Winston Hazel Forgemasters Interview

[Solid State]

Been sent this Winnie interview, done for a magazine, which I wont name
by someone else, who I won't name...

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What had you been doing prior to Forgemasters?

For about 3/4 years I was regularly playing on Sheffield’s premier Pirate radio station (SCR – Sheffield Community Radio) and was the first DJ to blend Soul, House, Techno, Hip Hop, Electro and Jazz on the airwaves. The broadcast was picked up as far as Nottingham, Manchester’, Hull and Leeds.

When did you first get into the sounds of Acid?

I got into Acid house from around 1984/85, maybe a bit earlier? It kind of crept up on us, so we didn’t really have a particular moment when it started.

* How did you meet Robert Gordon? & Can you describe the beginning of the Forgemasters?

I had a large listener ship to my radio show and was playing clubs as well as doing ‘Jive Turkey’ with Parrot. I had also started working at FON Records, a predominantly Indie music seller, (later to become WARP) with Rob Mitchell (R.I.P) and Steve Beckett. They asked me to be there Black Music buyer. Things were selling really well in the shop, the radio was kickin’ and our other night (‘Occasions’ – Winston and Parrot - anthem tracks ‘Unique 3’, ‘Track with no name’) was fiercely slamming.

I new Robert Gordon from childhood as the guy no one sees, because he was into his electronics (building and fixing).
One day he invited me round to do some music, with his new sampler in his studio. So I took along, Manu Dibango – ‘Abele Dance’ for sampling. Our friend Sean Maher was also present. It took us 6 hours from start to finish and Rob recorded it on to a TDK Metal Tape Cassette so that I could play it on the radio to get a response. We got so exited but couldn’t think of a title for it, so we decided ‘Track with No Name’ will do for now. Then we realised that we needed to have an artist name too. We agreed the track was tuff like wrought Iron and named ourselves after ‘Sheffield Forgemasters Steel Works’. The next day I played it on my radio show and the response was awesome, …tons of phone calls.

The Original Forgemasters are: Robert Gordon, Winston Hazel and Sean Maher.


Most people remembering the club nights in Sheffield where a lot of the early Warp stuff came from recall dancers 'going bonkers can you describe the atmosphere and musical experience of those times?

The reason there was so many really wicked dancers, was partly because of my background, dancing at All dayers throughout the 80’s and knowing many dancers (Jazz fusion foot workers) from that period, who were not going out dancing, because they didn’t enjoy the clubs or parties at that time. They new that what we were doing, would be good, because we danced to the music that we played and bought music for them to dance to! We dropped big soul, jazz, funk and hip hop tracks along side the big acid, electro and early house tracks of that time, which in turn attracted lots of girls and soul heads with dancing experience as well as new acid house/techno heads. This gave us a solid melting pot of different nationalities and people from all over the UK, which created an amazing jump up atmosphere!
Packed with people who travelled to our nights regularly, for musical enlightenment, gave us a unique opportunity, to break ground playing all new/old types of black music!

I've heard the Cuba club acted as a kind of testing ground for new Warp acts in the early days, can you talk about that?

This was a groundbreaking period because the first breed of bedroom producers started bringing recordings to Cuba club to here their tracks played on a club sound system and to gage a dance floor response. I announced to people while on air, to bring new recordings to Cuba and that myself or Parrot would give them a play if they sounded right for the night. I was given loads of tracks on Tape and CD, many of which worked well on the night but were not good enough to release.
This was also the club night where nearly all early Warp tracks, (excluding ‘Track with no name’ and ‘Dextrous’) were first given dance floor air and tested to on a well versed crowd. ‘LFO’, ‘The Step’, ‘Thomas’ and ‘Tuff Little Unit’ were all given maximum rotation here!

Why do you think Sheffield was the birthplace to so much talent at that moment?

The city was depressed at that time and because of the strong pirate radio station and Fon/Warp records, it gave people the feeling, we had something unique to the rest of the country going on and a way of exposing that, which in turn spawned optimistic bedroom producers to tap into the strong scene.

What were your first encounters with the Warp people like, and what were your dealings like with them?

I met Rob Mitchell and Steve Beckett, when Parrot told me they were looking for someone to be their black music buyer for the then, Fon Record shop. I went to see them and got the job. We three and Rob Gordon started Warp record label so that we could release ‘Track with no name’ because people where coming to the shop asking for it on a small scale. This prompted a meeting with Myself Rob, Rob and Steve, Rob Gordon suggested by way of conversation that “We Are Reasonable People” and the label was born. A few months down the line, Fon Record Shop was renamed WARP Record Shop.

Can you remember the process of recording "Track With No Name"? That title seems so perfect for the first Warp release, was it just a lazy way of titling or did you have more of an agenda behind it?

SEE ABOVE *

Looking at early press coverage and interviews, it seems like Rob & Steve were quite protective of the image of the label and of their first generation of artists - for example priming you to speak to journalists, not wanting to be known as exclusively 'House', etc etc. Was that the case in your experience?

Yes, this was the case but not necessarily priming. It was more about not being pigeon holed with the typical musical definitions of the music press. Although the style was donned ‘Bleep’, there were actually only 2 bleep tracks out on warp, ‘Unique 3’s - The Theme’ and ‘Sweet Exorcist - Testone’. Although this didn’t bother us much, our music was just House or Techno to us.

What are the most memorable experiences you had with Forgemasters, positive and negative?

My most positive experience with Forgemasters was when we did a Live UK tour of 6/8 clubs around the country. We tore up dance floors and left them for scrap!
Also hand writing the labels for the first 500 white label copies of ‘Track with no name’!

My most negative experience I had with Forgemasters was not being signed exclusive to Warp, which I think lost me my confidence in the label and its planned growth.



Why was there only one Forgemasters record on Warp, what happened to the duo in the end?

The Forgemasters never got signed to Warp, because of internal politics but we went on to sign to the Birmingham based ‘Network Records’ for the next release ‘Black steel E.P’.
We also completed a Remix for Inspiral Carpets and slowly drifted apart to work with different people.

What's your view of the route Warp has taken since, now that it has expanded and broadened its roster of artists?

I think where Warp are now, is cool for them but for me, personally, the label lost the identity we helped create, when they decided to start dropping the original acts. For me, the unique sound that quality that Warp had, was down to the masterful ears and skill of Robert Gordon, who was responsible for the final mixes of most early Warp stuff. Because the agenda became one of making the label one of the most successful and respected independent labels in the world, which it now is. There was no longer the time or money available, for the label to continue taking the risks it did in the early years, for no profitable return, in some cases only selling a few hundred/thousand records and with internal politics getting worse, the gulf between Warp and some of the ‘Original Purveyors of the Hypnotic Groove’ grew larger, therefore people went their separate ways.

[Solid State]

As a footnote, I saw Rob Gordon in Dulo the other day. He showed me a reggae 45 he had just produced... didnt get to hear it, unfortunately...

[mattm]

Always remember the jazz dancers doing their stuff