Music : House
Love to be... summer lovin
june 16th 2007
GRAEME PARK
STEVE MASON
JOHN DIXON
Graeme Park: 10 years on the radio, 20 years on the decks, 40 years on the clock, still looking forward.
The story of DJ Graeme Park really mirrors the story of the evolution of dance music and club culture itself. Graeme found himself working in a Nottingham record shop called Select-A-Disc in the early 80s, when the very first house records began to filter through from Detroit and Chicago. When the shop's owner also opened a nightclub, it was only natural he should turn to Graeme to select the discs. Determined to showcase this new style of music, his reputation as a house pioneer soon brought him to the attention of Mike Pickering at the Hacienda in Manchester, who asked him to cover for him whilst he went on holiday in 1988. Simply put, there was no-one else in the country who could do the job. The Summer of Love followed, and Parky quickly became one of the biggest names on the emerging dance scene. Aside from his eight-year residency at the Hac, he was the first British DJ to play places like Australia and some South American countries, as well as producing and remixing tracks for the dancefloor.
OK, so far so good and most folk know all of that, unless you have spent the last 20 years living under a rock, or at least listening to it. Fast forward 20 years and where are we at now? As far as Graeme's concerned, who celebrated his 20th anniversary all through 2004, things are as fab as ever. And as far as the industry is concerned? Well, if club culture really is at a cross-roads, who better to ask directions than the man who wrote the disco A-Z? 'I started doing it purely by accident,' he details. 'And then realised I was actually pretty good at it. But I never thought I'd end up doing it for 20 years. I see no need to stop at the moment. I don't think age matters anymore.'
The Hacienda was a club without a purpose until house music filled its cathedral-sized dimensions. It undeniably defined Graeme as a DJ, but in 2007, that can only be seen as one chapter in an on-going tale: 'Yeah it was a very big chapter. I guess the first was when I discovered I could DJ, and found house music from Chicago and Detroit. The Hacienda was chapter 2; and 3 was when it re-opened. Chapter 4 was when it closed and I played all around the world. Chapter 5 is where we are now.'
And where we are now is a very interesting place to be. Aside from all the regular gigs across the UK and productions under the guises of GP Inc., Papa Cool and Arouser, Graeme chose the occasion of his 20th anniversary to reunite with his old DJ partner Mike Pickering, for a series of very special parties - including closing Glastonbury on the Radio One / Tribal Sessions stage and also the grand finale of the Sankeys Soap 10th Anniversary celebrations, and their 2004/5 New Year warehouse party. Although keen not to be bracketed as a 'classics' DJ, he couldn't let the occasion of his 20th anniversary go by without delving into the three lock ups he has filled with vinyl, and dusting down some belters for a nationwide tour of Revolution bars: 'House music has made people channel their tastes, so I went back to my roots and pulled out some forgotten classics,' he grins, still in love with process of mining those rich seams of vinyl.
They say life begins at 40 and, Graeme also started a new radio show on Key 103 in 2004. Bridging the tricky gap between day-time and evening (7pm-10pm, Saturdays), according to Rajar he's already upped listening figures. You can also hear him on Liverpool's Juice FM too. Also celebrating 10 years as a radio jock in 2004, Parky understands the specialist skills required by a radio DJ: 'A lot of radio shows or DJs just play the same big tunes. You can't simply pretend you're in a club, you have to talk to the audience and put your personality across without sounding like an idiot.'
Whether through his sets, his radio shows or simply by getting to know that audience, Graeme has spent the last 20 years getting his jocular personality across. He was there before it all started, he was at the forefront of the dance scene when it was at its zenith and he's still there, still rocking it, twenty years later - longer than some of the people on the dancefloor have been on the planet. And the best thing is he still loves it, still loves the music and still loves to play it for people to dance to.
'Yeah, for 20 years I've been finding good tunes that I want other people to hear. The reason I keep doing it is simple - it's my mission in life to let people hear good music.'
The Hacienda is now an apartment building (the developers asked Parky to DJ at the launch; he politely declined). At the back of the building there is a time-line, carved into steel, detailing the history of the club from Madonna's early performance to its closure. And there's Graeme's name not once, but twice - carved into the metal for time immemorial. What other DJs - what other venues - have had that significance in clubland?