(Street Machine)

Manchester District Music Archive would like to thank all of those who took part in Electrospective, making it such an exciting and informative event.

Thanks especially to all the DJs, dancers and artists who gave their time free of charge to help raise money for this website.

We all had a magnicifent time, and we will be posting up footage, photos and more information as soon as we can.

Click here for a 360 degree view of the scene! (Courstesy of Anti-Limited)

In the meantime, take a look at Anti Limited blog's excellent review:

Seminal north west DJ and producer, Greg Wilson, opens proceedings at the Electrospective event. Held in the artistic hub of Islington Mill in Salford, the event aimed to highlight the creative and cultural importance of Manchester’s dance and music scene during the 80s. Discussions and showcases shone a light on the relatively undocumented period of 1982 to 1988, as new music influences and techniques helped shape a generation of young, mixed audiences; and lay a template for the dj culture/house/rave era which followed.

Greg’s undisguised passion and knowledge of this fertile period of Manchester’s musical history underpinned the event, and he chaired a discussion with four of the major DJs of the time: Hewan Clarke, Colin Curtis, Chad Jackson and Mike Shaft. Their anecdotes, opinions, musical knowledge and sheer enthusiasm gave a fascinating insight into the late 70s and 80s in Manchester. During a few hours genres such as post-punk, jazzfunk, soul, electrofunk, hip hop, electronic disco and proto-house were covered, alongside clubs like the Haçienda, Legends, Rafters, The Gallery, Angels and others.

Two core pillars of B-Boy culture: breaking and graffiti, were also represented by the Broken Glass and Street Machine crews, and Gecko. Unfortunately I had to leave before the breaking and DJing started, but I’d attended the Broken Glass reunion gig in 2004, and expect the floorwork was equally good this time round. Special mention must go to Tim ‘Bones’ Forde, whose documentary ‘The Birth of the British B-Boys’ was shown on rotation at the event. His introduction and tribute to a former crew member added poignacy to the event. You can watch his raw and passionately personal account below and here on YouTube.

(The Birth of the British B-Boys by Tim 'Bones' Forde)

Greg Wilson wrote on DJHistory.com

What an event - it couldn’t have gone better! I’d been worrying about how many people would turn out, but I shouldn’t have stressed – the daytime section was far busier than I’d dared to hope and all tickets were sold for the night section, raising a substantial amount for Manchester District Music Archive.

In attendance was a veritable who’s who of pre-Rave (and in some cases post-Rave) Manchester dance culture, including many people I hadn’t seen for years! The Q&A with Mike Shaft, Colin Curtis, Hewan Clarke and Chad Jackson was pure knowledge – trainspotter heaven! It was also great to have so many of the B Boy OGs from Street Machine and Broken Glass in attendance.

It was the perfect launchpad for Tim Forde’s documentary and, following its screening, the atmosphere during the night session, when Chad, Mike, Colin, Hewan and myself all deejayed was truly incredible - right through from the 10 o’clock kick off until the venue closed at 3.15am.

I’m really blown away with the overwhelming success of this event and something more substantial for 2009 is already in the pipeline.

Big thanks to everyone who supported Electrospective – as you know, it was something that was really close to my heart. The fact that this turned out to be an event that people will still be talking about in years to come obviously touches me deeply.