
For many people today the talk is al about the Hacienda, the Ministry of Sound or dare I even say Cream (Liverpool) but the post Northern Soul and Ska years received a huge jolt from across the pond from the (previously) ignored and differently run down areas where the phoenix comes out of the ambers to spread love all over the world. For those like minded people and aficionado’s of TDK and BASF with the tapping of late night radio shows such as Stu Allen on Piccadilly 261 or Key 103, its that long ago even I cant remember. This was followed on by listening on the car stereo and driving around listening and being amazed by the sound only heard before Kraftwork or early Simple Mind track I Travel previously. Bizarely a great source of the hard to find (then) material for a poor young person was the library who seemed to stock certain albums such as the House Sound of Chicago as some historical record but I did not care. Lend the album (tape/cassette) and copy to be listening with the exciting notes on the cover and inside to be devoured telling the glamourous or so it seemed stories of the producers of such future classics. I am pretty certain that it was not the way it was portrayed. This record source proved invaluable and more importantly cheap with the added value of being a reasonably well kept secret for the esoteric.
All the stars ( mostly imaginary since you cant often see them in Manchester) aligned on a dreary dark rainy ( surprise, surprise) during a midweek excursion to the International 2 or 3 to the see the now burgeoning House Sound of Chicago. This to our great surprise was attended by only a handful of people and the promoters must have pleased that we swelled the ranks by three with myself, brother Bob and mate Nigel who was not sure what all the fuss ( or lack of it) was all about. The night started out in glorious fashion whilst in the balcony bar currently being populated by a large group of Black and Hispanic American blokes who were friendly, bewildered and kind to a man. After these kind geezers bought a drink which was a fantastic gesture to a bunch of poor white kids we could not believe it when they started to call them one by one to the stage. The announcer went please make some noise for Adonis, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Terry Hunter, DJ Fast Eddie, Joe Smooth, JM Silk, Shawn Christopher and Fingers Inc. and more. Around the same timeline I was attending the BH Clubs ( before Hacienda) still at this time the likes of Cinderella Rockefellers , Mr Smiths and the like populated with the white stilettos heeled dyed blond hair brigade but to our great amazement graced by Adonis, Kim Mazelle, and 2 Puerto Ricans, a Blackman and a Dominican ( which was was a short-lived house music group featuring David Morales and Robert Clivillés, David Cole, and Chep Nuñez).Funky funky edits are a must !
Well a lightbulb goes off. The music can or has been described as moving you to your very core and pouring water on the somewhat racist disco sucks bile of Steve Dial with his self motivated protest. The death of Disco, and to be fair some deserved it, led to a new underground scene which was pushed even deeper underground whilst reflecting new voices and new lean on me comarades with the protest groups looking for a better world. The original clubs such as The Loft, The Gallery and the Continental Baths reliably led and directed by the amazing Frankie Knuckles who was moving out of the shadow of the equally great Larry Levan. In Chicago the three levels of dance the Warehouse was progressing on what has gone before to start to put the foundations for what was to come. The emergence of Jessie Saunders and the eventual Jes Say Records with the resulting house classic On and On originally by Mach which was really a bootleg of a bootlegged bootleg showed the way for the original creator innovator DJ’s what could be done. The start of what was to take over the world with support from Detroit and other places in the future. These clubs where you only needed the music to make you high has the added value of it was only there that you could hear that elusive track which was doing the rounds usually on a cassette tape. The craving of these sounds and texture would become the blueprint of the finest clubs of this type in the world. With Frankie Knuckles leading the way the style and substance which was to become the norm was supported by clubs such as Powerplant and Music Box with the musically great Ron Hardy. Chuck in Chip E, Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, Jamie Principle ( who must be considered as a true originator and creator of one of the best tracks ever), Vince Lawrence whose track Fast Cars inspired many and ultimately the Trax head honcho Larry Sherman who left mixed feelings in the end but whilst smashing up 2 cent records to be remade into some of the best house trax of all time made a lasting contribution. This is also the dawn of the Poly 61 and the 808 which was to steer and create the scene in the now and future and beyond.