back down again - the DJ’s constantly moving the music around back then, not sticking to one groove or tempo for too long at a time (as reflected in the programming of ‘First Impressions’). Other slowies I may have played on that December night included then current releases like The Chi-Lites ‘It’s Time For Love’, Gladys Knight & The Pips ‘Part Time Love’ and ‘Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time’ by The Delfonics.

The reason I’m able to be so precise about what I was playing is because I still have the issue of Blues & Soul from that very week (B&S 174 – Ramsey Lewis front cover), so I know exactly what records were released in the UK at the time. It wouldn’t be until the following year that I started buying US imports, but I’d be in the record shops buying the latest Funk and Soul singles as soon as they were released over here.

Alongside the Soul and Funk, I also played the more danceable Pop tracks, David Bowie and Roxy Music being particularly popular, eventually generating a whole new ‘Roxy/Bowie’ scene, which in turn would lead on to the New Romantic and Futurist movements that followed later. Being so much into black music, I was never directly a part of this, although there’d be some cross-fertilisation in the early 80’s, with the emergence of cutting-edge New York Electro, a black technological mutation inspired by the innovative electronic grooves of the German band, Kraftwerk, whilst, running parallel in the Big Apple, Punk and Funk were being combined to create a further NY hybrid, No Wave.

Some clubs, like now, were obviously a lot more commercial than others - dress restrictions applied in most places, with guys only admitted if they were wearing jackets, and often ties. As a DJ, you had to cut your cloth accordingly; it was all about putting people on the dancefloor and keeping them there. If a DJ couldn’t achieve this, they’d quickly be shown the door, DJ’s, don’t forget, being ‘ten a penny’! The trick was to blend the familiar with the unfamiliar in such a way that you gained the audience’s trust. If you played it right they’d stay on the dancefloor when you introduced a newer tune, in the knowledge that the next record was likely to be a well-known favourite. Eventually, working in the same club with the same audience week after week, a good DJ could really begin to mould the dancefloor around their own musical taste, becoming increasingly ‘upfront’ (playing new music ahead of other DJ’s – US imports being the most upfront releases of all).

In 2003, the Chelsea Reach finally shut up shop (the building is currently being converted into flats). I hadn’t been in there since the 80’s and wouldn’t have been aware that it was just about to close, but for the fact that Derek (who continues to DJ on Merseyside, right up to this very day) rang me on the actual night to let me know. He was deejaying at RJ’s, where the Golden Guinea used to be, so I headed over from Liverpool and we went along to the Chelsea for the last hour.

It was strange to be in there again, especially as there were a few people who’d turned up for the final night who I hadn’t seen in eons! I’m glad I went, especially as it was with Derek, which seemed perfectly fitting. In a sense, it marked the completion of a full cycle for me on a personal level, taking me back to the venue where my DJ career began, just as I was about to enter on a whole new phase, starting out all over again, embarking on a new DJ odyssey.

Huge thanks to Six Million Steps for hosting ‘First Impressions’, with much gratitude to Dave Cooper for rooting out the records I no longer have copies of (there are big holes in my collection, as a result of an almost unbearable amount of vinyl being stolen from my home in 1985).

Other singles from the time that deserve special mention, but weren’t used as part of the mix include:
Black Blood ‘A.I.E (A Mwana) (Bradleys)
Blue Magic ‘Look Me Up’ (Atlantic)
Dee Clarke ‘Ride A Wild Horse’ (Chelsea)
Drifters ‘There Goes My First Love’ (Bell)
Exciters ‘Reaching For The Best’ (20th Century)
George McCrae ‘I Ain’t Lyin’ (Jayboy)
Gil Scott-Heron ‘Johannesburg’ (Arista)
Gloria Gaynor ‘(If You Want It) Do It Yourself’ (MGM)
Hot Chocolate ‘You Sexy Thing’ (RAK)
Jim Capaldi ‘Love Hurts’ (Island)
Jimmy Castor Bunch ‘King Kong’ (Atlantic)
KC & The Sunshine Band ‘I’m So Crazy (‘Bout You)’ (Jayboy)
Magic Disco Machine ‘Control Tower’ (Tamla Motown)
Maxine Nightingale ‘Right Back Where We Started From’ (United Artists)
Van McCoy ‘Change With The Times’ (Avco)

COPYRIGHT GREG WILSON – DECEMBER 2005

FURTHER INFO: www.electrofunkroots.co.uk
EMAIL: electrofunkroots@yahoo.co.uk

UPCOMING CLUB DATES:

This Friday: 'Solescience' / Edinburgh
This Saturday: 'Disco Deviance' / Dundee
This Sunday: 'Suono Sundays' / Newcastle
Thurs Dec 15th: 'Bad Santa' / Liverpool
Sat Dec 17th: Fabric / London

remicks · #2 December 6th, 2005, 12:40 AM

*****
8) 8) 8)
*****

QUINNY · #3 December 6th, 2005, 04:04 AM

Greg: An intetesting insight into the once rarified pro DJs life.
I suspect the story was the same for almost every DJ from back then, certainly was very similar for me, except I flunked most of my 'A' level exams and when asked, showed a real interest in becoming either a theatrical agent or work in advertising, both of which were totally off the wall choices so far as the careers advice officer was concerned. So, I too decided to tread my own path.

Just to add to a few things:

Despite what was written by Greg, some DJs were slightly more clued up and had slip mats from very early on. I first used slip mats in 1971 or thereabouts, after I saw them in a photo to do with a radio staion and became intrigued. I didn't use them to slip cue every time, because the turntables I used were too delicate and didn't have ooodles of torque (the ones at the radio staion, Garrard 401s or similar, did have tons of torque and weren't sprung [very important]) but it was possible to do the odd super quick segue if I tried (which I have to admit I didn't do THAT often), as my aim was to be as slick as possible and emulate the tightness that radio DJs obtained. It wasn't until 1974/5 that I used them for segueing non-stop.

The first varispeed decks I used were in 1974, was segueing full time by early to mid 1975 and mixing by 1977. However, I still preferred the certainty of segueing until late 1979, which was when I mixed full time (albeit with patter thrown in too). Whilst in Spain I could JUST segue or mix, but as Greg has written, back in the UK talking was essential, until maybe late 1986. That's when a new generation of jocks emerged that had grown up listening to electro sounds and seeing videos of mixing/scratching DJs (albeit videos featuring these types of DJs were very few and far between) from the USA. Also, by 1986 DMC (Disco Mix Club) had been established for 3 years or so and had been expanding UK DJs' horizons by getting them interested in mixing. Very few DJs took up the challenge in the late '70s, even though it was the way to go. I certainly suffered as the only mixing DJ in my locality. The trick for me was to mix and have the patter too when needed. Look at the vast majority of today's DJs who can barely string a sentence together over a microphone and have the most attrocious microphone technique!

Despite many clubs having primitive sound equipment, many mobile DJs had quite sophisticated set ups by 1975. From my own personal experience, my mobile console was far more together than that of my first club in 1972. For a start, my mobile set up had a proper professional mixer with good Pre- Fade Listen facilities. In my first club, the mixer was a very primitive hand built job with no PFL on the opening nights. Neither did we have a way of remotely stopping/starting the decks, so it was a case of letting the record run and blending it in. NOT an ideal scenario. This was put right once we put the designer on the right path, but overall it was far inferior to my, or most mobile DJs' mixers.

The actual sound system consisted of one 50 watt amplifier and two loudspeakers (mounted into the ceiling) at my first club. By 1972, my mobile set up consisted of two 50 watt amps (i.e. stereo) and four loudspeakers. Other, more established mobile DJs had two 100 watt amps (or more) and maybe 8 speakers (or more), depending on how big their name was and whether or not their ego ruled their heads.

In the club, the light show consisted of one light controller that had variable speed chase (again hand built) and hooked up to a series of coloured 60 watt bulbs in the ceiling. My mobile set up had two sound to light controllers with boxed coloured lights, two 250 watt liquid wheel projectors and a strobe. To say that I was less than impressed by the sound and lights in my first club would be an understatement. Slowly, over the course of the next 18 months I added pieces of my own mobile gear to the club's set up and all three DJs got to use it all (wasn't I stupid?).
The only thing that was better (by a thousand percent) were the records we played in the club. This was my introduction to really heavy-duty funk and soul music comprising over 80% of the playlist. Yes, we did play danceable pop hits and rock records that had a good danceable groove, but even they were generally more esoteric than the average mobile jock would be able to get away with. It was a real shock (and a challenge) whenever I had the odd mobile disco to do. We also had live music once a week with some quite famous names appearing on our stage (Bob Marley & Wailers, Camel, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Nazareth, Sharks, Blond on Blond, Ducks Deluxe) and always London based bands that were 'in the frame'.

P.S. By 1975 Blues & Soul had become less than essential reading for me, as it was obvious that their purest approach wasn't getting to review as many of the really hot records as they used to. Times were a-changin'.

Having listened to the records, there were only 2 that I didn't play. Actually, there were 3 if you include OK Chicago, which I never really got into and spun a few times only. I seem to remember giving the 'B' side a few spins, but it was one of those records that I was confronted with when I landed the job in Marbella. The guy I took over from used to rave about it, but I always had it down as too fast and a tad too corny/of a nothingness to bother with it. Many of the records in the 7" shelves in that Disco were of a 'dubious' nature to me. They were, in the main, completely different to anything I'd been spinning back in the UK. None (or very few) had any kind of an edge, or any Black music credentials.

Videoskooter · #4 December 6th, 2005, 10:01 AM

Great: when I finished reading the two little posts you guys placed here, I heard the whole compilation :lol: Great stuff, keep 'em coming love!

buckaroo · #5 December 7th, 2005, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Wilson

Today (Dec 6th) is the 30th anniversary of my club debut, way way back in 1975.
...

Thanks for a great piece of storytelling Greg :lol: You started your career at the cusp...And entered an era when the black music scene began to change into new grenres. I also bet you picked up a few chicks along the way too, eh?

discokicks · #6 December 7th, 2005, 11:12 AM

Such an interest read from both of you gentlemen!

To hear such precise recollections about the origins of djing and the music that I've loved and focussed on for three decades (and so many shun :x ), it just makes me so happy to have discovered this website. I can't express that enough.

disco-disc · #7 December 9th, 2005, 12:40 PM

Hi Greg,
I printed your article off nearly a week ago, and as usual, have only just found time to read it.
BRILLIANT !!!
It brought back SOOOO MANY GOOD MEMORIES !! :D

I am a scouser born and bred and I was 'around your age' during this period.

Terry Lenaine was the 'Pete Tong' of his day (BTW Pete was DJ'ing and according to Record Mirror was winning Milk Marketing/PG Tips ? Dj shows then).

Terry's show title had long been lost in the fog of time ..till I read your article.
He used to play every week on Radio Merseyside (Monday's I think),and I would sit by my 'hi-fi.midi/mini system', finger poised over the Pause/Record button all the way through the show, taping tracks I liked - (only had 45 min. cassettes).
I would then spend the rest of the week creating what would be segued playlists...or rather extended versions of the tracks for my own pleasure using the dual cassette decks - recording from one player to the other - one song I remember being particularly proud of was The Invisible Mans Band - All night Thing.
- a scouse Tom Moulton - without the American business acumen ??
I saw the US import in a record store in St Johns precinct at the time, but back then it was way out of my budget, and I'd never seen the 12" (at NEMS ?).
Glad to say I have been fortunate enough to have put both records in my collection since !!

Terry (SORRY for boring our US cousins), used to also play a night downstairs at the Captains Cabin in Sir Thomas Street (Friday's I think), and I used to have to drag my friends in there for a 'round' so as I could hear the latest tracks 'live' by Terry - Crown Heights Affair - 'You gave me love' being a particular fave, and one I remember from the Cabin.
Terry's show was awesome !! Is he still involved ???

As I said, my friends were more into Pink Floyd/ ELO/ and Rock- than Disco, BUT, AND IT WAS A BIG BUT!.....They HAD to go to Disco's to 'cop off / Pull a bird/ Score' ..so that was when I got to enjoy my friends in the atmosphere/Music I loved the most !!!
Roxy /Gary Numan/ Stones/ ELO/ et al - all got played in (UK)Disco's as they helped the Rock crowd 'relax' - I don't think the US had the same mix of styles ? (maybe someone could comment ?)
I wasn't a DJ - I was just a punter who bought and loved the disco records of the day.

I could go on all night, listening to your mix as I write, but I will sign off now, and write again if you are interested ?
LOVE that Resonance track...gotta track it down now....

Do you know who used to spin at Anabelles /Coconut Grove ?
Some other clubs were :Hollywood /Ugly's /Candy's/Timepiece/pluss+++++
We may not have boasted Studio 54, Flamingo, The Loft, Garage, etc...But this was our story !!! - If you are in Liverpool still, let me know if you want to meet and have a chat ?
Could you email me/post on the forum a track listing of your 'First Impressions' mix PLEASE !!!
Cheers
P.S Just got to ther Ohio Players track in your mix - This sound has SOOO much POTENTIAL (as Jimmy Castor would say) - is there a longer version ?
I am sure this track could be ENHANCED some way, as ALL the basics are there, but it just seems to lack that killer punch/production ? at times - anyone care to try ????

disco-disc · #8 December 10th, 2005, 01:26 PM

Greg
What are the BIG DISCO hits from 'back in the day'
that you find still command respect from the floor nowadays ?

Greg Wilson · #9 December 13th, 2005, 08:19 AM

Quote: