Perhaps the defining moment of my reignited DJ career occurred 5 years ago today when my Essential Mix was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 to an overwhelmingly positive response. The comments on the BBC website that followed it’s airing can still be viewed, along with the full tracklisting: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/essentialmix/tracklistingarchive.shtml?20090117 […]
This Friday it’s the 10th Anniversary of the gig that marked my return as a DJ, and I’m celebrating the occasion with a special event at Underdog in Manchester, which is just around the corner from The Attic, the club that hosted the Music Is Better night that did so much to re-launch my DJ career 20 years on from when I’d originally left it behind. Also appearing will be Danny Webb (co-promoter of Music Is Better) and Solid State (aka Richard Hardcastle), who also played on that night back in 2003. Neil Scott from El Diablo’s Social Club, who’s [...]
Complete with snap, crackle, pop, and even the odd skip and jump, these are 7 seminal mix albums pressed onto vinyl during 1977-79, the latter Disco period. 3 of these were officially released, the other 4 being DJ promo only copies. All 7 have now been uploaded to Mixcloud and are available to stream. This is presented in conjunction with last month’s blog post ‘From Garrard To Technics – How British DJs Began To Mix’ – you can get the full lowdown here: https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/08/from-garrard-to-technics-how-british-djs-began-to-mix/ […]
I was recently part of a celebratory weekend, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the ‘Second Summer Of Love’, which, in fact, spanned 2 summers (1988 and 1989), focusing on the key role played by the famous London club night, Shoom. […]
It’s 2013 and Coldcut duo Jonathan More and Matt Black are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their Solid Steel radio show. To mark this milestone, a number of selectors have been invited to contribute a mix to the programme, its presenters choosing various artists and DJs they feel have had a significant presence at some point during the last 25 years. I regard it as a big compliment to be one of those approached, so was more than happy to oblige, the only brief being that they wanted us to weigh in with something that sits outside of that for [...]
It’s my 200th blog post, so, in contrast to my 100th post, which was about the club where, as I’ve previously stated, ‘I experienced my greatest DJ highs’, Legend in Manchester, this time I wanted to to share something that symbolises a time when the garden wasn’t so rosy, and I was struggling with life, both externally and internally. ‘The Monastic Mix’, from 1996, was a much needed catharsis for me, both an ending and a fresh starting point – it was the last mix I ever tape edited, putting it together on my original Revox B77 reel-to-reel, which I’d [...]
When my agent, Matt Johnson, booked me in for ‘A Night With…’, I hadn’t realised that it did exactly what it said on the tin, namely present just the one DJ for the full 8 hours the venue was open. I generally play for either 2 or 3 hours, with the odd 4 hour slot along the way – the only times I can recall playing longer (since I started out again), was a night at The Key in London back in 2005, and then the Credit To The Edit launch parties, both Sunday All-Dayers held at a couple of East End boozers (The Dolphin in 2005 and The Horse & Groom in 2009), so, as you can imagine, it came as a bit of a shock when the penny dropped and I realised that I’d unwittingly signed up for a marathon, but I quickly warmed to the idea and began to ponder the possibilities it presented.
Checked my stats on SoundCloud the other day – I hadn’t looked for a while, so it was an extremely pleasant surprise to find that my account has now generated more than a million plays. It’s quite astonishing how popular SoundCloud has become in such a relatively short period of time, I could never have envisaged such a remarkable response when I uploaded the first of many mixes (currently 66 on there) in 2009 - having just checked the date I’ve only just realised that this mix, from Café Mambo in Ibiza, was recorded exactly 3 years ago today - mad coincidence!
Great to see Todd Terje blowing up big time with his infectious ‘Inspector Norse’ single, a definite candidate for best new dance track of the year, it’s simple complexity the mark of somebody who very much knows what they’re doing, someone with an understanding of both feel and precision who strikes the right balance between head and heart. I suppose that by being a feelgood DJ with a sharp sense of irony, as well as being a student of physics at Oslo University, Terje was bound to have his own unique angle, which, when applied to making music was bound to produce intriguing results.
I’ve put my recent ‘Festival Anthems’ mix up on my SoundCloud. It’s only previously been available to stream, via the oki-ni mix series, but a lot of people have been asking me to make it downloadable.
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