Greg Wilson (DJ)

Greg Wilson (born 1960) is an English DJ and producer associated with both the early 80s electro scene in Manchester and the current disco / re-edit movement. He's also a writer / commentator on dance music and popular culture.

Growing up in New Brighton on Merseyside, Wilson lived above his family's pub during the years 1966–1973. The premises included two function rooms where he’d witness mobile discos featuring on a weekly basis at wedding receptions and parties. His main musical influences came from the record collections of his elder brother and sister, especially the soul music labels Tamla Motown, Stax and Atlantic. Wilson began his career as a DJ in 1975 at the age of 15, having bought a mobile set-up from his schoolfriend Derek Kelsey (later known as DJ Derek Kaye). He began a residency at local nightspot The Chelsea Reach on 6 December 1975, and remained at the venue until 1977. Further local residencies followed at The Penny Farthing (1976–77) and The Golden Guinea (1977-1980), where he first built his reputation as a black music specialist, playing soul, funk, disco and jazz-funk. He also worked as a DJ in Denmark and Norway during a 2-month period in 1978.

Wilson left the Golden Guinea in 1980 and worked in Denmark and Germany before returning to the UK to take a 4 night a week residency at Wigan Pier. In 1982 he became a full-time black music specialist, continuing Wigan Pier’s Tuesday night jazz-funk session, which was voted the North’s Best Club by Blues & Soul readers, with Wilson collecting the Best DJ award. He controversially championed early electro records at Wigan Pier and, most notably, Manchester club Legend, where he took over their Wednesday jazz-funk night in 1981. As with Wigan Pier, people travelled to his nights at Legend from places including Birmingham, Huddersfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Bradford, Nottingham, Liverpool and London. Legend attracted a predominantly black crowd to listen to the new electro-funk records, which were mainly coming out of New York City. Wilson also began to take a serious approach to mixing around this point, and is regarded as one of the UK pioneers. In 1982 he began to present regular mixes of the music he was playing in the clubs on Manchester’s Piccadilly Radio, and these featured on Mike Shaft’s specialist black music show ‘T.C.O.B’ (Taking Care Of Business). These radio mixes are still talked about as being influential to this day, with the end of year ‘Best Of 82’ and ‘Best Of 83’ mixes regarded as classics.

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