Houghton is a music & arts festival set in the Norfolk countryside. Archive audio recordings from a variety of artists past and present who have performed at Houghton are available through this soundcloud.


https://www.houghtonfestival.co.uk/

GIDEÖN
HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS / NYC DOWNLOW / ADONIS / R3 SOUNDSYSTEM / BLOCK9

GIDEÖN has a background in music spanning 33 years. In addition to his studio practice as a recording artist, his work as a creative director, stage designer and curator, he is also a touring DJ and an avid collector of vinyl. Since his first set of turntables in 1990, GIDEÖN has devoted his life to collecting vinyl from the US, Jamaica, Latin America, Africa, and the UK. He specialises in Northern Soul, Latin, Reggae, Gospel, and Disco rarities. House Music, above all else, is his first and greatest love. 

He is currently Creative Director of a new opera being developed in partnership with English National Opera. He has a degree in Music with Visual Practice (BA Hons) and was guest Creative Director of Music for London Borough of Culture 2022. Recent projects have seen Gideon head up Creative Direction for Dua Lipa’s record breaking Studio 2054, winning the MVA’s Music Video of The Year award. He was production designer for lead artists at Live at Worthy Farm, Glastonbury’s virtual festival livestream. 

As a curator, he programmed two events for Chaka Khan’s Meltdown Festival in summer 2024 and is currently Head of Music at The Roof Gardens in London. Other projects include work with Anohni, Banksy, Imperial War Museum, Finnish Opera House, Hercules & Love Affair, Lana Del Ray, Skrillex, Brian Eno, Roisin Murphey, The Blessed Madonna, Honey Dijon, and Jorja Smith.

GIDEÖN co-founded, co-directs and curates Block9’s festival nightlife institutions The NYC Downlow, Genosys, Maceo’s and IICON at Glastonbury Festival. He is also resident and co-booker at London’s hottest queer club night Adonis. As a radio DJ, GIDEÖN has been actively involved in broadcasting for over three decades. Since cutting his teeth on London’s pirate stations in the late nineties, he hosted a weekly show on London’s Soho Radio for 3 years. Recent guest appearances include New York’s Beats In Space, London’s Rinse FM, NTS Radio and BBC 6 Music. He recently held a residency at BBC Radio 1.

GIDEÖN has been involved in political activism his entire life and is now increasingly focussed on organising hybrid cultural-political events partnering music and protest, often under the banner of R3 Soundsystem. Together with charities Love Music Hate Racism & Stand Up To Racism, GIDEÖN has organised major sound system interventions on many of the Stop Brexit and Stop Trump and Anti-Fascism protests. He is actively involved with fundraising for several LGBTQ+, human rights and social justice organisations including AllOut, Medical Aid For Palestinians, Prepster, Human Dignity Trust and Refugee Community Kitchen. GIDEÖN sits on the advisory committee for The Right to Dance, part of War Child’s NGO Network.

R3 Soundsystem is a consortium of DJs, musicians, producers, record labels, festivals, nightclubs, sound systems, activists, and cultural organisations, all united by love of music and the rejection of right-wing nationalist values. R3’s three Rs stand for RESIST/REJECT/REVOLT.

GIDEÖN’s House Music label HOMO-CENTRIC RECORDS launched to showcase both his solo productions and collaborations with close queer comrades. The label focusses on the LGBTQ+ heritage of House and attempts to pay homage to its lost heroes. Its manifesto states the intent to re-establish the lines of queer musical tradition at the heart of House, lost to AIDS and the capitalist desecration of dance music itself.

Hey, Gareth here, I'm a graphic designer who start designing for clubs, parties, and labels in the late 90s. Back then, mix CDs were the holy grail of both design and music. I loved them.

But I wasn't the only one, mix cds were the soundtracks of our nights, our days, our afterparties and lives, for everyone. Yet in today's internet age, the art form has been lost (or just changed) to 2-3 hour online mixes and streaming videos, which just don't create the same magic your CD collection did. Just 60 minutes of music and incredible artwork.

The Classic Mix CD Series celebrates these discs, their soundtrack, their box art and your memories. We hope you enjoy it.

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Also, we try to help you find and buy them again by sharing Discogs links on all featured CDs and or direct links to labels where possible.

* We fully support labels and artists. If any disc creates a copyrighting issue let me know and it will be immediately removed. 

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About Gareth:
Digital creative type, gamer, music lover and occasional DJ. Currently living between Dubai & Seoul after setting sail from Sunderland in 2010. As a young designer, club and music culture was the driving force for his work, producing artwork for local club nights and record labels in the North East of England. In particular, DJ mix cds and their packaging were always his 'holy grail of design', especially those from Renaissance, Global Underground and Good Looking Records. It's a pleasure to share these discs back with people and they still influence our tastes to this day. 

For any CD recommendations, bookings, mixes or feedback you can catch me as @asapgareth on Instagram. Or you can check our my design work at www.acid.works

Matt le Bump is following