Interview with one of dance music’s true legends, Greg Wilson

Interview with one of dance music’s true legends, Greg Wilson

14 September, 2008 | 5.48AM

• Written by: Lolo Van der Venne
• Filed under: Music News: 2020 vision, greg wilson

Before nu disco blew up, many children of disco’s electronic hybrids and rarities looked to Greg Wilson for their education. 

A true pioneer, Greg Wilson has been spinning since his days at Wigan Pier in 1982.

Armed with fist full of razorblades (for his infamous live re:edits) he has laid the blueprint for old and ‘nu’ to look like they were never apart.

Below he talks to us about Skream and Dubstep, the closure of another London superclub, and the missing link in the history of UK house, techno and hip hop.

You are a figure associated with vinyl purism and also re-edits, so what do you think of the idea of disco downloads? With nu-disco being driven by digital as well as by vinyl?

I wouldn’t say I was a vinyl purist.

It’s not so much about the format for me, but the quality of the music played, whether this is via turntables, CDJs or laptop.

We can never go back to how things were, nor should we want to - I don’t like nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, although it’s important to learn from the past if you really want to approach the future from a position of true understanding.

I’m excited about the way things are nowadays, it’s a very open time for music.

People consume music much differently to the way they did when I was younger, but that’s OK as far as I’m concerned.

Things can’t remain static - the moment people start wishing themselves back to the old days is the moment they start to grow old.

It’s not enough to just respect that past, you must also respect the future and the people who are shaping it.

You’ve just done a compilation for 2020 Vision, how did that come about and do you have any other projects lined up with other labels?

Hoping to get the follow-up to ‘Credit To The Edit’ out in 2009, although I’ve said that for the past couple of years, but events have taken over and I haven’t been able to find the time to put it all to bed, so no promises.

There are also a few more things in the pipeline that I can’t go into at present.

The 2020 album came about as a result of getting to know Tris and Ralph from the label back in 2003, before I’d started DJing again.

They were very supportive and keen to work on a compilation with me documenting the electro-funk period, but this failed to happen for reasons outside their control.

Finally the idea of a label mix, exploring the relationship between the dance music of the past and present, came about, and it’s been a great project for me to be involved in as it’s certainly brought my name to a lot of people who hadn’t heard of me previously.

Your website electrofunkroots.co.uk is an extremely informative homage to ‘electro’ or ‘electro-funk’ as being at the centre of the dance music universe. It’s obviously a big driving force in your working life to educate people on this, why is this so important to you?

Electro funk marked not the centre but the crossroads, with drum machines and synths / samplers increasingly dominating dance music and paving the way for the oncoming popularity of house, techno and hip hop.

It’s very much the missing link in the evolution of UK dance culture - something which an ever increasing amount of people, who came onto the dance scene during the house / rave explosion of the late ‘80s, are now beginning to discover with hindsight.

It’s important because this highlights the pivotal contribution of the black scene in this country, which has been pretty much swept under the carpet as far as most accounts of dance culture in the UK are concerned.

The black kids were always the best dancers and into the most cutting-edge music, but the fact they were black meant they were very much marginalized by British society - the electro-funk era coming directly after the race riots of ‘81.

There was a thriving underground dance culture, with club nights and regular all-dayers, which constantly influenced things on a mainstream level, whilst remaining largely separate.

This isn’t just about the electro-funk days, but dates back into the ‘70s and even the ‘60s - from the moment black American music began to make its mark in this country.

This lineage took in soul, funk, disco and jazz-funk, prior to the early ‘80s electro-funk era.

It may surprise some people to learn that Skream is a disco fan - I’ve heard you are friends with him. How did you meet and is it purely a disco bond?

Wouldn’t go as far to say friends as that would suggest we have tea at each others houses and stuff, but we met in Melbourne when we were both lecturing at the Red Bull Music Academy, and he came to see me in Sydney a week later.

We also hooked-up the following year at a RBMA taster session in Leeds and we exchange emails from time to time.

And what is your opinion on dubstep?

I’ve a lot of respect for what Skream is doing - the dubstep scene has really excited a younger generation of clubbers in a similar way to how people were into specialist scenes like jazz-funk and electro-funk way back when.

At the end of the day, all these styles of music come from the same source, and Skream understands this - he has a real sense of the history, whereas other DJs might not see the connection.

It seems that the number of big clubs in London are dwindling dramatically (with the most recent news being the closure of The End). In your experience of the UK music scene do major cities need big clubs to feed a scene or is the loss of big clubs not so catastrophic?

I suppose that this is symbolic of the way things have been going for a number of years, with a return of the smaller more underground nights, which, for me, have always been the lifeblood of the club scene.

The 90s were definitely the superclub era, where people were led to believe that bigger was better.

For me, the essence was lost during this time, hence people not realizing that anything of significance had happened before Ibiza ‘87 and the subsequent Rave explosion.

Superclubs and superstar DJs have never sat well in my way of looking at things - it’s always been the music first and foremost for me, not the brand, or the lifestyle, or the money to be made.

All those things are subsidiary in my book.

The bigger clubs, by nature of their size, were always more about the mainstream audience, with the innovations generally taking place in smaller spaces, where like-minded people came together and created new directions based on a genuine passion for the music they were into, which had nothing to do with following the crowds, but was all about following their instincts.

Most great musical movements have grown from these humble beginnings, with the few eventually influencing the many.

So, as far as I’m concerned, it’s all part of a process, and a necessary one at that.

Describe the technical set up we’d find at a Greg Wilson gig?

Laptop and PCDJ controller, mixer, plus Revox B77 reel to reel. A combination of past and present, like the music I play.

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Thanks, Greg!

Check out Greg’s Beatport chart here.

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