And just in case you thought we may be turning our back on homegrown Northern Disco talent, nothing could be further from the truth - we've decided to fill the bar area with 10 hours of every sub-genre of authentic disco (from cosmic to northern, modern soul to down tempo bar grooves). It therefore gives us great pleasure to announce our All Star line up for the bar area..
On Hubert Street and the Southport Weekender are regular inspirational haunts of Northern Disco as no doubt for many of you. Right from the start we wanted to get discoheads whose knowledge and play list stretched to Modern or Northern involved and the natural choice here was IAN BUCKINGHAM or EL BUCKO as most of you will know him. The driving force behind the extremely successful Loveboat nights in Durham, which have been running for nearly seven years, and an On Hubert Street regular, we've been lucky enough to hear Bucko's sets a good number of times and have the blistered feet to demonstrate our enjoyment. So we said to Bucko, "are you up for it", and he said "course, can I bring the lads?" When he told us "the lads" were To The Manor Born's PETE WHARRIER and BUCKO's fellow Loveboat co-hort (and Those Than Know resident) JOE MINNS, we had to take a cold shower!!
From day one, local heroes KUMOMUSIC were on Northern Disco's wishlist and we're absolutely delighted that the guys agreed, without hesitation, to come on board at the start. Since its launch in May 2006, their night Kumo become a by word in the City for intimate, up-for-it parties where the crowds want to here diverse quality music from Deodato to Blaze, via Edna Holt. When they're not guesting at top notch nights throughout the UK and overseas, they're inviting the likes of Moonboots and Kelvin Andrews to guest at their night and their reputation continues to go through the roof. One thing is without doubt from listening to these guys, as they'll freely admit, disco is and remains their first love as their very classy set will no doubt demonstrate.
COSMIC DISCO are a collaboration of 3 Mancunian friends/DJ's (Niles, Baggy and Bucky) who came together to share musical ideas with as many people who would care to listen. The sound of Cosmic Disco can be heard LIVE each & every Monday evening between 10pm and 12am (GMT) by visiting Unity Radio and their website is full of podcasts, guest mixes and interviews from some of Cosmic Disco's friends, favourite DJ's and musicians from all over the world.
Northern Disco first met MR B at a sweaty Music Box night a year or so ago. When the fortysomething father of one started chinstroking about disco rareties that night and their respective collections with a thirty one year old gay bloke who hankered after the days of 54, it was discolove at first sound! Mr B has been collecting records for 30 years and has an extensive knowledge of black music, something which always makes his sets stand out from the norm. His guest spots in recent years at Development and Stylus led to an invitation to join the Niteshift team and, most recently, a Saturday night residency playing proper disco and bar grooves at Sankeys (Disco Electronica). Mr B was another must have for the Northern Disco wishlist.
Local hero LEE MORGAN's mix on the deepdistraction.com led to him being christened Manchester's 'King of Soul and Rare Groove' something borne out every Saturday night at Sub Space where he packs the place to rafters playing disco, soul, funk and rare groove for the Manchester masses. As the main guy behind deep soulful house night, Niteshift, and funk overload night Wiggle Waggle (Mr B also being one of the others involved in these) each of which have also gathered their own followings over recent years in Manchester, Lee was also on our wishlist for the bar and we're very excited to have him on board.
Lastly, but by no means leastly, in the spirit of Rahaan's own rise from message board poster to disco heavy weight, Northern Disco looked for a local disco head with a similarly growing reputation on the forums whose knowledge of disco and reputation was second to none. When we asked around, the one name that came up time and time again was CLAY POTATO from the electric chair forum.. "when it comes to disco, he's ya man". So we contacted Ben and asked if he would be interested in giving us the benefit of the knowledge and joining the line up and getting back behind the decks.. Absofuckinglutely was his response. We were chuffed to bits as were the other DJs when they heard we'd convinced Ben to get on board. Very chuffed indeed.
Enjoy!