Electrospective: Chad Jackson

Interviewed by Greg Wilson 30.08.08

https://vimeo.com/36713393

Image by www.anti-limited.com

Full transcript of interview:

GW: I want to introduce you to… when I was still DJing, a young DJ that was coming through, he was part of a new generation, probably the first guy that really mastered turntablism as we know it now. I mean I had a go and I got to a certain level, but this guy took it to a different level, he eventually ended up winning the world mixing championship in 1987.  He also had a top 3 single in 1990 I think, it was with a track called ‘Hear The Drummer Get Wicked’ http://youtu.be/1PubbeR1cwQ and he’s with us tonight, but I can’t see him anywhere, I hope he’s in the room, is he there? Oh, here he is…. Chad Jackson.

CJ: [Sits down] Ooh my old bones are aching!

GW: What did you do to your arm? I didn’t notice.

CJ: Erm, I’ve kind of got a bit of tendonitis in my old age, so I’ve got these straps on, just to try and keep it warm for, you know the proceedings tonight.

GW: Ah right.

Audience: Too much workin’ the cross fader mate!

[Laughter]

GW: That’s what they say (Laughs)

CJ: The joints don’t work quite as this well at this age. You know.

GW: Well, really good to have you here! I know that you live in… is it Slough you are living in now?

CJ: No, Denom, down south, to the West of London.

GW: You are lecturing aren’t you?  At a university?

CJ: Yeah I’m lecturing in Guilford at the Academy of Contemporary Music, I lecture in music production, DJ skills, website design, music culture and history, and I specialise in dance music history as well.

GW: Fantastic! And that all kind of stems back to a time where, you are originally from St Helens, and in the late 70s you would have come onto the club scene, and been influenced by the whole Jazz-Funk movement? And Northern Soul?

CJ: Yeah, absolutely! I basically… It’s interesting listening to the other guys… I mean already it’s been a fantastic day! I really don’t know what I can add to what’s been said already, but I’ll try. What Hewan said about how he kind of came about, very similar actually, I started off basically as a music fan and a dancer, as you (Greg) know, because I used to actually go to a lot of these guys’ clubs before I actually started DJing. So I started off collecting music and going to Northern Soul all nighters and stuff, and the Casino etc, etc. So I kind of got into the Northern Soul thing. Started collecting records because I had this passion for music, it was just an absolute passion probably from when I was about, as far as I can remember, about nine or ten years old. I basically just nicked my Dad’s old record collection, hid it in my bedroom, and started collecting records from then on. So I just amassed loads and loads of records, I was totally into the music. As I said, I started off in the Northern Soul scene, but I must admit, thinking back then, for us it wasn’t Northern Soul it was just the music that was around at that time, which was dance music; music that was just great for dancing to. It was all about… a lot of things have been said today about the passion for the dancer and stuff. That’s exactly where I was coming from, you know, an absolute passion. I found it hard to believe how I went to so many venues, to be quite honest, so young, because I did start very young. I used to go to places like The Timepiece in Liverpool, and then onwards to place in Manchester, places like Rafters etc. Obviously The Casino from before. Thinking back I kind of remember how I did it; I used to go to, for instance, to The Timepiece in Liverpool, I used to travel there, get inside the club somehow, and then I wouldn’t buy a drink all night, I go in the toilets, drink water out of the tap, and that would be my drink for the night, you know. And I’d be on the dance floor from the minute I got there to the minute I left. That was what my life was all about… Just this passion for music! The amassing of such a huge record collection after that, as I said, was just buying music. Collecting records, buying music, collecting records… That’s all that mattered to me. It almost still is that way. So I amassed this huge record collection and it was a case of, you know, I had to start thinking, it had started taking over my bedroom at home, and I was driving the family crazy! I don’t think they’ll ever forgive me for keeping them up half the night with banging music coming out of my bedroom. I must admit, if I’d have been my dad I’d have been dead, you know, that would have been it. I amassed all these records and I obviously moved on to the DJing thing because I suddenly had this huge collection and it was like, well I’m gonna start putting it to some use, rather than just sitting in my bedroom on my own, playing records and dancing in front of the mirror, it was like let’s just move into the DJing thing because I just naturally kind of swayed that way.

Chad Jackson 1983

GW: I remember the first time I heard of you it was in Record Mirror, one of the main things for DJs,  I mean, Blues and Soul was the main thing you had to read…

CJ: James Hamilton

GW: James Hamilton had a column in Record Mirror, it was a DJ column, he had all sorts of odds and ends, and in it, you know, I’d started mixing by this point and I was at Wigan Pier and Legend probably, and it said that; I (James Hamilton) had got a letter from somebody called Chad, who said that there’s another mixing DJ in the North of England apart from me (Greg), and I can rember saying who’s this guy Chad? And they said “there he is”, and it was like Chad, I’d seen you coming in the club, you were a regular on the dance floor, they just pointed to you and there you were on the dance floor. And I said to you I never knew that you DJ’d, and that’s how I got to know you on that level.

CJ: Yeah…

GW: … I think you were at Cagney’s at the time (corner of London Road / Liverpool).

CJ: Yeah I was DJing at Cagney’s in Liverpool at the time.  That was my problem, I’ve always been a little bit of a loner, so I’ve never really talked a lot about what I do, especially in the early days. It was just, it was almost like it was my thing. Because I went to a school where everybody else had leather jackets, biker leather jackets, and they were all into Rock music, and I used to walk around with this big huge ghetto blaster, you know. At the time they all thought I was a bit mad, I probably was, but I just lived for my music.

GW: And I suppose that you where brought up… the area that you lived in as well, you know, that you were kind of isolated and so you gravitated towards the black scene.

CJ: Absolutely! There wasn’t really any thought about it, it was just a natural thing. The same things apply; the music means so much, the passion is there, and like you say about the dancing thing, I must admit, in these later years I tend not to cut a rug quite as much as I used to, but the passion for that is still there. It’s like eating food man! You’ve got to have it! I couldn’t live without it personally. I’d die very quickly without music.

Chad Jackson in his studio

GW: So, from a DJing stand point, you built up a reputation for yourself, and eventually you took over the main residency at the Wigan Pier, I was still doing the Tuesday, and Wednesday at Legend, but you took the Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So what was Wigan Pier like?

CJ: I must admit  I’d been working towards trying to get into what I classed (as) more of the top echelon of clubs, like Wigan Pier, Legend etc. Because obviously I wanted to start making a career of this, because I’ve come to a situation where  when I was at Cagney’s in Liverpool, at the same time I was going to Elliot Clarke’s Dance and Drama school in Liverpool, and I was going to be an actor or a dancer, or something like that. And I was paying for my course by doing the DJing at Cagney’s, and basically the problem was that with the drama-dance course you had to get in there at about 7 in the morning, and you’d do three hours of limbering up, which was basically the most hideous, torturous limbering up exercises you could ever dream of! And then spend the whole day there, and then go out at night DJing. For a few months I was burning the candle at both ends and in the middle! So it was one of those situations where I had to make a choice, I couldn’t carry on with the drama school thing because I couldn’t pay for it without the DJing, so the DJing kind of won. So from then on it was like right, I have to make this a career. So I started getting hungry and wanted to move to better clubs, trying to move up the echelon etc. Luckily I got into, as you say, going to Wigan Pier, those were just amazing times! Seeing yourself on Tuesday nights, going as a punter. Obviously people like Hewan and Colin as well. I’ve always been a massive Jazz fan, and I used to go to all these clubs that we’ve mentioned today, it’s just taken me back so much! I used to go to places like Blackpool Mecca for the all-dayers. Being in the Jazz room, just dancing all day with a towel and not much else you know. Those were special times, it just mattered so much! Some of the things that have been said today about there being possibly not as much passion nowadays, I think part of that is the culture we live in, with the internet etc, everything is so readily and so easily accessible, that there isn’t as much worth put on things. It’s almost like for instance, if you’re offered all the best sex in the world that you have ever had in your life, with the most amazing people bla bla blaa, and you could have that any time you want… you would soon get really, you know, oh sex, oh great, not again. You’d really get kind of bored of that.

GW: So you think it’s like an overdose of stuff?

CJ: Kind of, yeah, I mean it was always a special thing, those feeling all those years ago, it was always that thing of like… it’s our thing!

GW: Yeah.

CJ: Other people don’t understand, because they just don’t understand, it’s our thing.

GW: It’s kind of interesting as well because there’s a difference with black and white… with black kids it was the norm, that was their Pop in a sense. I was talking to somebody from New York about all the music of the late 70’s, early 80’s, who listened to it on the radio. For them radio was segregated there, you know, that was their Pop music, they had their own chart and everything. Whereas for white kids who were into this black scene, we were very much involved in a specialist, underground movement. Like you are saying, there was specialness about it, you were part of something that was outside the mainstream.

CJ: Yeah, I must admit, personally I think it had a greater influence even than that. With a lot of the lectures I do about music history and culture, the kind of feelings that started there, like you say, about the mix of black and white, I think even today a lot of people in the world can lean a lot from that. Especially with all the stuff that’s going on these days with Muslims etc, and with the kind of general media frenzy and craziness, which is almost creating a kind of segregated society again. Whereas through the things that we experienced, that’s always been a thing that’s very close to my heart personally, because apart from the fact of being into the music and having a lot of black friends and partners etc, I’ve never understood that; why people see colour and stuff, it’s just never been an issue, why are people like that? I really find it hard to understand, but with all this stuff recently that’s going on, it almost makes you think… are we going… (Backwards), all that good work that’s been done… is it being undone? Have we got to try and do it up again? You know, (sighs) I’ll shut up.

GW: No, it seems to be, on a cultural level I think it always seems to go in cycles, even if there wasn’t colour, people would find ways of discriminating against other people for whatever reason.

CJ: Yeah absolutely!

GW:  Unfortunately that’s life… sadly. But I mean, yeah, you are right, one of the main things I’ve remembered, it kind of goes onto what’s going to be happening a little bit later with Street Machine and Broken Glass in attendance, was that when I was working with Broken Glass and they did a street tour, that was one of the first things they did; they went round all the, basically shopping (centres), like St Helens, like Blackpool, place like that, all around the North West. As a white guy with a group of predominantly black kids, I was very aware that we were walking into an area where there was no black population at all, and if that had been 12 months previous, and a group of people coming from outside the area were walking into somebody else’s patch there would have been trouble. But what I saw was that they rolled out the lino and they got out the ghetto (blaster) and they put this music on and they danced, and all of a sudden these young white kids came over and talked to them “What is the music you are listening to?” “What’s going on?” I was watching a cultural exchange, and I think that things like that did more for race relations in this country than anything. It was a very powerful period of time! The coming together of people.

CJ: Absolutely, I mean I think music… the good old thing that people say “music is the universal language” that is absolutely true!  It’s one of the only things that really truly gets people of different cultures, races, creeds etc together on a kind of level playing field. Everybody understands music. Everybody can tap their fingers and stuff. So I think it’s such an incredibly powerful thing!

GW: So you were working in Wigan Pier, you established yourself on a different level at this point, and your name became…

CJ: Yeah, I was young and hungry, and I got into the mixing thing even before I started at Wigan Pier, before I met yourself. I’d started a BPM book. I think this was about ’78, ’79.

GW: Yeah that was when James Hamilton was…

CJ:  Yeah, and I had this BPM book, and used to buy loads of records and immediately BPM them, write it in my book. This book ended up that (approx 3 inches) thick with BPMd records. The reason I did that was because I was working at these clubs, I mean some of the early clubs, I started off at some early clubs in St Helens which just had normal belt drive turntables, and I was mixing at that time. Basically because all the DJs at that time, a lot of people probably remember, a lot of DJs actually talked on the mic, and I just couldn’t be bothered with that. I knew as a dancer in a club myself, you just wanted to go there to listen to the music, you don’t want to listen to some DJ prattling on. So I started this BPM book to enable me to put records together on belt drive turntables of vaguely the same speed. So I could vaguely mix them into each other without having to have any vari-speed or anything like that. So it was a means to an end for me to actually sequence music without having to talk over the mic, just let the music do the talking kind of thing. So I ended up with this huge BPM book, in the early days it really helped me because I only got some Technics 1200’s when I had the chance to… Well I had the chance play and practice on yours (Greg) I remember when you used to live in Wigan, and that was just brilliant! For me that was just, I remember the set up you had, which Mike (Shaft) mentioned earlier, I was just like in awe, I was like wow! I would give my right arm to have that amazing mixer, with a cross fader!

GW: Supernova (Laughs)

Matamp Supernova Mixer

CJ: That was it. You just didn’t see cross faders in those days! It was just like a completely alien thing. I just absolutely adored it. When you went out to the shops and let me have half an hour I was like I’m in heaven!

GW: You’d sometimes stay while I went to work.

CJ: It was like being at the altar for me. It was a religious experience really. And so as I said, this BPM book enabled me to mix, and then I only got some Technics 1200’s when I actually won the UK final in ‘86.

GW: Oh wow!

CJ: I actually got some 1200’s from it, so I could kind of put my BPM book down so to speak. And there’s one.. I must admit.. I must make a shout out to anybody… I know there’s loads of old faces in here today, and it’s just an amazing day for me, I dunno about you guys… but I lost my BPM book about 6 or 7 years ago, maybe more, and I’m just putting a general shout out… If anybody got it hiding in a box somewhere in the loft, y’know, maybe I left it at somebody’s house or something, I would pay anything to get that book back!

[Laughter]

CJ: But I lost it a few years ago and it really… I was depressed for about 6 months, cos it was y’know.

GW: I know, I’ve lost stuff, had records stolen. Depressing, really!

Wigan Pier all-dayer advert May 83

GW: Right, you were doing the normal residency, when I say normal residency at Wigan Pier at the weekend was like a mixture of what was played on the Jazz-Funk night, a mixture of what was played on the Futurist theme? Which was like kind of the New Romantic area, and the Pop stuff, or the Pop dance, like the stuff that you wouldn’t play on a specialist night like Shalamar, Imagination, Michael Jackson, things like that. So you were playing a wide berth of music, but then you became… you started getting a few bookings for the all-dayers, we put you on at the all-dayer at Wigan Pier, I think that was one of your first all-dayers. Then when I stopped DJing which was the end of 83 you were the natural successor.  Because the thing about Chad was that, for me, the time that I stopped which was the end of ’83, by this point we knew what was going on in the States, there were kids cutting it up and doing all this stuff. Before that we just heard it on the records. But now we could see it, there was enough video stuff to understand that, and from a personal point of view I tried scratching, I did a little bit of primitive stuff, but I understood that to really get involved with that you needed to dedicate a lot of time to put yourself into that, and by that point I was doing my radio mixes and I was using reel to reel and editing, my process was slowing down as opposed to the live thing. What I could see within you was you had that time, you had that dedication and you picked up on it. You’d see somebody doing something, or you might even see me doing something and you could pick that up really quickly, run with it and take it to another level. So what you did was you were the natural progression on, you were taking this, as I say, turntablist approach. We didn’t use that term then, but that’s where it was going to.

Clouds All-Dayer Preston – April 1984

GW: So you took over at Legend, and I think that the scene at that point, there was a bit of a split because the breakdancing, that breakdancing changed the dynamic of the club scene, because before that, when I played Electro, everyone was into it, but come the summer of ‘83 when breakdancing kind of hit with a vengeance, it was like every time I played anything remotely electro there was a ruck of guys, there was challenging going on the dance floor, which initially was fantastic, the visual aspect of it, everybody loved it. But then as the weeks go by, especially the girls, they were getting pissed off, their dancing space is being invaded, they can’t get on the floor, there’s this going on, and you could see the dynamic changing. That was one of the things that I was aware of when I came away from the situation. You stepped into that, you became very much, you know, the start of that Hip Hop culture, and what you were doing, and the way that you were playing. So if you could talk to me more about that period of time for you?

Smiley Culture, Chad Jackson, Street at PSV – 1984

CJ: Yeah, it was an interesting period as you say, I mean I must admit I was really pleased to be offered the Legend thing and all that, but I must admit it also was, I was kind of, you were like a hell of a hard act to follow! At the same time I was thinking, well how am I going to take over from Greg, who at the time, you had a huge name on the scene and I was like the new guy, and obviously people, as I said, people were very passionate in those days, so there was a lot of people who kind of, were shall we say Greg boys, you know, and it was like ‘Who’s this guy coming in?’ So I had to try and win those guys over. The thing I remember about Legends was things like, like you were saying before, the equipment and everything was just state of the art. I remember some little thing, some little switch on the mixer board where it was almost like surround sound…

GW: The sound sweep…

CJ: Yeah, the sound sweep thing where the sound just started spinning around the speakers around the dance floor. That just freaked me out!

GW: There was stuff at Legend that now you just don’t see it. It’s hard to describe somewhere like Legend. If you opened that same club now it would blow people’s heads off! You don’t see the likes of it, they don’t make clubs like that anymore.

Legend’s light show (Click image to enlarge)

CJ: Absolutely, I mean I felt very honoured, you know, to take over the mantle from you, but also with that I think that it was as I said, a hard act to follow, so I decided to try and eek my own path by following the kind of turntablism thing.

GW: Which you excelled in completely! I mean you had that kind of style, and that showmanship to what you did. And you took that on. You later played at The Haçienda for a period of time?

The Haçienda 03.12.85 (Click image to enlarge)

CJ: Yeah I played at The Haç, I was playing the Saturday nights and I remember being up in the booth and playing stuff like JM Silk ‘Music Is The Key’ http://youtu.be/rLEMQJdlYoY some of the really early House records. I remember someone coming and knocking on the DJ booth door, opening the hatch and going “Why are you playing this gay music for?” You know people were really against it, it really was a kind of changeover period around that time.  I did feel that with The Haçienda it was… if I’d have stayed on there… maybe I would have taken it a bit further, but the mixing thing had started to happen at about that time, kind of ‘85, ’86, ’85, when actually there was the first mixing championship, it was at The Hippodrome, London, and I remember going to that, seeing it and thinking to myself man I’ve got to enter this! I’ve just gotta enter this! So the next year I entered it and that’s when I left The Haçienda because I started to get a lot of gigs abroad and stuff, so I had to free up my weekends.

Chad Jackson

GW: That was when you won the UK Mixing Championship?

CJ: Yeah that was when I won the UK.

GW: And then the following year which was ’87, I was there at the Albert Hall, and you won the World Mixing Championship http://youtu.be/lLlV2VUgnn0 which really kind of, you know, cemented your place.

Chad Jackson collecting his DMC World title in 1987

CJ: Yeah basically in ’86 I got pipped at the post by DJ Cheese the USA competitor, and basically from the next day ‘til the mixing championships the next year I was just practicing every single day. Because I was like, you know, people say second is nowhere, I felt absolutely like that, it was so close, but so far, second is nothing. I had that real hunger going on, you know it was like I have to do that, I have to do that! So I basically spent a whole year practicing stuff in between doing gigs. Luckily I didn’t have to enter it again from scratch, because they enter the champion from the precious year automatically into the competition, and DJ Cheese declined, so what actually happens is the runner up gets the chance to stand in for him, so I got the ticket that way. So I was yes! I’ve gotto take this! It really has to be mine!

It was really like… I find it… I think it’s the strength of youth maybe? or the stupidity of youth? whatever you want to call it. I was absolutely one track, it was like I was so focused, it was like I’m gonna do that, or I’m gonna die! I don’t care! It’s that or nothing you know. And so I was just absolutely eye on the bull’s-eye thinking I’m gonna get that, I’m gonna get that, that’s gonna be mine!  There was just like a, what’s the word? Erm, obsessed… a complete obsessed maniac really. But sometimes you have to do that to get to places you want to get to.

GW: Tunnel vision.

CJ: It obviously worked.

GW: And it did, you won it. And tonight what we’ve asked you to do, as a special thing, is to play from 10 until 11 because we’ve got all the people in from Street Machine, people here from Broken Glass, the B Boy fraternity that are in attendance tonight. So, you know, play some stuff from that kind of period of time that links into that. So it will be good to see you back on the… I mean I don’t know what kind of stuff you are playing these days but it will be good to see you playing again.

CJ: Oh well I mean nowadays, I mean I do the laptop thing I use Ableton Live on the laptop, I use Tractor, I use CDs, I use vinyl, I use the whole lot now. I thought I’d leave it oldschool for tonight though.

GW: Yeah! Definitely

Audience: Wheeey!

GW: Keep it oldschool! It’s been a pleasure Chad! And we’ll see you DJing later on.

CJ: Thank you.

Additional Links:

http://www.chadjackson.co.uk/

Electrospective Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/group

http://soundcloud.com/chad-jackson/chad-jackson-best-of-84-mix

INTRO…
ROCKMASTER SCOTT & THE DYNAMIC 3 – REQUEST LINE
KLEEER – INTIMATE CONNECTION
EUGENE WILDE – GOTTA GET YOU HOME TONIGHT
DENNIS EDWARDS – DON’T LOOK ANY FURTHER
THE CHI-LITES – RUNNING AROUND
THE COOL NOTES – YOU’RE NEVER TOO YOUNG
ARNIE’S LOVE – I’M OUT OF YOUR LIFE
SWITCH – KEEPING SECRETS
KLEEER – INTIMATE CONNECTION
KLEER – TONIGHT
LIONEL RICHIE – ALL NIGHT LONG
CHAKA KHAN – AIN’T NOBODY
THE BREEKOUT KREW – MATTS MOOD ‘ROCK BEATS’
THE SOURCE – GHETTO LIFE
I’M SO GLAD I MET YOU – DECO
JOCELYN BROWN – SOMEBODY ELSE’S GUY
FREDERICK ‘MC COUNT’ LINTON – I’M SOMEBODY ELSE’S GUY
CHERRELLE – WHEN I LOOK IN YOUR EYES
ROSE ROYCE – MAGIC TOUCH
SOS BAND – JUST THE WAY YOU LIKE IT
DR JECKYL & MR HYDE – FAST LIFE
MARCUS MILLER – JUICE
JAKI GRAHAM – WHATS THE NAME OF YOUR GAME
THE EMOTIONS – YOU’RE THE BEST
PATRICE RUSHEN – FEEL SO REAL
REAL TO REEL – LOVE ME LIKE THIS
STEVE ARRINGTON – MELLOW AS A CELLO
BARBARA FOWLER – COME AND GET MY LOVIN’
FATBACK BAND – I FOUND LOVIN’
NEWCLEUS – NO MORE RUNNIN
T-SKI VALLEY – CATCH THE BEAT
DR JECKYL & MR HYDE – GETTING’ MONEY
DAVY DMX – ONE FOR THE TREBLE
YVONNE GAGE – LOVER OF YOUR DREAMS
THE STAPLE SINGERS – SLIPPERY PEOPLE
GAYLE ADAMS – IM WARNING YOU
WORLD PREMIERE – SHARE THE NIGHT
CHANGE – CHANGE OF HEART
SKOOL BOYZ – SLIP AWAY
UNKNOWN
ELBOW BONES & THE RACKETEERS – A NIGHT IN NEW YORK
CAMEO – SHE’S STRANGE
UNKNOWN
WINDJAMMER – TOSSING & TURNING
INNER LIFE – NO WAY
THE CIRCLE CITY BAND – MAGIC
BARBARA MASON – ANOTHER MAN
TOUT SWEET – ANOTHER MAN IS TWICE AS NICE
MAN PARRISH – BOOGIE DOWN BRONX
KEY MATIC – BREAKERS IN SPACE
AFRIKA BAMBAATA & JAMES BROWN – UNITY
JEFFREY OSBOURNE – PLANE LOVE
RICH CARSON & GALACTIC ORCHESTRA – STREET SYMPHONY
TWO SISTERS – B-BOYS BEWARE
THE TEMPTATIONS – TREAT HER LIKE A LADY
STEPHANIE MILLS – THE MEDICINE SONG
LEFTURNO – OUT OF SIGHT
DAYTON – THE SOUND OF MUSIC
THE FRESH BAND – COME BACK LOVER
FUNK DELUXE – THIS TIME
WEST PHILLIPS – SUCKER FOR A PRETTY FACE
AFRIKA BAMBAATA – RENEGADES OF FUNK
NV – ITS ALRIGHT
GRANDMASTER MELLE MEL – WHITE LINES
KENNY G – HI HOW YA DOING
NV – LET ME DO YOU ‘REMIX’
STARPOINT – ITS ALL YOURS
GREG HENDERSON & ROME JEFFRIES – NEVER TOO LATE
SISTER SLEDGE – LOST IN MUSIC ’84
HAROLD MELVIN – TODAY’S YOUR LUCKY DAY
THE SYSTEM – I WANNA MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD
FONDA RAE – TUCH ME
NEWCLEUS – JAM ON IT
DYNAMIC BREAKERS – DYNAMIC
DAZZ BAND – LET IT ALL BLOW
KLINTE JONES – IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
SINNAMON – THIN LINE
B-BOYS – ROCK THE HOUSE
BOOGIE BOYS – ZODIAC
MIAMI SOUND MACHINE – DR BEAT
BOBBY BROOM – BEAT FREAK
SHANNON – GIVE ME TONIGHT
PAUL HARDCASTLE – RAIN FOREST
XENA – ON THE UPSIDE
CAPTAIN RAPP – BAD TIMES
ROY AYERS – IN THE DARK
ROY AYERS – GOREE ISLAND
COLONEL ABRAMS – MUSIC IS THE ANSWER
CHAKA KHAN – I FEEL FOR YOU
ARROW – HOT HOT HOT
HASHIM – AL-NAAFIYSH
HASHIM – WE’RE ROCKING THE PLANET
LJ REYNOLDS – WEIGHT ALL THE FACTS
TIA MONAE – DON’T KEEP ME WAITING
THE INTRUDERS – WHO DO YOU LOVE
PAUL HARDCASTLE – GUILTY
PAUL HARDCASTLE – YOU’RE THE ONE FOR ME
TERRI WELLS – I’LL BE AROUND
DAVID JOSEPH – BABY WONT YOU TAKE MY LOVE
KREAMCICLE feat PAULA ANDERSON – NO NEWS IS NEWS
THELMA HOUSTON – YOU USED TO HOLD ME SO TIGHT
BONZO GOES TO WASHINGTON – 5 MINUTES
CHERYL LYNN – ENCORE
MICHAEL JACKSON – THRILLER

CHAD JACKSON BEST OF 85 MIX:

http://soundcloud.com/chad-jackson/chad-jackson-best-of-85-mix

INTRO…
DOUG E FRESH & SLICK RICK – LA DI DA DI
GRACE JONES – SLAVE TO THE RHYTHM
FULL FORCE – ALICE I WANT YOU JUST FOR ME
FAB FIVE FREDDY – CHANGE THE BEAT
TROUBLE FUNK – PUMP ME UP
DOUG E FRESH & GET FRESH CREW – THE SHOW
FULL FORCE – ALICE I WANT YOU JUST FOR ME
CARL ANDERSON – BUTTERCUP
HI-TENSION – YOU MAKE ME HAPPY
MICHAEL LOVESMITH – BREAK THE ICE
PRECIOUS WILSON – I’LL BE YOUR FRIEND
PRINCESS – AFTER THE LOVE HAS GONE REMIX
WALLY BADAROU – CHIEF INSPECTOR
KRYSTOL – NOBODY’S GONNA GET THIS LOVIN’ BUT YOU
CHANGE – LETS GO TOGETHER
DOUG E FRESH & GET FRESH CREW – THE SHOW
FULL FORCE – ALICE I WANT YOU JUST FOR ME
TWILIGHT 22 – MYSTERIOUS
B.B & Q BAND – GENIE
PRINCESS – SAY IM YOUR NUMBER ONE
DOCTOR ROCX & Co – GIRL FRIENDS / BOY FRIENDS
ROXANNE SHANTE – BITE THIS
JENNY BURTON – BAD HABIT
KID FROST – TERMINATOR
UTFO – ROXANNE ROXANNE
LOOSE ENDS – HANGING ON A STRING
52ND STREET – TELL ME HOW IT FEELS
ASHFORD & SIMPSON – SOLID
ATLANTIC STARR – SILVER SHADOW
BAD BOYS feat K LOVE – BAD BOYS
THE COOL NOTES – NATURAL ENERGY
THE COOL NOTES – SPEND THE NIGHT
AURRA – LIKE I LIKE IT
DIRECT DRIVE – ANYTHING
KRYSTOL – AFTER THE DANCE IS THROUGH
SKIPWORTH & TURNER – THINKING ABOUT YOUR LOVE
CHANGE – MUTUAL ATTRACTION
TROUBLE FUNK – PUMP ME UP
KLEEER – NEVER CRY AGAIN
CHERYL LYNN – FIDELITY
RENE & ANGELA – I’LL BE GOOD
ROCK HILL – ROCK THE BEAT
MC SHY D – RAP WILL NEVER DIE PART 1
BASE – BIG NOISE
ROYALLE DELITE – I’LL BE A FREAK FOR YOU
MAZE – TWILIGHT
LILLO THOMAS – SETTLE DOWN
EDDIE SKI WHITE & DAVY DMX – BABY BE MINE
GLORIA D BROWN – THE MORE THEY KNOCK
CAMEO – SINGLE LIFE
RENE & ANGELA – SAVE YOUR LOVE FOR No 1
DSM – WARRIOR GROOVE
LITTLE BENNY – WHO COMES TO BOOGIE
TOTAL CONTRAST – TAKES A LITTLE TIME
HARLEQUIN FOURS – SET IT OFF
GLENN JONES – FINESSE REMIX
CLAIR HICKS – PUSH PUSH (IN THE BUSH)
THE TEAM – WICKI WACKY HOUSE PARTY
PENNY FORD – DANGEROUS
B.B & Q BAND – MAIN ATTRACTION
ROCHELLE – MY MAGIC MAN
URBANIAX – LOVE DON’T GROW ON TREES
COLONEL ABRAMS – TRAPPED
CHERRELLE & ALEXANDER ONEAL – SATURDAY LOVE
STEVE ARRINGTON – DANCING IN THE KEY OF LIFE
STEVE ARRINGTON – FEEL SO REAL
PRITTI BOYZ feat FELIX – MAKE LUV TONIGHT
SUBJECT – THE MAGIC THE MOMENT
PAUL SIMPSON – TREAT HER SWEETER
SERIOUS INTENTION – YOU DON’T KNOW
JM SILK – MUSIC IS THE KEY
JELLYBEAN – SIDEWALK TALK ‘FUNHOUSE MIX’
LISA LISA – I WONDER IF I TAKE YOU HOME
CONWAY BROTHERS – TURN IT UP
HAROLD FALTIMEYER – AXEL F
PAUL HARDCASTLE – 19

© Greg Wilson, 2012