DJs Greg Wilson and Jamie Fatneck will be hosting what’s becoming an annual event in the North. Kitchen Sink Disco on Boxing day in Huddersfield will give you listening and dancing pleasure with a man who needs no introduction and a man who will happily introduce himself given but a smidgen of a chance. Read more about Greg Wilson in our preview of last year’s event. The pair will be appearing in cultural rival town Leeds on New Years Eve. Although there is a deep-seated enmity between the two localities, our booker Mark Broadbent (Huddersfield) aims to harmonise things by booking only DJs from Leeds as residents in 2011 for We Love Space…
There’s a facebook event page with all the info you need here.
Over the past decade, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have established themselves among the planet’s most loved dance acts, storming charts and stages across the world. Through the years Groove Armada have moved through moody ambient electronica, urban riddims’ and with their latest offering, the album Black Light a sort of new-wave mesmeric pop. They find a fanbase in everyone from angst ridden youths to parochial minded adults and admiration from other musicians for their uncanny ability to create music that can live on radio and music television while still be able to get guys and girls boogieing on the dancefloor until the break of dawn.
There is an unusual blend of influences in each of their albums, spanning house (of course), big beat, reggae, disco and funk. Production wise they definitely have the knack of combining a traditional range of instrumentation with modern rhythms and technology. Their DJ sets however are most definitely rooted in house. Cato and Findlay remain two of the most passionate and knowledgeable fans of the genre you are ever likely to meet.
Although they have played in venues as diverse and remote as Romanian beaches and WW1 aircraft in Los Angeles, the duo always return to Ibiza. With a prodigal sons type vibe in the air, it’s promising to be a special season on the Terrace at We Love.. Space this year for Groove Armada as DJs and as live performers when their Black Light show rolls into the cavernous Discoteca.
Take note in your diaries ladies and gentlemen. Groove Armada will be DJing at We Love on the following dates: 20th June, 18th July and 19th of September. Expect that spectacular live show on the 15th of August.
For now we’ll leave it to Andy Cato (he’s the 6ft 8 Yorkshireman) to give us some insight to his musical history and hopes for the future. Genuinely interesting and insightful – thank you Andy.
Is there one book that you have read that has been life-changing for you?
Several. On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Chronicles by Bob Dylan, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, The Manual by Bill Drummond, The Revenge of Gaia by James Lovelock, etc.
Did your parents encourage you to work in music?
My dad was a blues player so he got me playing blues on the piano as soon as I could sit up. He also rigged up a bag of nails hung over a hook in the roof so I could start playing the trombone before I was old enough to lift it.
How did you begin to work professionally in music?
I was doing jazz gigs, weddings, funerals and the like from age 13 onwards. When I could get out of school, I used to spend afternoons in a studio underneath Wakefield Snooker Club, working out how it worked in exchange for releasing the tunes via the son of the club owner.
How do you apply your past experiences to what you do today?
I can’t tell you which bit of my musical life I’m drawing on when it comes to sitting down to write a song. I’m sure it’s all in there somewhere. But when you walk out to play to 50,000 people, it helps to have spent most of your life on stages, however small they were. And as far as DJing goes, there’s a big part of the sound at the moment that’s rooted in where it all started for me. The sound of Basics, Kaos, Soak and DiY parties in ’89/’90. A lot of the old tunes are coming back up from the basement. There was also a real importance back then in working your tunes in the right order – before fx and loops could cover the gaps – and that’s stayed with me.
Where is your current studio and what is it like?
It’s in an old cowshed. It’s actually the first proper studio I’ve ever had. I’ve been quite nomadic and have had studios in various cellars, bedrooms and boats up until now. It’s got some nice gear and pair of speakers I bought from Mike Oldfield that could rival the Terrace soundsystem.
Black lights
How much have you had to consider marketing issues since embarking on your career and how has that affected your creativity?
It’s been more lack of marketing issues for us. Until recently we were stuck on a major with Britney and NSync, with little attention coming our way. This meant we put a lot of work into the live show, the DJ sets, things we could get out there and do ourselves without hanging around waiting for answers from the label. In this way, GA has always been a DIY project. It’s meant less time for studio work over the years, but given that making a living in music is all about the gig these days, it hasn’t worked out too bad.
How would you describe your work?
A game of four halves. A lot of people only know the big singles and have no idea about all those deep and weird album tracks, the GA house sound, the amazing vibe of the live show, or the fact that Black Light (the new album) is the best music we’ve ever made. So we’ve still got a way to go.
Who were your teachers?
Studio-wise I just went for it from the off and worked it out. It takes a long time but it’s the best way to do it. DJ-wise, Sasha at Shelleys was one inspiration, and my cousin, Digs DiY the other. As a result I’ve always been sowewhere between the big breakdown and the hypnotic groove. In terms of playing instruments, it was my dad and Grimethorpe Colliery Band for the trombone, Stan who now plays with Faithless on the bass, and a woman down the road whose name I can’t remember for the piano.
Your home is burgled but fortunately the culprits are caught and your possessions returned to you. What would you deem a suitable punishment for the burglars?
Carry my records back upstairs.
You have to make one species of animal extinct. Excluding insects, which species would that be?
It would have to be the mosquito, but you can bet that there’d be an unforeseen outcome and we’d lose all our chickens or something within the year. That’s the thing with species. Once they start going, the rest follow.
If you could spend one week in any period of history, which period would you choose?
I’d repeat the 13th – 21st July, 1991 at the DiY free party, Morton Lighthouse. It doesn’t get any better.
Thanks again to Andy Cato for taking time out of his busy touring and production schedule to answer our 11 Questions, you can find the archive of everyone else who has kindly answered here. Check out the video below for a taste of Groove Armada live incase you haven’t witnessed it before. And remember, the full Black Light live show will be out in full force for We Love… Space on Sunday 15th August.
They’re chucking out the tables and chairs at Verve on Boxing Day in Huddersfield and beefing up the soundsystem to make room for the distinguished Greg Wilson. Our esteemed associate Jamie Fatneck has brought one of the most important figures in the UK scene and dance music in general back to his original stomping ground – Huddersfield, England. Although most predominantly related to the legendary Wigan Pier and Manchester’s Hacienda where he mixed soul, funk, disco and of course electro starting the club’s first dance night and stoking the reputation of the club as the home of cutting edge music, Greg Wilson actually launched his first residency in Huddersfield on finding the crowd which enjoyed his sound were not welcome in his native Liverpool.
Wilson retired from DJing in 1984 to concentrate on studio work and other projects, only to go on to enjoy a renaissance of sorts by returning to DJ in 2003 with his Music Is Better night played out in Manchester. He released the seminal Credit to the Edit in the summer of 2005 and has been prolific with his disco re-edits for Tirk records. 2008 saw Greg go ubiquitous with gigs at We Love… Space – Ibiza, Asylum – Leeds, Horse Meat Disco and Fabric – London and Sub Club – Glasgow to name just a few (as well as a return to New York, LA and San Francisco and packing in a tour of Japan, Australia and South America).
Once the unsung hero of dance music, Greg Wilson is now recognised as a living legend and while receiving universal acclaim for both his studio work and shows around the world, he obviously maintains a sense of foundation with a return to where it all really started – so check it out, Verve bar in Huddersfield town on Boxing Day, 2009. This Kitchen Sink Disco knees up is likely to be a boozy affair, a great way to escape Ma & Pa’s turkey sarnies and Ben Hur on the telly aswell as a great excuse for Fatneck and his mates to play loud electro-discofunk records to all his mates. It’s such big news around those parts it’s even made it into the local paper. Enjoy.
The music in this video is still intensely relevant. 1983, the first time anyone “mixed” live on television while sporting the never-before-seen afro-mullet.
Re-editing is something I’d encourage not just DJ’s, but anyone who enjoys dance music, to have a go at. There are plenty of software options. I was first attracted to editing because I found it to be great fun, I even used to view it as ‘playing around’ (in the same way I’d play around with a few copies of the same record in a live context). Some people will obviously be more adept than others, the mathematics of editing (knowing where you are with the beats and the bars) is not something that comes naturally to everyone, but, as with anything, if you begin with the simpler things and master those first, the more complex ones will follow. Perhaps you could start off by picking a track that you’ve always liked, apart from one section, then see if you can remove the section without disturbing the flow of the track. If you can do that, you’re on your way. – Greg Wilson
