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Drumsuite: What music did you grow up with ?

My mum listened to a lot of music. She was a true child of the 60s. Loved her pop music and would play her old 45s and LPs - I especially remember her Temptations and Drifters albums, but that might be me trying to be retrospectively cool. Then my dad took to me asking about the Beatles by buying me virtually all their LPs on first pressings from a guy at work when I was 10. From there it was 60s, then the jam and then full on mod, buying old soul and blues and jazz records by the time I was 14/ 15.

How did you get into the music buisness ?

The mod thing gave me an outlet for buying records, then I wanted to DJ with them, so I did my first club in 1986 when I was 17, at a wine bar opposite Victoria Station in London. By my last six months at University I had been running a hybrid, mod / funk / hip hop night with a bunch of people in Mayfair. One of my co hosts was Eddie Piller and when I finished my course he said 'what do you plan to do ?'. I had no idea so he got me working for him at Acid Jazz.

How did setting up the Acid Jazz label come about ?

I wasn't there at the start. That was Eddie and Gilles in late 87 early 88. I was at the clubs though, watching the JTQ, BNH Galliano, Roy Ayers and hearing many incredible records for the first time (anyone who doubts Peterson's ability as a DJ and breaker of great records simply wasn't there). This was also great because of Alan Ridings record stall in the entrance of the club, and Soul Jazz's first shop in the market above. It was a truely inspirational time.

You where also behind the re-born 'blue note' in the early 90's, i bet that was great going through all those tapes compiling for blue note ?

I was the compiler, but the real force behind the success was a guy called Tony Harlow, who was running the jazz marketing for EMI International. He has incredible knowledge of all sorts of music, and when he came up with ideas he would make them work. Blue Break Beats was really his idea, but he didn't know if there was enough tracks to make it work, and told him there was and the reat is history.

The 'blue series' is the biggest selling jazz series ever, you must be well chuffed about that ?

I'd have been more chuffed if EMI and more especially Blue Note in New York had shown more appreciation for the incredible success of the series, but there you go. Still, we probably sold over a 100 000 units of Blue Break Beats world wide so we were very good !

And now you get to go through more tapes at 'Ace/BGP' !?

This is truely great, in the last year I've heard a big haul of new stuff from Golden State Recorders in San Francisco, and from a label in Memphis that I've been chasing for a few years. Some of the music from both has been incredible and it will be coming out in the new year. As will the amazing full length and unreleased Dyke and the Blazers tracks, amongst which we found a pt 2 of The Philips Brothers 'I've Been Hurt' and an unreleased track. I've also been working on the Fania label for V2 who bought it last year, but this is so vast I don't know what we are going to find.

I remember going to jazz bop in brighten in the mid 90's. It was amazing to find something like that in a time when house/techno dominated the club scene, only to find 2000+ people at a soul/funk/jazz night ! Could you see a funk scene getting that big ?

No, it's not going to happen, because that was routed in a culture of going clubbing to American soul and jazz funk that had been dominant in the suburbs of the south of England since the mid 70s. It was not especially about rareness but in listening to good black american music new and old (which I think is the real split between the North and South in England, the south would play an old record, but it wouldn't have to be rare, whereas the North demanded exclusivity). The jazz bop scene turned this towards jazz, but it was still essentially the same sorts of people who would go to jazz funk alldayers in the early 80s (or maybe their younger brothers and sisters). This culture was destroyed by house, and although it carried on through acid jazz, it then didn't have the people to carry it on through.

Do you think the 'deep funk' scene is just an extension of the acid jazz scene ?

No, it was an offshoot of a certain aspect of that scene, which quickly developed a life and identity of its own. However it never really had the depth of roots that the northern or southern soul boy scenes had had in the past, and as such it's most successful practitioners have worked the game as part of the more general international culture of 'funky groovy breaks led clubbing'.

Any good storys to tell about tracking down 'old artists' ?

Too many really mainly about how great it is to talk to inspirational figures. For instance I would now call David Axelrod a friend who I am as likely to talk to about Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes as the Electric Prunes. Ace often take the artists out to dinner when they are in town, one of whom was the wonderful William Bell, another of whom was Millie Jackson who was simply the funniest most entertaining lunch companion I have ever had, man can she tell stories! As in fact can Bill and Jerry from the Fatback Band. However the first artist I met is probably the finest example of this whole thing. In 91 Terry Callier was coming over to play his first UK gig since his rediscovery. Over the previous few years I had seen quite a few acts like this and in fact had become quite jaded by people who had a club hit but no catalogue. So I've headed up to a NW London rehearsal room with no great expectations. As I walk into the room a small, tired looking guy in a sweatshirt and wooly hat is starting to strum his guitar. It is of course Terry and he is just about to go into an acoustic version of 'Ordinary Joe', which was heart stopping. Not unsuprisingly Terry is a lovely bloke as well.

You've travelled alot djing, what is your favourite city and clubnight at the moment ?

I'm loving Mik Parry's Pow Wow in Sheffield right now as the music is incredible, and Barcelona and Gijon have been amazing the last few times I've been. However I've really cut down on my DJing in the last year as I've just been to busy. I'm about to build up to it again for the Autumn ...

What's your top 3 tipples ?

Top 3? You've got to be joking! These are shaking my tree right now. (1) Modelo Especial - Mexican beer, the taste of summer. (2) Havana club 7 years reserve, lime and soda. (3) Segada 2004 Portugese red wine. (4) JD and coke - er, of course.

Future plans if you can share them ?!

The Memphis label will be a lot of fun for 2007 if we can finish the deal,there's a CD in there which is the finest uncolated Memphis soul artist. A new set of Blue Note compilations. The revival of a label very close to my heart. My reggae label Roots. And a ton of Fania and related. Oh and more DJing. And probably nervous exhaustion !

Thanks for taking the time out to do this interview is anything else you'd like to say ?

Thanks for asking me and I hope I haven't gone on too long.

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