This week’s interview & mix comes from Greg Wilson
Selector AfterDark – Greg Wilson by The Selector on Mixcloud
Introduce yourself and tell us about the part of the UK you’re from?
I’m from New Brighton, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. This is where I started out DJing in the clubs 40 years ago, back in 1975, although many people presume I’m from Manchester, given my early 80’s connections with the city –Legend, The Haçienda, Piccadilly Radio etc.
Can you tell us a bit about what you’ve been working on recently?
It’s been an ultra-busy year as I’ve been rolling out my new Super Weird Substance label, with eight 12” releases since June, followed by a 2xCD compilation – ‘Greg Wilson Presents Super Weird Substance’. So, on top of all the club / festival dates, it’s been pretty frantic to say the least.
And can you talk us through the mix?
The mix focuses on the label, the 15 minutes featuring 5 of the tracks, whilst the 55 minutes incorporates other tracks I’ve produced, remixed or re-edited. So it’s fully representative of what I’ve been doing during recent times, and the eclectic direction the label has taken.
Nice, talk us through the British music featured in this mix? Which British artists are you most excited about?
Kermit Leveridge is someone I’ve known since my days in Legend. I produced his crew, the Ruthless Rap Assassins in the late 80’s / early 90’s, with a couple of acclaimed albums via EMI. He’d hook-up with Shaun Ryder in the 90’s and top the chart with their band Black Grape. He’s had a real renaissance during recent years, via Blind Arcade, his project with EVM128, as well as his own solo stuff, and it’s great to be working with him again. The Reynolds are twin sisters – we were so fortunate finding not one, but two amazing singers locally. They’ve become invaluable to the label, providing backing vocals for others, as well as fronting their own project and the Sweet Tooth T releases. Then there’s the Reverend Cleve Freckleton, who, apart from providing the spiritual hub of things, has a voice you sit up and listen to – preach bother, preach!
Cool, tell us about some of your British musical Heroes and influences in general?
The people who came before me and laid the groundwork for the club culture we know today. DJ’s like Roger Eagle and Guy Stevens, who were at the foundation of things in Manchester and London back in the early 60’s, working at the Twisted Wheel and The Scene. Then there’s Les Spaine, who was a direct inspiration via his residency at The Timepiece in Liverpool in the 70’s, and Terry Lennaine, who did the Soul show on local radio when I was starting out.
Great and what’s on the cards in the immediate future?
We’re looking at recording albums with Blind Arcade and The Reynolds in 2016, whilst taking our all-day live events, or Super Weird Happenings, to around half a dozen festivals. Our festival debut last year, at Portmeirion’s Festival No.6 was an overwhelming success, with spoken word, interviews, live art and well-being workshops alongside DJ’s and live music.
And finally, where is the best place in the world you have performed and why?
Legend, Manchester – every Wednesday night circa 1982 / 83. This was my DJ dream come true week in week out – an amazing club at exactly the right moment in time, when the music I was playing, the majority imported from the UK, was as upfront as anywhere in the country, and the audience I played it to was right at the cutting-edge. We were certainly at the cusp of things, championing the new Electro-Funk sound, which set the stage for the oncoming Hip Hop, House and Techno directions.
Greg Wilson plays XOYO, London tonight, click here to buy tickets.