From: Martin Dust
On One:
THE BEST OF 83 MIX
"Greg Wilson played a huge part in bringing about the 80's northern
house explosion, so show some flippin' respec'".
JOCKEY SLUT (2003)
Although it may sound pretty rough around the edges by today’s
standards, Greg Wilson’s 'Best Of 83’ mix was viewed as groundbreaking
back in the day (as was the previous year’s 'Best Of 82’), and revered
as inspirational by a new generation of DJ’s who’d take up where he left
off. These end of year mixes would become something of a tradition on
Piccadilly Radio (later Key 103), which broadcast throughout the
North-West of England, with the series continuing on into the next
decade, courtesy of Chad Jackson (84/85) and Stu Allan (86-92).
The mixes focused on the biggest tracks played on the black music scene
during the previous year, cramming in as many floorfillers, initially
from Wigan Pier and Legend in Manchester, as possible (even if it only
be a brief snippet).
The 'Best Of 83’ featured the following tracks:
MARY JANE GIRLS all night long / THE GAP BAND outstanding / MTUME juicy
fruit / S.O.S BAND just be good to me / B BOYS two, three, break / THE
PACKMAN I’m the packman / NEWCLEUS jam on revenge (the wikki wikki song)
/ INGRAM dj’s delight / ? / CASHMERE do it anyway you wanna / THE SYSTEM
you are in my system / FATBACK is this the future? / THE RAKE street
justice / INDEEP last night a dj saved my life / AURRA baby love / RP
BAND you are in my system / TIME ZONE the wildstyle / HERBIE HANCOCK
rockit / B BOYS cuttin’ herbie / THE WEBBOES under the wear / ADVANCE
take me to the top / BOOKER NEWBURY III love town / BRASS CONSTRUCTION
walking the line / PURE ENERGY spaced out / MAN PARRISH hip hop be bop
(don’t stop) / TWO SISTERS b boys beware / GRANDMASTER & MELLE MEL white
lines (don’t don’t do it) / G.L.O.B.E & WHIZ KID play that beat mr dj /
TONEY LEE reach up / SANDY KERR thug rock / I LEVEL give me / SALSOUL
ORCHESTRA ooh I love it / DAVID JOSEPH you can’t hide your love / UNIQUE
what I got is what you need / TWO SISTERS high noon / C.O.D in the
bottle / SHANNON let the music play / WEEKS & CO if you’re looking for
fun / TONEY LEE love so deep / JAZZY DEE get on up / VISUAL the music
got me / SHARON REDD love how you feel / KASHIF I just gotta have you /
FREEEZE I-dub-u / SOUL SONIC FORCE looking for the perfect beat / TOM
BROWN rockin’ radio / CAPTAIN ROCK the return of captain rock / MIDNIGHT
STAR freak-a-zoid / CANDIDO jingo breakdown / CAPTAIN RAPP bad times (I
can’t stand it) / SHIRLEY LITES heat you up / D TRAIN music / CHOCOLATE
MILK who’s getting it now / HOT STREAK body work / CLASS ACTION weekend
/ RUN-DMC it’s like that / HASHIM al-naafiysh / THE JONZUN CREW we are
the jonzun crew
On two
GREG WILSON
VARIOUS MIXES PLUS INTERVIEWS 1983-2002
1. 'BUFFALO GALS’ MALCOLM McLAREN & THE WORLD’S FAMOUS SUPREME TEAM–
LIVE MIX 1983
Live mix from 'Legend’ in Manchester using 3 turntables. Recorded onto
cassette, so apologies for the poor sound quality. The track at the
beginning is Klien & MBO’s 'Dirty Talk’.
2. 'D’YA LIKE SCRATCHIN’’ - 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 SL1200’s and a Revox B77 reel-to-reel. Tracks are 'D’Ya
Like Scratchin’’ by Malcolm McLaren & The World’s Famous Supreme Team,
'The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel’ by
Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, 'Break Dancin’ – Electric Boogie’
by the West Street Mob, 'The Wildstyle’ by Time Zone, 'Rockit’ by Herbie
Hancock, 'I’m The Pacman’ by The Pacman, and 'Hobo Scratch’ by Malcolm
McLaren & The World’s Famous Supreme Team.
3. 'FREAK-A-ZOIDS’ – 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 Shaft’s specialist black music show, 'T.C.O.B’
(Taking Care Of Business). This mix features many 'Legend’ and 'Wigan
Pier’ classics from 82/83, including 'Freak-A-Zoid’ by Midnight Star,
'Beat The Street’ by Sharon Redd, 'Confused Beats’ by New Order.
'Walking On Sunshine’ by Rockers Revenge, 'Body Work’ by Hot Streak’,
'The Return Of Captain Rock’ by Captain Rock, 'Heat You Up’ by Shirley
Lites, 'Makin’ Music’ by Gary’s Gang, 'Jingo Breakdown’ by Candido,
'It’s Passion’ by The System, 'Weekend’ by Class Action, Chocolate Milk
'Who’s Getting’ It Now’, 'Toney Lee 'Reach Up’ and others, plus snippets
of some of the more innovative pop 12” mixes of the period, 'Don’t You
Want Me’ by the Human League, 'The Look Of Love’ by ABC, 'Chant No 1’ by
Spandau Ballet and 'Situation’ by Yazoo.
4. 'I FEEL FOR YOU’ 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 Edits’ because I’d 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 WORD’ KISS 100 ELECTRO INTERVIEW 1994
6. 'THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO CLUBLAND’ RADIO 1 ELECTRO INTERVIEW 1994
In 1994 I compiled 'Classic Electro Mastercuts’, which prompted much
media interest in the Electro period. I’ve included two of the radio
interviews I did that year, one for Kiss 100’s Electro special, the
other for Radio 1’s club history, 'The Gospel According To Clubland’.
It’s interesting to note that while Radio 1 cite their own presenter,
Tim Westwood, as the pioneer of the London Electro scene, Kiss’s 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, there’s 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 Allen’s 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 Shaft’s Soul show contemporaries in London, Greg Edwards
and Robbie Vincent, would never have entertained such an idea.
7. 'MONASTIC MIX’ 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 London’s 'Mars Bar’) called 'The
Monastery’. The basic premise was that we didn’t 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 60’s
to the 90’s. A free cassette was given away to everyone who attended the
first night, with the 'Monastic Mix’ 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 Soulwax’s brilliant '2 Many
DJ’s’ mix had a similar anything goes flavour), featuring 60’s Soul,
70’s 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 WHO’S BACK?’ 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
MANCHESTER DJ GURUS – THE FACE 1990
“Greg 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 DJ’s to have used three turntables.
Remembered for his nights at Legend and the Hacienda”.
FROM SLEAZE NATION MAGAZINE (AMANDA CAZA) 1998
“By 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, Manchester’s 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 he’d picked up in Europe plus this weird and wonderful
new form of music sweeping across from New York”.
FROM THE BOOK 'THE NINETIES – WHAT THE F**K WAS THAT ALL ABOUT’ (JOHN
ROBB) 1999
“Greg 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 times…Electro
is one of the key forbears of nineties pop culture”.
FROM THE BOOK 'MANCHESTER, ENGLAND – THE POP CULT CITY’ (DAVE HASLAM) 1999
“Wilson’s 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 history”
FROM REVIEW OF 'CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS’ – BLUES & SOUL (BOB
KILLBOURN) 1994
“Compiled 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 I’m pretty sure Greg did his
fair share of these activities too!). Greg’s 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 show”.
FROM THE BOOK 'AND GOD CREATED MANCHESTER’ (SARAH CHAMPION) 1990
“’The whole black side of Manchester has been completely ignored’ says
Greg Wilson, Manchester’s first electro DJ, on the wheels of steel at
Wigan Pier and Legends in ’82. A disco-chemist, he experimented with
mixing and NY’s new styles…Legends stepped out a whole 18 months before
The Face’s cover feature caught up…By the start of ’83, white hipsters
were changing channels, switching from doom-rock to dance beats. ACR,
New Order, Swamp Children and the like tuned into Legends…’In all things
that have been written about Manchester, the thing that led the way
hasn’t 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 around’ argues Greg”.
FROM THE BOOK 'SHAUN RYDER, HAPPY MONDAYS, BLACK GRAPE & OTHER TRAUMAS’
(MICK MIDDLES) 1997
“Kermit 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
Manchester’s 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 influences”.
FROM THE SLEEVENOTES OF 'CLASSIC ELECTRO MASTERCUTS’ (IAN DEWHIRST) 1994
“Before retiring from deejaying in 1984, Greg had kicked off the first
weekly dance night at The Hacienda and was managing Britain’s best known
breakdance crew, Manchester’s Broken Glass. In ’84 he produced Street
Sounds’ experimental 'UK Electro’ album, and has since produced the
Ruthless Rap Assassins”.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION E-MAIL:
electrofunkroots@yahoo.co.uk
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 it’s 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 you’d 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 'electronic’ or
'electric’ (as they called it) with total contempt, rejecting its
validity on the grounds that it was, in their opinion, 'not real music’
due to its technological nature (although Marvin Gaye’s 'Sexual Healing’
would put paid to that theory). However, as time went on and audience
tastes began to change, even the most hostile DJ’s 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 DJ’s
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 '80’s
Groove’). It wouldn’t 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 80’s period was quite staggering.
It wasn’t 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 70’s (and
as early as the late 60’s in Miles Davis’s 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 Force’s seminal Electro
classic, 'Planet Rock’ (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 Train’s 'You’re The One For Me’
(Prelude), which was massive during late 81, would set the tone, paving
the way for 'Time’ by Stone (West End), 'Feels Good’ by Electra
(Emergency) and two significant Eric Matthew / Darryl Payne productions,
Sinnamon’s 'Thanks To You’ (Becket) and, once again courtesy of Prelude,
'On A Journey (I Sing The Funk Electric)’ by Electrik Funk (the term
Electro-Funk originally deriving from this track, 'electric-funk’ being
amended to Electro-Funk following the arrival of Shock’s 'Electrophonic
Phunk’ on the Californian Fantasy label in June). However, the most
significant of all the early releases was 'Don’t Make Me Wait’ 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, 'Don’t Make Me Wait’ 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 'soulless’ records, especially those that were regarded as
the more 'blatant’ ones (for example, the dreaded 'Planet Rock’ and the
rest of the Tommy Boys stuff, Warp 9 'Nunk’ (Prism), Extra T’s 'ET
Boogie’ (Sunnyview), Man Parrish 'Hip Hop, Be Bop (Don’t Stop)’
(Importe/12), and Italian Zanza 12”, 'Dirty Talk’ 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 Manchester’s
Piccadilly Radio (beginning in May 82), and in August 83 I’d introduce
Electro to a new audience, when I became the first Dance resident at the
now world-famous Hacienda club.
Electro-Funk’s 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 DJ’s 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
'Jellybean’ Benitez and Double Dee & Steinski became role-models for
tuned-in DJ’s 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
Gals’) and, of course, the Herbie Hancock / Bill Laswell combination,
with their Grammy winning 'Rockit’ (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 World’s
Famous Supreme Team’s 'Buffalo Gals’ 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 we’d learn of its origins with Kool DJ Herc, spinning his
famous 'merry-go-round’ 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 craze’, the
scene that surrounded it wouldn’t receive any serious attention here in
the UK until 1984. This followed the runaway success of the Street
Sounds 'Electro’ 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 Won’t Be Beaten’ across its entire
front page in May 84, a full two years on from the US release of 'Planet
Rock’. This substantial delay in recognition went a long way towards
obscuring Electro-Funk’s essential role in kick-staring the 80’s Dance
boom, with many UK club historians bypassing the pivotal early 80’s
period and mistakenly citing Detroit Techno as the trigger. Even the
track that gave birth to Techno, the Juan Atkins / Rick Davies 12”
'Clear’ 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 Electro’ compilation the
following year. Little mention is ever made of the fact that its
remixer, Jose 'Animal’ Diaz, was immersed in NY Electro, with previous
mix credits including 'We Are The Jonzun Crew’ for Tommy Boy, and 'Hip
Hop Be Bop (Don’t Stop)’, which gained a new lease of life following his
much sought-after limited edition mix for Disconet (the DJ Only format
affiliated to Sugarscoop).
Electro’s 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 DJ’s
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 capital’s 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 wouldn’t be
long before musicians and DJ’s 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
it’s inspiration, it’s 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 all’s 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 they’re dancing to.
