The Mix: These were tracks that defined the summer of 1989. 1989 was the year that the world changed. Nelson Mandella was freed. Thatcher was out. The city centre riots were ending. Football hooliganism was disappearing (and pretty amazingly, many police forces acknowledge the dance scenes influence in the football violence ending!)
To be given the opportunity to do this mix was such an honour . It gave me the chance to relive my Summer of ’89 which really was a life changing year for me. It was the first time I went to the Hacienda. It was the year I met Jonathan Donaghy who I formed Together with. It was also the year I first went to a (real) Warehouse Party, although I had organised a fake (and legal) party masquerading as warehouse/rave the year before. (To my credit, I was only 17 but we got a few things right: along with a whole host of local artists, we booked 808 State DJs Spinmasters and Stakker Humanoid who performed with a young Gary Cobain before they formed the Future Sound Of London a few years later. Lucky for us, at the time of booking them, Stakker were unsigned but by the time the night came round they had hit the top 20! (Incidentally, witnessing this record rocket from a dusty old cassette tape to Top Of The Pops in no time at all gave me the initial motivation for my obsession to make electronic music.)
I owe a big thanks to DJ Tina Moffat and Pirate Revival Radio for asking me to do the. A brilliant internet radio station playing some of the best records from the early days of House music to current new dance music.