Greg Wilson: Credit to the Edit

Sub Club’s well-established Subculture night continues to entice and amaze clubbers this month with a real post-Film Festival treat. After the reels have been packed away for the evening, resident Harri provides the finest house music soundtrack to be found in Glasgow, while local art collective Pointless Creations will transform the Sub Club into a visual feast. Freshly spliced movies, textured projections and mirrorballs will all play a part in altering the Subby across the weekend.

As if the weekend’s new décor wasn’t enough there is also a guest DJ slot from Greg Wilson. One of the key players behind the rise of the electro-funk club scene in the eighties, he officially retired in 1984 but has taken to the decks on rare occasions over the past few years. Although primarily identified as a DJ in the Manchester club scene, Greg Wilson was born in 1960 in Wallasey, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. He grew up listening to American soul music via the 45s bought by his older siblings and the music played in the family-owned pub downstairs.

Wilson began to immerse himself in the club scene. He saw British funk bands like Heatwave at the Hamilton's 'Get-Togethers', and met local established DJs Terry Lennaine and Dave Porter. Lennaine took Wilson for his first trip to Spin Inn in Manchester, the primary record shop in the north of England for soul and funk. And in 1976, Terry Lennaine and Dave Porter took a 16-year-old Wilson to the Timepiece, a black club in Liverpool, to witness the spinning talents of Les Spaine. Wilson was hooked.

Greg Wilson was an early champion of what became known in the UK as electro-funk. He introduced an entirely new audience to the sounds of the genre with the first regular specialist dance night at Tony Wilson's recently opened Hacienda in Manchester. The Hacienda initially appealed to an alternative rock audience, but Greg Wilson's residency helped shift the club into a venue for cutting-edge dance music that would gain it fame and notoriety later in the decade.

Greg Wilson’s return to DJing and his arrival at the Sub Club is a reason for real excitement and another date to look out for in February, a month which is spoiling clubbers for choice.