Grooves

We have a real treat today. Over 2 years ago we approached one of the men who responsible for turning us into disco fiends. We really didn’t expect to receive a response and when we did we were both surprised and enthused. This man was Greg Wilson. Not only did Greg take the time to give us one of our first guestmixes but he also spent an hour on the phone to us giving us a really in-depth insight (below) into the scenes history and his origins as a Dj. Suffice to say we have the utmost respect for Greg who has always taken to time to ensure people accurately understand where these timeless tracks all came from and whats keeping them relevant.

Greg recently came down to play at one of our parties in London and has very kindly given us the recording of his live set to use as his second guestmix for us. We think you’ll agree that it cements his position as both an adventurous selector and a talented Dj. There is no tracklist for this one but that’s half the fun.

Read interview here

Greg Wilson - House of Disco Guestmix - Live at Oval Space 24.08.13

Live mix from Shoom Summer Of Love 25th Anniversary at West Exit in Hastings 23.08.13

Accompanying blog piece at http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/09/shoom-summer-of-love/

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

SHOOM SUMMER OF LOVE @ WEST EXIT HASTINGS 23.08.13 (greg wilson live mix)

DJ and producer, Terry Farley heads back to the 'second summer of love' and celebrates some of the biggest Acid House tracks, 25 years on.

Along with Andrew Weatherall, the duo started the now notorious Boy's Own fanzine in 1986, which commented on the slang, the parties, the tunes and the humour of the acid house days, and which also lead to the creation of the label Junior Boys Own. This imprint specialised in dance music and put out records by Orbital and Dig Your Own Hole by The Chemical Brothers, which celebrates 15 years this year.

Terry began making productions with Andy Weatherall, Hugo Nicholson and Pete Heller under the name Bocca Juniors. He later teamed up with Pete Heller and has gone on to re-mix many of the world's leading artists and singers: everyone from U2 to New Order; to the Happy Mondays and Primal Scream at the height of Balearica. He has also produced Kylie Minogue, The Farm and M People.



Terry Farley 25 years of acid house - 6 music BBC

Live recording from Bollywood tent at Bestival 08.09.13.

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

BESTIVAL BOLLYWOOD 08.09.13 (greg wilson live mix)

Trevor Fung @ Clockwork Orange "Summer in the city of love"

SOUL FOOD – THE BROAD CHURCH OF NORTHERN SOUL
This podcast accompanies a blog piece ‘Northern Renaissance’, which simultaneously went online. Below is an excerpt; you can read the full piece here: 
https://blog.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/11/northern-renaissance/

As I hope this piece will illustrate, Northern Soul back in the 70’s was a much broader church than many might imagine. Whilst the stompers were central to the scene, especially when Wigan Casino was at its peak, not everything ran at breakneck pace as is often suggested, the movement encompassed a whole spectrum of styles and tempos. The scene was notoriously very snobbish about its music, dropping a previously loved record like a hot potato because it had subsequently achieved commercial success, although it was this fervent elitism that played a major part in its success and longevity. It’s also the reason why a track many might consider to be as Northern as they come, like Jackie Wilson’s ‘(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher’ (a Detroit artist doing an uptempo dance track with Funk Brothers backing) isn’t Northern Soul according to those at the cutting-edge of the scene, despite the fact it was a big favourite in the Soul clubs following its 1967 release. It’s sin was that it became a UK hit in 1969, just before the Northern scene got into its stride, so, along with a whole heap of Tamla Motown tunes that are Northern in everything bar their success in connecting with the masses, it was banished to the realm of pop. This is why another famous Jackie Wilson track, ‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’, this time a 1968 recording, which, on the surface, given it’s much mellower vibe, is far less stereotypically Northern than ‘Higher And Higher’, is, in contrast, considered a bone fide Northern classic – the reason being that ‘I Get The Sweetest Feeling’ didn’t become a hit until 1972, having broken out of the Northern scene, then in full swing.

So, with the various aspects considered, I’ve put together an epic 3 hour 20 minute podcast selection of records that I hope will reflect Northern Soul in its wider context, from the nailed on classics to those with more nominal status. What can’t be disputed is that each and every track included has been played, at least somewhere at one point or another, under the Northern Soul banner. There are 70 tracks in all, with just 2 artists with more than 1 inclusion, the aforementioned Jackie Wilson and the great, but tragic songstress Linda Jones (3, if you count Frankie Valli, here both solo and with the Four Seasons). The idea to put this together grew out of a CD compilation I made for myself back in the 00’s to listen to whilst I was driving, which I called ‘Soul Food’, and the intention is for it to act as solid introduction for those wanting to hear what Northern Soul was all about, in all its diverse glory, whilst I’d like to think it will also evoke fond memories for those who were there at the time. The fact I wasn’t a part of the scene has hopefully allowed me to approach this selection in a more objective way than someone embroiled within it, who may not be able to resist the inclination to pack it with tracks nobody else, apart from other ultra-obsessives may know, or who might want to brush a few of the inclusions under the ‘you had to be there at the time’, carpet. Consider this, if you will, a beginners guide, of which I love all of the selections, each in its own way - just wonderful wonderful uplifting music.

Greg Wilson – November 2013

SOUL FOOD - THE BROAD CHURCH OF NORTHERN SOUL (greg wilson selection)

ESSENTIAL MIX - JAN 2009
Uploaded on 17.01.10 and exclusive to SoundCloud. Available for the first time without voiceovers and jingles,12 months on from original Radio 1broadcast on 17.01.09.


EMAILSHOT A FEW DAYS AHEAD OF MIX BEING AIRED:
2009 kicks in for me this weekend with my first gig of the year for Udio (1st birthday) at The Gramaphone Club in Shoreditch, London on Friday night, which coincides with the airing of my only just completed in the nick of time Essential Mix on Radio 1, made up of 43 tracks in just under 2 hours.

Given that the 5th anniversary of my DJ comeback has only just passed, I decided to take the opportunity to make the mix totally representative of this period, with all the selections being amongst the biggest tracks I’ve played since I made my second debut at Music Is Better in Manchester.

Five years represents a significant package of time, a fixed point from where I can reflect on what’s been a continually snowballing sequence of events, set in motion when Danny Webb asked me to appear in Manchester on that December night back in 2003.

There were less than 100 people there that night, but they were the right people, and I was taken aback by the response to my return, both on the night itself and during subsequent days, when people who were there began to post on the forums. I’d never expected all the feedback be so totally positive!

I’d figured that I’d play that night, using the combination of laptop and reel-to-reel for the first time, then go away and think about what worked and what didn’t before I made my next move. I would never have believed that things could come together so immediately, it was as if I’d hit a completely unexpected hole in one, especially when two of the people who were there, Ralph Lawson, DJ from Back To Basics in Leeds, and one of my fellow DJ’s that night, Richard Hardcastle (Solid State) from Society in Sheffield, both asked me to play at their nights no sooner had I finished my spot.

One thing kept leading to another and, in Sheffield, I was approached by Tony Daly to play at the now legendary Tyneside Cinema party in Newcastle, a bespoke event where he took on the substantial risk of presenting me in a city I’d never DJ’d in previously (unless you count the 1983 TV appearance on The Tube, which was filmed in the Tyne Tees studio). Then, of course, there was London, where Steve Kotey and Bill Brewster booked me for their parties, bringing me to the capital within the first few months of my return for Ouch and Low Life.

The bookings kept coming, and I found myself driving up and down the country on an increasingly regular basis. Later in 2004 I was approached by Sav Remzi, from Tirk / Nuphonic, with the idea of putting together an edits album, which would be issued the following year as ‘Credit To The Edit’. This would help bring my name to the attention of people outside the UK. There was soon a need to step things up further, now that I was receiving enquiries from Europe, and so began a fruitful relationship with my agent, Matt Johnson (Matty J), who’s done a wonderful job of representing me during recent years.

The last few months have been, to say the least, manic for me, with 25 flights, including 6 long haul, taking me to gigs in the US, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Europe. From a personal perspective I still find it remarkable the way everything has developed, pretty much organically, since I made the decision that I was going to be a DJ once again – had I concocted some sort of comeback masterplan, it could never have worked out anything like as well as it has. It’s definitely been a case of ‘from small acorns’.

It still never ceases to amaze me that people from another continent are interested in my DJ past. Back in the early 80’s, before I went into retirement for 20 years, the furthest I travelled (with the exception of the appearances I made in the South of England as part of The Hacienda Review in late ’83) was to places like Birmingham and Nottingham, when I played at All-Dayers, so to find myself in clubs on the other side of the world is pretty nuts!

Anyhow, I’d like to wish everyone all the best for 09. Big thanks to all the promoters who booked me and everyone who danced to the tunes I played during ’08 in Adelaide, Barcelona, Belfast, Berlin, Birmingham, Blackburn, Brighton, Bristol, Dublin, Dundee, Edinburgh, Fukuoka, Glasgow, Hamburg, Leeds, Lisbon, Liverpool, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, Melbourne, Milan, New York, Newcastle, Nottingham, Paris, Porto Alegre, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Sheffield, Sydney, Tokyo and Warsaw. Also the festivals and special events that I appeared at - Bestival (Isle Of Wight), Big Chill (England), Camp Bestival (England), Garden Festival (Croatia), Ibiza, Lovebox (England), Notting Hill Carnival (England), Rockness Festival (Scotland), Sonar (Spain) and the Southport Weekender (England).

Hope to see you soon.

Greg


FORUM POST DURING FOLLOWING DAYS:                                                        
Thanks for all the positive words. The feedback has been pretty phenomenal, far exceeding what I’d hoped for, especially on the BBC page, where I’d expected that some people would criticize the amount of older music included - the Radio 1 audience is used to current stuff ('in new music we trust'), so I’d anticipated a more mixed reaction. What’s particularly pleasing is that they were all made without the people seeing what each other wrote (they all came online at once, having been checked first by whoever moderates the BBC pages, I presume for swearing etc following the Ross / Brand controversy).

You always hope something you've done will be well received, but the response to this has blown me away.

Greg


ANSWER TO POST RE MIXING PROCESS:                                                      
It was quite a laborious process. Before I could start the actual mixing part I had to edit every track to a coherent length of around two and a half minutes average, inclusive of in and out points. I had a pool of about 90 tracks that fitted the criteria I'd set (a representative selection of the biggest tunes I've been playing during the past 5 years). It wasn't as straightforward as just editing the 43 tracks I ended up featuring - in order to have the necessary options once I started to piece the mix together I needed to have all the tracks at my disposal, just as I would have if I was out deejaying in a club, so the only thing to do was edit all 90 to the required length, even though I knew that only half would make the cut .

Once that was finally done they were all taken across into my laptop, enabling me to vari-speed them via PCDJ whilst I recorded across to my home computer into Cool Edit Pro, where I put the mix together track by track, before adding overdubs (fx, samples, textures) in a similar way to what I do live using the Revox (reel to reel).

I could quite easily have spent another day, tweaking bits here and there and adding more overdubs (the older I get the more finicky I become), but I had a deadline to work to, so, as it moved ever nearer, it became a race against time, with me doing as much as I could before the cut off point arrived.

Greg
                       

Greg Wilson - 2009


ESSENTIAL MIX (by greg wilson for bbc radio 1 2009)

The Sound of Glitterbox - Greg Wilson is the second instalment in a series of mixes from our Glitterbox Resident DJs and Guests.   

Defected presents Glitterbox Ibiza 2015, available to pre-order now: http://defct.de/GBa

Defected Presents Glitterbox: a weekly playground for an international party crowd of all persuasions, where the DJs have free reign to educate and entertain - there’s no slavish following of ‘trends’, charts or genres – just the chance to hear true masters of their craft on one of the world’s best soundsystems.

Buy on iTunes

The Sound of Glitterbox - Greg Wilson

Trevor Fung Clockwork Orange @ Mambo 25 July 2014

Danny Rampling's Acid Past Acid Future Guest Mix

Lovebox asked me if I could put together a Balearic flavoured mix for them ahead of my appearance at the London festival in 2015. The mix features a dozen tracks I've either produced, remixed or re-edited during recent years.

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

MY BALEARIC (by greg wilson for lovebox 2015)

An incredible day all ways up! The Super Weird Sunset in the morning set the tone perfectly with well-being and good vibes music as the artists also set up for the day. Playwright Daisy Eris Campbell ('Cosmic Trigger')and author John Higgs ('Stranger Than We Can Imagine: Making Sense Of The Twentieth Century' and 'The KLF: Chaos, Magic And The Band Who Burned A Million Pounds') fascinated us during the talks, before Stella Grundy powerfully performed a section of her one-woman production 'The Rise And Fall Of A Northern Star', whilst poet JB Barrington well and truly put a smile on our faces with his Salford wit and acute observation.

Then it was Howard Marks. The warmth towards him was something else, the area packed to capacity with queueing around the corner the entrance to the Estuary Stage. A true countercultural icon of our times - the respect was tangible.

A potent line-up of DJ's followed - Tomlin of the Jam MC's, Luxxury over from LA, and a B2B with Derek Kaye and Peza, as the Estuary grooved into the 2nd half of the Happening

Blind Arcade and the Super Weird Society hit the ball out of the court big style - a phenomenal first appearance complete with live musicians. Huge thanks to Black Grape's backing band, who Kermit had hijacked for the event.

Then I was on for the finale, and what a climax it turned out to be. The stage was invaded at the end and when I looked to my side, appearing next to me, in a puff of smoke it seemed, was Back To Basics mainman and UK club legend Dave Beer, who turned to me, amidst the wonderful chaos of the moment and exclaimed 'this is seminal'.

Here's the footage - it really happened:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHmQuLrXyBY

greg

Check out our Super Weird sounds at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com
Stay up to date with the latest at: http://www.superweirdsubstance.com

Greg Wilson @ Super Weird Happening #6 Festival No.6 Portmeirion 05.09.15

Ahead of his gig with us tomorrow Greg Wilson has given us his fantastic mix from Festival No.6. The mix also features 2 tracks from Luxxury who is playing alongside Greg tomorrow doing his 'Live Remix' set for the first time in London.

Tickets & info here: http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?745293

They are also playing together in Manchester on the 26th!

GREG WILSON @ THE STONE BOAT - FESTIVAL NO.6 - 06.09.15

Full live recording from the Glitterbox Closing Party @ Space, Ibiza 25.09.15.

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

GLITTERBOX CLOSING PARTY @ SPACE TERRACE IBIZA 25.09.15 (greg wilson live mix)

Full recording from the Freeze promoted party at The Garage in Liverpool on 05.12.15 to mark the 40th anniversary of my first club appearance on December 6th 1975. For further info: http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2015/12/40th-anniversary-weekend-recorded/

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

5 HOUR 40TH ANNIVERSARY @ THE GARAGE LIVERPOOL 05.12.15 (greg wilson live mix)

Greg Wilson @ MAREH NYE 16 - Boipeba/BA (12.2015)

Live recording of the final two hours in the Warehouse arena, bringing the inaugural Vintage Festival @ Goodwood to its conclusion with one big tune after another 15.08.10.

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

VINTAGE WAREHOUSE FINALE 15.08.10 (greg wilson live mix)

It's a great honour to welcome Greg Wilson for our 25th Anniversary slot in Hour 2. A legendary figure who's own career started in 1975 and a pioneer of mixing in the UK, with residencies at Wigan Pier and Manchester's Legend and Hacienda clubs in the early eighties. He is also know for his masterful edits and 2013 also marks 30 years since he went into a recording studio. For this mix he unveils a whole host of unreleased tracks that have been part of his 'Confessions of a Teenage DJ' project, with only a handful having been previously released. As Greg says;
 “It’s got an autobiographical theme, in an abstract sort of way (although sometimes it’s quite direct). Always in the past I’ve been dependant on musicians, singers and engineers in order to realise any musical ideas I might have, whereas this is the first thing I’ve done that is totally me. It’s loops based, as that’s the way I’ve always worked, but it’s a little more involved than straight re-edits (more like multi-track edits). Most of all, it’s by me for me. What I mean is that it wasn’t made with anyone else in mind. The samples chosen obviously reflect my own influences and love of music (and film for that matter). If other people like it, that’s a bonus, it’s always good to share a vibe, but it ultimately doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks, the main thing is that I’m really into it. There’s definitely a cathartic aspect to Teenage DJ, hence the projects name, it’s me revisiting me, from a spectrum of previous points in my life – every sample representing a certain period, or moment, for me.”

Check out  http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/02/confessions-of-a-teenage-dj/ for the full run down of this project from Greg (plus a lot more on dance music history on his site) and to cap it all, it's also his birthday today!


PART 3  +  4   -		Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson   https://twitter.com/djgregwilson
				
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Somethin’ 4 Ya	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	I Was a Teenage DJ Pt 1	_	TDJ/Reactivate
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	I Was A Teenage DJ Pt2	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Not Quite Right	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	A New Day	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Rude Gal	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	C’Mon (You Can Get It)	_	TDJ
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Schreiber	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Mid-Life Crisis	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Duck ‘N’ Dive	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	This Is For You	_	Unreleased					
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Give It Here	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Time And Place (Disco Break)	_	TDJ
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Glorious	_	TDJ
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Soothsayer	_	Solid Earth
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Sukiyaki	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	I Saw A Satellite	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Deadhead	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Damage	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Good To Me	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Last Chance To Dance	_	Unreleased
Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson	_	Everything Begins And Ends	_	Unreleased

Solid Steel Radio Show 22/2/2013 Part 3 + 4 - Teenage DJ aka Greg Wilson

This is a old set I found recorded from a Genesis Party in 1989. Enjoy!

Genesis 1989 - Danny Rampling

Live recording from the Stonebridge tent at Glastonbury Festival 2013.

Read the accompanying blog post, 'Glastonbury - The Greatest Show On Earth' here:
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2013/07/glastonbury-the-greatest-show-on-earth/

Check out my label's music at: https://superweirdsubstance.bandcamp.com

Grooves

Markw