Greg Wilson is a legendary British DJ having come to prominence as a DJ on the early electro scene spinning at clubs like Legend in Manchester and at the Wigan Pier. Wilson later went on to turn his knowledge of the dancefloor into a career crafting some great edits and putting out his own "Credit to the Edit" compilation album.

Let's get rolling. First off, who influenced you as began as a DJ?

There was no specific influence, but the general one would have been the various mobile DJ's I saw between the ages of 6 and 13, when my parents ran a pub, which had 2 functions rooms above it. Every weekend there were wedding receptions and 21st birthday celebrations. I'd sit behind the bar with my Mum, taking it all in. Often the DJ's would leave their equipment to pick up the next day, so I'd come down in the morning and spin a few tunes myself, talking on the microphone and playing at being a DJ.

I also had a schoolfriend, Derek Kelsey (later Kaye) who built his own mobile disco when he was only 11! It was just a couple of old record players in a wooden draw, with a switch so that he could go from one deck to the other. I was very impressed - he was definitely an inspiration. Derek would eventually have a great mobile set-up, and we'd both start to work in the local clubs when we were only 15. We remained friends to this day and he still deejays in New Brighton, where we both started out - over 30 years on.

What was the DJ scene like at the time in England?

Back then DJ's in the UK used the microphone in between records. That was the main tool of the trade. I was paid 6 pounds a night when I started in the clubs, so it wasn't regarded as much of a career move back then, unless you made it onto the radio, which was the ambition of many DJ's. To a lot of guys it was just a way of covering their beer money and meeting girls.There used to be a saying amongst club owners, that DJ's were 'ten a penny'. However, there were some who made a decent living out of it, although you had to be prepared to put in the hours. Recently, when I was looking through an old diary from when I was 16, I discovered that between the October and January I literally only had a handful of nights off - it was all pretty full-on. In relative terms I was making pretty good money, between 40 - 50 pounds per week, at a time when most of the people I'd been in school with were either in further education or earning a meager wage doing an apprenticeship. So I was pretty happy with my lot.

At this time DJs in England were speaking in between songs and not mixing. How did you manage to keep people dancing?

As one record was coming to an end you'd open the microphone and begin to talk, starting the next record as you did so. It wasn't as though there was a big gap while you waffled on. Any DJ worth their salt knew that you didn't talk over the vocals, so you'd time what you were saying to stop at the end of the intro; 'crashing the vocals' was a no-no! So there was still a flow to what you were doing and, because it was the norm for a DJ to talk, you only lost the dancefloor by playing the wrong tracks.

What were some of your secret weapon floor filler tracks at the time?

Check out my Time Capsule programmes if you want to know what I was playing circa 76/77:

Greg Wilson is a legendary British DJ having come to prominence as a DJ on the early electro scene spinning at clubs like Legend in Manchester and at the Wigan Pier. Wilson later went on to turn his knowledge of the dancefloor into a career crafting some great edits and putting out his own "Credit to the Edit" compilation album.

Let's get rolling. First off, who influenced you as began as a DJ?

There was no specific influence, but the general one would have been the various mobile DJ's I saw between the ages of 6 and 13, when my parents ran a pub, which had 2 functions rooms above it. Every weekend there were wedding receptions and 21st birthday celebrations. I'd sit behind the bar with my Mum, taking it all in. Often the DJ's would leave their equipment to pick up the next day, so I'd come down in the morning and spin a few tunes myself, talking on the microphone and playing at being a DJ.

I also had a schoolfriend, Derek Kelsey (later Kaye) who built his own mobile disco when he was only 11! It was just a couple of old record players in a wooden draw, with a switch so that he could go from one deck to the other. I was very impressed - he was definitely an inspiration. Derek would eventually have a great mobile set-up, and we'd both start to work in the local clubs when we were only 15. We remained friends to this day and he still deejays in New Brighton, where we both started out - over 30 years on.

What was the DJ scene like at the time in England?

Back then DJ's in the UK used the microphone in between records. That was the main tool of the trade. I was paid 6 pounds a night when I started in the clubs, so it wasn't regarded as much of a career move back then, unless you made it onto the radio, which was the ambition of many DJ's. To a lot of guys it was just a way of covering their beer money and meeting girls.There used to be a saying amongst club owners, that DJ's were 'ten a penny'. However, there were some who made a decent living out of it, although you had to be prepared to put in the hours. Recently, when I was looking through an old diary from when I was 16, I discovered that between the October and January I literally only had a handful of nights off - it was all pretty full-on. In relative terms I was making pretty good money, between 40 - 50 pounds per week, at a time when most of the people I'd been in school with were either in further education or earning a meager wage doing an apprenticeship. So I was pretty happy with my lot.

At this time DJs in England were speaking in between songs and not mixing. How did you manage to keep people dancing?

As one record was coming to an end you'd open the microphone and begin to talk, starting the next record as you did so. It wasn't as though there was a big gap while you waffled on. Any DJ worth their salt knew that you didn't talk over the vocals, so you'd time what you were saying to stop at the end of the intro; 'crashing the vocals' was a no-no! So there was still a flow to what you were doing and, because it was the norm for a DJ to talk, you only lost the dancefloor by playing the wrong tracks.

What were some of your secret weapon floor filler tracks at the time?

Check out my Time Capsule programmes if you want to know what I was playing circa 76/77:

http://www.samurai.fm/timecapsule
http://www.sixmillionsteps.com/drupal/node/48

DJs weren't really mixing records in England before you. After you started mixing records and gained a certain level of success did you notice a lot of DJs following in your path?

There were a few guys who pioneered things following the original interest in mixing in this country. Around '78. Greg James, an American DJ who worked at The Embassy in London, was the first proper mixing DJ in this country. Ian Levine, who'd been a major player on the Northern Soul scene, embraced Disco and, subsequently, mixing. He was influenced by Greg James and moved to London to become the DJ at the UK's premier Gay venue, Heaven, in 1979. Then there was James Hamilton, the legendary Disco columnist for Record Mirror, who very much championed mixing in this country. Soul Mafia DJ, Froggy, became a convert to mixing after a trip to New York, where he met Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, and Graham 'Fatman' Canter, the DJ from Gullivers in London mixed some of the early 'segued' albums issued in the UK. So, as you can see, there were people who came before me, but these were the exceptions, rather than the rule - by and large, DJ's in this country were still very much microphone based until well into the 80's (the majority didn't make the switch until after the Rave scene had kicked-in).

I'd also tried out mixing, like most other DJ's during the latter years of the 70's, but hardly any clubs had vari-speed decks back them, which made it near on impossible to get 2 records running together for more than a few beats. However, when I started working at Wigan Pier in 1980 and Legend in Manchester in '81, these were state-of-the-art venues with all the right equipment. It was at this point that mixing became a serious possibility for me, and this is where I built my reputation. In '82 I started to put together regular mixes for Mike Shaft's Soul Show on Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, which was the most listened to local radio station outside of London. And in Feb '83 I gave the first live demonstration of mixing on British TV when I appeared on the cult Channel 4 music show, The Tube.

I suppose that my association with Electro-Funk, which, with its beatbox rhythms, was far more conducive to mixing than much of the dance music that pre-dated it. So, around '82, I found myself in the right venues with the right equipment at the right time, playing an absolutely cutting-edge style of music. This singled me out as a new type of DJ; someone who had broken with the old ways and was looking towards the future. I was very much viewed by other DJ's as an innovator, but, although many would be influenced in a positive way, some DJ's didn't want change and regarded my emergence as disruptive.

What was the hardest part of trying to learn how to mix at this time?

Once I had access to vari-speed it all slotted into place. When you've been trying to mix on shitty decks, getting to work on 1200's (Legend had 3) was a luxury! By the end of '82 I owned a pair of 1200's at a time when hardly any UK clubs, let alone DJ's, had them. I had a good raw style that people found exciting. I used to be well-known for playing 2 (and often 3) copies of the same record, making my own live alternatives of some of the big tunes by repeating sections and switching between versions. This crossed over into the radio mixes, where I added editing to my palette. It all came pretty naturally. Nobody stood and taught me how to mix, I just got into it trial and error.

Looking at some of your old playlists I see a lot of tracks that were also big tracks at the Paradise Garage. Were you aware of this club and its scene at the time?

I'd read about Paradise Garage in James Hamilton's column and knew Larry Levan was the DJ there. I obviously noticed his name on a fair few records I played, but I never saw playlists or anything. It was all very detatched from what we were doing in the UK. Remember, there was an established black music scene in British clubs that dated back to the 60's and R&B. In many respects we were more upfront than US DJ's, so we didn't look to them for inspiration or anything. Now I know the history, I can see that I was playing lots of tunes Larry Levan played, but I was also playing lots of stuff he didn't feature, tracks that I now know were more likely to be heard in the block parties of the Bronx. From what I've gathered, I think that The Funhouse, where 'Jellybean' Benitez played, had alot in common with my nights at Legend and Wigan Pier. All in all, what I was playing never happened in a single club in New York, but was more like a combination of things you'd hear in places like Paradise Garage, The Funhouse and The Roxy, as well as what we brought to the table from a British perspective. Mike Pickering, the promotions manager at The Hacienda (later, of course, DJ) had been to New York and thought that Legend was 'at the time the nearest thing to New York'. He could obviously see the connection and that was part of the reason I was invited to do my own specialist dance night at The Hacienda in '83, which was the forerunner to their famous Nude night (this was at a time when The Hacienda's clientele were hardly what you'd call a dance crowd).

At this time you were playing a lot of US Imports. Did you see any artists in England creating electro funk that you deemed as good as its US counterparts?

I was playing almost exclusively imports, the scene I was involved with being as upfront as it gets. I'd obviously play UK releases if they were good enough. Arthur Baker remixed Touchdown's 'Ease Your Mind', which had been a huge tune on the Jazz-Funk scene, giving it a new lease of life in '82. Then he produced 'I.O.U' for Freeez, a track that first appeared on import, even though the act were British and had been previously successful with 'Southern Freeez'. The first homegrown Electro favourite was Newtrament's 'London Bridge Is Falling Down', which had London and Bristol connections. This was massive for me in '83, undoubtedly bigger in the North than the South, where Electro hadn't had as big an impact at that point.

During this time you were DJing at Legend and the Wigan Pier to a mostly black audience. How did the issue of race impact you? How did you manage to gain their respect?

Although those were still very racist times, in my experience the racism only went one way, from white to black. The black kids didn't judge you on your skin colour, but by the music you played, so the fact I was white was never an issue.

I was extremely honoured to be accepted in such a way by a black audience. It was the black kids who were always at the cutting-edge. They were the best dancers and, obviously, on the ball when it came to music. To gain the respect of that crowd was something I'd aspired to from back in the days when I was still working in Merseyside. In 1976 I went to a club in Liverpool called The Timepiece, which made a massive impression on me. The audience were overwhelmingly black and the DJ, Les Spaine, was held in the highest esteem by the other DJ's in the region, because he had such an amazing scene, playing the latest music (what he played first others played later). That night I consciously set myself an aim. I vowed to one day reach the level where I could work with a similar crowd. This was finally and fully achieved when I went to Legend. The Pier was amazing, but Legend on a Wednesday was as good as it gets, a serious, serious club. People ask me what great nights I can remember at Legend, but it's not a question I can answer because every Wednesday between mid-82 until I stopped deejaying at the end of '83 was incredible. This was a club that was packed solid soon after 10pm, with queues up the road and a one in one out door policy in operation. I couldn't wait for Wednesday night. It was pure DJ heaven.

What happened after you went into DJ retirement after 1983? What kinds of things were you working on?

Always involved in music in one way or another (production, remixing, management, promotion etc). Sometimes things were going well, but often they weren't. It was very much an up and down existence and I learnt what it was like to struggle, especially during the 90's, which was pretty bleak at times. But it's all good for the soul and, now, I'm at a point in my life where I can look back and smile. Lots of great memories though, Broken Glass, the breakdancers I managed, 'UK Electro', the Ruthless Rap Assassins, etc. I was always doing something or other.

How did you get into doing edits? What are some of your most favorite edits?

As an extension of the mixes I was doing for Piccadilly Radio. Editing became increasingly important to me and eventually the mainstay of my style of working (the Ruthless Rap Assassins albums I produced are splice city!). With regards to favourites, I've got to say the 'Credit To The Edit' project. It was fantastic to be asked to put together a selection of my own edits, which would be presented as a quality product with real attention to detail in things like the artwork and sleevenotes. A dream of a project!

What made you get back into DJing in 2003? What do you see as the future of DJing?

I set up my website, www.electrofunkroots.co.uk, to document the early 80's underground black scene because it was constantly being overlooked by people writing and broadcasting on the subject of dance culture in this country. It was as though, for most, 1987, when the group of DJ's went out to Ibiza, was year zero, so I set about trying to help put the record straight. It was as a consequence of this that promoters began to ask me if I'd DJ at their nights and everything snowballed from there. It's all been very organic, which is the best way.

In the future I see DJ's being more experimental in the way they present music. There's so many different approaches you can take now, which I see as a really positive thing. Some people will always regard vinyl as the true DJ format, but I think that the technology available now opens up all sorts of exciting possibilities. However, ultimately the main thing is the same now as it was when I started out, over 30 years ago, which is to strive to give the audience you're working with as good a night as you can, by playing the best possible music for the environment you're working in. That's the essence of being a DJ.

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/djgregwilson
http://www.sixmillionsteps.com/drupal/node/48

DJs weren't really mixing records in England before you. After you started mixing records and gained a certain level of success did you notice a lot of DJs following in your path?

There were a few guys who pioneered things following the original interest in mixing in this country. Around '78. Greg James, an American DJ who worked at The Embassy in London, was the first proper mixing DJ in this country. Ian Levine, who'd been a major player on the Northern Soul scene, embraced Disco and, subsequently, mixing. He was influenced by Greg James and moved to London to become the DJ at the UK's premier Gay venue, Heaven, in 1979. Then there was James Hamilton, the legendary Disco columnist for Record Mirror, who very much championed mixing in this country. Soul Mafia DJ, Froggy, became a convert to mixing after a trip to New York, where he met Larry Levan at the Paradise Garage, and Graham 'Fatman' Canter, the DJ from Gullivers in London mixed some of the early 'segued' albums issued in the UK. So, as you can see, there were people who came before me, but these were the exceptions, rather than the rule - by and large, DJ's in this country were still very much microphone based until well into the 80's (the majority didn't make the switch until after the Rave scene had kicked-in).

I'd also tried out mixing, like most other DJ's during the latter years of the 70's, but hardly any clubs had vari-speed decks back them, which made it near on impossible to get 2 records running together for more than a few beats. However, when I started working at Wigan Pier in 1980 and Legend in Manchester in '81, these were state-of-the-art venues with all the right equipment. It was at this point that mixing became a serious possibility for me, and this is where I built my reputation. In '82 I started to put together regular mixes for Mike Shaft's Soul Show on Piccadilly Radio in Manchester, which was the most listened to local radio station outside of London. And in Feb '83 I gave the first live demonstration of mixing on British TV when I appeared on the cult Channel 4 music show, The Tube.

I suppose that my association with Electro-Funk, which, with its beatbox rhythms, was far more conducive to mixing than much of the dance music that pre-dated it. So, around '82, I found myself in the right venues with the right equipment at the right time, playing an absolutely cutting-edge style of music. This singled me out as a new type of DJ; someone who had broken with the old ways and was looking towards the future. I was very much viewed by other DJ's as an innovator, but, although many would be influenced in a positive way, some DJ's didn't want change and regarded my emergence as disruptive.

What was the hardest part of trying to learn how to mix at this time?

Once I had access to vari-speed it all slotted into place. When you've been trying to mix on shitty decks, getting to work on 1200's (Legend had 3) was a luxury! By the end of '82 I owned a pair of 1200's at a time when hardly any UK clubs, let alone DJ's, had them. I had a good raw style that people found exciting. I used to be well-known for playing 2 (and often 3) copies of the same record, making my own live alternatives of some of the big tunes by repeating sections and switching between versions. This crossed over into the radio mixes, where I added editing to my palette. It all came pretty naturally. Nobody stood and taught me how to mix, I just got into it trial and error.

Looking at some of your old playlists I see a lot of tracks that were also big tracks at the Paradise Garage. Were you aware of this club and its scene at the time?

I'd read about Paradise Garage in James Hamilton's column and knew Larry Levan was the DJ there. I obviously noticed his name on a fair few records I played, but I never saw playlists or anything. It was all very detatched from what we were doing in the UK. Remember, there was an established black music scene in British clubs that dated back to the 60's and R&B. In many respects we were more upfront than US DJ's, so we didn't look to them for inspiration or anything. Now I know the history, I can see that I was playing lots of tunes Larry Levan played, but I was also playing lots of stuff he didn't feature, tracks that I now know were more likely to be heard in the block parties of the Bronx. From what I've gathered, I think that The Funhouse, where 'Jellybean' Benitez played, had alot in common with my nights at Legend and Wigan Pier. All in all, what I was playing never happened in a single club in New York, but was more like a combination of things you'd hear in places like Paradise Garage, The Funhouse and The Roxy, as well as what we brought to the table from a British perspective. Mike Pickering, the promotions manager at The Hacienda (later, of course, DJ) had been to New York and thought that Legend was 'at the time the nearest thing to New York'. He could obviously see the connection and that was part of the reason I was invited to do my own specialist dance night at The Hacienda in '83, which was the forerunner to their famous Nude night (this was at a time when The Hacienda's clientele were hardly what you'd call a dance crowd).

At this time you were playing a lot of US Imports. Did you see any artists in England creating electro funk that you deemed as good as its US counterparts?

I was playing almost exclusively imports, the scene I was involved with being as upfront as it gets. I'd obviously play UK releases if they were good enough. Arthur Baker remixed Touchdown's 'Ease Your Mind', which had been a huge tune on the Jazz-Funk scene, giving it a new lease of life in '82. Then he produced 'I.O.U' for Freeez, a track that first appeared on import, even though the act were British and had been previously successful with 'Southern Freeez'. The first homegrown Electro favourite was Newtrament's 'London Bridge Is Falling Down', which had London and Bristol connections. This was massive for me in '83, undoubtedly bigger in the North than the South, where Electro hadn't had as big an impact at that point.

During this time you were DJing at Legend and the Wigan Pier to a mostly black audience. How did the issue of race impact you? How did you manage to gain their respect?

Although those were still very racist times, in my experience the racism only went one way, from white to black. The black kids didn't judge you on your skin colour, but by the music you played, so the fact I was white was never an issue.

I was extremely honoured to be accepted in such a way by a black audience. It was the black kids who were always at the cutting-edge. They were the best dancers and, obviously, on the ball when it came to music. To gain the respect of that crowd was something I'd aspired to from back in the days when I was still working in Merseyside. In 1976 I went to a club in Liverpool called The Timepiece, which made a massive impression on me. The audience were overwhelmingly black and the DJ, Les Spaine, was held in the highest esteem by the other DJ's in the region, because he had such an amazing scene, playing the latest music (what he played first others played later). That night I consciously set myself an aim. I vowed to one day reach the level where I could work with a similar crowd. This was finally and fully achieved when I went to Legend. The Pier was amazing, but Legend on a Wednesday was as good as it gets, a serious, serious club. People ask me what great nights I can remember at Legend, but it's not a question I can answer because every Wednesday between mid-82 until I stopped deejaying at the end of '83 was incredible. This was a club that was packed solid soon after 10pm, with queues up the road and a one in one out door policy in operation. I couldn't wait for Wednesday night. It was pure DJ heaven.

What happened after you went into DJ retirement after 1983? What kinds of things were you working on?

Always involved in music in one way or another (production, remixing, management, promotion etc). Sometimes things were going well, but often they weren't. It was very much an up and down existence and I learnt what it was like to struggle, especially during the 90's, which was pretty bleak at times. But it's all good for the soul and, now, I'm at a point in my life where I can look back and smile. Lots of great memories though, Broken Glass, the breakdancers I managed, 'UK Electro', the Ruthless Rap Assassins, etc. I was always doing something or other.

How did you get into doing edits? What are some of your most favorite edits?

As an extension of the mixes I was doing for Piccadilly Radio. Editing became increasingly important to me and eventually the mainstay of my style of working (the Ruthless Rap Assassins albums I produced are splice city!). With regards to favourites, I've got to say the 'Credit To The Edit' project. It was fantastic to be asked to put together a selection of my own edits, which would be presented as a quality product with real attention to detail in things like the artwork and sleevenotes. A dream of a project!

What made you get back into DJing in 2003? What do you see as the future of DJing?

I set up my website, www.electrofunkroots.co.uk, to document the early 80's underground black scene because it was constantly being overlooked by people writing and broadcasting on the subject of dance culture in this country. It was as though, for most, 1987, when the group of DJ's went out to Ibiza, was year zero, so I set about trying to help put the record straight. It was as a consequence of this that promoters began to ask me if I'd DJ at their nights and everything snowballed from there. It's all been very organic, which is the best way.

In the future I see DJ's being more experimental in the way they present music. There's so many different approaches you can take now, which I see as a really positive thing. Some people will always regard vinyl as the true DJ format, but I think that the technology available now opens up all sorts of exciting possibilities. However, ultimately the main thing is the same now as it was when I started out, over 30 years ago, which is to strive to give the audience you're working with as good a night as you can, by playing the best possible music for the environment you're working in. That's the essence of being a DJ.

http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk http://www.myspace.com/djgregwilson