CREDIT TO THE EDIT #2

[Greg Wilson]

Just out - currently Disco record of the week at Piccadilly:
http://www.piccadillyrecords.co.uk/

MR BLOE groovin' with mr bloe
CHAKA KHAN I feel for you
YELLO lost again



CD album coming mid-August - tracklisting:

1. Salsoul Orchestra 'ooh, I love it (love break)'
2. Rockers Revenge 'sunshine'
3. Raw DMX 'do it to the funk'
4. BT (Brenda Taylor) 'you can't have your cake and eat it too'
5. The Controllers 'I can't turn the boogie loose'
6. Scritti Politti 'absolute wood beez'
7. Boystown Gang 'cruisin' the streets'
8. Kool And The Gang 'open sesame'
9. Yello 'lost again'
10.Chicken Lips 'he not in'
11.Mike T 'do it anyway you wanna'
12.Uncle Louie full-tilt boogie
13. Chaka Khan 'I feel for you'
14. Chic 'dance dance dance (yowsah yowsah yowsah)
15. Mr Bloe 'groovin' with mr bloe'

VINYL TWO – SLEEVENOTES:

As a natural progression from the direction I’d taken with my radio mixes, which had increasingly relied on edits, throughout 1983 and 1984 I was constantly trying to get the record companies in London to let me remix some of their releases. It was a major frustration, for although I knew everyone in the various club promotions departments, their bosses were unprepared to let an untried UK DJ loose with their master tapes – remixing back then, as I was told on a number of occasions, was something done by American DJ’s, not British ones.

Having banged my head against a brick wall once to often, I eventually took a lateral approach, resulting in my first collaboration with musicians. In what was regarded at the time as an extremely unusual step (a British DJ making, rather than playing records) I co-wrote and produced all but one of the tracks on what would become the Street Sounds ‘UK Electro’ album, an experimental make it up as we went along type project, credited to a variety of fictitious names, which would reach number 60 on the UK chart following its release in June 1984.

After the relative success of ‘UK Electro’, I’d expected a few doors to begin to open for me on the remix front – but no such luck. Having ‘retired’ from DJ work at the end of 1983, aged 23, leaving behind two of the best black music nights of the era, at Legend in Manchester and Wigan Pier, the decision was beginning to look somewhat misguided. This was certainly true with regards to my financial situation, which was becoming increasingly perilous. It was clear that I had to do something and do it quickly if I was going to keep my head above water.

In a final effort to persuade the record companies to give me a chance, I decided to put together a series of what I would call ‘turntable edits’, in order to demonstrate my potential. I figured that most of the decision makers in the big companies wouldn’t have their ear to the ground when it came to the latest US imports, which I’d featured on my radio mixes, nor understand the spontaneous nature of the ‘UK Electro’ album. Weighing everything up, I thought my best chance of catching their attention was to create my own edited versions of well-known chart hits of the time, so, being already familiar with the original versions, they’d be able to hear what I was doing. With this in mind, I set about compiling a ‘showreel’ of these ‘turntable edits’, which would eventually include Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Depeche Mode, New Order, Scritti Politti, The Eurythmics and Chaka Khan.

Thinking back to this time, I was under immense pressure. With the bills piling up and the realisation that I could lose my car, my home, everything, this was pretty much my final throw of the dice. However, despite all this, I remained ever optimistic that just around the corner it would all come right. I figured that someone, somewhere, realising what I was capable of doing with limited resources, would recognise my ability and finally give me the opportunity I sought.

These ‘turntable edits’ were created in my home DJ studio in Wigan, where I lived at the time, via two SL1200’s and my Revox B77 reel-to-reel. As it turned out, they’d be the last things I’d work on there. They were basically re-edits, but with the additional ingredient of ‘double-ups’ on the turntables, running two copies of the same record, one behind the other, to create repeat effects. The phasing on some of the edits, most notably during Melle Mel’s rap on Chaka Khan’s ‘I Feel For You’, was achieved by playing two copies of the same record together, a DJ trick I’d previously utilized in a live setting. The ‘delays’ at the end of a couple of the tracks were simply the same tiny snippet edited over and over, with me turning the volume down each time I recorded it. I also employed some additional dub type effects from the Revox.

Unfortunately for me, the anticipated offers of remix work never materialised. Only a handful of people seemed to appreciate what I’d done, including the journalist Dylan Jones (nowadays editor of GQ), who’d been a big supporter of the ‘UK Electro’ project, and Daniel Miller, the head of Mute Records, who promised to put some work my way. I’d naively hoped for a Depeche Mode or Yazoo remix, but the job turned out to be for a little known band on the label called I Start Counting (later to become Fortran 5), for whom I remixed their 1985 single, ‘Still Smiling’.

By this point my financial problems had already totally engulfed me, resulting in the repossession of my house and my car, plus the sale of my equipment (with the sole exception of my beloved Revox). I hit my lowest point when, having boxed up all of my records, ready to move out, a group of kids got into my house and stole about a third of my precious collection. I called the police to report this, but they weren’t interested in the theft of my records, turning up at my house instead to arrest me for non-payment of rates and putting me in a cell overnight. Talk about bleak!

But, as they say, every cloud has a silver lining and, a generation on, following the inclusion of my Chaka Khan ‘turntable edit’ on a compilation of old mixes (which I put together initially for just a few friends) the response was so positive that I decided to feature this version on my return to the clubs. It was a big surprise when, no sooner had I done this, people began to request it and ask me if they could get hold of a copy on vinyl. So, as a direct consequence, the second 12” in the Credit To The Edit series includes this now vintage edit of ‘I Feel For You’, a Prince composition that reached the top of the UK chart in 1984 and provided one of my all-time favourite female vocalists with her biggest British hit.

The opening track is one of my ultimate feelgood tunes, taking me back to a more carefree time in my life, growing up in New Brighton, a seaside resort on the opposite side of the River Mersey to Liverpool. In the summer of 1970, ‘Groovin’ With Mr Bloe’ was a massive chart hit, only kept off the top spot by Mungo Jerry’s ‘In The Summertime’, which was the biggest selling single of the year. A British recording, featuring the unforgettable Harmonica playing of Harry Pitch (whose session credits also include Frank Ifield’s 1962 million seller, ‘I Remember You’ and the theme music to the TV series ‘Last Of The Summer Wine’), ‘Groovin’ With Mr Bloe’ is a record I’ll always associate with fairgrounds, alongside hits like Len Barry’s ‘1-2-3’ and ‘Mony Mony’ by Tommy James And The Shondells (plus, of course, countless Soul classics), which provided a vibrant and vital soundtrack for the various rides.

During the latter part of the 70’s, the track was revived at Mr M’s, the oldies room at Wigan Casino, and is nowadays often described as a Northern Soul classic. However, when Casino resident, Russ Winstanley, began to play it in the main room, it wasn’t at all well received by the purists, who weren’t happy about a former Pop hit being played within its hallowed walls.

Mr Bloe’s version was actually a cover, the original being the flip side of a 1969 US single by Wind called ‘Make Believe’, a Bubblegum recording featuring Tony Orlando (who’d go on to become a huge star in the 70’s with Dawn, via syrupy Pop singles like ‘Knock Three Times’ and ‘Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree’). The UK recording was arranged by pianist Zack Laurence, but Harry Pitch, brought in as a session musician, will forever be regarded as Mr Bloe.

Having played the 7” last year at Aficionado in Manchester, to a wonderful response, I decided to extend the track for a subsequent appearance in the city, at the Electric Chair in February, where it was once again greeted like a long lost friend. No doubt I’ll be playing it a fair few times throughout this summer, 35 years on from its UK release. The edit itself stays close to the original, but in a playful sort of way. It’s an absolute pleasure to be able to include this as part of the project.

Finally, it’s the Swiss trio (soon to become a duo), the mighty Yello, and an instrumental edit of ‘Lost Again’. Yello, of course, scored a big club hit in New York with ‘Bostich’ in the early 80’s, having been championed by DJ Afrika Bambaataa, but this pretty much passed us by in the UK at the time, only picking up plays at the more Futurist type nights. I really got into Yello as a result of their album, ‘You Gotta Say Yes To Another Excess’, which was released in 1983 and included ‘Lost Again’. They were right at the top of their game at this point and, although they would taste commercial success later down the line, this album and the follow-up, ‘Stella’, marks their golden era for me.

The vocal was a bit too quirky for the black scene at the time, although I did manage to slip the mainly instrumental 12” mix of ‘Pumping Velvet’ in there, so the first time I played ‘Lost Again’ in a club environment was only recently. However, it was at home where I really got into this awesome album, especially after I’d stopped deejaying and, aided by copious amounts of hashish and marijuana, was beginning to listen to music from a whole new perspective, without the distraction of considering how it would work in a club. Anyone who came to my house in Wigan around this time was ‘excessed’ good and proper, having first smoked themselves irie! God knows what my neighbours thought of me at the time, with music often played full blast right throughout the night.

I’ve edited ‘Lost Again’ from the 12” version, which features the additional (and essential) church organ section. A big thank you to Sean P for his help in cleaning up the vinyl for me.

I’d also like to thank both Harry Pitch and the legendary Northern Soul DJ, Richard Searling, for sharing their Mr Bloe memories.

Copyright Greg Wilson 2005


With Harry Pitch (Mr Bloe) - June 2005

[QUINNY]

Meanwhile, in Southampton a certain DJ was doing a similar thing (doing re-edits of tracks and playing them out at his residency). However, I never got into it as much as you did and used even more basic equipment (no 1200s for me).

The best effect I ever got was by putting either a 342 mS or 171 mS delay (can't remember which) on the intro/ bare rhythm sections of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. That TOTALLY transformed it. Give it a try, Greg (and give me some credit when it becomes Credit To The Edit #??? :lol: )

Supposedly, I got very close to doing a remix of Dayton's -The Sound Of Music through some contacts I had and a chopped up, extended Lionel Richie - All Night Long had Motown very interested at one point, but cynical ol' me just had the attitude "if it happens, it happens" and didn't get involved with pestering. Maybe I should have, eh?