Interview: Dave Dorrell

We haven’t done an interview for some time so after thinking about who to speak to we plumped for Dave Dorrell. Dorrell was involved in many of the seminal London night clubs – The Dirtbox, Batcave, RAW, Love and The Milk Bar – as well as being a journalist and manager of note for the Pet Shop Boys amongst others. There was almost too much to cover so we just started at the beginning and tried to work through the key years. Thanks to Frank Tope, Terry Farley and Pete Tong for additional questions.

Dave Dorrell images by James McLintock. Wild Bunch image by Beezer.

So Dave, where does it all start?

Well as a child I was a hippy. My sister worked at Biba so if you want the first thing I was seven with my hair down to my waist and she took me to see the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park for the free concert. That was my first concert. Barefoot, we walked the length of Oxford Street. That was a day.

What was the first scene you really got into youth culture-wise?

The first thing that we really got into it was kind of the Disco/ soul scene I guess. So Disco, but then at the same time it was Punk. I was about 15 when Punk happened and we started a fanzine at school called The Modern World (after the Jam song). We got an exclusive interview with two of the Sex Pistols – Paul Cook and Steve Jones – cause they lived in a flat in Bell Street, the same street as our school. I skipped first break at 11 o’clock and went up to the top of this old Victorian building and all these nubile punk nymphet’s came skipping about between rooms and we were like ‘it’s eleven o’clock in the morning this is ridiculous’ and then I remember when we did it Sid Vicious went past on a Suzuki motorbike with no helmet on.

So from the off you were brought up on an eclectic mix of music?

Definitely, definitely. From youth clubs days listening to Ska and Soul same as everybody else and then everything from T-Rex and Sweet and all that nonsense and my sisters into Jimi Hendrix and Bowie and all those things were getting fed into the machine at some point.

So you’re out dancing to the records, when did playing them to other people seem like an option?

For me it was at school. There were a few us really into music. Gary Crowley was in the year above me and he was a huge influence on all of us in being so ahead of the curve. He was going to see The Jam really before anyone knew about them and The Clash at The Roundhouse. Me and my old mucker Chris Clunn, a fantastic photographer who did all the pictures for our fanzine, really got into smoking dope and listening to Reggae and were asked to DJ at the 6th form party. Chris said ‘I’m going to call my cousin up (his cousin was Jamaican) and get him to come down as well’. We turned up with a box of seven inch records and they turned up with a sound system that had to be lifted off a lorry. After that we played when we could. From like 16 on we were DJing in local pubs and stuff like that.

When did you get a name for yourself?

I guess from 19 I thought there is more out here. We were going clubbing and seeing bands all the time and we had an eye on doing a party. I think the first thing that we ever did was at Battle Bridge behind Kings Cross. In those days Battle Bridge was still squats, everything from hippies to punks, and they had a hall there and we did a night. We charged to get in and people turned up. We alternated a few times with another clique from West London, which was Sean Oliver and Neneh Cherry and that whole gang. I think they were good days. Those were good parties.

What was the party called?

I think it was Emergency Ward 10.

So was that at the start of warehouse culture?

I mean for me definitely. It’s kind of before any other warehouse parties that I knew about. I think the Dirtbox was around the same time and I DJ’d for the Dirtbox when they opened up a big warehouse in Chelsea. Around the same time there was D-Mob in Beak Street – Chris Brick and co., these crazy Welsh kids. They were doing various bits and pieces. They had an illegal party in the basement on Rosebery Avenue in Islington called the Doghouse which had Maurice and Noel Watson as residents. So that was the beginning of the 80s I guess…

So what came next? You mentioned Neneh Cherry – was she the link to a new crowd?

Well that kind of came about after. I’d been going to the Beat Route where Steve Lewis (above) was Djing and listening to Fela and Gill Scott Heron and Material.

The mix…

Yeah absolutely. And that was where my focus was. The mix of things was extremely appealing and soon after that the guys got the Wag Cub and everything properly happened in the space of 24 months yet it feels like it was spread out over years. I started to DJ at The Batcave occasionally. I was starting to write at The NME as a result of a new fanzine we were working on, and it all happened pretty quickly. Across ’80-‘83 I remember going to all sorts of different scenes. Going to see The Specials, going to the The Jam at The Rainbow, watching Skinheads beat up Dexys’ fans at the Electric Ballroom, I guess ‘81 or ‘82, and soon after that I’m writing for The NME and DJing at warehouse parties and the whole thing has a run of about three years.

When you hear a tape of a warehouse party from that time they sound like they have a kind of have a naive amateur edge…

It was. It was completely made up. There were the established clubs, The Mud club, The Batcave was running kind of alongside that, early warehouse parties running alongside that, so you had very divergent scenes that were kind of open to everybody and though I was having a massive Goth moment at one point I was still going out to the warehouse parties the D-Mob guys were throwing as the NME offices were on Carnaby St. I was DJing at one end of Carnaby St at the Batcave then going to D-Mob at the other end.

It was quite unique in that there were an number of very strong scenes, Punk had moved into being almost Gothic, ‘82–‘83, the warehouse scene was coming out of efforts that Chris Sullivan and Ollie were doing at Billie’s in Covent Garden. The Blitz was going at the same time and I’d go there as it was on my doorstep and my sister went out with one of Spandau. I came home one night and there was bloke (Steve Norman) in a Hawaiian shirt playing guitar to her . I was like what is this??? (laughs). You had this very strong youth movement, not even youth movements, they were more explorations into music and style and none of them seemed to be too clear-cut. I’d go to the Beat Route and have a flat-top and mashed up jeans. I’d go to Batcave different jeans, same flat-top and it was odd how it all interlinked but was quite separate.

So obviously there was a point when your tastes refine and you get your own palette – was hip hop the crux of this?

I think that probably is about right. A friend of mine was the editor of Black Echoes and she came back with a 12” of Rappers Delight that she had managed to get from Sylvia Robinson herself. It was the first rap record I’d ever heard and that was an absolutely revelatory moment. It was like ‘what is going on here???’ I guess that opened the floodgates. From there it was trying to get anything I could out of any shops that had records of that nature. Places like Groove Records you know…

So do you think that was the unsaid link that you had with the likes of The Wild Bunch, Nellee Hooper and all that lot?

I can pretty much lay claim to bringing the Wild Bunch up from Bristol. I was going out with a girl from Bristol so I’d go down and see her. I went to one of their parties in St Paul’s and I was doing an occasional night at The Wag on Wednesdays and I got the guys to come up. I remember them coming up and blowing everyone’s minds as they had all these breaks that people in London weren’t plugged into…

Were they on the mic at that time?

They were a little bit on the mic but mostly they were DJing. ESG, their first 6 track EP playing it covered up and at the ‘wrong’ speed, and the break from the B-side of Eddie Kendricks ‘Keep On Trucking’. Cutting between two copies. Seven inches sellotaped to twelve inches – all that stuff. I guess the situation at the time was there was a nascent version of the scene in the West with Newtrament and The Language Lab guys but that was it. It was quite a tiny scene really and you could join the dots fast. Next thing Nellee was moving to London with Miles and they (The Wild Bunch) were getting a deal with 4th & Broadway. I remember being in a studio just around the corner from here, just off Shoreditch High Street, when they recorded the ‘Look Of Love’. Miles was one of the best DJs I ever saw in my life. I remember seeing him in Tokyo around ‘86 or ‘87, at Gold I think. It was an incredible club. It was in a bank vault and the DJ booth was made of Gold bricks. He was DJing and was playing Ramsey Lewis ‘Sun Goddess’ and then mixing some jack track, underneath it… Amazing.

So from the warehouse thing through to Special Branch. How do we get from there to there?

As a journalist I was running around the world for the NME. Going clubbing in New York on the back of generous record companies so I got to do all that stuff and chasing the whole hip hop thing. So Dirtbox started to do a regular night at the Titanic which was Berkley Square and I was bringing lots of electro and playing that. Sometime around ’84. I guess a number of scenes were all starting to converge and I think I met Nicky (Holloway) through Paul Oakenfold. Paul was working at a clothes shop called Ice in St Christopher’s place and we got talking. You know Paul was always a character, and I remember him saying he was going to New York and me saying he was going to have a great time as it was so amazing over there.

Two months later I bump into him and he’s working in another clothes shop and I said ‘how did it go?’ He said ‘it was great – I’m giving up my job and I’m going to start a record pool’. I was like ‘what’s that?’ He explained that DJs in New York got their records from a ‘Promo’ person. He’d kind of fallen into this in New York and saw the classic gap in the market and the market in the gap. The next thing I know he’s wearing a Beastie Boys cap, promoting Def Jam and doing a night at the Embassy. I was like ‘wow you’re get up and go’. At that moment what had been previously very separate scenes started to connect. Meeting Nicky and Paul – years before Spectrum – and that was my connection to the suburban scene that previously I had had no connection with as I was always central. And as such, it was suddenly another door opening. Bringing it back round I can’t remember the first time I met Nicky Holloway but it’s been a lifelong love affair.

So lets go rare groove. Who was the greatest DJ on that scene and why? (Chart above from i-D September ’87)

I’d have to say Barrie Sharpe. I used to warm up for Barrie when the rare groove thing was really kicking in and Rene Gelston had just set up Black Market records, I don’t think it was even a shop, he was a hairdresser and it was just a label in his head at the time, and we got a night at the Wag called Blackmarket and Barrie was the main DJ, Lascelle was playing upstairs and I would warm up downstairs for Barrie, and he would play pretty much two hours of James Brown productions and the full breadth of that was eye-opening. I mean you can’t forget Norman Jay and the Soul II Soul boys as they pulled out some utter gems but in a funny way they weren’t as purist as Barrie. You know if you went to Africa Centre you’d hear Will Powers next to some obscure African funk track and they were throwing things in the mix so they had their own sound so it wasn’t strictly rare groove but Barrie was utterly strict and totally pure.

So where does RAW come into it?

RAW comes about ’84–’85 and ran through to ’87–‘88. RAW was Oliver Peyton’s idea. He was great at finding venues and he found a new one. We were hanging out at the Spice Of Life and going to The Wag a lot and Oliver had just come up from Brighton. Once we saw the venue, it was like ‘wow, we’ve got this amazing venue in the centre of London, what do we do next?’ Oliver had just finished a design degree at Sussex and was like ‘ok, I’m going to drape the whole place in canvas you take care of the music’. He made it look like nothing else. So, I got Rob Milton to come in and do it with me as I was DJing with him at the Dirtbox, and we were the original RAW DJs and much later on Ben and Andy (Boilerhouse). Rob left the country so I had to get someone else in to do it with me and CJ (Mackintosh) used to come occasionally and that was it. Rob was a great DJ.

So when did it really kick off?

I’d say ‘85 into ‘86 it was a line around the block. Like seriously. I think it was the last time that there was such enthusiastic mixing of every single element. We were playing Hip-Hop, Rare groove,Disco and everything went. We’d have the bleachers set up and people would stand up and dance all night whistling. It was a sweatbox. It was 6 floors underground and I’d be drenched by the time the night finished. It lasted for a good couple of years and was it pretty amazing having that as your playground for a couple of years…

So slightly different tangent, who styled the shoot of you in i-D that looked very very Buffalo? It was certainly a very London look…

You know what, no-one styled it. That’s just what we wore at the time. It was me Nellee (Hooper), Milo, Barnsley and Zorha. We were knocking out these Chanel No.5 t-shirts and I was ‘advertising’ one. Product placement I think they call it these days. Nellee had just moved to London with Zohra and Miles and they lived on Delancey St in Camden and we all hung out together. That was kind of the look we were sporting. It was kind of influenced by the Japanese style. Nellee had a Westwood shearling coat on and there was a lot of ‘styling’ going on but no-one styled it.

What other DJs did you respect at that time?

Definitely the Wild Bunch, but then again Jay Strongman stood head and shoulders above all of us. He was the DJ. When he was core DJ at the Dirtbox he was the first person I heard play Double D and Steinski’s ‘Lesson One’. The first person I heard play Go-Go. He’d throw a Cajun record in and it all kind of went together. Because of the music scene the Dirtbox had kind of spawned you’d just as likely hear Theatre Of Hate or something. Jay would merge all of that into what was warehouse culture and would happily play the Clash next to obscure old blues tracks.

It’s funny one – it seems with a few of those guys like Steve Lewis from the Beat Route – they just seem to walk away from it at all at a certain point. Do you think there’s an element of it ‘doesn’t get much better than this…’?

Of course. That’s the secret of life. It’s not the 100th glass of champagne, it’s the anticipation of the first one and it’s almost the anticipation of the first one that’s the most exciting, so by the time you get to the 100th you’re over it…

Quite a few London DJs were spinning in New York pre-acid house – Fat Tony, Noel Watson to name a few – did you get to play out there?

No. Much to my chagrin though I went to every decent club in New York. I was going over mostly as a journalist. The first time I went was in December ‘83 to an exhibition by Keith Haring at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery which was incredible because in the basement Haring had sprayed his signature figurines in fluoro green and pink and yellow all over the entire space – wall, the floor and the ceilings – and he’d installed Grandmaster Flash in the corner as the installation. I was just like ‘wow’. That was when I started think ‘ok – art and music’. The following night I went to The Area. Probably the best club I ever went to. Grandmaster Flash was DJing again, Debbie Harry was dancing on the floor with Andy Warhol, and you just think ‘this is just nuts this place’. New York at the time was absolutely incredible. Meeting people like Mark Kamins who was DJing at Save The Robots and hanging out there a lot. Going to Danceteria and dancing with Madonna, meeting Arthur Baker, just being swept away but the whole scene rather than thinking ‘I want to DJ here’. It was never really my first thought. It was much more anthropological. And that’s how it felt.

You hear about people bringing back tapes from that time, and I suppose when you know what you are going for you want to bring as much of it back as possible and distribute it amongst your mates…

That group of friends they were doing that as well. And by ’86 and ‘87 we had links into Tokyo too. Nellee was over there. Miles was over there. We’d bring over Melon. I introduced them one night at The Astoria. We were doing RAW, must have been ‘86, Nick Truelocke was doing The Astoria with Noel and Maurice (Watson), and half-way through my evening about 12 o’clock, Nellee came over and said they want you to introduce them so I had to run across the road to Astoria and introduce them (Melon) and then run back to RAW and carry on DJing.

Were Melon a big band back then?

They were a big kind of scenester band. The Face and stuff. Anything from Japan was kind of hip. Their album was on Columbia. Everyone was trying to figure out how The Beastie Boys had become the biggest band in the world and everything was up for grabs. Melon and Major Force, as a collective, kind of represented Japan’s end of the game.

Part Two covering the acid house years follows soon.

[Apiento]

New Release: Shrinkwrap – Hot Dub

Here’s a lovely little ten inch that we got sent on the new Perfect10 imprint. Shrinkwrap are Mark Rayner and Matt Horobin and have released tracks previously on Nuphonic and Disfunktion as well as mastering the Smith & Mudd and Cantoma albums on Claremont and Leng. My favoured track is the A Side ‘Hot Dub’ a slice of electronic dub featuring trombone and space. A timeless sound. The record has been out for a few weeks now but it’s well worth checking if there are still any around. Here’s a taster.

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 008 / Queer Noises 61-78

Following the last Savage radio show on the Motorik German sound, here he returns with a show based around gay records from 1961 – 1978 which links to his compilation on Trikont named ‘From The Closet To The Charts’. It begins with Rod McKuen (writer of ‘Blank Generation’) and ends with Sylvester’s ‘I Need Somebody To Love Tonight’. Track the compilation down if you enjoy the show.

Download
zShare Download

Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

[Apiento]

Mix: Emperor Machine – Emperor Machine Lo-Fi Blend

We’re back from our holidays and with a lovely mix paving the way for the new Emperor Machine album coming in the next few months. In Andy’s own words, ‘All the tracks I used were amongst my inspiration for EM LP4’. Say no more. Bring on the album.

Download
zShare Download

[Apiento]

[Apiento]

Steve Mason: Am I Just A Man (Studio Remix)

Ok. Favourite new album of the year so far coupled with favourite balearic space duo Studio equals quality modern music with a sunshine tilt. Buy it when it comes. It’s a keeper.

[Apiento]

Mix: Lexx – Sunshowers

It’s always a pleasure to have a mix from Lexx…

Download
zShare Download

[Apiento]

Marshall Jefferson Interviewed – A History Of House…

I was looking at Deep House Pages and Marshall Jefferson has been getting involved taking questions from all the forum members and the stories are pretty incredible. I’ve pulled out my favourite points and it’s still pretty long so I’ll keep this intro short and sweet. The copy is as it is on the site. So get your favourite Marshall moment out, press play and read on…

Posted by Julian_Kelly: Marshall, whats the history of the “House Music National Anthem” …how did that tune come to be?

I heard it in my head on my job at the Post Office, but with female vocals, and different words. I got home and did the piano, bass and drums. I thought it was hot as hell, and booked a session at Lito Manlucu’s studio. Called up my buddies from the Post Office (Curtis McClain, Rudy Forbes, Thomas Carr) wrote the verse and the backgrounds in the studio. Recording and mixing time was about 3 hours total. They thought it sucked. I thought it was the hottest shit the dancefloor would ever hear, but I have quite the ego.

The night, I took the song 1st to the Sheba Baby club, where Mike Dunn, Tyree Cooper, and Hugo Hutchinson were DJ’ing. This was before they all had records out, and I was known as Virgo. (loved that nickname!) They loved the song and I gave them a cassette copy, but they said it wasn’t House music because of the piano. From there i drove to the Music Box to give Ron Hardy a copy. Outside in the car i played it on my car system for some friends (One was K-Alexi) and I don’t think they were too impressed. I’d had about 15 unreleased songs playing in the Music Box at that time and they thought some of my other stuff was much hotter. They also said it wasn’t House Music because of the piano.

After that, I went into the Music Box and gave DJ Ron Hardy a copy while he was playing. I didn’t expect him to play it right away; usually i just gave him a copy and he’d listen to it later and maybe play it the next weekend. This time he put it in the cassette machine right away. I saw his head quickly go into a violent bobbing motion and I knew he liked the song. He immediately put it on and played it 6 times in a row, putting on a sound effects record while he rewound the tape.

From there it got to be the biggest song in the Music Box. Ron told me not to give it to anybody else, and I held off for awhile, but there were other DJ’s in the city that wanted it and finally I gave in when Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy’s biggest rival got a copy of it. Prior to that,I took it to Trax Records to press it up on my own label. At that time Larry Sherman, the owner, considered himself a House music expert because he’d previously put out Jesse Saunders stuff and also 4 of my records. He hated the song and said it wasn’t House music because of the piano. I didn’t care and paid him to press the record up.

13 months passed before he finally pressed it up, but there were some things that happened before that………………….

After Frankie Knuckles got a copy of it, it seemed the flood gates opened. I had to give Lil Louis and Fast Eddie copies, because Eddie lived 2 doors down from me on my block and Lil Louis lived on the next block. Mike Dunn, Tyree Cooper, and Hugo Hutchinson already had copies. Pretty soon it seemed like every DJ in Chicago had copies…………….some really bad and some passable, but crowds freaked every time it came on.

International DJ’s played it to and this is how I tracked down how they got copies, after talking to the DJ’s and members of the press:

1. Frankie Knuckies got his copy from my friend Sleezy D.
2. Frankie Knuckles’ best friend was Larry Levan from New York’s Paradise Garage. At that time, DJ’s from all over the world would fly to New York to hear what Larry played, because whatever was popular there became hits.
3. Somehow DJ Alfredo from Ibiza got a copy of it, and started playing it in Ibiza.
4. English DJ’s Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, and Jazzy M got copies. Pete Tong and Paul “Trouble” Anderson got copies too, but I’m not sure if they got it at the same time as the 1st 3 or not.
5. Once the English DJ’s started playing, things got weird, because the press got involved. England was quick to jump on a new music trend and got on it right away. “Move Your Body” had the words “Gotta have House music, all night long”, and with that “House” music, you can’t go wrong!” so naturally, the next task was finding out what house music was and getting the full scoop.

I started hearing English accents asking me for interviews when I answered the phone. I thought it was my friends screwing with me, but damn, those accents sounded authentic. I did a few phone interviews and suddenly, a whole herd of British Press all flew to Chicago to interview any and everyone involved with House music. They sat in on sessions and took loads of pics. Of course, Larry Sherman considered himself the resident expert on House Music and offered to take all the press around to all the House music clubs in the city. At that time I’d tried everything to get Larry to press up Move Your Body, but he hated it and said it wasn’t House Music. It was because he said it wasn’t House music that I called it “The House Music Anthem”.I even paid him with my own money to press it up. and he still hadn’t done it.

Well, when Larry took the press around to all the House clubs, Move Your Body was the hottest song playing at every single club-on dirty cassettes. The day after he took the press around to all those clubs, Move Your Body was finally on vinyl.

Posted by jj11: i also heard an interview you did marshall, and you said you were thinking ‘elton john, piano’ when doing ‘move your body’. is there a specific elton john song that your were thinking about ? also the intro reminds me a little bit of ‘deputy of love’. was that any inspiration for it also ? i hear how ‘let’s get busy’ was inspired by the rolling stones.

No specific Elton John song moreso his general piano playing style, which was pretty churchy. I had no idea the intro sounded anything like “Deputy Of Love”.
“Let’s Get Busy” was inspired by “Move Your Body”, but I always liked the Stone’s “Sympathy For The Devil” so I may have grabbed the hook either consciously or unconsciously, can’t remember.

Posted by Prince HiFi: Marshall, I’m wondering about the version of Move Your Body that came out on DJ International, it’s very different than the piano version on Trax – the DJ International 12″ is a beast, for sure. Can you tell us a bit about the different versions, which came out first etc.

Also, can you tell us a bit about the Virgo EP, that EP is pretty is pretty insanely deep, My Space and R U Hot Enough are my jams.

After Move Your Body got hot in the clubs, I stupidly thought I could do a better version in a big studio. The DJ International version is a 24 track version recorded at Paragon in Chicago.

The Virgo EP was supposed to be 2 songs from me and 2 from Adonis and was supposed to be called “Virgo and Adonis”. “No Way Back” was supposed to be on there but Adonis pulled it when it got played at a party and he found out how hot it was. There was another song called “The Final Groove” that he wrote and he pulled that too, but it never came out. “My Space” and “R U Hot Enough” were last minute replacements.

There was also a version of “Under You” called “The Pleasure Exchange” it had female vocals and breathing on it, kind of like a cross between “Sensuous Black Woman” and “Love To Love You Baby” that version never came out either. Hardy played it and copies of it are still floating around. Maybe Jamie will have it. I think Gene Hunt has a copy, but I’m not sure.

Posted by julian_kelly: This is good stuff Marshall. Also, how did Ten City come to be? What the story behind “Devotion” ? I always admired the musicality of Ten City…very well composed songs…and the strings were the trademark that always set it off.

I met Byron Stingily down at Trax records. He’d sang lead on a song called “Funny Love” by Dezz 7. I loved the words and found out he wrote them. From there we started working on songs together……..did about 5 that never came out. Among the ones that did come out were “Devotion” and I Can’t Stay Away”

“Devotion” came about when we were out on a double date. The girls went off on their own and we started singing about them. I went home and did the music, then let Byron hear it the next day. I told him it was the song we wrote last night and he didn’t believe it. After that we could write songs together over the phone just singing parts back and forth. Byron Burke and Herb Lawson were friends of Byron’s. Atlantic Records wanted to sign Byron as a solo act but he didn’t want to be on stage by himself. In fact, his 1st 10 shows as Ten City he performed with his eyes closed. Byron and Herb eventually got more involved in the songwriting process and took over on the 2nd album.

Posted by RAS: Of course the previously mentioned tracks were bangin’. I have very fond memories of your records get dropped at the ‘G’ as I was a newbie in 1985. However, my JOINT is ‘Open our Eyes’…

“Open Our Eyes” is probably the only song I’ve ever done that I don’t think I could do better today. Kenny Bobien and Eddie Stockley sang the backgrounds LIVE to the 2 track master

Posted by julian_kelly: Marshall, I remember first hearing “Just A Little Bit” when I bought one of those import volumes of the Jack Trax series in the mid to late 80’s. What’s the history of Ce Ce Rogers’ “Someday” ? That was a definitely a progressive and socially conscious tune.

Someday, I wrote after watching the news one day. It sat around for a few months because I didn’t know who I was going to get to sing it. Curtis McClain was usually my 1st choice for songs, but we were constantly at each other’s throats while touring for Move Your Body, and I didn’t want to do him any favors.

A promoter named Billy Prest had taken really good care of us while touring the East Coast and asked me if could write a song for his singer, Ce Ce Rogers. He gave me a cassette of Ce Ce singing and I gave it a quick listen and told him I’d do it. I just “happened” to have Someday lying around and gave it to Billy. Made me look like a genius coming up with a song so fast instead of the screwup I actually was.

Billy immediately flew Ce Ce to Chicago to sing the leads. I had the music all recorded when he got into the studio. Billy had specifically instructed Ce Ce to not play keyboards around me, because he didn’t want me to get intimidated. Ce Ce was a Berkley grad and an awesome keyboard player. Ce Ce is also a born showoff and absolutely the most competitive person I’ve ever met in my life, and of course within the 1st minute of him getting in the studio he found a grand piano and was playing so great he could have intimidated Rachmaninov.

Didn’t phase me a bit and I told him when he was done to get in the vocal booth and sing.

I recorded Ce Ce’s warm up and told him to go back to his hotel. It was absolutely phenomenal. Ce Ce panicked and asked to re sing it. I said no at 1st, then finally gave in, but my mind was made up. I told Steve Frisk, the engineer to record him while I went to Macdonalds. When I came back, Ce Ce seemed a bit more satisfied with the second vocal. I took it home and listened to it, but the second vocal seemed a bit contrived compared to the 1st.

My next trip to the east coast, I let Merlin Bobb at Atlantic hear it and he signed it immediately. He also played it on the radio the night he got it.

Ce Ce panicked again and asked Billy and Atlantic to send him to Chicago to sing it one more time. Ce Ce flew to Chicago and re sang it, but this time I had Merlin backing me up that the original vocal sounded better and that’s what went on the record.

Ce Ce Rogers is absolutely, positively the greatest live performer I’ve ever seen in my life, period. No artist should ever follow his performance, I’ve seen singers totally destroyed after watching him sing. I’ve seen him sing to an audience of 3 and had them all standing with their hands in the air and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Anyway, he greatly helped record sales and what went down on record was a performance in the studio, not a production. It was an honor just to be a part of that session and watching him let loose like he did.

Posted by So Easy:hey marshall, if you were virgo, why is vince lawrences name all over the records as if he did it? And tell chauncy, I will get him those other tunes asap.

I did Virgo Go Wild Rhythm Tracks. Vince Lawrence produced it. What Vince did was micromanage the recording process until everything seemed as difficult as Harvard physics. he even had me convinced dust affected the sound. He also convinced me to take all the keyboard parts off, so the end result was a beat tracks album. I felt this was by design because Vince and Jesse didn’t want everybody making house records.

It almost worked. I had lost my confidence and almost quit the music business. Vince and Larry Sherman thought I quit and gone forever because I stopped coming around, but the I guess the album did pretty good because Vince did “Virgo Trax Again”.

What got my confidence back? Ron Hardy was playing 4 of my songs at the Music Box, and people were literally stampeding the dancefloor when they came on………

I also released an EP called “Virgo”, that had “Free Yourself” and 3 other songs. It had produced by Virgo and Adonis on it, but Adonis pulled his 2 tunes at the last minute. One of those was No Way Back. I had to scramble to get the last 2 tunes, so I gave Larry 2 songs on cassette. Those were R U Hot Enough and “My Space”

Posted by ‘Magic’ Juan: Did you have any input at all on “Virgo Trax Again”? If not, did it upset you that he used the Virgo moniker to put out that release? Virgo Go Wild Rhythm Trax is still the sh*t. I sorely regret trading my copy years ago.

I had nothing to do with “Virgo Trax Again”, and yeah, I was pissed off. Not only was “Go Wild” my 1st record, but Virgo was my 1st nickname…..and Vince wasn’t even a Virgo dammit, lol. I also didn’t get paid for it, even though I paid to press it up

When “Move Your Body” got released, it wasn’t released on my label, it was released on Trax records. Larry did a last minute hack job because he was so excited , and didn’t even bother to re-cut or remaster it, he just scratched out my label number (OS2 for Other Side Records 2) on the mothers and added his own (Tx 117) to this day you know you have an original pressing if you see where he scratched out my label number.

Another thing that gave me grief was he put down “Marshall Jefferson” as the artist. I had been using the nickname “Virgo” for more than a year and it was my 1st nickname. All my life i wanted a nickname but never had one, the song being so popular totally blew Virgo to the side and I haven’t used it since. The artist on “Move Your Body was supposed to be “On The House”-my friends from the Post Office, Curtis McClain, Rudy Forbes, and Thomas Carr, and putting it mildly, when the record came out as “Marshall Jefferson”, they weren’t too pleased.

They stormed over my house and asked me wtf was going on. I told them Larry Sherman put it out on his label instead of mine without my consent. They didn’t believe me and I gave them the address to Trax Records so they could go and talk to Larry and straighten it out.

Well, when they got there Larry basically told them that Marshall Jefferson was the name on the label and they could kiss his ass, before telling them to get lost not very politely. They came back over my house and told me how Larry was a crook and all that. Norman Davis, who was Curt’s friend came up with the idea of me signing an affidavit that they sang on the record and that’s what I did.

They then took the signed affidavit to Larry and Larry told them that they were really great singers, and he’d given me $150,000 and put my name on the song because I’d signed a contract. They stormed back over my house and asked me for some of the $150,000. I told them I he hadn’t given me $150,000 and in fact i’d paid him $1500 to press up 1000 copies on my own label, but they didn’t believe me, even after i showed them the receipt. They said they were going to sign a contract with Trax Records because Larry was going to put their names on records and pay them a lot of money. I tried to talk them out of signing a contract, but I guess when your record’s playing on the radio and you have no money and your friends and family are all telling you how great you are things get irrational.

This is what I put it down to and I tried my best to talk them out of signing a contract, but they did it anyway. To make a long story short Larry gave them no money, but he did put their “On The House” as the artist on 2 records.

The problem was, after I started meeting with major labels, everybody wanted to sign the guys that made Move Your Body, but they’d already signed with Trax records.

Posted by julian_kelly: What was your experience like when you first went to the east coast? How did it differ from the Chicago scene? Did Chicago and New York artist/jocks really know each other? Do you know if Hardy knew Levan?

Chicago vs New York club scene: this may. Take awhile because I’m on my iPhone and I may not be up to it.

The 1st thing I remember is New York was infinitely better financed than Chicago, in fact, way better financed than any club system I’ve ever seen in the world before or since. Everything was 1st class-over 300 clubs all had Richard Long sound systems and separate sound AND lighting systems for the live acts as standard, and even unknown resident DJ’s were getting over $1000 a night. This because the Mafia was laundering money through all those clubs through one guy – Steve Juliano. They’d tell Steve to set up a new club for them and he’d do it within weeks. I remember Steve getting busted and the entire New York club scene collapsed by 1988 except for 1 or 2 clubs – one of those was the Junior Vasquez’ Sound Factory. I remember DJ’s going from $3000 a night to like $50-and they were happy to have somewhere to play. Live acts started singing through DJ mixers with no stage and no lights, it was sad man. Artists with records out could count on making hundred of thousands per year performing just in New York, all that was over…….

Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan were best friends since they were about 12 years old. Robert Williams was also from New York at one time was a guidance counselor for both boys. Robert was the 1st to come to Chicago and he tried to bring the New York club experience to Chicago.he tried to get Larry 1st but Larry was already playing at successful clubs, so he got Frankie. Of course, things were pretty ghetto in comparison because the Mafia wasn’t involved-at least not the sophisticated system New York had where you basically had almost unlimited money, so Chicago never had a live dance music scene.

Ron Hardy of course knew who Larry Levan was, but because he was Frankies rival he had no direct contact. I don’t think Larry was even aware of Hardy. He’d gotten copies of Jamie Principle from Frankie, but he didn’t get Move Your Body from Hardy; he had to wait until Frankie got a copy from Sleezy.

Sound systems: the Paradise Garage had the cleanest, but the Music Box on 16th had the loudest I’ve ever heard in my life. And Hardy knew how to work it. Who was better? Personal preference on any given night; both were fueled by drugs and both were god.

Posted by DUBFLY: Damm my ears are still ringing from the Garage system and you said the music box was louder …….FUCK …LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marshall this thread rocks good looking on the history brother!

The Music Box systems was only louder because it was in a much smaller room, technically the Garage had the greatest sound system ever put in a club, but some tell me the Loft was louder…….

When I 1st got to Zanzibar, Tony Humphries was the DJ and Tee Scott had Moved to the Cheetah. Both were great. I didn’t really listen to Tee the 1st time at Cheetah because I was too busy hitting on Queen Latifah, who’s career was just starting (yeah, she’s a BIG time househead from wayyyyyy back!).

Posted by Mike Barnes: Marshall, Slyvia Rhone(Former CEO of Atlantic/East-West records, During the early to mid 90’s), And, Merlin Bob put more than a few cats down on the Atlantic label, In regards to Dance music, Like, CeCe Rodgers, Jomanda(Big Beat), Ten City, Etc, Marshall, Would you Care to build on the impact and contributions that Slyvia Rhone and Merlin Bob had on the dance music circuit, During the late 80’s to late 90’s, Also, Was Dwayne Powell Ten City’s Manager(I remember seeing Dwayne Powells name listed on Ten City’s album’s, During the 90’s, Though, I never found out what role Dwayne Powell actually played with Ten City.

Dwayne Powell was a 25 year old extremely arrogant black attorney when I met him in 1986. I really liked his confidence and love of the music. Dwayne irritated all the old guard of music attorneys in Chicago because he got meetings with all the major labels at will. Problem was all the established music attorneys couldn’t even get majors to take their calls-until Dwayne broke down the door with House music.

It seemed like all the labels, attorneys, and music business establishment in Chicago all converged on Dwayne at the same time that year; his name couldn’t enter a conversation without insults and slander. I loved Dwayne; not only did he handle my 1st major label deals, but his boyfriend Andre Walker, who was Oprah’s hairdresser, would do my girlfriend’s hair for free. Needless to say a lot of perks came from that.

Early 1987, I was touring the east coast with Byron Stingily. It was Byron’s 1st trip and he wanted to make the most of it, so we stayed 2 extra weeks. Byron and Dwayne set up meetings with the majors. Our 1st meeting was with a guy at Capitol, and we had one rough demo, which turned out later to be “Devotion”. That A & R guy cussed us out for 2 hours about how unprepared we were; we had no photos, no bios, and only one song demoed on cassette. We felt 1 inch tall when he finished with us and we were ready to give it all up.

2 days later, we had a meeting with Merlin Bobb. Merlin listened to the demo of “Devotion” and said “This is the SHIT!” “I’m playing it tonight!”. Merlin not only played it that night, but he signed it 2 weeks later. He also signed Ce Ce Rogers when I let him hear that. He would ask me for stuff from cassette and immediately play it on the radio. Timmy Regisford at MCA was the same way, and I wish I could have thrown stuff his way, but Merlin was just beating him to the punch.

Sylvia was Merlin’s boss. She gave him the freedom to sign anything he wanted. When House music was there, Atlantic’s black music department made its 1st profit since 1967. We liked to joke that we financed En Vogue, Levert, and Mikki Howard, because they never spent money on videos for us. They could basically just drop us with no promotion and do good numbers.

The thing was though, we were out there and happy to be there, and Sylvia and Merlin were a major part of that and we appreciated it.

Thanks to Julian_Kelly, jj11, Prince HiFi, RAS, So Easy, ‘Magic’ Juan, DUBFLY and Mike Barnes of the Deep House Pages forum and Marshall Jefferson.

[Apiento]

Mix: Phil South & Anton Esteban – Love From The Rooftop: Drunk (Part Two)

Second part of the Phil ‘Golf Channel’ South and Anton Esteban live mix from a NYC rooftop. It’s a fun one. If you missed the first dig down the page as it’s great.

Download
zShare Download

[Apiento]

‘Sup Magazine: Robin Guthrie Interview

The new ‘Sup Magazine is out and about. If you see one pick it up. It’s well designed and has a good broad section of interviews without being too try hard. This issue has interviews with Hot Chip, Beach House, Gonzales, Nicolas Jaar and a New York house special with Conneticut’s Underground Quality gang. You can pick it up in East and central London easily but I’m not sure about the rest of the country. They have a website so maybe you can find out there. Our favourite piece from this issue is this interview with the Cocteau Twin’s Robin Guthrie. I have never read an interview with him, but his work speaks for itself so I was interested. I’d heard he was a miserable bastard but it seems the polar opposite is true. He speaks a whole lot of sense and it’s refreshing to hear someone unafraid to mince their words and not bother playing the PR game which is so commonplace these days. Love the bit where he is on about people that take 15 years to make pop records not being the geniuses they are heralded as but actually being ‘fucking retarded’. Here it is if you have five minutes…

[Apiento]

Labels 005: Lugnet

We were on our travels in Gothenburg recently and ran into Emil Broome from the Malmö-based Lugnet label. If you like the cosmic end of the Scandinavian balearic sound then check their releases out below (well, our edited streams of them). The first two releases are edits made by Tiaz and the third one is an original 12″ produced by VED. If you want to get hold of them we suggest you go direct to Lugnet.

We’ll get a mix from Emil at some point but until then check the interview and mix at Cosmic Disco. Finally, we should also mention the chaps at Lugnet are also part of a collective in Malmö called Prejka, who run a rather nice blog.

Rå Energi / Lokomotiv / Sommarstorm

Tralla / Bitterljuv / Tidsbrist / Flåjd

Sture / Din Egen Spegelbild /The Anointed Word (Tiaz Remix)

Lugnet on MySpace

[Apiento]

Brian Eno Signs To Warp Records…

Hope this story is true….

[Apiento]

Radio: Jon Savage – Savage Music 007 / Motorik

If you enjoy the cosmic/kraut/motorik sound, or elektronische musik as Soul Jazz recently called it, then this radio show is for you. Jon Savage, our presenter, has interviewed many of the main players within the scene and here presents a show focusing on the sound, his love of it and interviewing the likes of Conny Plank. If you haven’t listened to any of the Savage radio shows this is a fine place to start.

Download
zShare Download

Tune in weekly to ByteFM for the Savage Music shows.

[Apiento]

Faith Summer T-Shirt / Boy’s Own Party

Couple of bits to tell you about regarding the Faith/Boy’s Own gang. First up, the new Faith summer T-shirt (above) is now available and comes with their ‘Black Cowboy’ mix (only available with the T shirt). Its looking good and is available here.

Secondly, a heads up on the forthcoming Boy’s Own party on September 11th at Cymon Eckles new Shoreditch venue. DJs include Andrew Weatherall, Dorian Paic and Vera from Frankfurt’s Cocoon and Robert Johnson clubs, Jon Marsh (mix coming from him at some point), Horse Meat’s Severino, Rocky and Diesel, Heller & Farley and Darren and Spencer from Kubikle. That sounds like a proper party. Tickets on sale from next week at Phonica, The Griffin pub in Leonard St (East London) or Ticketweb. Get them when you can as it’ll sell out pretty sharpish.

[Apiento]

DJ Nature On DJ Broadcast

Heads up to check the DJ Nature mix on DJ Broadcast. I have only just got wise to this one so you may have seen it but other mixes come from Ray Mang and The Revenge to name a few.

[Apiento]

Mix/Piece: Tokyo-To Kissa #6

Image by Francesco Yayoi

Tanabatta. The seventh day of the seventh month. Once a year star-crossed lovers meet. Orihime and Hikoboshi. Vega and Altair. Opposite banks of the Milky Way. That heavenly river. Kawa in the sky. Seperated by Tentei for the sake of the Emporer’s new clothes, once a year the Princess and the Cowherd cross a bridge of magpie’s wings, and grant wishes upon their joy of union.

“Be careful what you wish for” my Mum used to say. Some reference back to macabre pulp horror stories like The Monkey’s Paw. When you wish for wealth, your family is killed in a plane crash and you cop the insurance. When you wish to be happy for the rest of your days, you die tomorrow in a lover’s embrace. To live forever means being plugged into a life support machine, or kept in a cryogenic state just a fraction not cold enough. Be careful what you wish for. Can kinda take the fun out of it.

Kids make coloured streamers. The tails of comets. And attach them with wishes in verse to shafts of new bamboo. The lovers look down in a break from their passion and fore fill all that they can see. Weather permitting. We are one week from monsooon.

It’s 1997 and I’m alone in Antigua in the aftermath of Islington. When hurricane Erika struck. Covering everything in ash from Monseratt’s Soufriere Hills. Hammered by winds on a sole sun-lounger on a deserted beach. Ice-bucket full of gin and tonic. Stealing pizzas from the hotel buffet for the local children who’d come to quiz me. So free I feel as if I am flying.

Doug Scharin’s genius. Like Fela in dub. In a pile of 12s. A gift from Fat Cat. Stuff to review for Sidewalk. Know your demographic, the magazine said. They want Britney. We give `em Shellac. Dry humping Ian Svenonius on stage. Fighting with Modest Mouse. Fucking Calvert. Stealing from Silas. Saffron kisses. What becomes of a teenage pro-skater? I wonder if he’s still alive. I hope so. What was the line that he liked? I took a short holiday from myself. Unfortunately, now I’m back, doing the laundry.

Dreaming in red. Sherwood & Wyatt. Must have been a Steve Beresford thing. 6:30 AM Tokyo and an old Weatherall favourite soundtracks a Japanese English lesson on TV. Before kids telly starts at 7. An obscure spot. Caught by the strangeness of it all, I’m sat being taught scientific English to pads like a mylar chamber. Moving through honeyed glass. Beats propagate like aural fractals. Mixmaster Morris at SpaceTime in the Liquid Loft. The first time I met Kensuke. Morris, he still wears that mirrored waistcoat.

Chilled by Nature. Not the sound of stars, but Christmas lights imitating them. I used to hate Christmas. But now all my memories of arguments and drink and loneliness have been replaced by a BBC production of a Christmas Carol. Mulled wine. The smell of cloves. Roaring log fires. Girls in fur-trimmed pink skaters outfits. Stolen kisses on thin ice. Warm glows and seeing the error of your ways. Everything viewed through gently falling snowflakes. A world where people can change.

From Fat Cat to Small Fish and big Nick. I pretty sure it was Nick but now all that’s left is Mike. Trading in Trance for Glitch back in 2000. Dub Tractor takes The Third Man for a skank. Harry lime caught in cobbled shadows. The sunshine’s better. The late great big John. A blues for The Blue Note. The endless line for the door. And the lines off the back of my wallet in the middle of the dancefloor. One of those solitary wired mornings. The No.19 outside my window. Union chapel across the street. My girl’s been to India. Found a god. Changed her name. Does that mean no more punches thrown in the Social? The mistake I made was thinking I could look after her when I couldn’t even look after myself. Falling in love with old photos. Rock and Roll weekenders, bum-biters and sherbet lemons. “You’re just a young pup” she`d say. Would have been better for everyone if I’d walked away at the start. Fucking mess I made. Getz blows love lost through a smokey noir. I get my Marlowe coat. Out into the rain. No looking back.

Fujiyama. A mountain always in mist. They say you see its majesty and your luck changes. I’ve seen it twice. First time, I left a heated argument to find a bar and there it was behind a cloud. Second time, winds blew so hard you could barely stand and you could see Fuji all the way from Hatsushima. I sat in an onsen, watched eagles circle overhead. Silent with my shrunken father. Too late now to talk.

Whispers in green grass. Looking up through branches. Listening to rain falling outside an open bedroom window. The ghost of a summer twenty years too late. Mistakes I make. Will I never stop learning?

Altair is sixteen light years away. Vega twenty-five. The fifth brightest star. More luminous than our sun. A young star still waiting for planets to be formed from the debris in its orbit. Be careful what you wish for. Don’t waste ’em.

My two older boys wish for computer software. The little ‘un for karage for tea. The wife, she wishes for Peace on Earth. Me, for peace of mind.

Finis Africae: El Secreto De Las 12
HIM: Part 6
Robert Wyatt: Biko
Aural Expansion: Freeform Attractor
Chilled By Nature: Music Box
Dub Tractor: Overheated Living Room
John Martyn: Sunshine’s Better
Stan Getz: Street Tattoo
Dave Brubeck: Fujiyama
Cibelle: Green Grass
Ryuichi Sakamoto: After All
Eric Serra: Learning Time

Download
zShare Download

[Dr Rob]