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Year Of Decision

by on 06. Jan, 2012 in Black Culture, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Hear, Misc, Records, The Seventies

On New Year’s Eve, for the first time since I started up again, I was deejaying as one year passed into the next. Although I’ve had bookings every New Year’s Eve since 2004, I’ve always played after midnight, but this year I made 2 separate appearances in London, the first at the Slide & Get Diverted party in the Brixton Clubhouse between 11pm and 1am (my later date, from 3am and 5am would be over in Greenwich at the Defected event at Proud2 in the O2 Arena).

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Living To Music – The Stone Roses ‘The Stone Roses’

by on 21. Dec, 2011 in Art & Design, CD’s / Digital, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Hear, Living To Music, Manchester, Merseyside, Photography, Psychedelia, Records, The Beatles, The Eighties, The Nineties

As we enter 2012 I thought this would be the ideal Living To Music choice to kick off the year, especially given that the first Sunday in January is also the first day of a new year. This highly acclaimed and much-loved 1989 LP, which perfectly caught the mood of the times, provides us with the opportunity to re-visit the past, whilst looking ahead to the summer. When an announcement was made earlier this year, that The Stone Roses are to re-form for 2 shows at Manchester’s Heaton Park in June 2012 (with a 3rd later added), there was genuine intrigue and anticipation. This wasn’t a case of another comeback cash-in, but something more symbolic. If ever there was a band with unfinished business to accomplish, it’s The Stone Roses.

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Remix, Cut ‘n’ Paste, Mash-Up and Edit

by on 07. Dec, 2011 in Documentaries, DVD, Hear, Records, Remixes / Edits, The Eighties, Video

As I navigated the winding country lanes on my way to the M5 from Minehead, where I'd been playing the Sunday night 1.00am-3.00am closing slot / graveyard shift at the inaugural ‘House Of Fun’ weekender, I was pleased to discover that there was a programme on the radio about the JFK assassination 48 years ago in 1963. Always a subject of fascination, this would help me whittle away half an hour of journey time as I weaved onwards towards the motorway.

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Living To Music – Michael Jackson ‘Off The Wall’

by on 29. Nov, 2011 in Black Culture, CD’s / Digital, General, Hear, Living To Music, Records, The Seventies

This Sunday (Dec 4th), at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate. Full lowdown here:
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2010/06/living-to-music/

Even though it's almost two and a half years since his death in June 2009, Michael Jackson remains ever-newsworthy. Only recently, the trial of the physician who administered the drugs that killed him, Dr Conrad Murray, came to a conclusion with Murray convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

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Random Influences On iTunes

by on 25. Nov, 2011 in CD’s / Digital, Hear, Radio, Random Influences, Records, The Seventies, The Sixties

Very pleased to inform you that all 12 episodes of Random Influences are now available on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad via the Radio ditto app, downloadable for free from iTunes...

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Back To Back To Basics

by on 24. Nov, 2011 in CD’s / Digital, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Hear, Mixes, Read, Records, The Nineties

Congratulations to Northern dance institution Back To Basics, which is 20 years old this week! To commemorate this pretty momentous occasion for what is the longest running club night in the world, Ralph Lawson, resident there since day one, has launched a blog, Basic Vision, in which he’ll be sharing his memories, most notably via a series of lovingly constructed mixes that document the music he’s played there down the years, which will come complete with Ralph’s accompanying track-by-track text.

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Living To Music – Janelle Monáe ‘The ArchAndroid’

by on 31. Oct, 2011 in CD’s / Digital, Hear, Living To Music, Records

This Sunday (Nov 6th), at 9pm, you’re invited to share a listening session with some likeminded souls, wherever you might be. This can be experienced either alone or communally, and you don’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to participate. Full lowdown here:
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2010/06/living-to-music/

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Whatever Happened To The Soul?

by on 27. Oct, 2011 in Black Culture, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Hear, Records, Remixes / Edits, The Eighties, The Seventies

Earlier this month Leftside Wobble shared an edit of Man Friday’s ‘Love Honey, Love Heartache’ on his SoundCloud. I left a comment highlighting the history of this track, which read as follows:

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My Favourite Number 1

by on 21. Oct, 2011 in Black Culture, Hear, Merseyside, My First / My Favourite, Records, The Seventies, The Sixties

Without ever properly considering this question I’ve heard myself instinctively tell people, on more than one occasion, that mine is ‘Double Barrel’ by Dave & Ansil Collins, which claimed the top spot on the UK chart for 2 weeks in May 1971, when I was 11. Like everyone else, I assumed Dave & Ansil were brothers, but Dave was Dave Barker, who’d had previous success in Jamaica as a solo artist working with the great producer Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry. For ‘Double Barrel’ he’d been brought into the studio by another producer, Winston Riley, and asked to add a talking voice to Ansil’s backing track (Ansil was really Ansell, also sometimes credited as Ansel – I’ll stick to the spelling on the single I owned). Dave was encouraged, as he told Lloyd Bradley in ‘Bass Culture’, to “t’ink big like some big giant man. Like Hercules or James Bond, Double-O-Seven, or somet’ing”. Taking up the challenge he toasted the unforgettable line “I am the magnificent, I'm backed by the shack of a soul boss most turnin' stormin' sound o'soul…”

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Sylvia Robinson

by on 30. Sep, 2011 in Black Culture, DJ / Club Culture, Hear, Records, RIP, The Eighties, The Seventies

Sylvia Robinson, dubbed ‘the Mother Of Hip Hop’, died yesterday.

Along with husband, Joe, she founded All Platinum, one of the leading black music labels of the proto-Disco era, before going on to carve their names in Hip Hop history via their Sugar Hill company, which, along with many other influential recordings, would release a trio of truly seminal singles - ‘Rappers Delight’ by The Sugarhill Gang, the first rap hit in 1979, ‘The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel ‘ by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, the herald of turntablism in 1981, and another Flash & The Five track ‘The Message’, presenting rap with a social conscience in 1982.

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