Greg Wilson

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Greg Wilson will be playing Saturday at Downlow

Greg Wilson began DJing in 1975 before many people in the UK even understood the term DJ. He is now regarded as one of the most important figures in the UK dance scene. A pioneer of the art of “mixing” in the UK, Greg was the first DJ to mix live on British TV in 1983. His legendary radio mixes for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester helped grow his cult following. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester’s majorly influential Legend. He then became the first dance music specialist hired for a regular weekly session at Manchester’s now legendary Hacienda club.

Greg was instrumental in breaking the new electronic, post-disco records coming out of New York, a sound he dubbed ‘Electro-Funk’. Spending time producing and co-writing the Street Sounds ‘UK Electro’ LP in 1984, as well as compiling the ‘Classic Electro Mastercuts’ LP in 1994, Greg cemeted himself as an oracle of the genre. In 2003 he set up his own website, electrofunkroots, to document this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture. Greg has also written for magazines / webzines like Wax Poetics, Grand Slam and Discopia, and produced the much acclaimed online radio series, ‘Time Capsule’, on Samurai FM.

When Tirk Records released ‘Credit to the Edit’, a compilation of re-edits spanning Greg’s entire career, things really started to re-gain momentum for Greg. Unearthing some original tape edits from back in the day alongside more modern cuts that Greg freshly prepared, the project was a massive success in spreading his sound around the globe. Greg still uses his trusty old Revox reel-to-reel tape machine when DJing, regardless of whether he’s playing in Manchester or Melbourne, Newcastle or New York. Legends like Norman Jay, The Unabombers and Gilles Peterson all rate Greg as one of the very best in business and DJ Mag recently named him as one of their all-time Top 20 remixers. From local legend to international appeal, Greg Wilson continues to play a leading role in contemporary dance culture.