A lot has been told about the Hacienda of ‘Madchester’ in its thrills and pills guise – but what of those crucial early years? As a new album reveals, the Hacienda played a crucial role in bringing the black music of New York’s club scene into the British rave scene – specifically the man to usher in this change and introduce the UK club world to break dancing, scratching and, most importantly, funk music, was DJ Greg Wilson. Club culture was never the same again. ... here the man himself tells us about bringing the funk.

How and when did you first get into Electro Funk? Before the term Electro Funk had been coined, there were an increasing number of records arriving on import from the US with a new, more electronic vibe about them. D Train’s ‘You’re The One For Me’ (Prelude) was one of the early ones, and even though it’s now generally referred to as a disco classic, when it was released in 1981 it was a really unique sounding record.

In the following months, more of these distinctive new tracks began to appear – most notably Stone ‘Time’ (West End), Electrik Funk ‘On A Journey (I Sing The Funk Electric)’ (Prelude), Peech Boys ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’ (West End), Sinnamon ‘Thanks To You’ (Becket) and Electra ‘Feels Good’ (Emergency).

‘Don’t Make Me Wait’ by the Peech Boys was perhaps the most seminal, with its innovative dub approach and ‘fierce’ handclaps (the likes of which we’d never heard before, but would hear on numerous subsequent releases). The track was produced by New York’s Paradise Garage DJ, Larry Levan.

Then, in May ’82, ‘Planet Rock’ by Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force (Tommy Boy) arrived on import, well and truly announcing the dawn of the Electro era, with its full-on technological approach.

The term we originally used for this new sound was Electric Funk (after the Electrik Funk 12" ‘On A Journey’), but, following the arrival of ‘Electrophonic Phunk’ by Shock (Fantasy), again in May ’82, this was amended to Electro Funk. It was in the tradition of two-word genre descriptions used in the black music scene in the UK back then, as in Northern Soul or Jazz Funk.

What were your first Funk nights at The Hacienda like and did the Indie crowd take a long time to understand what you were doing? The Wednesday at Legend in Manchester was the top night in the country for Electro Funk. It was an incredible club with amazing lighting and the best sound system in the UK – a truly awesome venue that would blow people away even now, a quarter of a century on, if it were to open in this day and age.

By contrast, The Hacienda, although an impressive space, was cold and generally empty, with awful acoustics. Whereas the Legend crowd was mainly black and into the most cutting-edge dance music, The Hacienda’s audience were indie kids and students, the majority of whom couldn’t stand dance music.

So, in many respects, it was from the sublime to the ridiculous when it came to trying to take the vibe of Legend to The Hacienda on a Friday. It was a big struggle and, although we had some really excellent one-off nights, it didn’t take off on a weekly basis.

However, seeds were planted and, after I’d stopped deejaying, Mike Pickering (who was the promotions manager during my time) took over the Friday night and eventually, a couple of years down the line, his vision of attracting a dance-based audience to the club began to bear fruit, with their original House music crowd being mainly black kids who were into clubs like Legend, The Gallery, Berlin and The Playpen.

One of the main things that happened during my time was that, in addition to the Friday ‘Funk Night’, I did an hour on the Saturday (which was The Hacienda’s only busy night). This was in order to help acclimatise their regular crowd to the type of music I was playing on the Friday. During this hour, Broken Glass, the Manchester breakdancers, who’d go on to become the best-known crew in the country, would dance on the stage to the tracks I played. Breakdancing was totally new in this country at the time and, even if they weren’t into the music, the audience were mesmerised by the athleticism of Broken Glass, who quickly gained something of a celebrity status within the club, whilst giving The Hacienda a new level of credibility with the black crowd in Manchester.

With the Hacienda Review tour you took scratching and breakdancing to audiences that had mostly never seen anything like this before – and this changed club culture forever – can you describe what it was like to introduce something so different into an established club scene? Broken Glass were loved wherever they went, for most people who saw them this was the first time they’d witnessed breakdancing live. I hadn’t really thought about how I might have been influencing other DJs at the time, I was just reacting to what was happening in New York. After appearing in Brighton, on the opening night of The Hacienda Review (which was just a short tour of the South, culminating in a night at Camden Palace in London), we were invited back to a party by a young guy called Quentin. He came to the next gig with us in our minibus and, during the sound-check, I showed him the basics of cutting and scratching. Quentin also came up to Manchester a couple of months later, when the TV show, The Tube, was broadcast from The Hacienda (famous for being Madonna’s UK debut).

He stayed with Kermit from Broken Glass (later to become a rapper with the Ruthless Rap Assassins and Black Grape) – Broken Glass were also appearing on The Tube. Years later I was reading an article in NME about Beats International, who’d just topped the chart with ‘Dub Be Good To Me’ (a cover of The S.O.S. Band’s ‘Just Be Good To Me’, which had been a big tune for me on import during my time at The Hacienda). I was shocked to read that the guy behind the track, Norman Cook, was citing me as an influence, alongside no less than Grandmaster Flash. It wasn’t until I mentioned this to Kermit that it all became clear – Norman Cook was Quentin, the guy from Brighton who I’d taught how to scratch during The Hacienda Review tour!

By championing electro funk you were one of the first DJs who helped herald the arrival of Hip Hop in the UK. It’s changed a lot from the days of Grandmaster Flash – what do you think of the Hip Hop scene now? Back in the early 80s rap music (as it was called here at the time) was regarded by most people as little more than a fad, so it was fascinating to see it develop into the biggest musical movement of the late 20th Century. The term Hip Hop didn’t really come into general usage here until the mid-80s. Electro opened the doors for Hip Hop, the pivotal record being 1982’s ‘The Message’ by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, with its hard-edged Electro beats and poignant social commentary, which perfectly caught the mood of not only the US inner cities, but also black areas in the UK, like Brixton, Moss Side, St Paul’s and Handsworth, in the aftermath of the riots.

Hip Hop culture is so much a part of British youth culture nowadays that we fail to even notice it anymore. Back in ’83, when Broken Glass were dancing on the streets, often in places were the local youths had never even met a black person, we were right at the cusp of this cultural change. It was wonderful seeing white lads, who would normally have resented black lads being on their patch, watching them role out the lino and put a cassette in the ghetto-blaster, then being blown-away by their dance moves. Afterwards they’d come up and ask about the dancing and the music that was being played. Broken Glass and those other early break crews certainly played their role in race relations!

Some people believe that Hip Hop has lost touch with its roots now, although I still think there’s some great music coming out. I’d seriously recommend a DVD called ‘The Freshest Kids’, which tells the story of the b-boy from back in the 70s at Kool Herc’s parties, right up to date. It’s an incredible must see documentary, which really gets to the essence of things.

What is unique about this new Hacienda album? The fact that Ian Dewhirst, who devised the ‘Discotheque’ series, and Tim Lawrence, who wrote the sleeve notes, have, perhaps for the first time, looked closely into what led up to The Hacienda becoming this world famous dance music venue, when it was originally regarded as an indie / alternative club.

All too often, the story doesn’t start until the Acid House explosion of ’88, or, from a London perspective, the group of DJs going to Ibiza in ’87. As a result, the majority of younger people are under the illusion that dance culture in this country didn’t begin until this time, Acid House being year zero, when, in reality, there was a thriving underground dance scene going back to the 60s. The early 80s were particularly fertile – it was the hybrid era that laid the groundwork for what would happen later in the decade. Without these strong foundations being already in place, things could never have taken off in the way they did.

Why did you retire from deejaying so early? It’s a long and multi-layered story. In a nutshell, I felt that, with Legend, I’d been blessed with achieving what, for me, was the ultimate DJ high – playing exactly what I wanted to play to exactly who I wanted to play to, in a truly incredible environment at a time when dance music was literally defining itself. With breakdancing, and the beginnings of the Hip Hop movement, I could see that the dynamics of the scene were changing, so, given the fact that I wanted to move into production (as well as managing Broken Glass), I thought it was time for a change. With hindsight I can see that I needed a break from deejaying, which I’d been doing an average of 5 nights per week since I was 15. A big factor in my eventual decision to quit stemmed from the fact that, by this time, I was smoking copious amounts of hashish and cannabis, which was making me look at life in a completely different way.

It was a decision that resulted in a turbulent two decades for me, but I’ve learnt a lot along the way and now I’m back deejaying again I feel I’ve got something more to offer than simply being someone from the past spinning the old tunes. I obviously draw from the 70s / early 80s, when I used to be a DJ, but I try to put a contemporary twist on things via re-edits and current stuff that fits in with my vibe. I can definitely feel the link between now and then – there’s undoubtedly a return to more underground values, which is what’s allowed me to find my place once again.

When can we see you play again? Depends where you are. I’m deejaying pretty much every weekend, both in the UK and now internationally. Feel free to e-mail me if you want further info: greg@electrofunkroots.co.uk

‘Discotheque Vol. 1: The Hacienda’ is out on Gut Active in June.