GREG WILSON FESTIVAL ANTHEMS (for oki-ni 2012)

Taken from blog post ‘Festival Anthems’:
http://www.gregwilson.co.uk/2012/06/festival-anthems/

Back in March, in the lead up to the Rainbow Disco Club festival in Tokyo (an event that would frustratingly be rained off), I was asked to make a list of my 10 favourite festival tracks. I came up with a dozen, all edits which have served me well during recent years and certainly merit anthemic status. Around the same time I was approached, via the Garden Festival’s PR dept. to supply an exclusive mix for the oki-ni series. As an example, I was linked to Derrick Carter’s contribution, where he referenced the mixes he used to hear on Chicago dance station WBMX in the early 80’s, focusing on Disco & Classics.

Whilst thinking about a suitable theme for my mix, I had the brainwave of working with the list of festival favourites I’d recently compiled– I thought that putting these 12 tracks together into a single mix would not only provide a solution, but gives me the opportunity to document some of the music that’s served me so well in the festival environment, which I’d never otherwise play all together. So, from there, it was just a case of finding a way to jigsaw them into a coherent whole, which didn’t prove to be difficult, the mix coming together in no time.

It wasn’t until I’d submitted it that I found time to have a look at the oki-ni website and check out some of the mixes already on there, a pretty substantial 75 of them. It was only then that I realised that my approach was somewhat out of sync with the ethos of the series, which was outlined as follows; ‘the series aims to venture off the dancefloor, allowing the artists involved the freedom to produce unique and personal mixes that speak directly to them. The results are always eclectic, compelling, and unique’.

Being that this was supposed to be more a personal choice of tunes you wouldn’t play out, rather than the clearly themed mix I’d mistakenly believed it was, I pointed out this anomaly, but was assured that all was fine. Had I not been off to the US that weekend, then onto Japan, I’d have probably insisted on doing something else, which fitted their criteria, but they maintained that they were more than happy with what I’d done, so it became mix #76 in the oki-ni series (and exclusive to their website for the past few months):
http://www.oki-ni.com/scat/mixes

Half of the tracks are my own edits, half other people’s (big up Psychemagik, Dimitri From Paris, Joey Negro, Bermuda Triangle, Leftside Wobble and Michael Cook). The mix features some iconic names, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Talking Heads, The Clash, Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell, Prince and Fleetwood Mac included. As they say, great music never dies, especially when there’s an edit that helps introduce it to a whole new younger audience, whilst rejuvenating the spirit of an older one in the process. Hopefully this collection of climatic tunes will help bring on the festival spirit – here’s to sun and mud to come!

I’ll be appearing at the following festivals / special events:

23rd June – The Summer Soiree / Blackpool
http://theblackpoolball.com/#/ball-info/4548984235

6th / 7th July – The Garden Festival / Croatia
http://thegardenfestival.eu/

15th July – Vintage / Northamptonshire
http://www.vintagefestival.co.uk/about/vintage-festival

28th July - Camp Bestival / Dorset
http://www.campbestival.net/#/home

4th August – Eastern Electrics / London
http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/easternelectrics/2012/

5th August – Standon Calling / Hertfordshire
http://www.standon-calling.com/

2nd September – Preston Guild / Preston
http://www.prestonguild2012.com/?OBH=413&ID=583

8th September – Bestival / Isle Of Wight
http://2012.bestival.net/

Greg Wilson - June 2012