Dance

Life And Death On The New York Dance Floor 1980-1983

Back in the early 2000s, when I began to explore the internet properly, discovering a number of DJ forums discussing dance culture and its history, it was clear that the early ’80s had been largely obscured. This was the period that followed the supposed death of Disco in 1979 (prompted by the vitriolic racist / homophobic ‘’Disco Sucks’ campaign fronted by WLUP Chicago shock jock Steve Dahl), and preceded the emergence of House music during the mid-’80s. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:41+00:00August 30, 2016|Books, Dance, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, The Eighties|10 Comments

Proto Disco Days

Today marks the 40th anniversary of my first club appearance. Last night I played for 5 hours at The Garage and tonight I’m at The Jacaranda to conclude a celebratory weekend in my home city of Liverpool with a talk about what it was like to be a DJ back in those proto-Disco days. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:43+00:00December 6, 2015|Dance, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Merseyside, The Eighties, The Seventies|3 Comments

Low Life / The Demise Of The DJ Forum

One of London’s longest running, and most influential underground club nights, Low Life, bowed out with a bang on Halloween. The party originally started in New York back in the early ’90s (before transferring to London in 1997), its driving force being Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton, who were later to publish the book ‘Last Night A DJ Saved My Life’ (1999), charting the history of the DJ, as well as subsequently setting up the DJ History website. A Ransom Note interview with Bill outlines the reasons behind the decision to call it a day, not only with Low Life, [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:43+00:00November 26, 2015|Dance, DJ / Club Culture|4 Comments

Tracey Emin – Why I Never Became A Dancer

A few years ago I wanted to show a friend Tracey Emin’s 1995 short film, ‘Why I Never Became A Dancer’, but couldn’t find it anywhere online. The last time I’d seen it was perhaps a decade earlier, at The Tate Gallery in Liverpool, so I surmised that, given it’s part of the Tate Collection, it would only be possible to view in an arts space, and not on the internet. I looked to see if I could buy a copy, but no luck there either. Anyhow, it came up in conversation again a few nights ago so I had [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:43+00:00February 12, 2015|Art & Design, Dance, Disco, The Nineties, The Seventies, TV|11 Comments

Mr Mancuso

I’ve just gone and bought myself a painting – a first for me. It’s only a small one, not quite the size of an A4 sheet, acrylic paint on canvas, but when I realised it was for sale I figured it would be rude not to buy it. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:46+00:00December 5, 2013|Dance, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances|3 Comments

Northern Renaissance

The Northern Soul movement has marked 2 significant anniversaries this year – the launch of the weekly All-Nighters at the scene’s most famous venue, Wigan Casino, in 1973, as well as the opening of its foundation club, Manchester’s Twisted Wheel, 10 years earlier. A new book, ‘Northern Soul – An Illustrated History’ was recently published by Virgin Books, its co-author, Bury-born Elaine Constantine, also the director of the upcoming film ‘Northern Soul’. The book has been well received by Northern aficionados, Constantine (and Gareth Sweeney) congratulated for their insightful overview of the movement, which is enhanced by the anecdotal offerings [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:46+00:00November 21, 2013|Dance, DJ / Club Culture, Film, General, Records, The Seventies, The Sixties|21 Comments

David Mancuso And The Art Of Deejaying Without Deejaying

David Mancuso’s London Loft party, ‘Journey Through The Light’, celebrates its 10th anniversary on June 23rd. Held Upstairs @ The Light in Shoreditch, it’s a party like no other, underpinned by a high-end audiophile sound system that has to be heard to be believed. Although its originator, now approaching his 70s, hasn’t been able to make it in person during recent times, the party continues in his absence, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy his chosen stand in (he hopes to return for future dates though). […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:48+00:00May 31, 2013|Dance, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, Psychedelia, The Seventies|24 Comments

Random Access Moroder

The most talked about album in many years, Daft Punk’s ‘Random Access Memories’, is released in the UK today, and, as discussed in my post from the beginning of the month, ‘Disco Now Disco Then’ (https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/05/disco-now-disco-then-2), it’s all set to blitz the charts worldwide. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:48+00:00May 20, 2013|Dance, Disco, DJ / Club Culture|21 Comments

Northern Soul – A Photographic Journey

I’ve mentioned Brian Cannon here a few times, we used to work closely together way back when, between the mid-80’s and early 90’s when he did the artwork for pretty much all of the records I produced, including those by the Ruthless Rap Assassins and Kiss AMC, whom I also managed, securing deals for them with EMI. Brian subsequently went on to become the best-known record sleeve designer of the Britpop era, working in-house for both Oasis and The Verve under his Microdot moniker.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:50+00:00December 6, 2012|Books, Dance, DJ / Club Culture, Hear, Manchester, Photography, Records, See, The Eighties, The Seventies, The Sixties|4 Comments

Kudos To Morgan Khan

During the 1980’s Morgan Khan was viewed as a ‘dance music mogul’, a true instigator who enriched British culture via his unyielding efforts, driven by ‘an ego’, as Blues & Soul once put it, ‘bordering on the manic’ – Khan was (and remains) a force of nature. The fact that his absolutely pivotal contribution to the UK dance movement is constantly ignored remains a great travesty. If you know nothing about his Street Sounds label your knowledge of how dance culture developed in this country is terminally flawed – it’s as simple as that.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:51+00:00November 9, 2012|Black Culture, Dance, DJ / Club Culture, Records, The Eighties|9 Comments

12 Next

2026 DJ DATES:

31.12 Todmorden – NYE @ The Golden Lion

17.01 Belfast – The Deer’s Head

23.01 Bristol – Lost Horizon

05.02 New York – Jeans

07.02 Upstate New York – Disco Chalet

13.02 Los Angeles – Spotlight

14.02 San Francisco – Great Northern

21.02 London – Fac 51 Haçienda @ Drumsheds

06.03 Brussels – C12 Brussels

08.03 Bognor Regis – Bugged Out

21.03 Leeds – Downtown Disco @ Archive

03.04 Carlisle – The Brickyard

04.04 Dewsbury – The Terrace

05.04 Liverpool – Gloria’s

18.04 Margate – Margate Arts Club

19.04 London – Jazz Cafe

24.04 Manchester – Manchester Cathedral

02.05 London – Disco Disco @ Queens Yard

16.05 Bristol – Where We Belong Festival

23.05 Hastings – The Print Works

30.05 Steyning – Steyning Festival

12.06 Stockport – Moovin Festival

20.06 Newcastle – Frate

27.06 Penzance – Golowan Festival

11.07 London – Brixton Freight Island

26.07 Manchester Freight Island

26.07 Hertfordshire – Campo Sanchez

31.07 Oxfordshire – Wilderness Festival

15.08 Newcastle- E-Soul Cultura @ Freight Island

15.08 Warrington- Brickhaus

18.08 Ibiza- 528

23.08 Dorset- We Out Here Festival

04.09 Lindisfarne Festival

05.09 Battle – Crafted @ Powdermills

10.09 Winchester – Mucky Weekender

I’m a DJ from Merseyside. I started out in 1975, but stopped for almost 20 years, between 1984 and the end of 2003, at which point I started again.

One night during the period I wasn’t deejaying, turning off my mind, relaxing, and floating downstream I had what might be termed a moment of clarity. Paradoxically, although I was no longer a DJ in the literal sense I suddenly became aware that I’d never actually stopped being a DJ, for even if I was in a room with just one person I couldn’t help but ask them ‘have you heard this?’, and not only ‘heard’, but ‘have you seen this / read this?’, for it goes beyond music. Already taken somewhat aback by this nugget of self-discovery, I realised, in true eureka style, that this all pre-dates my being a DJ and goes back as far as I can remember – I’ve always had an inherent need to share, it’s absolutely central to my nature. This was quite a revelation.

So it’s no wonder that I became a Disc Jockey, for once I fell in love with those circular pieces of magical plastic during my formative years, it wasn’t a matter of choosing this as a path, the path pretty much chose me.

I don’t intend this to be a DJ blog as such, but more a blog by someone who happens to be a DJ – a place where personal emphasis takes precedence over professional, although, as I’ve already explained, the two aspects are, of course, inescapably entwined.

If you want info about my DJ appearances, email greg@gregwilson.co.uk for regular updates.

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