If someone tells you that the most important person in the 1980s Manchester music scene was a guy called Wilson just don't assume they're talking about a Factory owner. Chances are they'll be talking about a DJ named Greg who played in clubs like Legends, had a show on Piccadilly Radio, championed early electro funk in the clubs, was the first person to 'scratch' live on UK TV, and so on. People like A Certain Ratio say that they would have preferred to have a track played by Greg Wilson than be in the NME, or words to that effect. Others like A Guy Called Gerald cite Greg Wilson as the number one catalyst for what happened with house music.
Wilson in 1984 seems to have disappeared from the DJ game. His interest in electro though led to his management of Manchester's first b-boy crew Broken Glass and the next step would be actually making music for the Streetsounds UK electro compilation. With electro mutating into hip hop Wilson would start his own label Murdertone, and elements of Broken Glass would evolve into the Ruthless Rap Assassins, an outfit whose back catalogue is celebrated in the tenth issue of Your Heart Out (which can be downloaded in the library on your left).
Another fantastic example of Manchester's hip hop is MC Buzz B's Never Change. I would urge anyone reading this to check out Buzz B's work by hook or by crook.
And finally because it's great fun, and because you can impress loved ones by knowing which Manchester hip hop oitfit had a video featuring guest appearances from Noddy Holder, Frank Sidebottom and the Ruthless Rap Assassins, here's Kiss AMC and their Docs.
Love the magazine. I've just finished reading all the back issues. Excellent stuff.
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