The Sixties

Their Name Liveth For Evermore

On October 5th 1962 the first single by The Beatles, ‘Love Me Do’ c/w ‘P.S. I Love You’, was released in the UK on the Parlophone label. Principally written by Paul McCartney a few years earlier, when he was 16 (John Lennon added the middle-eight), and based around 3 chords, it was the first of a run of 3 singles that featured John Lennon on harmonica – the others being ‘Please Please Me’ and ‘From Me To You’, both released the following year (the instrument, a signature of the early Beatles sound, was retired by Lennon 1965). The harmonica used [...]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:51+00:00October 5, 2012|Merseyside, The Beatles, The Sixties|3 Comments

Video Blog – Judy Garland Sings ‘The Trolley Song’

Judy Garland ‘The Trolley Song’ From ‘Meet Me In St Louis’ 1944 And also CBS TV Special 1962 […]

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:52+00:00September 19, 2012|Film, The Forties, The Sixties, TV, Video Blog|0 Comments

How Clubbing Changed The World

Last month I was over in Chicago chilling out in my hotel room ahead of my first gig in the city, at Smart Bar, a venue with a rich tradition, which opened back in 1982. Chicago is, of course, along with Detroit, Philadelphia and New York, revered as a key US city when it comes to the evolution of dance culture (and, indeed, black culture, with, way before House, a deep heritage in Rhythm & Blues, Blues and Jazz, dating right back to the ‘great migration’ of black workers from the southern states, beginning just over 100 years ago).

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:52+00:00September 14, 2012|Black Culture, Books, Disco, DJ / Club Culture, Documentaries, Read, The Eighties, The Nineties, The Seventies, The Sixties, TV|70 Comments

Sit Down! Listen To This!

Whilst DJ obsessives in this country could tell you the minutia with regards to New York’s celebrated club culture of the 70’s, I’m often surprised to find that they know precious little about what was happening here in the UK at the same time David Mancuso, Nicky Siano, Larry Levan and the other NY legends of the 70’s were bringing Disco to the fore. Maybe they think that there wasn’t much happening here, and that UK DJ’s were simply following the US lead, whilst, to the contrary, nothing could be further from the truth – go back into the 70’s, before Disco hit its stride, and you’ll find hugely influential figures including Ian Levine, Colin Curtis and Les Spaine in the North, Chris Hill, Bob Jones and George Power in the South – DJ’s with a wealth of knowledge between them, who made their mark on popular culture here at root level. These are giants, upon the shoulders of which subsequent generations of British DJ’s stand, whether they know it or not.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 21, 2012|Black Culture, Books, DJ / Club Culture, Manchester, Merseyside, Read, The Eighties, The Seventies, The Sixties|23 Comments

San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)

Scott McKenzie, the singer of the 1967 Summer Of Love anthem ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’, died last weekend, aged 73. With the hippie movement growing at pace, on January 14th 1967 ‘A Gathering Of The Tribes For A Human Be-In’ was held in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The event was in reaction to the banning of the drug LSD the previous October, and between 20-30,000 turned out, far more than anyone could have imagined, listening to music by bands like The Grateful Dead, Santana, The Steve Miller Band and Jefferson Airplane, and talks by counterculture guru’s like Allen Ginsberg, Richard Alpert (later to be change his name to Ram Dass), Dick Gregory, Jerry Rubin and, of course, Timothy Leary, who introduced the famous psychedelic slogan ‘turn on, tune in, drop out’ that day. This acted as an invitation to young and curious people far and wide to leave their workplace or their schools and colleges and join the hippie adventure.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 20, 2012|Hear, Psychedelia, RIP, The Sixties|0 Comments

Video Blog – ‘The Rich Man’s Frug’ From Sweet Charity

Bob Fosse was one of the most innovative choreographers of both Broadway’s and Hollywood’s post-war era, his best-known work being ‘Sweet Charity’ (director / choreographer - stage 1966, film 1969), ‘Cabaret’ (director / choreographer - film 1972), ‘Chicago’ (writer / director / choreographer – stage 1975), and ‘All That Jazz’ (writer / director / choreographer – film 1979).

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00August 17, 2012|Dance, Film, The Sixties, Video, Video Blog|2 Comments

Living To Music – Pink Floyd ‘Wish You Were Here’

To mark the start of the third year of Living To Music, this is the first time an artist has been selected for the second session. I felt it right that the distinction goes to Pink Floyd given that their 1973 classic, ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’, which featured back in September 2010, garnered more comments than any other previous selection

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00July 31, 2012|CD’s / Digital, Documentaries, Hear, Living To Music, Records, The Seventies, The Sixties|11 Comments

Video Blog – Ravi Shankar At Monterey Pop

If I could have been at one single event during the 60’s, the Monteray Pop Festival in 1967’s ‘Summer Of Love’ is likely to have been it. D.A. Pennebaker's superb film of this historic gathering manages to get right to the essence of the era, for whilst the East Coast Woodstock festival, 2 years later, has been the enduring symbol of the 60’s, the moment when, through sheer force of numbers, the power of this new generation was acknowledged, Monteray, on the West Coast, set the wheels in motion, being the first festival of its type and a triumph of the Hippie spirit.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00July 25, 2012|Live Performance, Psychedelia, See, The Sixties, Video, Video Blog|6 Comments

Bob Babbitt

Just over 2 months on from the passing of iconic bass man, Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn of Booker T. & The M.G’s, another of Soul’s most prolific bass players, Bob Babbitt, a member of Motown’s illustrious studio band, the Funk Brothers, died yesterday, aged 74.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:53+00:00July 17, 2012|Black Culture, Documentaries, DVD, Records, RIP, The Seventies, The Sixties|1 Comment

Detroit Hustles Harder

I feel fully in the throes of festival season following last weekend's Movement Detroit - it was a great way to make my debut in the city, with a Saturday main stage appearance in an impressive amphitheatre location. The previous 2 overseas festivals I’ve been booked to play, Playground in Australia (March) and Rainbow Disco Club in Japan (early May), were both frustratingly cancelled due to flooding. This time, despite a spot of rain early in the afternoon, the sun decided to smile on Detroit and it was a glorious day, made all the more satisfying via the feedback from both the audience and those backstage.

By Greg Wilson|2025-04-07T10:37:54+00:00June 1, 2012|Articles, Black Culture, DJ Appearances, Documentaries, Photography, The Seventies, The Sixties|15 Comments

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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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