The sixth edition of my ‘Discotheque Archives’ series for DJ Mag is now online, featuring more landmarks in pre-Rave club culture:
JAMES HAMILTON – Having originally started out playing soul in the ’60s, the British DJ / writer would later be a champion of New York style mixing, painstakingly BPMing his records and publishing the information in his Record Mirror reviews.
CASABLANCA RECORDS – With one foot in the film industry of LA and the other in the disco scene of New York, Casablanca, founded in 1973, was an essential label of the ‘70s with a diverse roster including Donna Summer, Parliament, Kiss, Cameo and the Village People.
WIGAN CASINO – Named best club in the world by Billboard magazine in 1978, Wigan Casino was one of the pivotal Northern Soul venues of the ’70s and remains one of the best known British clubs of all time.
THANKS TO YOU – During the hybrid early ‘80s there were so many innovative underground records released, and Sinnamon’s ‘Thanks To You’ would establish the emerging Shep Pettibone as one of NYC’s elite remixers.
Read this month’s column in full here:
http://djmag.com/features/greg-wilsons-discotheque-archives-6
Read all pieces in full here:
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/greg-wilsons-discotheque-archives/
Thanks for another good piece. Aside from an occasional glimpse of him coincidentally in DJ magazine I probably stopped reading James Hamilton’s column in about 1989. I should imagine if he’d lived another couple of years until the Internet had become used by the population en mass he’d have become a sort of cherished oracle and very much in vogue again. We’ll never know. It’s a bit like Steve Walsh being killed in Ibiza back in 1988 supposedly just when he was about to start playing the emerging acid house venues/parties back home and with his personality and following both among blacks and whites he could have become one of the biggest rave djs of the lot but again that’ll remain just another ‘what if’ .