UKs First Mixing DJs [Archive]

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D C

09-17-2003, 01:20 PM

Who was the UK's first beat mix DJ? The first one I ever came across wasn't British but was German. His name was Peter Romer and was brought over to open a club called Stage 3 in Leysdown in 1979. He apparently was one of the Studio 54 jocks. I was totally in awe of his turntable trickery that I never danced and spent the whole night watching what he was doing with two turntables. When I first heard the music playing I thought the music was playing along to some kind of drum machine until I saw what he was actually doing. He did some amazing things (at the time) with 2 copies of Le Freak and Dan Hartman's Instant Replay. After him I can't recall who I next saw/heard beat mix. Might have been Froggy. DC

Topester

09-17-2003, 01:29 PM

I guess my first experiences hearing UK DJs mixing was on pirate radio in the early 80s but even then Froggy (and his Wall Of Sound!) was kind of seen as a bit of a legend/veteran even then. I guess ian Levine would have to be an early one at Heaven. can't speak for the disco era or the North/midlands but I guess Mastermind (of Streetsounds electro series fame and Solar FM show), and Rapattack sound systems were quite advanced on the fluid mix and two copiues of stuff early on the game in London

Andrew@6MS

09-17-2003, 01:31 PM

The first ones I remember were Froggy, but possibly the most prominent in my mind from the 80's was Les Adams. I can remember going the 1987 DMC championships at Royal Albert Hall and seeing a very young CJ Mackintosh represent the UK - he went to my old school, and got a write up in the local paper (South London Press) about it. Top geezer!

Sean P

09-17-2003, 01:52 PM

I thought I was the only one who remembered Peter Romer. He used to compile and mix a cassette magazine called 'Soul On Sound', around 1982. I seem to recall him guesting on one of the pirates (maybe Invicta) but this could be pure delusion. I bought some of his records secondhand in the '80s - they were all mint and had the BPMs and EQ settings written on the liners. He was obviously one serious dude.

D C

09-17-2003, 02:09 PM

Sean, He was another of those DJ's like Les Adams who was taken in by DMC to produce mixes for them and for commercial release. Don't know what happened to him - unlike Froggy, Les Adams, Ben Liebrand. Greg Wilson is a name that also springs to mind. He was a DJ at the Embassy Club in Mayfair who was an early mixer. He was American and had a record shop near Hammersmith Odeon that also used to import US DJ equipment . SPIN OFFS that's it!!! DC

ladyboygrimsby

09-17-2003, 02:10 PM

The earliest one I can find is Greg James, an American from Philly. Apparently he taught Froggy. He was brought over by the Embassy Club in 1978. I always ask people in the US whether they've heard of him but no one ever has. I guess he was just some working jock who had more saleable skills over here. He used to run a record store in Fulham somewhere, too, possibly the one Jazzy M worked in. I've got a very funny article about mixing which I'll post in a minute. It's by Neil Rushton and it's from 1979, I think, about the debate on mixing in the UK.

ladyboygrimsby

09-17-2003, 02:11 PM

Props to Greg Wilson for putting me on to this piece. DOES THE TALKING HAVE TO STOP? By Neil Rushton (from Disco, February 10, 1979) Growing controversy is developing over the introduction of American-style mixing techniques into Britain. Despite pressure from various fashion leaders in the UK industry many of the top jocks are firmly against what they see as ‘mixing-mania’. Greg Edwards, who hosts Capital Radio’s highly influential Soul Spectrum programme claimed that any young jocks who slavishly follow the beats-per-minute/mixing trend will find doors to radio jobs shut firmly in their faces. He said: "Jocks are just sitting down and spinning records and that’s destroying the whole disc jockey profession. Nobody’s going to get a job on radio just by linking records. A DJ will never learn his craft by listening to records and finding out which ones have exactly the same beat. An engineer is there for that job. A DJ is there to entertain people. The best DJs on radio were always those born and bred in the discos. Where else are they going to be trained?" Robbie Vincent, who also presents Radio London’s Saturday Soul programme and Radio 1’s occasional Soul Show, is similarly set against the US-style. "American bad habits are not going to catch on here," he said. "People in the UK don’t want to hear three solid hours of identical music." The comments come at a time when mixing is beginning to make inroads into various quarters of the domestic disco scene. Clubs in the provinces are beginning to invest in expensive sound equipment – Angel’s in Burnley, for instance, is readying a Sunday night New York Disco Session – and beats-per-minute listings are becoming the rule rather than the exception in disco-orientated publications. Record companies are jumping on the bandwagon too following the underground demand for the CBS Disco Pool Instant Replay set which featured American-style segues linking together hot dancers from CBS licensees like Prelude, TK and Philly International. Polydor launched their Steppin’ Out campaign with an album featuring recent disco items mixed together and this week Motown release their first segue compilation A Special Motown Disco Album. Well-known personality Ian Levine, who has enjoyed more disco success in American than any other British producer firmly believes that mixing will take off in the UK. "The British disco scene is pathetic. The only true disco clubs are the gay clubs in London. Two or three years ago when disco was taking off in the States, Britain was on exactly the same level. But now all that’s changed and a head-in-the-sand attitude towards exclusivity has developed and people have developed into jazz funk freaks." "DJs in Britain get their reputation by spouting bullshit to wind the crowds up. In America the jocks don’t do that, they get their following by mixing records in a skilful way. The American way is better because it utilises the music and interprets the music. In England the music is just part of what’s going on. People talk about the All-Dayers being so popular that American disco music is irrelevant, but it’s disco music which crosses over and has chart hits. A lot of All-Dayers feature boring jazz/funk instead of American disco music which is especially made to build up excitement." "One of the reasons is that British DJs can’t be bothered to understand what disco is really about. Unless you go to the states or a club like the Embassy it’s very hard to appreciate just what it is all about. People say records are drossy but if they heard them in the right surroundings they wouldn’t say that. Seeing a good DJ mix in the States is a revelation. It blows your brains. The only parallel I can make with the British scene is the kind of atmosphere and excitement that existed in northern soul venues around 1971 when it was worth talking about and before it went stagnant. Disco music in its purest form will get even bigger in the UK! I’m positive about that. And as the records are now made specifically to fit into programming for DJs who mix, then it’s only logical that mixing will take off in Britain." He bubbled with enthusiasm when asked to explain just what mixing is all about. "It’s based on records with long intros, at least 24 bars with long breaks. The breaks can be emphasised by a DJ using a graphic equaliser and so you can join one record into another without the dancers realising what’s going on. They’ll be dancing away to one record and then in the middle of, say, a conga break they’ll realise that without the beat changing or anything altering they are boogying away to another record. A jock will mix from a break in the middle of one record to a similar break in the middle of another or into the start of a record." "I think a lot of DJs are resisting any suggestion towards mixing because they think it’s boring. But the whole point of it is it’s not boring, it’s inventive. People talk about monotonous beat and robot DJs but that completely and absolutely missing the boat. Disco is complete and utter high-energy excitement. For a record to be suitable to mix it should vary between 126 and 138 beats-per-minute. And it’s essential that the DJ should be able to vary the speed of the records he’s playing. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that no self-respecting disco should be without variable speed decks. If clubs were prepared to spend money on equipment and the jocks over here would try mixing, it would wipe everything out." CBS Disco-Pool manager Greg Lynn masterminded the Instant Replay album and says that as a promotional idea it was very useful. "It meant that three or four of our records played in a row and after all that’s what promoting is all about," he pointed out. Various DJs on his mailing list have since contacted him with pro-mixing views. "They said they had never tried mixing before and that they had never requested to do so – though why they should be requested before doing it is a moot point – but that following the popularity of our album with their audience they would try it." Nevertheless, Lynn does not believe that mixing will sweep the nation. "I don’t think it will ever get to the situation where we will hear mixing in British clubs all the time. Over here the talking showman DJ is very important. The British gets off on talking to his audience not mixing records." "Let’s face it, you can have a British DJ who spoils things by the way they talk and equally you can have an American DJ who spoils things by the way he mixes. So it’s not simply a question of one presentation method being good and another being not so good – whether you talk or mix, to succeed you’ve got to do it in a professional way." Lynn also has doubts about audiences being ready to accept American disco even if their DJs want them to: "I think that if, by some miracle, all the clubs in the UK were overnight converted to their American counterparts with the best in lights, sounds and effects and so on – a lot of people would just not be able to take it in."

Sean P

09-17-2003, 02:13 PM

Spin Off's...yeah...Fulham Place Road...remember them well! I think Jazzy M.'s shop was Mi-Price???

ladyboygrimsby

09-17-2003, 02:16 PM

Spin Off's...yeah...Fulham Place Road...remember them well! I think Jazzy M.'s shop was Mi-Price??? Sean, this is what Jazzy M told me in an interview I did with him about 7 years ago: "In them days, I was playing good, pumpy disco, stuff like Colonel Abrams 'Music Is The Answer'. Just starting to get into the housey vein, then slowing down to the smoothy soul stuff. As it progressed I then got into working in shops, firstly as a Saturday boy working for nothing, then my biggest break was getting into a shop called Spin-Offs which was run by a DJ called Greg James, who was very big on the gay scene in New York and he was brought over to this country by the Embassy Club as the first ever mixing DJ. He taught the likes of Froggy and Les Adams. Spin-Offs was in the Fulham Palace Road and we were the first store in London to stock house music." I think the comments about Greg James being "very big on the gay scene in New York" should be taken with a catering sized dose of salt.

Sean P

09-17-2003, 02:23 PM

Cheers for that, Bill. The mixing interview is fantastic!

D C

09-17-2003, 02:27 PM

It's all coming back to me now. Didn't Neil Rushton run/write a disco magazine? I can can remember an article describing Walter Gibbons DJing and playing War's 'Galaxy' and bringing in the Say What's from Instant Funk's 'I Got My Mind Made Up' with the crowd screaming for more. Greg James also used to publish a BPM chart in a magazine called Disco & Club International. DC

Topester

09-17-2003, 03:02 PM

Genius article! 'Mixmaster' Les Adams used to do a night at the Surrey disco pub on Norbury High Street around '86 and was terrible - he was very into the minor craze for what was called 'digital delay' ie some form of sampler he used to make everything stutter like n-n-n-n-n-nineteen. He wasvery into records like Nuance Freat. Vikki LOve - LOve Rise but talked like Dave Lee Travis As I recall the article on CJ Mackintosh in the south London Press was by Steve Rumney who ran the Wicked Pulse nights - he wrote a wicked column in there every friday.

Sean P

09-17-2003, 03:19 PM

Topeioca - remember the Streetsounds magazine, 'The Streets'? The 'Wicked Pulse' page in there was quite ahead of its time. A lot of the obscurities mentioned went on to become quite collectable records. Tnere was even a piece on Jonathan Woodcliff and his bulti-billion dollar purcahse of Frank (Tope) Wilson's 'Do I Love You' .

Al Kent

09-17-2003, 03:39 PM

Can someone say 'wicked' again please? It hasn't been said enough in this thread...

Andrew@6MS

09-17-2003, 04:18 PM

Wicked!!!! I remember Spin-Offs very well, as it was just up the road from Craven Cottage. I can remember going in there after the Fulham games on a Saturday evening. I can remember Jazzy M working in there - sold me a copy of the "Chicago Trax" double LP that I've still got at home. Had my Spin-Offs "FUNK YOU" slipmats as well for years, until some bastard burgled my flat - decks, mixers, amps...... the lot. Even my treasured slipmats......... boo-hoo!!! As I seemed to recall, he then left Spin-Offs and opened Vinyl Zone (is that right??) at the far end of the Kings Road, where Julian Jonah used to work occasionally as well. Can remember "The Street" magazine as well. I remember Jay Strongman's column was one of the best, listing The Clash with Trouble Funk and Duane Eddy!! I thought he ws bonkers at the time, but little did I know....

DiskDalek

09-17-2003, 04:19 PM

1979 ... "jazz funk freaks" ... ah ! that would have been me ... I do remember Jeff Young sitting in for Robbie Vincent and Froggy was in the studio and there was a mix played of "Stomp" by the Brothers Johnson ... It was a 2 x 12 " mix with a delay ... and was used to great affect on the chorus .... That was the first time I heard a mix ... I'd been reading James Hamilton's column in Record Mirror where all the BPM's started to appear inc. breakdown BPM's that would read something like ... "127-124-127-125 ...." ... something like that ... Was there a list published somewhere of all these ? Then in 1981/82 a friend who was working on the QE2 was in New York and sent back some tapes with some WKTU lunchtime mixes on it ... and they blew the roof off !

D C

09-17-2003, 04:44 PM

I'd been reading James Hamilton's column in Record Mirror where all the BPM's started to appear inc. breakdown BPM's that would read something like ... "127-124-127-125 ...." ... something like that ... Was there a list published somewhere of all these ? Then in 1981/82 a friend who was working on the QE2 was in New York and sent back some tapes with some WKTU lunchtime mixes on it ... and they blew the roof off ! James Hamilton column was fascinating. I've got hundreds of records with BPM's on them taken from his pages. What a job that must have been!!! He also did the mixes on the earlier Soul On Sound Cassettes that Sean mentioned - 15 minutes of less than a minute of each record. I've still got loads in my loft somewhere. Didn't Froggy have a slot on Peter Powells show on Radio 1 too? DC

Topester

09-17-2003, 04:48 PM

Hiya Sean Yes Streetscene magazine, had a sort of Mixmag Updaye stryle pullout section in the middle with all the hardcore trainspotting comuns - Gilles Peterson's jazz column, Dave Hucker's world music, Rodigan's reggae, Ian Levine's eurobeat, Colin Favor doing alternative dance - reviewing Bauhaus and industrial records but also very early Chicago house stuff. the Wicked Pulse lists totally started me off buying 70s funk. It was, to coin a popular schoolyard phrase of the time) WICKED! ;D In fact I saved all of those pull outs (binned the shit mgazine written by Baz Bambingoye and Damon 'Nomad' Rochefort naturally) and still have them today... would Bill be interested in reprinting any lists from it for this site or Faith? Jay Stronman's Mud Club classics were very good and there was one where a young shaver called Pete Heller sent in his favourites from Manchester University!

ladyboygrimsby

09-17-2003, 04:58 PM

In fact I saved all of those pull outs (binned the shit mgazine written by Baz Bambingoye and Damon 'Nomad' Rochefort naturally) and still have them today... would Bill be interested in reprinting any lists from it for this site or Faith? Jay Stronman's Mud Club classics were very good and there was one where a young shaver called Pete Heller sent in his favourites from Manchester University! Bill would be interested. In fact, we're planning to extend the Archive section of the site so it has its own part, with all of the interviews (when we get them all up) and loads of old charts. I've just acquired, thanks to Colin Curtis, all of the charts he and John Grant used to post up for their nights at Rafters and elsewhere. It's gonna take me a while to do this, but wi'll all gradually be put up. Feel free to forward them. Er, wicked (that one's for you, Al) :P

Sean P

09-17-2003, 05:06 PM

DC, you still have the tapes? I'm impressed - I never got any of them! Would be fascinating to hear them now, I'd only heard snippets at the time. I still have my Street Scene mags also, intact. I'll trawl the main bits for anything juicy.

Al Kent

09-17-2003, 05:08 PM

Somewhere in my big boxes of "stuff that I keep" I've got a handout from Wigan in the '70s with charts and shit, maybe of interest to you Bill? Wicked.

ladyboygrimsby

09-17-2003, 05:27 PM

Somewhere in my big boxes of "stuff that I keep" I've got a handout from Wigan in the '70s with charts and shit, maybe of interest to you Bill? Wicked. That would be wi.. er... nice. Anyone else with big boxes of old charts while we're at it? Get raidin' the lost attic!

Topester

09-17-2003, 05:32 PM

we really are some sad-assed junk hoarding motherfuckas!

Groover

09-17-2003, 06:33 PM

Somewhere in my big boxes of "stuff that I keep" I've got a handout from Wigan in the '70s with charts and shit, maybe of interest to you Bill? Wicked. That would be wi.. er... nice. Anyone else with big boxes of old charts while we're at it? Get raidin' the lost attic! I got some Rusty Egan electro chart from The Face around 1980 somewhere - and Jay Strongmans recommended records from 86/7

Jolyon

09-17-2003, 06:46 PM

wicked thread chaps! a proper mine of information!

D C

09-17-2003, 07:07 PM

Sean, I don't know if I've got them all - (I don't know how many they actually issued) certainly a fair few. I'll try and locate them in the next few days or so and let you know. They contained a mix of all the new tunes together with interviews with bands/artists that were touring or promoting their new stuff.. While we're on this sort of subject, JJ has been lent a stack of Blues & Soul mags from 81/82. Wow those are interesting reading now. Especially the DJ charts. Maybe he'll post some up. DC

Al Kent

09-17-2003, 07:09 PM

Oh, and I've got some mid-seventies Echos with some Northern charts in. See - I knew all this stuff would come in handy one day.

Sean P

09-17-2003, 07:29 PM

DC, this sounds like something to look forward to. Quite recently, I assured Bill I'd trawl my old Blouse & Skirt and Black Echoes issue to find any relevant interviews, but I can't get to the older ones, which is annoying. I once bought part of a B&S collection from a mate of mine who was considerably older than me - and got many issues dating back to the middle '70s. I stopped buying myself about 2 years ago, after 20 years, when I realised I hadn't actually read it for the previous 5(!)...some habits just die hard.

D C

09-17-2003, 07:44 PM

I had a purge of loads of mags about 10 years ago when I moved. I wish I'd kept them - Black Echoes going back to '75, all the Streetscene mags, loads of Disco International and a few copies of Bill's aformentioned Disco too. Who'd have thought that in 2003 I'd need them again!!!

smiley

09-18-2003, 12:12 AM

brilliant thread guys... s'funny the way all that knowledge can be lost for so long. that article completely blew my f**kin' mind too. i remember the first time i ever got on the decks in a club. i honestly had NO IDEA what a beat-mix was, even the concept was alien to me. i wish i still had the blagging skills of an 18-year-old :) minus the lousy attitude of course. anyway, cheers! ;D

Asylum

09-18-2003, 01:15 AM

first experience of beat mixing for me was arriving in Sydney in 79 and being taken to a big gay club (I'm not but my flatmate was) called Patches in Oxford St where I saw the DJ, over the smell of amyl, mix "I Feel Love" into the Kiss remix of" I was Made for Loving You" Completely blew my mind-one of those moments that's pivotal in your life

smiley

09-18-2003, 02:16 AM

i hear ya there man... the first i heard someone do it 'proper' was when pre-sabres/insanity andy weatherall came out here to the end of the known world back in '93 (yeah tragic i know). he chopped up his remixes of "sul e's reel" and "come home" and then threw janet jackson's "when i think of you" out of it... i turned around and noticed that no-one was dancing, we were all too busy picking up our chins offa the floor... totally amazing :o

Asylum

09-18-2003, 05:54 AM

i hear ya there man... the first i heard someone do it 'proper' was when pre-sabres/insanity andy weatherall came out here to the end of the known world back in '93 (yeah tragic i know). he chopped up his remixes of "sul e's reel" and "come home" and then threw janet jackson's "when i think of you" out of it... i turned around and noticed that no-one was dancing, we were all too busy picking up our chins offa the floor... totally amazing :o Keeping the subject firmly down in the Antipodes (and completely confusing our Northern readers who won't know who the hell we're talking about), I think the first guy to mix seriously in a club in Auckland was a guy called Clive back about 1980 in a funk club called SugarMill to a strongly Polynesian crowd. Then of course there was our friend Roger Perry who was mixing at age 15 when he was resident at Russell Crowe's (yes that Russell Crowe) Club, The Venue - in early 1980s. I promoted that Weatherall tour I think

ladyboygrimsby

09-18-2003, 09:42 AM

It's pretty mad to think of how the mixing thing gradually spread its tentacles out from New York to all points over the world. BTW, the reason I posted the article is because it's going to be part of an anthology Frank and I are working on. The 'concept' (such as it is) behind the anthology is to stick exclusively with eye-witness accounts of various clubbing and dance music events over the past 80 years. We're hoping to cover everything from sapeakeasies in Harlem, early discotheques, The Twist, Mods, northern soul, disco, hip hop right up to present day clubbing. So we'd aim to include, for example, Tom Wolfe's piece on lunchtimes at Tiles, The Noonday Underground, alongside Albert Goldman pieces on disco in New York, combined with modern dance music writing. This is what we've dug out already: Harlem speakeasies by Frank Dolan 1925 and 1929 (including glossary of black slang!) Giorgio Moroder interview from 1979 Sheila Weller's brilliant account of NY disco in 1975 Jason Thomas on Studio 54 Simon Witter on Chicago house in 1986 Matthew Collin on Nieuw Beat in 87 Steven Hager at the Funhouse in 1983 Report from Arthur in 1964 Dave Godin on Northern soul 1970 Geoff Brown visits the Blackpool Mecca and Wigan Casino 1975 Etc. etc. This should give you an idea of the stuff If you have any stuff you think we could use of articles you'd like to recommend, please go ahead. We want to make it as wide ranging and comprehensive as possible. If there's anything you've

D C

09-18-2003, 10:02 AM

Bill, The early editions of The Face magazine was always good for 'eye witness accounts' of what was going on around the world. I can remember articles about early electro and some Paradise Garage tales. You must know someone there who can delve into the back issues for you!! DC

Invincible Pigeon

09-18-2003, 10:09 AM

ahhhh, Jay Strongman! I used to go to the Mud Club @ Busby's (now LA2) and hear his awesome sets. Mark 'S'Express' Moore and Ian 'Eon' B also played those nights and Betty Boo was a podium dancer!

Jolyon

09-18-2003, 10:13 AM

Bill - worth trawling through I-D early 88 as Matthew Collin wrote a piece on 'the new Amnesiacs' which I think is a reasonable 'eye witness' account of Amnesia in 1987. In fact I think your old muckers Rocky & Diesel were in the piece.

Groover

09-18-2003, 11:10 AM

Bill, The early editions of The Face magazine was always good for 'eye witness accounts' of what was going on around the world. I can remember articles about early electro and some Paradise Garage tales. You must know someone there who can delve into the back issues for you!! DC I have all the good issues from 1983-89 - Paradise Garage / New York Clubbing 83 Ibiza 1985 Chicago House - Sep 86 Uk House - Feb 88 Hacienda - Aug 82 Ecstacy - 85/6 Jellybean 87 / Louie Vega & Hispanic dance 87 Off the top of my head. I sold most of the others recently to a soldier in Germany but I have a cd full of scans of the good stuff

ladyboygrimsby

09-18-2003, 11:10 AM

DC, I've got nearly every issue of the Face, so that stuff's not a problem. I've been trawling through them. I've also got 20 years' worth of the NME in my attic (yikes, what a hoarder). Jo, I've already made contact with Matthew and he's looking through his files for stuff.

matthew

09-18-2003, 11:42 AM

i reckon we should start calling DJs 'jocks' again.

ladyboygrimsby

09-18-2003, 12:12 PM

i reckon we should start calling DJs 'jocks' again. In early issues of Billboard, they were referred to as 'discaire'!

Jolyon

09-18-2003, 12:24 PM

Remember DJ magazine used to be called Jocks!

matthew

09-18-2003, 12:30 PM

it implies manly locker room fun. With wet towels

Jolyon

09-18-2003, 12:42 PM

haha. heavy with denim.

rob.j

09-18-2003, 12:55 PM

it implies manly locker room fun. With wet towels matthew, stay on topic and stop letting yuor mind wander ;D

suenomartino

09-19-2003, 04:58 AM

Bill, The early editions of The Face magazine was always good for 'eye witness accounts' of what was going on around the world. I can remember articles about early electro and some Paradise Garage tales. You must know someone there who can delve into the back issues for you!! DC One of the (former?) Face editors compiled a great book of historical articles only a few years ago.. Worth picking up if you see it around.. Steven Harvey's 'Get that Perfect Beat' article from aforementioned book: http://suenomartino.net/perfectbeat.htm Greg Wilson sent the following article on 'electro funk' out to a few different websites, but if you haven't seen it already, here it is: http://suenomartino.net/electrofunk.htm Great thread btw! -jason

Asylum

09-19-2003, 05:26 AM

Asylum

09-19-2003, 05:28 AM

Remember DJ magazine used to be called Jocks! And Mixmag used to have Wet T-Shirt competions covered

ladyboygrimsby

09-19-2003, 09:13 AM

Bill, The early editions of The Face magazine was always good for 'eye witness accounts' of what was going on around the world. I can remember articles about early electro and some Paradise Garage tales. You must know someone there who can delve into the back issues for you!! DC In a ciupboard I have a swag of 80s issues...the Detroit one from, I think, Neil Rushent, is worth seeking out...especially when, as far as I know, and Bill will probably know, it gave the world the word "Techno" I think that's the one written by Stuart Cosgrove, which yielded the famous quotes from Derrick May (i.e it's like being stuck in an elevator with Kraftwerk and Funkadelic etc.). I can't find that one, so if you have it it would be gratefully received.

ladyboygrimsby

09-19-2003, 09:14 AM

Remember DJ magazine used to be called Jocks! And Mixmag used to have Wet T-Shirt competions covered Yeah, and if Tony had his way, he'd happily have them now.

Jolyon

09-19-2003, 10:29 AM

why did i think that mccready did the techno article?

ladyboygrimsby

09-19-2003, 01:54 PM

why did i think that mccready did the techno article? Because they both went over together, Cosgrove for the Face, McCready for the NME. But the Cosgrove piece has all the famous quotes in it.

Asylum

09-19-2003, 01:55 PM

Bill, The early editions of The Face magazine was always good for 'eye witness accounts' of what was going on around the world. I can remember articles about early electro and some Paradise Garage tales. You must know someone there who can delve into the back issues for you!! DC In a ciupboard I have a swag of 80s issues...the Detroit one from, I think, Neil Rushent, is worth seeking out...especially when, as far as I know, and Bill will probably know, it gave the world the word "Techno" I think that's the one written by Stuart Cosgrove, which yielded the famous quotes from Derrick May (i.e it's like being stuck in an elevator with Kraftwerk and Funkadelic etc.). I can't find that one, so if you have it it would be gratefully received. I have it...but where is another matter...if I have time this weekend I'll have a check

D C

09-19-2003, 02:22 PM

And Mixmag used to have Wet T-Shirt competions covered Covered it what?

Invincible Pigeon

09-19-2003, 02:29 PM

Doesn't Razzle have CD reviews in?

ladyboygrimsby

09-19-2003, 02:44 PM

Doesn't Razzle have CD reviews in? Ask Sean. I think he does them.

smiley

09-20-2003, 11:10 PM

loved the photos with that Face techno article too. i'd send mine over but i got The Holy Trinity to autograph it when they each came thru here in the late 90s... it's in a mylar bag in a locked vault awaiting my daughter's decision to study orthodontistry ;)

D C

09-22-2003, 09:36 AM

DC, you still have the tapes? I'm impressed - I never got any of them! Would be fascinating to hear them now, I'd only heard snippets at the time. I still have my Street Scene mags also, intact. I'll trawl the main bits for anything juicy. Sean, I found those Soul on Sound cassettes - I've about 15 or so - the new releases mixed by James 'The Mighty Chopper' Hamilton and others mixed by Peter Romer. Didn't have time to go through them tho' so can't relay what tunes were included. DC

Sean P

09-22-2003, 08:36 PM

Sean, I found those Soul on Sound cassettes - I've about 15 or so - the new releases mixed by James 'The Mighty Chopper' Hamilton and others mixed by Peter Romer. Didn't have time to go through them tho' so can't relay what tunes were included. DC They probably sound very amateur by today's standards, anyway. I doubt if the tunes used would be that exciting, either! I wonder how many they eventually made - it was monthly, wasn't it?

D C

09-23-2003, 11:19 AM

They probably sound very amateur by today's standards, anyway. I doubt if the tunes used would be that exciting, either! I wonder how many they eventually made - it was monthly, wasn't it? From memory they were just intro, first verse, chorus/break. Some were basic chops with some short running mixes. But you know what it's like - at the time the tunes didn't sound that great but listening to them now you wonder why you never thought it was good at the time. I think taste alters over the years - some things sounded very ordinary then, but now they become something a little more. For example - back then I and I suspect many others would have never entertained that Elkie Brooks version of Rising Cost Of Love was a credible tune - but now it's pretty cool tune. DC

ladyboygrimsby

02-06-2004, 09:12 AM

I'm bringing this back to the top because a bunch of you mentioned magazines with old charts in them that we could use for the site. We're in the middle of extending the site and I was wondering whether you could get your charts out for the lads, as it were?

leebradlee

02-06-2004, 10:14 AM

I've some copies of Blues & Soul from 79 & 80 and can send in copies of the charts. One of them has an ace centrefold picture of the young Pete Tong.

D C

02-06-2004, 11:04 AM

I'm aware that JJ has some early 80's editions of B&S magazines with some charts from some dodgy bloke called Greg Wilson wearing a John Travolta-like white suite and black shirt!!!! Must be the uniform of early UK mixing DJ's. Mmmmm niice. DC

greg wilson

02-06-2004, 12:15 PM

I'm aware that JJ has some early 80's editions of B&S magazines with some charts from some dodgy bloke called Greg Wilson wearing a John Travolta-like white suite and black shirt!!!! Must be the uniform of early UK mixing DJ's. Mmmmm niice. DC Please DC, white dinner jacket old chap. The black shirt is a complete invention, strictly white shirt with black bow tie. We liked to keep up appearances back then!

Yemsky

02-07-2004, 12:56 AM

Sorry, I won't be able to help with magazines as they are far far away on a different continent in storage, but I started reading Blues & Soul a few weeks before it merged with a magazine apparently called "Black Music and Dance Review" The cover would read Blues & Soul incorporating Black Music and Dance Review. I never saw BMDR itself (I was living in Germany at that time and was happy to get my hands on B&S...) but always wondered what was actually covered in it. Any idea? Also, I only discovered New York's Dance Music Report shortly before it went under. That was Tom Silverman's magazine, right ? Does anyone know for how long it was in circulation? thanks I'm bringing this back to the top because a bunch of you mentioned magazines with old charts in them that we could use for the site. We're in the middle of extending the site and I was wondering whether you could get your charts out for the lads, as it were?

02-09-2004, 11:34 AM

;D Sorry Bill, only just seen this. I'll get you a few charts together. Apart from playlists, would you be interested in 'all time' charts - I've got lots of them. Some northern git did me an all time disco one I remember! JJ