My First / My Favourite

Bowie – My First Great Obsession

I wanted to write in greater personal detail about David Bowie and the depth of impact his music and words had on me during my formative teenage years – this occurring when I was between the ages of 12 and 15. I’d uploaded a blog post once I’d heard about his death, but I’ve found myself needing to revisit what was a magical mystical part of my musical / life initiation, as much for myself as anyone else, both by listening through the records I loved, and still love, whilst getting it all into words somehow. Once I started writing [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:42+00:00February 12, 2016|Bowie, My First / My Favourite, The Seventies|19 Comments

Christmas Classics

12 months ago, in the post ‘A Christmas Gift For You’, I related one of my favourite aspects of Christmas – how it provides the opportunity for me to give an annual listen or two to the seasonal masterpiece, ‘A Christmas Gift For You’ (aka ‘Phil Spector’s Christmas Album’). https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2010/12/a-christmas-gift-for-you/ By the same token, the festive season has its own special movies that are always good to watch again, no matter how often you’ve seen them before, because they embody the spirit of Christmas, connecting you right back to your younger self, when the magic shone brightest.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:56+00:00December 21, 2011|Animation, DVD, Film, Misc, My First / My Favourite, TV|15 Comments

My Favourite Number 1

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…”

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:57+00:00October 21, 2011|Black Culture, Hear, Merseyside, My First / My Favourite, Records, The Seventies, The Sixties|4 Comments

My Most Scary Movie

Which was the first movie to really scare the hell out of you? Like many kids of my generation, during my pre-teen years I was fascinated by Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy and, of course, my favourite, The Wolfman, which used to be shown as part of a horror series every Monday night on ITV, if my memory serves me right. These mainly ‘Hammer Horrors’ (Hammer being a UK production company that specialised in the horror genre from the mid-50’s to the 70’s), were supplemented with dodgy US b-movies, one of which, for some strange reason, stuck in my memory, with a post-atomic giant scorpion terrorising an American city.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:59+00:00May 24, 2011|Film, Hear, My First / My Favourite, See, The Seventies, Video|15 Comments

My First Record

For my 50th blog post, I’m going to return to the ‘My First...’ theme that was so well received (‘My First 12”’ and ‘my First X’, both back in July), and ask an even more obvious question – what was the first record you ever purchased (the one you paid for with your own money, rather than it being bought for you – be it 7”, LP, 12” or CD)?

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:38:00+00:00November 24, 2010|My First / My Favourite, Records, See, The Eighties, The Seventies, TV|31 Comments

My First X

Can you remember what was the first X (or 18) rated film you saw? For people around my age and older this would have been at the cinema, for those a bit younger probably on video, and for those younger still on DVD (no doubt it’ll be via the internet for many people these days). Mine was ‘Cabaret’ in 1972 when I was twelve. I saw it at the Phoenix cinema in Wallasey Village, which had two screens – I’d paid to see whatever was on the other screen, which would have had the old A classification and been deemed suitable for someone of my age, but I wasn’t into it and, by way of trying to salvage my evening, this resulted in a successful attempt to slip into ‘Cabaret’ unnoticed. I knew nothing about the film beforehand, but it would make a lasting impression on me.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:38:02+00:00July 19, 2010|DVD, Film, Hear, My First / My Favourite, See, The Seventies, Video|28 Comments

My First 12″

In August ‘76 the postman delivered what I originally thought was an LP, but, on closer inspection, discovered to be a 12” single’ - the first I’d ever seen. It included 3 tracks from the Lalo Schifrin album ‘Black Widow’ - on one side ‘Flamingo’ and ‘Quiet Village’, with the other side taken up by what would become a big UK club track, ‘Jaws’ (Schrifin’s discofied adaptation of the theme music from the 1975 blockbuster movie, which provided director Steven Spielberg with his major breakthrough). It was sent to me by the club promotion company M.I.F.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:38:02+00:00July 8, 2010|DJ / Club Culture, Hear, My First / My Favourite, Records, The Seventies|85 Comments

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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