The Eighties

Disco Now Disco Then

Daft Punk are sitting pretty at the top of the UK singles chart for the first time. The track in question, ‘Get Lucky’, taken from their forthcoming album, ‘Random Access Memories’, came as something of a surprise, for instead of hitching itself to the current EDM juggernaut that’s sweeping America, the French duo have completely bucked the trend by drawing their influence from Disco, featuring its most celebrated guitarist, the great Nile Rodgers of the Chic Organisation (as well as R&B vocalist, Pharrell Williams). A media sensation, it’s everywhere at the moment – on the radio, on the TV, in [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:48+00:00May 1, 2013|Black Culture, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, Remixes / Edits, The Eighties, The Seventies|33 Comments

Richie Havens

Richie Havens died of a heart attack yesterday at his New Jersey home. He was 72. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:49+00:00April 23, 2013|Black Culture, RIP, The Eighties, The Seventies, The Sixties|0 Comments

Vincent Montana, Jr.

Vincent Montana, Jr. one of the unsung figures of the Disco era, died last Saturday, aged 85. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:49+00:00April 15, 2013|Black Culture, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, RIP, The Eighties, The Seventies|2 Comments

Danny Krivit – Roller DJ

A week on Saturday I play a pretty special London gig at Loft Studios alongside NYC edit maestro Danny Krivit, the guy who set the standard back in the ’80s with his classic re-imagining of MFSB’s ‘Love Is The Message’, one of the quintessential New York Disco anthems. Full lowdown on the gig here, at Resident Advisor: http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?440816 […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:49+00:00April 12, 2013|Black Culture, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, The Eighties, The Seventies|16 Comments

On The Tube

Exactly 30 years ago today, on 25th February 1983, I appeared on Channel 4’s influential music show, ‘The Tube’, demonstrating mixing for the first time on live TV in the UK – just my luck that the very point I was encapsulated in a cultural moment, it coincided with a brief phase where I looked like an extra from the Hair Bear Bunch, but that’s the way the mop flops. The footage is nowadays fondly regarded as part of British dance heritage, illustrating how the New York innovation of mixing was finally finding favour on this side of the Atlantic, [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:50+00:00February 25, 2013|DJ / Club Culture, DJ Appearances, Interviews, Magazines, See, The Eighties, TV|7 Comments

Mark Kamins

Really shocked to hear that one of the great New York DJs, Mark Kamins, died in Guadalajara, Mexico last Thursday (Feb 14th) following a heart attack – he was only 57. Although our paths nearly crossed almost 30 years ago, it wasn’t until 2007 that I finally got to meet Mark, when he came to see me play in Vienna, where he lived at the time, and then again in Paris in 2009, after he’d moved there. Having returned to his home city, we planned to hook-up in New York 2 years ago, when I was over for Brooklyn’s Mister [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:50+00:00February 18, 2013|DJ / Club Culture, RIP, The Eighties|11 Comments

Early ’80s Floorfillers

Just uploaded the December ’82 edition of ‘Early ’80s Floorfillers’, which re-visits the biggest tracks I was playing on my nights back in ’82/’83, when I was a black music specialist, resident at venues including Wigan Pier, Legend, The Exit, Berties and The Haçienda in Manchester, and The Stars Bar in Huddersfield. The series is available to stream / download via SoundCloud and my Electrofunkroots website, which includes label / record sleeve scans for all the tracks that make the chart, along with a list of ‘other big tunes’ that month. […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:50+00:00December 28, 2012|Black Culture, DJ / Club Culture, Hear, Manchester, Records, The Eighties|2 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

Living To Music – Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan ‘Rufusized’

I’m going to indulge myself this month with an album that I don’t think has ever been given its full dues, despite selling over a million copies following its release in 1974. As far as I’m concerned, it should be recognised as one of the great Soul / Funk albums of the 70’s, but, having introduced it to so many people down the years, a fair percentage of whom I was surprised had never previously heard it, I’m aware that there’s a blind spot when it comes to ‘Rufusized’, which, to my mind, perfectly fits the description of ‘hidden classic’.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:50+00:00November 27, 2012|Black Culture, CD’s / Digital, Hear, Living To Music, Records, The Eighties, The Seventies, Video|10 Comments

Video Blog – Wild Style At The Amphitheatre

‘Wild Style’ is the quintessential Hip Hop movie – a docudrama, produced and directed by Charlie Ahern, that captures the movement just before it explodes on an unsuspecting world, subsequently providing the most influential cultural palette of the late 20th century via its 4 elements, emceeing, DJing, b-boying and graffiti.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:51+00:00November 16, 2012|DJ / Club Culture, Film, Live Performance, The Eighties, TV, Video, Video Blog|3 Comments

Previous 567 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 Festival05.09 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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