Introduction > Ed the DJ

My music journey really started at 11 years old by absorbing a wide selection of music and records from the 50's, 60's and 70's due to a thirst for collecting them by the dozen from people who no longer wanted their 7" inch records lying around the house. I used to buy them with my school dinner money then go hungry all day until I could raid the fridge at home later, but I didn't mind, I was captivated by the sheer joy of being able to sit in my bedroom with a small portable Dansette record player and listen to the songs with my friends Leslie Dockrell, Roger Laming, Tony Cracknell and Clive Hope. 

Those 7" records by hundreds of artists in all kinds of styles of music were to my curious imagination little windows into many different worlds of emotions. From the joy of newfound love to the unrequited pain of a non-returned love to the unbridled passion for a desired love. The words in the songs painted pictures to me so I used to listen to them deeply and relate to the scenario personally.

The first record I ever bought with my own money was "Ain't No Sunshine" by Michael Jackson on Tamla Motown Records, a record company that I would one day have the honour of working for in the UK.

The first album I ever owned was the Best Of The Beach Boys which I still have, 46 years later, in excellent condition with its £2.50 price sticker from Sound Centre in Gravesend High Street. The album is missing the "Good Vibrations" masterpiece but it does have Paul McCartney's favourite song "God Only Knows" featured. Thank you for the gift Clive Hope. 

I saw Brian Wilson's 50th Anniversary concert celebrating the amazing Pet Sounds album in San Diego June 30th 2016. Always loved the Beach Boys songs, actually more than the Beatles as they were always on the radio so the US acts were something different. It was a path that would guide me for the rest of my life.

From the age of 13 years I developed an instinctive way of relating to how people responded to music emotionally, particularly from the lyrics being sung. I can recall sitting in my bedroom listening to Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes "The Love I Lost" on the US Philadelphia green label and being lost in the lyrics. 19 years later I made that record again with an artist called Sybil and it nearly went to No: 1 in the national pop chart, stopping at No: 3 and the announcer on Top Of The Pops mentioning my name on TV saying "and the man behind this weeks No: 3 hit is Eddie Gordon." Life is full of surprises.

Music brings back those memories so crystal clear unlike anything else can. Maybe there's a route for people with memory loss illness like Alzheimer's to be able to recollect their thoughts into some sort of order with the powerful memories songs can pull back into your present consciousness. I believe very strongly in the healing power of music to put a smile on your face. I've seen it do that all my life and with my daughter now. 

Some of my happiest days were just sitting with friends listening to records over and over again. There is a double album of 41 original songs from a movie called "American Graffiti", a late 50s American end of year college story, with intros from the Radio DJ Wolfman Jack, that can explode images of four 13 year old friends Roger Laming, Tony Cracknell, Les Dockrell and myself all laughing together from 35 years ago as we immersed ourselves into music of that American late 50s period by wearing the clothing and shoes similar to those worn in the movie. We could do the dances as well, rock and roll with the best of them. A "Jungle Jungle Jungle Jungle Rock"..

I remember my mother moaning at me at my cousin Linda's wedding in Ipswich because I didn't want to dance when the disco started, then the DJ played "Rock Around The Clock" and I was up bopping away like a rock & roll music star, she looked at me shocked as I sat back down when the record finished and asked "where did you learn to do that?". I shrugged my young teenage shoulders.

The truth was there was a 14 year old bridesmaid there called Christine who was so pretty and being an awkward 15 I didn't want to make an idiot of myself, so I waited until I could dance to a record that I liked to show my moves to her. Like a young Peacock and probably dancing like one :-)  We wrote to each other for a bit after but we were 80 miles apart from Ipswich to Gravesend and I only had my paper-round bike..

A guy who could dance was always an attraction to a potential love interest, not sure about today though as waving your arms in the air isn't really dancing.  We had some of the best of dance floor times, I'm certain.

Anyway the songs and music of American Graffiti and the movie "That'll Be The Day" with David Essex and Ringo Starr were all Poetry In Motion to us boys who knew off by heart everything Wolfman said on the record. "Those Green Onions are hanging around the studio, especially to keep them Vampires away - you understand" in his husky, gravel voice as he cued-up the Booker T and MGs instrumental organ twister Green Onions.

In that front room of 10 Snelling Avenue, Northfleet, Kent, where we sat for hour upon hour, was the entire collection of Tony's elder brother, Steve Cracknell's, 7" vinyl records, for his mobile disco, all in edged colour -coded cardboard record sleeves for instant recognition and boy hell was waiting for us if we touched Steve's record's. He was a gentle giant really in a leather jacket, jeans, Dr Martens boots with long hair and his # 1 rule was my first view into the world of a DJ. His command that "thou shall not touch my records" was a valuable lesson in how important it was to look after your tools of your trade - your records.

I sold some records recently before moving to California, records that I had played and played over again as a DJ and they were still in wonderful condition because of that impression from those days. There was nothing worse than a record playing to a dance floor that started to jump because of somebody's leftover pizza stuck in the vinyl grooves making the needle jog. Once is ok but more than that then audience would be thinking "jesus this bloke is totally useless".

One stand out memory was in the summer of '75 buying 10 Four Tops albums for £10 off a friend at Cosy Glide where I worked for 6 months. Terry Askew, needed the money to take his girlfriend Vivien out for their anniversary date. They were great albums but one stood out particularly, "Main Street People" on the ABC Dunhill label. WOW what a brilliant album from the Four Tops recorded in 1972.

If you like 70s Soul music go find that album its a classic piece of work with fabulous songs, funky, soulful, ballads and the Four Tops, loosened from the shackles of the Motown pop machine, really let rip vocally into the social issues of the early 70s era with songs like "Am I My Brother's Keeper" or "Are You Man Enough" and the ballad 'One Woman Man' will melt any woman's heart with its promise of total devotion.

I used to come home in the early hours of the morning from disco dancing and put that album on my Mum's stereogram quietly in the lounge having a cup of tea and think about the evening I had just had out with my friends before I went to bed. I know every song off by heart now. I used the song "Main Street People" as the intro to a 10 hour BBC documentary I produced in 2011 called "A Piece Of Paradise" about the 1970's New York disco scene. Good music memories never leave you.

Disco was so huge in the 70s that its hard to portray just how big now but it was a world-wide explosion thanks to the movie Saturday Night Fever. Think of the Moon Landing, a Royal Wedding, the World Cup and the Olympics all going off in the same year and you'll get some idea how it swept the globe. You could go out to a Disco in the town every night of the week and if you could not dance you could forget attracting a girlfriend thanks to bloody John Travolta.

I actually lost my first serious girlfriend Margaret Skipper to a flashy disco dancer called Mark Broadbent with her words echoing in my head "Mark is a much better dancer than you Ed". It was a real first love heartbreak, we'd been totally inseparable for three years and to add insult to injury she said "you only work in a laboratory, Mark's Dad owns a Green Grocer store that will one day be his. What will you do with the rest of your life Eddie ?" I sarcastically replied that we both wore coats at work only mine was a laboratory white coat, not greengrocer brown covered in potato dirt, but she was having none of it, her mind was set. Thoughts of having a duel in Gravesend High St crossed my mind, like Two Ton Ted from Teddington and Ernie the Fastest Milkman in The West, but the red hot molten lead from my job in the testing laboratory at Britannia Lead Refinery would have mashed his potatoes from the Grocer shop in a fast second - it was a no contest. So I accepted the change in a tearful phone-call from her, told her not to cry, we'd still be friends, although it blew a huge hole in my heart for years after, but !!

It was a massive life-changing moment because after a few weeks feeling sorry for myself and listening to sad songs by Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer and Michael Jackson's "She's Out Of My Life", I went out and bought lots of Jazz Funk 12 inch records, I was going to learn to dance to Disco music the way I learnt to Rock and Roll music with Roger, Les and Tony, with a personal twist.

One 12 inch record in particular was on the Tappan Zee label called 'Turn On The Tap' and had 4 tracks on like an EP. They were "Westchester Lady" by Bob James, "Watermelon Man" by Mongo Santamaria, "Black Is The Colour" by Wilbert Longmire and "First Love" by Richard Tee. I learnt to dance, not just disco dance, but to Jazz dance to that 12 inch, especially the fast paced latin rhythms of "Watermelon Man" and "Black Is The Colour".

**"Westchester Lady" came back in my life in 2010 when a Gravesend DJ, who's career I had help start at my night The Slammer, Craig Mineard, told me over dinner in Los Angeles that he now lived in Westchester, NY and had been workin with Bob James.

1979 was a passage of rites with my love for music soon I was out dancing all over the town with my friends and this was when I started to study how DJs were putting their music together. I was not just going to the disco to meet girls I was really listening to the music being played too, intensely. Closing my eyes to zone out at one with the music, spinning, grooving, weaving and bobbing. One night a girl came over and said "You're a great dancer. Where did you learn to move like that?"' I replied "you have to love the music and then trust your body's natural rhythm". I was made up.

From my nights out I met lots of people and saw how the music was setting the dancefloors alight with energy, soon I was well known to the DJs who would play my requests.

It was one night like that when suddenly the dancer, green-grocer Mark Broadbent, who took Margaret away me, was on the very same dancefloor. Here was my chance, the rest of the dance floor parted, sensing something was about to happen as the familiar bassline of my favourite Jazz Funk track "Expansions" by Lonnie Liston Smith pumped out of the sound system. I could dance to this one with my eyes closed I knew every beat and musical note of the 6'02 minute journey from the start to finish. Our dancing became frenetic and intense, we were competing against each other but I was only aware of him for the first 30 seconds then I was gone into my own Jazz dancing zone. When the record finished there was nobody else on the dance floor but us two. The DJ thanked us for the unexpected free show as Broadbent turned his back and walked away. My friends cheered, my girl buddy Ellen Johns ran over grinning "you took him, that was so wicked" - I smiled to myself and was released from the taunt of "he's a much better dancer than you." Not anymore Margaret my love, not any more!

I realised then that music and I, we had a special something going on, and that life evens things out if you allow it to help you by believing it can..

I heard later that Margaret left Mark for his best friend and flatmate, Bob (ouch), but she was my real first love and a truly amazing girlfriend too in every sense so I've cherished the memory of our three years together as you do when love bites away a piece of your heart. As I have got older and wiser I realised that I grew from that relationship in ways that were unseeable at the time. It instilled a will in my soul to follow my love of music. I doubt that I'm the only guy in the world who had his entire life changed by the love of a young girl in the throes of first love but I can honestly say with full conviction that without her I would never have gone on the journey I eventually did. I hope she reads this one day to know that she helped changed the music world in a small way because that's what I was able to do, more than once with the BBC and the internet.

So many songs remind me of her, especially the love songs from 1976 like the soulful O.C. Smith "Together" below.

I soon found an amazingly beautiful girl to go dancing with called Vivien Rixson. I remember mentioning her name to my football teammates one Sunday morning, as we were putting our football kits on in the changing rooms at Thong Lane Sports Centre, saying that I was going out dancing with Vivien Rixson that night, the changing room activity stopped dead as in unison they turned round and asked "you're taking Vivien Rixson out tonight ? No way!" "Yes guys the very one."  Vivien and I still talk on the phone today in 2021, she married a sailor (don't they all :-) and is living in Pensacola, Florida and still loves her music, especially soul & Boz Scaggs. An amazing woman, the pride of Istead Rise.. 

Fast forward a brief moment to tell you that 13 years from that dancing high with "Expansions", I got to record with Lonnie Liston Smith when Way Ya Tail covered his "Expansions" classic and I heard that Lonnie was in London for some shows so phoned his manager and hired the genius for an afternoon to play keyboard over-dubs on the mixes. He sat in the PWL studio and played his heart out on Mike Stevens, Aadil & Kevin Henry's track "Xpand Your Mind". The release went straight to #1 in the UK Dance Charts. Lonnie was amazingly kind - I'd loved this guys music for years and he signed my copy of his album "Expansions" by Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes, on the Flying Dutchman label too.

Rewind back to the story, 1980. I was now firmly on my path of music music music. The next step was being asked by a DJ to help him with his nights. I was rather fortunate that offer came from a very talented and  much loved local DJ called Peter Pritchard with his Unit One Disco. Songs such as Narada Michael Walden "I Should Have Loved Ya", Change "The Glow Of Love", Donny Hathaway & Roberta Flack "Back Together", Rodney Franklin "The Groove" and the Brothers Johnson "Stomp" all being clear memories from helping Pete's during those days.

So going from being a pretty good dancer on the floor, knowing many records almost beat by beat, as I concentrated on my dancing moves syncing with the music, I was well qualified to stand alongside DJ Pete Pritchard on the stage choosing which records to put on the turntables next and putting them away carefully in their sleeves for easy finding later as he chatted into the mic then played the next piece of music chosen. I saw from this new angle what worked and Pete was an excellent DJ on the Mic, his voice inviting people to have a good time dancing. He was 10 years older and very confident with being on stage, not in a silly DJ way but friendly and warm.

After about 18 months Pete was offered the chance to be the new landlord at a Pub in the country which appealed to him as a real job so he passed his sound system over to the crew and I to continue. We were hopeless to start with. On our first real gig, Dave Turley, the person who we had chosen by group vote to continue being the DJ on the Mic, couldn't make it, so there I was on the stage with all the gear set up and was told in no uncertain terms by a girl called Jane, whose party it was, to get on with it. "Go on you know all the records please don't let my night be spoilt. Everybody is waiting and watching YOU."

Thus tentatively began my addiction to playing records to an audience. I owe Pete a great deal of thanks for his role in my life.  Pete Pritchard from Faversham, Kent - thank you very much.

My relative understanding of how songs raised the mood of the audience helped me to begin my DJ career, although this was not enough because I really struggled to enjoy being up there on stage as the focal point. I was never one to stand up in class and read my homework aloud without stuttering, red faced through the text and I was no DJ Peter Pritchard happily joking away. So talking and hearing my voice boom out from a loud mic was my idea of hell personally.

I overcame this handicap by perseverance alone but what kept me being booked was this uncanny ability to merge the nights music into a mood that entertained the room and the people on the dance floor without talking my head off. Anyway who wants to hear my voice when there is so much great music to hear and dance to? Not me. Here's a quote I kept on my wall for years to motivate me.

Fortunately I had a ready made, very patient crowd to come to the gigs I was asked to do, even if their music taste was more advanced than the rest of the dance floor. They were known in the town of Gravesend as "The Flat Crowd" because they all hung around together at Pete Pritchard's old flat above a men's fashion store called West One in the centre of the town. It was all innocent, lots of playing football in the yard, making fun of the girls, pairing off with the girls and disco, soul, jazz funk music played all day long into the night.

They were like a large cast of Friends (the TV show) with the same group crazy stuff, lots of jokes and laughing, normally at someone's expense but that's life in such a buzzing group. We'd go to London to see James Brown or Frankie Beverly and Maze in concert and pile into the back of a van to go see the Capital Jazz Festival with The Crusaders and Sippy Wallace (RIP) or down to Camber Sands to party on the beach. Great days all around a group of people and their love of music.

There's a photo of Patrice Rushen below with her dedication to the 'The Flat'. That comes from those days and we loved her album with "Forget Me Nots", "Haven't You Heard" plus the instrumental track Number One. Whenever I hear the disco record "Stomp" by the Brothers Johnson I can still see them all, hear their voices, their laughter as they lined up to do the Barn Dance and Lisa screaming "JOHN" as he smacked her bottom yet again as she entered the barn dance tunnel.

Six members of the 'Flat crew' in Wales for a weekend before going to a Bob Masters All Dayer disco in Swindon on the way back to Kent.  Top left to right John, Lisa, Gina and Lorinda, Ivan plus Sean 'the Fox' below.  Real carefree days with people whose friendships were forever bonded by their love of music. 

Soon I moved into the Flat itself which was 7 months behind on its rent, so I sorted that out then studiously re-painted and repaired the sound system plus pulled in a flatmate, a friend of mine, called Steve Wallis who was quickly nicknamed Wolfie as he didn't shave too often. Steve had a furniture removal business so we now had a Van to move our Sound System around the town. We cranked up the gigs and built something solid from our joint love of music.

The next move was to join up, with another Sound System in the Gravesend. A friend from the days when I first left school at 16 and went to work at Cosy Glide, Johnny Farrell. Johnny was the coolest Jamaican guy for miles. He could dance like James Brown, looked like Michael Jackson with his leather cap on and played football like a wizard, but it was his "toasting" (Jamaican rapping) that was truly magical. We became The Union, Johnny's crowd plus ours together and wow could they all dance. Tracks like Johnny Guitar Watson "I Need It" or a favourite of mine "The World Is A Ghetto" by War or Rueben Wilson's "Got To Get Your Own" literally igniting their bodies.

It was beautiful to see the floor twisting, spinning, weaving, joyfully to the music we played and soon the gigs got bigger with invites to come into London to play. We'd always start the London gigs off at the beginning of our set by turning the lights and sound down then put on Sadao Watanabe's "Up Country" which had this lone sax and whistle playing on the intro to build tension in the room, then open the lights and go full volume with a big record of the moment. The Real Thing "Can You Feel The Force" was another great record to do that with too. We were pulling those stunts before Tim Westwood was even DJing, he was probably in one of our Catford 'Cats Whiskers' gigs to watch and learn (joking).

Our Union confidence grew so we started hiring our own halls like the Town Arms in Queen Street. Gravesend to put our own parties on, big happy reggae dances too with lots of Goat curry, yams, rice and tings, Soca tunes like Hot Hot Hot by Arrow, for the older Jamaican ladies in their colourful costumes at Carnival Time remembering times back in the Caribbean, dancing the traditional moves, Johnny 'toasting' up a storm on the mic. Wonderful nights.

Then reality bites, Johnny, who to this day I still have so much to thank him for, got married wanted to start a family and so his work took him away from us. The Union became Eddie Gordon on his own but I was now ready thanks to my baptism with Johnny.

The DJing bug was firmly in place and I literally took over the town DJing everywhere for everybody, putting a smile on faces of the people with the music played, a smile that was rewarded with a following from all over the area coming to the nights at The Central Hotel, The White Hart, The Nelson, The Soul Bowl, Woodville Halls, Springhead Hall and then out to the Kent Soul Festivals.

In the mid 80's the BBC Radio 1 DJs started coming to the area and I was their choice to support them as the DJ to build up the anticipation amongst the 1000's of teenagers in the venues. This kind of gig taught me how to work a big room with strong records and the importance of vocal power when using the mic. I went and had lessons to improve my voice with breathing exercises and pronouncing my words. Soon my photos were on posters all over the area with the BBC Radio 1 DJ who was coming in for the next gig, but I never looked at it like WOW, just doing my job as I'd been asked to by the promoter Howard Talusi. Even so it was a big thing for me to be on that huge stage playing in the town's biggest venue where I used to go dancing as a young teenager to the Steve Maxted Disco. My DJ career was moving. Inspired from day one by a comment from Margaret Skipper "what are you going to do with your life Ed?".

Soon I had a new, bigger, more powerful Sound System that required a few helping hands to unload and set up but such was the fun being had there were always some reliable guys on hand to come out for the night. Graham, Jason, Mick, Paul and especially Chris Gough (RIP) a much loved guy and great PR for me personally, telling all his friends that they must go to my gigs.

A few years after we stopped running The Slammer at the Red Lion in Northfleet, when I was living in London, I heard that Chris was seriously ill with cancer so I, plus the original Slammer crew, put on a special one off Slammer Reunion for him with Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Nicky Holloway, Craig & Marcus, myself and others all DJing for free, plus Terry Lee giving us the venue/staff for free that night. It was a sold-out night and at the end of the night we gave Chris all the door and ticket money. His sister told me that it had really lifted him and Chris took his wife plus young daughter Chloe to Disneyland, California. It was all we could do. RIP my friend and thank you so much. I still hear his laughter in my head when I think of him, strange how sound stores itself so exactly in your memory, it's nice to have too, those memories..

I was DJ'ing at least 4 nights a week for years, sometimes 7 nights, depending on the time of the year, Christmas etc, but my favourite place was Valentino's a small fashionable Bar in town where they had originally offered me all 7 nights of the week but I declined saying that it would get boring for both them and me but I'd help them get DJ's for the other 6 nights if they gave me the Sunday night and let me play what I wanted musically. They accepted and so began a 3 year residency which I looked forward to every weekend. Wolfie took up two midweek nights. It was the perfect way to finish off the week by playing music to my friends over a few drinks and the place soon became packed with people coming from miles around to hear the eclectic Jazz and Soul tracks.

Music you could never hear on the radio. I loved it. It was also the perfect breeding ground to test out new records to see if they would become popular and then start playing them with confidence at the younger gigs in the town. We even let Tong play there a few times including a New Year's Eve Party back in the mid 80's. He was getting over separating from his long term girlfriend, Annette, who was working as a barmaid. I couldn't watch him at the bar pining over her while she nonchalantly pulled pints for the guys flirting with her knowing he was there, so I asked the owner Dave to let him spin getting him away from being rooted at the bar and put him where he was comfortable, behind the decks.

Like most mid 20's guys and girls we were young, thought we were cool and free doing something we loved. My iPod has just shuffled up a big Valentino track by John Klemmer called "Brasilia" and as I sit here in New York I think of Ritchie Cole's "Grooving On A New York Afternoon" which was also a big favourite alongside Tulio DePiscopio's "Primavera (Stop Bajon)".

The gamble taken a few years before, much to my Fathers disdain in the beginning, to dedicate my life to this kind of work paid off financially and with a true purpose in life. One personal highlight was winning a Poll in the Gravesend and Dartford Reporter newspaper as being voted the Best Local DJ with five times more votes than my nearest rival - that DJ named Pete Tong. I wasn't a better DJ than Pete, but I knew how to put together a good music set and I believe that people enjoyed my friendly attitude with them when I was behind the decks.

Then came the highly successful The Slammer gigs which were the litmus test for the rest of my career going on to DJ in London every Friday at The Limelight in Shaftesbury Avenue, Leicester Square and every Saturday at The Fridge in Brixton plus the Soul Weekenders in Prestatyn, All Dayers in Great Yarmouth on Bank Holidays, the legendary Flicks in Dartford. Numerous times DJing in the Royal Albert Hall as the only DJ of the night, sometimes the nights were live on TV. I traveled as far as Hawaii to DJ and played the Sunset in Ibiza many a time with tracks like Seawind "He Loves You" and Pieces Of A Dream "Warm Weather". I had an incredible time as a DJ, it probably saved my life from going astray and taught me the lesson of compassion.

DJing in the '80's and early 90's was an experience that took in Disco, Jazz Funk, Jazz Fusion, Soul, Rare Groove, House, Rave, Hip Hop and Rap music it was the constant evolution of dance music that thrilled the dance floors and DJ's alike because you were not stereo-typed into a sound that a computer could play. You could switch from genre to genre with ease and make the night full of surprises musically, but you had to think carefully before doing so, the reward was always the room shifting gears with you and doing so with loud appreciation for the change in mood.

The Rave scene when it hit was incredible, the energy swept the country and scared the daylights out of the authorities because the parties were not over until the Sun came up, then 10's of thousands of people were hitting the roads going home. It was a post Cold War show of defiance for all the propaganda about the potential worry of a Nuclear War. The young people of the world wanted to live and be free to dance to music any hour of the day wearing whatever they wanted. To be there participating, watching this unfold was exhilarating to my sense of being a human. Freedom of expression and creativity.

That sense of room to express ourselves drove me to move my night The Slammer from its spiritual home in Northfleet, as a once a month gig, to a purpose built weekly club in the High Street of Gravesend. My good friend, Howdi Binning owned The Soul Bowl (named by me) and wanted to sell it so I got him a buyer, renamed the venue as The Slammer, went to Court to get the venue it's late Music and Dance Licence under my name as the Licensee at 28 years old. My personal mission was to leave my home town with a local venue for the music fans to go to every weekend.

It was a mission completed, not the glitz of Stringfellows you understand but musically it featured large in the lives of the town's dance music fans who would go religiously to see the likes of Tim Westwood play Hip Hop or Fabio and GrooveRider playing Drum and Bass. It was to be a leaving gift from me to the town that loved me, grooved and moved me. My life has been a pattern of seeing potential, creating something from nothing with that vision then moving on, leaving the newly built stage for others to climb on and enjoy or work from. There's a entire section on The Slammer with photos and thank you's.

Eventually, with my day time hours filled with record company meetings and my nights in recording studios in London, I took the decision to stop full time DJing, to sell my beloved Sound System to The Slammer, now in the High Street, to concentrate on my work in this new direction and move to London full time. It was a wise decision that paid off with lots of hit records. I still do the odd DJing but only in that Valentino's way, relaxed, enjoying the music with friends.

My journey had been full across the spectrum of music and I'd witnessed first hand the explosions of Disco, Jazz Funk, Rare Groove, House, Rave, Rap/Hip Hop. I was satisfied and the experience of all that stood me well when making records or advising labels, producers or radio stations what worked and what was unlikely to do so. I was ready to move to the next stage in my life that beckoned, the world of major international record labels, artists and all the madness that brings as the music ebbs and flows.

To this day I'm unable to pass a record store without feeling the urge to go in and check out what's in store and its very rare that I don't come out with another record, sad really I know. I still personally have over 10'000 vinyl albums, 12"s, 7" records, CDs, cassettes and even classic 78's that I will keep until I pass over.

I still listen to music every single day with many of the songs from those DJing years, the Flat days and dancing moments bringing back names, faces and places fresh into my mind (Spaces And Places - Donald Byrd) only now instead of a sound system, that took many hands to carry and set up, the music collection is feeding off a one terabyte hard drive containing over 25'000 solo tracks, topping up the iPhone in my back pocket or it's Spotify, Youtube, Mixcloud etc, we are surrounded by music now, back in the day you had to go and find it then spread the word to your friends.

Patrice Rushen signed photo from "The Flat" pinboard circa 1982, hence all the pin-holes. We met Patrice after she had just performed her amazing "Forget Me Nots" hit song live with DJ Colin Hudd at Flicks in Dartford, Kent.

I am still enjoying spinning music decades later. Click the Mixcloud link below to hear an hour of beautiful chilled Jazz played in the Californian air with a Kings Of Jazz Show. I'm deliberately using the tiny tiny mic on my Apple ear buds to credit the tracks featured just to see how easy it was to do that and keeping the vibe lounge style.

Technology has come so far since the days of carrying heavy speakers, decks, equipment and boxes full of albums & 12" records just to play some tunes. Even an easy Sunday night at Valentino's meant taking in 3 boxes weighing 75 lbs each from the car parked 300 yards away from the venue.

After a full week of frentic activity playing gigs everywhere I loved those eclectic music filled Sunday nights at Valentino's playing to my friends plus the music aficionados from my home town and surrounding areas.

Minnie Dipple - Just favorited "Kings Of Jazz August (Jazz-Latin-Lounge) presented by Kings Of Spins on Mixcloud - minnie dipple (@minniedipple) August 14, 2017

Below, a photo from a Reunion gig in 2009 at the Bowaters Sports Club in Northfleet (UK) with DJ Tony Matthews. My first ever girlfriend from Primary School was Julie Ashington, Tony's cousin. It was a month long love with choices ebbing and flowing on the school playground but I still remember Julie..

Our houses, Tony's and mine, from very early childhood, both backed onto the Bowaters Sports ground where we spent hours playing football from the ages of 7 years old until our late teenage years and into our 20's playing for local area football clubs. Tony was a much better footballer than me !

It was so amazing that the last gig I ever played in my home town was there, when I was 50 years old, right across from the old house that I left when I was 18. It was a very good night too, thanks to Terry, Louise & Nicky Russell, DJ buddy Tony, Joanna, Roger and Maria with a great attendance by people from all those years in Gravesend, close friends (Steve Shelton), school buddies, disco mates, plus my sisters Dawn and Diana. I have been so blessed. Sometimes I literally have to pinch myself to believe the opportunities I have been gifted with. Oct 2009 photo below.

On the subject of thank you's I have devoted an entire section sub-titled 'Ed The DJ Would Like To Thank' here -http://eddiegordon.info/page/ed_the_dj_would_like_to_thank

Thank you music. You saved, enriched and filled my life with your love.

Your music fan Eddie Gordon