GREG WILSON PRESENTS SCHOOLED IN THE CLASSICS 
PRESS RELEASE

2013 sees Greg Wilson taking his first steps back into record production, starting off with Schooled In The Classics, a series of groove based dance tunes put together to play out at his gigs, the initial tracks being first road tested in Chicago and New York last year to a great response. Greg now plans to issue 8 Schooled In The Classics tracks this year, both digitally and via 4 limited edition 180g vinyl releases. The first 2 tracks in the series, ’12-Turn-13’ and ‘Blue Angel’, will be issued on Feb 26th.

Drawing inspiration from his past to record new material, Greg’s intention is not to attempt to re-create what went before, but to try to channel the more freeflowing spirit of those times. The project name, Schooled In The Classics, is a tip of the hat to the New York luminaries of the early 80’s like Tee Scott, Shep Pettibone, Larry Levan, François Kevorkian and John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez, whose experimental, dub influenced approach to dance music gifted us with so many superbly innovative club mixes, inspiring everything that followed, as dance culture emerged from the underground to explode into the mainstream glare during the late 80’s Acid House / Rave era.

During Greg's two decade DJ hiatus, his primary occupation was that of producer, and it’s an area of work to which he has always intended to return. 2013 is a fitting year for this, being that it's 30 years on from Greg's original venture into production, in 1983, when he went into the studio for the first time, recording some of the demos for what would evolve into the Street Sounds ‘UK Electro’ album, on which he co-wrote / produced all but one of the tracks. It would reach #60 on the UK chart in 1984, and acquire cult status as a forbearer of what would happen a few years later in the decade, when British dance music really came into its own via a new wave of home-grown artists including Coldcut, M/A/R/R/S, Bomb The Bass and S Express, A Guy Called Gerald and 808 State.

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Greg Wilson Presents Schooled In The Classics 'Blue Angel'

Grumpy old-fart and avid consumer of music, from disco to techno.

Bookings: matt@thepool-london.com 
Promos: promo@gregwilson.co.uk 
DJ Dates: https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/upcoming-dj-dates/
Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester’s majorly influential Legend, having originally started out in his hometown, New Brighton. A pioneer of mixing in the UK, he became the first ‘dance music’ specialist hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester’s now legendary Haçienda club in 1983. Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’.

In 2003 he set up electrofunkroots, a website documenting this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture. After a two decade hiatus from the booth, he returned to DJing and soon welcomed bookings throughout Europe and, subsequently, worldwide.

Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV, putting together the first UK radio mixes of their type for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester and showing a certain Norman Cook (later Fatboy Slim) how to scratch.

Nominated by DJ Magazine for outstanding contribution, and also named amongst their top twenty remixers of all-time, Greg’s remix credits include Grace Jones, The XX, Groove Armada, Bryan Ferry, Confidence Man, Gilberto Gil and Simian Mobile Disco, whilst he’s edited tracks by A Guy Called Gerald, Talking Heads, O.M.D., Electronic, Imagination and Missy Elliot.

In January 2009 Greg’s reputation was further enhanced when his Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 received almost universal acclaim and was selected as one of 10 classics that spanned the show’s near 17 year history.

Greg’s Blog, ‘Being A DJ’, was launched in June 2010 for observations on various aspects of club culture now an online touchstone for an ever-increasing amount of dance enthusiasts and aficionados.

In August 2010 he co-curated areas at the inaugural Vintage Festival at Goodwood, which was named ‘Best New Festival’ at the UK Festival Awards.

He has produced a series of documentary podcasts, Time Capsule, Random Influences and Early 80’s Floorfillers, as well as the long-running blog series, Living To Music.

Greg has given talks on music and DJ culture at a number events at venues The Tate Gallery in Liverpool and London's Southbank and Institute Of Contemporary Arts, whilst in 2013 he was invited onto a panel alongside legendary figures Nile Rodgers and Giorgio Moroder @ ADE in Amsterdam. 

In 2014 he unveiled the multi-media label Super Weird Substance, focusing on recording and live events. In 2015, the label released 8 vinyl singles, brought together in the 2 CD comp, 'Greg Wilson Presents Super Weird Substance'. September 2015 saw a memorable Festival No.6 Happening in Portmeirion and Greg rounded off the year with the Liverpool-based celebration of the 40th anniversary of his first club date in 1975 as well as being presented with DJ Magazine's Industry Icon award.

Greg launched his Credit To The Edit club collective at 2016's Festival No.6 and since then has taken it to Liverpool, Berlin, Brixton, Bethnal Green and finally back to Portmeirion for Festival No.6 2017.

2017 saw his label host the epic 14 Hour Super Weird Happening at Liverpool's Florrie, following a mixtape collaboration with Alan Moore, who also appeared at the Happening, whilst it also saw the digital release of The Super Weird Society's 'Gone With The Vibe', released the following year on the first Substance Select 12" vinyl alongside 'The Ghosts Of Watling Street', 'The Best Is Yet To Come' and 'Summer Came My Way'. 2018 also saw the release of Vol.3 in Greg's long-running Credit To The Edit compilation series.

After a handful of further releases, the label was put into hibernation with the onset of covid. Diversifying, ‘Greg Wilson’s Discotheque Archives’ was issued during 2020 lockdown as a limited run paperback, with more books, both Wilson’s own projects and by other authors, now planned.