Paul, an incredible career spanning four decades. One of the nicest people in dance music, but where did it all begin?
“Hi Dan. Wow, what a journey. Well it all began back in 1975, I was in between two minds – I’d just left school and was thinking of going to college to do a graphic design course. Then I stumbled on Angels in my home town Burnley. A DJ called Ian Sudders was the resident and I was the first in the queue every Wednesday, he used to play funk, underground stuff and jazz. He recognised me after a while as I was always first in and saw that I was really into the music and found out I had a really good record collection. So one night he said “come down tomorrow and I’ll show you the ropes how to DJ. Next thing I knew he was asking me to warm up for him which just blew me away. Then, one night he had an argument with his girlfriend and threw her through a set of shutters and out of a window, the owner had seen enough and suddenly I was promoted to DJing main slot four nights a week. That’s how it happened. Sure, I had to play a more commercial sound at the weekends, but even the likes of Carl Cox had to do weddings and mobile stuff once upon a time. Midweek though, I was able to slot in some more soulful stuff.”
So who were your musical influences?
“As I mentioned before, I had to play some mainstream artists – David Bowie and Roxy Music for instance, but I tried to sneak some obscure records into my set that I was into, some cool Jazz tune or tracks like Lonnie Liston Smith ‘Expansions’ or Gill Scott Heron ‘The Bottle’ – I was the only DJ north of London playing this kind of stuff. These tracks made Angels into the underground club it became for years. If you wanted to hear Grover Washington Junior on a Saturday night up north, Angels was where it was at. Pete Tong down in London was doing it with his sets and of course the guys over in New York were really on it.
Your ‘Retro’ – an institution in clubland that has seen your night start in Lancashire and now hosting the mighty Pacha in Ibiza every week – if you had to pick one tune, what would be the alltime classic?
“The thing is about Retro is that it is always evolving. As a team, we know what records should be/could be the next Retro classic, they may not necessarily be a big chart hit or may have even slipped under the radar and gone unnoticed by DJs. But we persevere and will keep playing the track until it becomes a ‘Retro’ classic. But if you’re going to push me, it would be one of the DMC remixes from years ago. The Prince family had a real knack back then of choosing the right song for the right person to remix it and bearing that in mind, the Sasha remix of Jimi Polo ‘Better Days’. A match made in heaven. Other tracks that I have to mention are King B ‘Back By Dope Demand’ – just essential. Parra Dice ‘Can You Hear Me’ with its spine tingling break downs, horns and bass – when I heard Rachel McFarlane’s vocals on this I knew I had to have her sing for me, so I tracked her down and she ended up singing on my Loveland releases, I love this record and it sums up everything that is ‘Retro’. And Greece 2000 ‘Three Drives’ is a belter.”
Who has been the best guest DJ at ‘Retro’
“Very good question Dan. It’s not really about the guests though, it’s all about the music. The best time for guests I suppose was 1989-1991 when the massive house explosion happened. We were paying the likes of Sasha, Paul Oakenfold and Carl Cox a few hundred quid. I would love Sasha to come back and do a retro set, whenever I see him I hound him to come and play one, but it’s the same answer every time, it would simply take him too long to choose a set as he is such a perfectionist. He had his finger on the pulse so long ago, he’d play unknown songs that within weeks would become cult classics”
What are your thoughts in clubland at the moment?
“Clubland now has gone tits up. It’s too expensive, the price of drinks are astronomical – people are picking their night’s out very carefully now. And of course the free bars with late licences don’t help the cause. We are in the middle of the third clubbing recession at the moment. People have no jobs, no money and dance music is not as well eqipped as it used to be. There isn’t enough people making good tunes and it is so widely fragmented. People are making music for themselves, not the dancefloor. I think a lot of the big players will fall by the wayside over the next year.”
Modern technolgy and today’s DJ – thoughts?
“Well I never thought years ago for one minute that the CD would take over from vinyl and now look at it with Downloads and Laptops taking over the world. Today, there aren’t many clubs equipped for a DJ to play vinyl, Pacha in Ibiza is one of the few that can cater for vinyl and CDs – a record sounds amazing there through their system. I just don’t think the DJ is in control anymore, our job is to be an entertainer – that’s why we started in the first place, that and the love of music. Looking at a DJ with a piece of vinyl in his hand looks right, looking at a DJ with a mouse in his hand does not look right. I can’t believe that some DJs out there pre-choose their sets and load them into their computers before they get to the club – be it Manchester or Moscow, how on earth can a DJ know what sort of crowd are going to be in that night? It takes the funk out of the whole thing, it’s like they are machines. I think I’ve got another five years left DJing, I’m 52 this year and I have to keep mentally alert and keeping the brain fresh, the last thing I’m going to do is let a computer do our job for us.”
What over the last 35 years spinning records, do you think has been the best ever label?
“Purely as they put out a brilliant balance of what I play, Strictly Rhythm. It was the first label that I knew I would play every single release they put out from day one.”
So Ibiza. Quite a remarkable tale. Eden in San Antonio was the perfect venue and perfect location for a club classics night. But years later you are housed in the coolest, most flamboyant, credible, gorgeous nightclub in the world. How the fuck…?
“Ha ha. Well we started at Eden in 2000 and in our first season won Mixmag’s New Club of The Year Award. It was the worker’s favourite night and we know what happens when you get the workers on your side. We had Hed Kandi in our back room and soon after I brought my friends from Garlands over to run their own night which became massive for Eden. When I fell out of love with Eden I was having a chat with Darren Hughes from We Love…Space explaining I didn’t know where to turn next. He suggested I spoke to Danny Whittle, the manager and programming guy at Pacha. He’s from the north of England too so I knew I’d get on with him. I think the world of the man, how he has created the brand Pacha around the world is phenomenal. Anyway, we sat down and had a meeting and he turned round and said to me’you know what Paul, I’m going to take a punt on this’. The second largest room in Pacha is The Global Room and he wanted us in there on Sundays which in his own words ‘were a total mess’. Sander Kleinenberg was in there and it just wasn’t clicking. When ‘Flower Power’ did a night there it was queues down to the beach! Thousands of cool locals singing their hearts out in English to 60s and 70s rock. I think it’s the island’s best kept secret. It wasn’t quite the right time to take over the main room so we took The Global Room and it quickly became the busiest the room had ever been. This was the first ‘House’ night in there and now there are 5 every week. Danny had faith in me, saw my passion – the only other DJ I think that shares my passion is Erick Morillo who looks like he’s enjoying himself. Danny asked me to do the Pacha Classics CD this Summer and it’s been the leading seller over there for 6 weeks now, outselling everything.”
What are your personal thoughts on drug culture in clubland?
“Drugs don’t work anymore, that’s a fact. Certain clubs have lived and died due to the type of drugs the owners and promoters have let in to their venues. Ketamine ruined so many great clubs and lives. When drugs take over from the music you know you’re in trouble.”
What’s been the proudest ever ‘Retro’ moment?
“Every time we do Tall Trees in Yarm. For such a sleepy little town to get 5000 people every month is ridiculous, I think Tiesto at Privilige in Ibiza can only better us. For our birthday in November we’ll get 7000. We are doing so well around the north, Burnley, Wakefield, Halifax, Blackpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Bradford, Leeds – they are all absolutely rammed. I just love it so much after all these years. I’m sure I’m going to one day die in a DJ booth!”
