Guest Selector: DJ Billy Woods of Supermax

This month, beloved Glasgow disco institution Supermax celebrates five years at The Berkeley Suite; disco leader DJ Billy Woods has dug out five key Supermax tracks to mark the occasion

Feature by Claire Francis | 04 May 2017

Le Club 'Un Fait Divers et Rien de Plus' (DJ Billy Woods Version Supermax) [unreleased]



Originally titled the ‘Larry Levan mid 12 hour set extended toilet break mix’ due to it being 39 minutes long! This edit was actually made over ten years ago but it’s only in the last five or so that I’ve been playing digi stuff at the party. It’s a great starter, it gives me time to polish my disco balls, get the incense burning, and welcome peeps to the club.

I like to play long sets, four hours or more ideally, but on one occasion I somehow ended up booked to play somewhere for just one hour, which is ridiculous really, so I played two copies of this with a few added sound effects and acapellas and it went down a storm!

We’re looking to do a double vinyl gatefold art piece release at some point with the track spread across four sides for maximum audio fidelity and endless mixing possibilities. Or maybe a limited edition 24-inch double sider… just need to find the turntable that can handle it!

Marti Caine – Love The Way You Love Me (DJ Billy Woods Full Orgasm Edit) [unreleased]



The original is a beautiful deep, super soulful piece of disco sleaze that also happens to be as rare as hens’ teeth! I extended it out into an endless edit in true Supermax style a couple of years back, and a few peeps got a little excited about it. I had an agreement to release it officially last year but the person who owns the rights changed their mind and decided to go with someone else, so it’s highly unlikely this one will ever see the light of day! To be honest it’s been well and truly rinsed at Supermax so it’s firmly on the back burner for the next generation anyway. Maybe one day we’ll hear it again but for the time being…

Bionic Boogie Jam (What’s that one again Billy? Mix) [unreleased]



Big bad ass Soca disco that’s been tearing up Supermax over the past year or so. The original is short, like four minutes (I don’t tend to play records under 4 minutes unless it’s some novelty German porn jingle or the like), so it was crying out for a disco extension and I managed to get it up to 15 minutes. Peeps keep asking for the skinny on this one. The original is über rare though some heads got wind of my edit and pressed up a bootleg of the original which they’re trying to pass off for £100 a copy! My advice would be to wait until you get an official release of this version, it might be a while but it’ll definitely be worth that wait!

Mandrill – Love Attack (Supermax 12 inch extension mix) [unreleased]



This is another 15 minute toilet break record! Until I get the Junior Vasquez style booth, complete with urinal, these kind of records will always be important for me. I like to play ‘all night shlong’ as they say so getting to the toilet can sometimes be a problem. Pint glasses don’t always hold enough, and there’s always the possibility of accidentally drinking a ‘warm’ beer later in the night when you’re a little more oiled, if you get what I mean? Anyway back to the track, I originally heard DJ Harvey play an edit of this a few years back which really strung out the intro and built the track in a totally different way from the original, but it wasn’t available anywhere so I made my own version.

I usually make it back from the loo just in time for the track to kick back in for the second time which is when the fun really begins and peeps start to lose their shit. The version Harv plays got a vinyl release recently, but it doesn’t actually break back into the full blown track, which is real shame as it’s one of those ones that works really well in that format. My advice would be to buy two copies and double it up live!

Moses – We Just (DJ Billy Woods Supermaxxed version) [unreleased]



Another Billyboy exclusive and another 15 minutes of re-edit action that combines a couple of different versions and an extended three-minute breakdown to let the dancefloor cool off for a bit before bringing them back up. This is a great piece of up-tempo Italo disco, it’s big and it’s ballsy and it really works the dancefloor. The original version is actually pretty good but has a few cringe moments that needed edited out and that breakdown is absolutely essential. Definitely a firm fave with the Supermax kids over the past few years!

Supermax is at the Berkeley Suite, Glasgow, 6 May https://soundcloud.com/supermaxlovemachine