Stu Allan - Back To My Roots!

I started DJing professionally back in 1982. I heard a record on John Peel's radio show a year previously called "The Adventures Of Grandmaster Flash On The Wheels Of Steel" and was amazed that it was made using other people's records and mixed together with two turntables!
I'd never heard anything like it before and certainly never seen anyone use turntables to that effect before!
I was living on a small island in north Wales (Anglesey) at the time so there was no chance of witnessing that style of DJing there!
In March '82 I moved to Manchester and checked out the clubs.
One Wednesday night I walked into a heaving club called Legend on Princess Street.
The place was rockin' - it was packed and the atmosphere was incredible!
The thing that really got me was the music! Nearly all the tunes were alien to me but I soon realized this was what I'd been looking for.
I had to check the DJ. His mixing was incredible, he could scratch, cut-up, chop mix (all the techniques I'd read about but never witnessed)!
The DJ was Greg Wilson and I was in awe of him - as a DJ of course!
I went virtually every Wednesday to hear him at Legend and each Tuesday at Wigan Pier and hearing and watching him during '82 & '83 made my mind up for sure to get serious with a pair of turntables!
He still inspires me today and if you want to know more about him, check his myspace page HERE .
A few years later in July '86 I started a show on Piccadilly Radio playing Soul, Funk, Hip Hop and a new style of music (then) called House. Exciting times playing this new music from Chicago, New York & Detroit. Hip Hop was growing big too at that time with the start of sampled James Brown breaks etc.
I stayed there for 14 years seeing and hearing so many changes along the way.
The big club nights I played regularly in Manchester were The Playpen (Booth Street) each Thursday, The Gallery (Peter Street/Deansgate) on Fridays and Legend (where I originally got the DJing bug) each Saturday.
Unique nights playing House, Electrofunk, Soul & Hip Hop all in one night with no complaints from anybody when the style changed. The crowd loved it all! Why can't it be more like that today?
In 2003 I presented a weekly 2 hour show on Reading 107 called "Stu Allan - Back To My Roots" playing funk, soul, electrofunk etc. mainly from '80 - '85.
I did that for a couple of years until the usual suits of the radio station wanted more pop-type disco but that's just not me.
I still have recordings of these shows and they make great listening and soon I will upload them for your listening pleasure!
My plan is to start the show up again in near future online - I'll keep you posted.
So those are my musical roots and this page is for that really. It's music I still have a huge passion for and never get tired of listening to.
It's not just my roots but the roots of dance music today no matter what genre it falls into!
I know there are so many of you who feel the same so feel free to share your thoughts and memories on this page.
Everywhere I go people still come up to me and talk about the early days!
As a guide, this Back To My Roots page will cover pretty much anything I was playing or influenced me from around 1980 up to '89 (pre-hardcore/rave). After that things changed a lot and my other myspace page covers what I do today.
You can check it HERE