6. Fred Wesley & The J.B.’sBlow Your Head

Listening to this takes me back to warehouse parties. This is a bit like ‘Candido’, within one millisecond of hearing it, it’s got a hunting horn, ‘Come and get it. Can you dance?’ When it came along, acid house was something I found a bit unpleasant. It sounded like pound shop house music, it was cheap. DJs like Winston Hazel and Parrot would play out around Sheffield, but mostly I didn’t even know the DJs’ names. I could blag the door, because I generally looked all right. I’d be with a group of people who I was friendly with, but you’d meet them, and then you’d go out, but you wouldn’t go from your house. There was no pre-loading or anything like that. I didn’t drink at all back then. Ecstasy came much later. I didn’t see any drug scene, as it wasn’t for me. I was completely naive and oblivious to it. I knew there would be speed and cannabis. All that Chicago house, Mr. Fingers, I didn’t know what it was, but it sounded like an extension of Fred Wesley, an extension of jazz, funk, Roy Ayers, and all that just felt natural, that was the kind of sound that was being made. And clearly there was an electronic quality to it.