We’ve lost another great. Virginia-born Soul singer / songwriter Bill Withers died in Los Angeles on March 30th as a result of heart complications. He was 81.
Tag Archives | Michael Jackson
Manu Dibango
COVID-19 claimed the life of the pioneering Cameroonian musician Manu Dibango earlier this week. He died in Paris where he had been based for many years, moving there in the mid-‘60s – he was 86.
Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives #21
The twenty first edition of my ‘Discotheque Archives’ series for DJ Mag is now online, featuring more landmarks in pre-Rave club culture:
Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives #15
The fifteenth edition of my ‘Discotheque Archives’ series for DJ Mag is now online, featuring more landmarks in pre-Rave club culture:
Rod Temperton
News has just emerged that Cleethorpes born Rod Temperton died from cancer in London last week, aged 66. The musician / songwriter was best known for his collaborations with Michael Jackson on the classic albums ‘Off The Wall’ (1979) and ‘Thriller’ (1982), as well as being part of the band Heatwave, who scored a string of hits in the ‘70s including ‘Boogie Nights’, ‘ ‘Always And Forever’, ‘Too Hot To Handle’, ‘Mind Blowing Decisions’ and ‘The Groove Line’, the first two going platinum in the US.
Prince
Minnepolis born music icon Prince Rogers Nelson, better known as simply Prince, died today at his Paisley Park estate in Minnesota aged 57. The cause of his death is still undetermined as I write this, but last week he was taken into hospital for a few days with flu-like symptoms, following an emergency plane landing in Illinois after he’d performed in Atlanta.
Revisionism – Remixing The Reflex Way
A couple of months ago, when I last played in Brighton, I was talking to Paul Budd, the promoter (and DJ Pablo Contraband), about how things were going with his Unity Agency (a man of many fingers in pies is Paul / Pablo). He was really excited about just having added The Reflex as the latest addition to an increasingly impressive roster that also includes the likes of Late Nite Tuff Guy, Rayko, Social Disco Club and Fingerman. The Reflex is London based French DJ / Producer, Nicolas Laugier, and it wasn’t just his work that impressed Paul, but his overall persona. Paul told me;
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 the clubs and, of course, all over the internet, becoming the most streamed new release in Spotify history. It’s already been re-edited by a whole host of DJs and is pretty much nailed on to be the single of the summer.
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
Beware The Moon
Tonight something happens that only happens every blue moon – a blue moon. This provides the perfect excuse for me to watch a favourite film of the early ’80s, the John Landis comedy horror, ‘An American Werewolf In London’ (1981).
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