Greg Wilson was the first DJ to host a specialist dance night at Fac 51 The Hacienda, in late 1983. He also later played at Legend, to a mainly black audience. He also nearly made it onto the Factory catalogue at FAC 95 with a dance 12" single but this never happened. In a slight change of direction, the number FACT 95 is allocated to an album by The Royal Family and the Poor.

Greg takes up the story: "I only realised I'd actually been given a Factory catalogue number, when somebody mentioned it to me last year - I think they'd come across it as a Factory trivia question. It was for a mix that I was going to do of stuff that had come out on the label. For one reason or another it never happened - most of the stuff I'd been given to work from was definitely not suitable for the type of mixes I was doing (I was a black music specialist), so, from my perspective it would have been trying to fit square pegs into round holes (only New Order, Quando Quango and 52nd Street had released dance singles on the label). Nowadays, with the assistance of computer programs, I'd have taken a completely different approach and could have put together something pretty interesting, but back then it was to have been a more straightforward one track into the next type mix."

Greg stopped DJing in 1984 but recently has been back on the decks, most notably when he supported A Certain Ratio at their Cargo gig back in August. Also, check out the new album 'No Sell Out', a Legend / Wigan Pier Electro Retrospective (May '82 - Dec '83) mixed by Greg Wilson for A Guy Called Gerald / Samurai FM. An mp3 is now available to download: www.samurai.fm/electrofunkroots

More info at: electrofunkroots.co.uk. Many thanks to Greg.

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It's good to be back.

Labels: 52nd_Street, A_Certain_Ratio, FAC51_The_Hacienda, New_Order, Quando_Quango, The_Royal_Family_And_The_Poor

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