Greg Wilson - Electric Chair Return - Jun 2006 - Part 2

Biography of Greg Wilson

Greg began DJing in 1975 and is regarded as one of the most important figures on the UK dance scene. He enjoyed hugely popular residencies in the early eighties at Wigan Pier and Manchester's majorly influential Legend. He was a pioneer of mixing in the UK and in 1983 he became the first ‘dance music’ DJ 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 has dubbed ‘Electro-Funk.' In 2003 he set up his own website electrofunkroots to document this crucial era in the evolution of dance culture.

After retiring from DJ work at the end of 1983, Greg returned to spinning records two decades later to massive acclaim, with red-hot appearances at renowned nights including Electric Chair, Horse Meat Disco, Fabric, Back To Basics, Asylum, Melting Pot and the Sub Club, to name but a few. He’s also appeared in the US, Australia and various European countries during recent years, plus a number of major festivals in the UK and Ireland. In 2005 Tirk Records released ‘Credit to the Edit,' a compilation of re-edits spanning Greg's entire career, some even original tape edits from back in the day (Greg still uses his trusty old Revox reel-to-reel tape machine when DJing out). This wasn't Greg's first compilation either, having collaborated on most of the tracks to appear on the Street Sounds ‘UK Electro’ LP in 1984, as well as being the selector behind the ‘Classic Electro Mastercuts’ LP in 1994. Other firsts for Greg include being the first DJ to mix live on British TV (the Tube in 1983), putting together the first UK radio mixes of their type for Piccadilly 261 in Manchester (beginning 1982) and showing a certain Norman Cook how to scratch (Dec 1983). Greg has written for magazines and webzines like Wax Poetics, Grand Slam and Discopia, and has a monthly online radio series, Time Capsule, on Samurai FM.