It’s such an honour to announce my next guest as he’s known by so many friends as..
‘THE GOD FROM QUAD’
That’s Fantastik Podcasts 13th Episode is an Exclusive 3 Parter by a true legend…
#13 MIKE KNOWLER
We wanted you to be able to learn more about the man himself, so we asked Mike to tell you his story..
He kindly provided us with this ‘Personal Statement’
I was born on 20 November 1951, so that definitely puts me in the grumpy old man category. A sort of disco version of the late John Peel! I started DJing when I was 17, so that means that I have been DJing for nearly 38 years. Like so many DJs of my generation I started off playing soul music and, back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, I was expected to talk between the records, just as a radio DJ would today. In the 1970s lead guitarists such as Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix were considered to be Gods. But by the 1990s it was DJs like Sasha, Carl Cox and Paul Oakenfold who had become the Gods. A couple of my friends have referred to me recently as the God from the Quad – but I assume them to mean this ironically!
I have an eclectic taste in music, as will be obvious from reading my DJ profile. However, it is the House Music of the period 1988 to 1992 that is my abiding passion. Strictly speaking, a person of my generation (known as baby boomers) would not be expected to be a House DJ. (Mind you, Frankie Knuckles and Tony Humphries are now both in their sixties). However, I went to New York in July 1986, to attend the New Music Seminar, and was exposed to House Music by a little known black DJ, and dub poet, General B, from Chicago. He described House Music as being a cross between Philly-Soul and New Order. He then obliged me by making a list of about 50 House tracks that he considered essential listening. I then went to Downstairs Records in New York, which was actually up some stairs, and purchased all of the tunes on his list with my credit card. Much to my surprise, by Christmas 1986, one of the records on my list was number one in the British pop charts: “Jack Your Body” by Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley. My copy is the original US pressing on the Underground label UN-101. The House Revolution had definitely arrived. Unfortunately, at the State, my audience were not yet ready for the revolution. To quote the Last Poets: “When the revolution comes you will know that it is the revolution because it won’t be shown on TV”.
For me the lyrics of the Italian House track “Getting Out” by S.L.D. (On the Italian Mighty Quinn label) sum up my personal feelings precisely: Get Ready For The Best Time In Your Life”!!! I was 38 when I bought that record. How many people can say that they had the best time of their life between the ages
of 35 to 45? Most people are too busy having a mid-life crisis! At this juncture I would just like to thank Mike Pickering, Graeme Park and Laurent Garnier (who were all originally DJs at Manchester’s Hacienda for being there to inspire me.
I used to go to the Hacienda when ever I could, most often on a Wednesday.
Of course there have been other memorable periods in my life: like visiting Manchester’s Twisted Wheel Club in the late 1960’s to listen to rare soul played by Roger Eagle, Bobby Derbyshire and Les Cockell; then attending the Highland Room at the Blackpool Mecca to be blown away by Mr Tony Jebb, my earliest DJ mentor; or attending the Wigan Casino Northern Soul “All Nighters in the mid 1970’s; next Punk Rock and going to, and DJing at, Erics Club I n Liverpool’s Mathew Street to see bands like The Clash and The Stranglers in 1977-78; DJing at one off concert events, in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, supporting bands like Teardrop Explodes, The fall, Dexys Midnight Runners, Curtis Mayfield, Big in Japan, Q Tips, Cherry Boys, Big Audio Dynamite, Suzie and the Banshees and Ultravox; playing alternative dance music & hip hop at The State in the mid 1980’s; and playing upfront funky American House Music in various bars between 1995 and 1998. My only real regrets as a DJ are that I never worked outside the UK; and I never recorded or produced my own House Record. This year, 2008, is the 20th Anniversary of the Acid House revolution and Liverpool is the European Capital of Culture. Who knows what might happen. Maybe I will get the chance……But it has got to be House Music.
Finally, I am proud of some of the work that I did at Open Eye and Square One Studios between 1978 and 1985. As a recording engineer / record producer, I made recordings that helped to launch the careers of people like Pete Burns (Dead or Alive), Echo and the Bunnymen and OMD. The ‘Birth of a Nation’ EP by Nightmares in Wax, Pete Burn’s original band, was produced and engineered by me at Amazon Studios in Kirkby, and was released on the Inevitable label in 1980. According to the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide, an original copy, in mint condition, would now be worth £40.00. Several of my other productions are also listed including the ‘Street to Street’ compilation LP, for which John Peel, who was a friend of mine at that time, very kindly wrote the sleeve notes.
Bibliography:
“Central 1179” (The Story of Manchester’s Twisted wheel Club) by Keith Rylatt and Phil Scott. Published by PCP Limited. A good read; a fantastic book.
“Soul Survivors”: (The story of the Wigan Casino All-Nighters) by Russ Winstanley, and David Nowell. Published by Robson Books in 1996.
“The Scouse Phenomenon” Parts One & Two. The scrapbook of the new Liverpool Rock Scene. Compiled by Klaus Schwartze, from Dreieich in West Germany in 1988: entitled “From Deaf School to Frankie Goes to Hollywood” and published by Druckerei und Verlag Bitsch GMBH 1987 / 1988.
“Last Night a DJ Saved My Life” (The History of the DJ) written by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton. UK Publisher not known. Mine is a US Copy.
Published by Grove Press New York, an essential read.
