Visit his website:

CONCOURSE RECORDS

Drumsuite: What music did you grow up with ?

My parents weren't very musical, although they had a few good LPs like Nina Simone and the Bonzo Dog Band, but I always had a curious ear. I was into rap, indie, rock, reggae and hardcore/jungle amongst other things, but hip-hop was what I always came back to.

When did you first become interested in soul & funk 45's?

Around 1994, when a friend of mine started playing stuff like Eddie Bo productions and harder Westbound 7's at a club in Norwich. I got more enthusiastic after going to the States for six months in 1996, then hearing Keb Darge play a couple of times when I got home. I started booking Keb to play regularly in Nottingham from 1997 onwards.

You were the editor for the Big Daddy magazine, how did that come about?

I used to make comics as a little kid and I was a dedicated reader of the music press from a young age, so it's always been something I wanted to do. I probably would never have got around to doing it properly, but I came out of a bad car crash unscathed in the mid 90s, and decided the next day to stop raving and get some work done instead. It took a few years and most people thought I was mad, but a guy called James Priestley (who's now a DJ in London I think) and then Shok1 gave me a lot of encouragement and help. I put together half of the first issue by just going around interviewing people, and things gained momentum from that initial starting point.

I was gutted when that magazine stopped, but then you co founded Grand Slam magazine. A more hip hop oriented read, was this a conscious decision and if so why?

I was gutted too! Big Daddy was a labour of love, and although there were a lot of obstacles and down-sides, it felt good to do it. I'm not sure there was more hip-hop in Grand Slam on a page-for-page basis, but I know what you mean. As a magazine I never really liked it that much at the time, and don't feel particularly proud of it now, either. A lot of the big decisions were taken by committee, and to me that made it a bit bland: I was more in favour of a cheap & shitty approach that would cater to the hardcore of Big Daddy readers, but the majority of those with a vote wanted to take things up a notch and try to get mainstream distribution. The end result was a glossy look with less anarchic content (and a terrible name!). I went along with everything because I lost fair & square and I wanted to keep publishing magazines, but my heart wasn't in it like it was with Big Daddy, and although we did print some good stuff, I think overall we made a really big mistake the second time around.

What's your favourite article you've written or read in either magazines?

Probably the most satisfying interview I did at the time was with Charlie Chase from the Cold Crush Brothers, but the best article we ever printed was easily Dave Tompkins, Paul C epic in Big Daddy #10. I read tons of music journalism, and I loved the mid-90s period when good American magazines like ego trip, On The Go and Grand Royal were around. Tompkins, Chairman Mao and other writers from that era really inspired me and informed what I was attempting, which was basically to do a British take on that kind of style.

So do you have any good stories to tell about tracking down old artists?

Not really. I don't feel that comfortable bothering old men for their records on the phone, so I don't make a habit of it.

Many people think that there aren't many more undiscovered funk 45's out there, as a dealer and digger yourself do you agree with this ?

Black America's musical output is vast, so these kinds of statements always seem a bit ridiculous to me. How can any one person ever hope to hear all those records? The Northern scene is still turning up 'new discoveries' after 40-odd years. Fewer singles probably fall into the 'funk' category, however the goalposts are pretty wide in terms of what is considered 'funk', and plus there's a lot of unreleased material sitting around. Then you have American collectors like Dante, Jason and co still finding new bits, and UK diggers like Adam Leaver on the case. Despite the various discography websites already available, if Dante ever actually prints his book, then the people making such claims will probably get bit of a shock in terms of realizing how much is out there and how little of it they actually know.

So are you just collecting soul, funk & hip hop these days?

Although I love hip-hop to the core, I don't actively collect rap that much at the moment. I can't afford to do it as well as soul/funk, and the 'random rap' collecting scene just scene isn't for me because it's so internet based; there's nothing going on club-wise that gives me an appetite for hording old stuff. And current hip-hop is totally on its arse as far as I'm concerned, with occasional exceptions. New York needs to shake off its identity crisis and inferiority complex then regain control from the South and West, otherwise the whole thing is completely doomed for me. I don't mind the modern production styles on occasion, especially when they sound like weird Kraftwerk knock-offs, but I do object to the soft drums and the absolutely shit rapping. Standards don't seem to exist any more, when I get on the bus to town, I hear kids listening to Young Jeezy on their phones, people like that who can't rap to save their lives. It's hardly Rakim or Big Daddy Kane. At the other end of the spectrum, the indie/backpack/student/retro rap stuff is just as bad if not worse, but in a different way. Anyway other than soul, I collect ethnic records and various 1994 jungle labels, plus I also buy roots, folk LPs and anything else that takes my fancy.

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

The best nights out I've had recently were the Prestatyn weekender, Soul Revolution in London and the Greatstone in Manchester. As far as DJing myself, Finland was a lot of fun (Soul Sides in Helsinki and Soul Seed in Turku), and Struttin in Amsterdam is always good, especially now that they've got a big packed-out venue.

What's your top 3 tipples?

I'm an ale drinker, Adam Leaver converted me from lager about three years ago. I can't narrow it down to three because the small guest ales are usually the best, but the Marble Brewery in Manchester has some good ones. That said, I'll pretty much drink anything except for whiskey if there's no decent beer around.

Future plans if you can share them ?!

I'm going to do another magazine with a couple of mates and whoever else ends up getting involved. We've had the first meeting and it went well, but it will take us a fair bit of time to get things going. I also want to build up the website more, put out a few records, get a club night going with Adam, and start cutting up fast breakbeats again.

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

Cheers for getting me to do this, Rich, and if anyone has got decent ideas for magazine contributions, then feel free to get in touch. No semi-literate self promotion please.

MORE