Paul Taylor

Visionary producer, pioneering DJ, Kylie Minogue hitmaker; Paul Taylor, now 59, has been all of these for 40 years. His seminal house night Retro, the longest-running club brand in UK history, is celebrating a 27th anniversary at various clubs this Christmas. With a new record out now, he shared life and career lessons with Marcel Le Gouais

I had a rough childhood, had to move from Scotland to England as a teenager and struggled to fit in; but music saved my life
“As a teenager I was inspired by the Northern Soul scene in Lancashire. Following this love affair, I discovered a new form of music that was creating a storm in the States, a club in Burnley were playing this new sound at the time. The club was called Angels – where I would later set up Retro. As a Scot in a small Lancashire mill town I felt alienated so I would go on my own and stay down at the front all night; I was just there for the music. They used to play jazz funk and soul. And of course in those days you had to go to a nightclub to hear that kind of music - you couldn't hear those jazz funk records anywhere else. A lot of people think house was born out of disco - there's a very thin line between disco and house. But in my view dance music actually originates from soul and jazz funk.

“At Angels I got to know the resident DJ really well. He gave me my first big break. I started playing for an hour at Angels before he came on and one night, he asked if I could play the main set at a weekend night. I had to go out and find a whole record collection, but that's where it all started for me.

“I started doing then what I still do now – introducing underground tracks into a popular space - and the crowd went for it. Angels always had a soulful vibe, even though I played Bowie and Roxy Music. There I got my own jazz funk and soul night every Wednesday.”

I was a disruptive kid but I found solace in northern soul
“Growing up in Northfield, in Aberdeen, I was not a nice character. I got into a bad crowd. There were always fights happening somewhere. It was like (cult 70s American gang film) The Warriors, though we didn't dress in the obscure outfits from that film. In Aberdeen back then, you wouldn't have got far with make up on and a baseball outfit.

“I was 14 I was a getting into all kinds of trouble. Mum and dad made a decision to take me out of Aberdeen. I moved to Burnley, where Northern Soul became very popular - as it did across the whole of the North West.

“But I was the only Scottish kid in a small English mill town. I got a load of abuse for that - the kind of abuse you'd get arrested for these days. So it was tough, I didn't do very well at school, in fact, school spat me out. And I didn't have many friends.”

“One day I had a fight with a teacher that changed everything. We had an altercation; I got expelled. But then on the way home on the bus, I saw an advert for enrolment at Burnley College. I enrolled myself into the art and design department and became a graphic designer. I spent two years there and then four years at Blackpool college. I then found a love for graphic design and marketing, then working for a very large agency, which I believe has helped me create and sustain the brand Retro, which is of course still going strong today.”

The Wigan Casino was an incredibly sweaty place
In the 1970s, Paul headed to the Wigan Casino every Saturday night for its Northern Soul all nighters. The club formed the nucleus of an entire sub genre that still breathes today in pockets of Britain. It became the hub of a social community characterised by tight t-shirts and bell bottoms, I was in awe the scene as a whole along with its breakdance floor moves that required gymnastic elasticity and critically, the distinctive up-tempo Northern Soul records.

“As I remember the crowd were high on prescription drugs that were prescribed for overweight people.’Blueies’ we used to call them; they were very easy to get hold of. It was basically amphetamines – and if there's a club full of people immersed and high in this wonderful music, it became a very sweaty place very quickly.

One fond memory I have is that on the mornings after, we used to pour out of the club and head to Wigan Baths for a swim on the way home. We needed to. What a way to end a night.

“The Wigan Casino was also full of young teenagers – guys and girls who were 15 or 16. Back then, you could get away with sneaking in if you were a teenager. Nowadays it just couldn't happen, if anyone's under age inside you get shut down the next day.”

Manchester has the best record shops
“When I was getting a name for myself, I used to get the bus all the way over to Manchester, to go to a record shop called Spin In. I don't know how they did it, but they were the best at getting the best house imports before anyone else. I shopped there for the best part of 20 years – I could spend whole days there.”

Robbie was my inspiration
No not that Robbie - Robbie Vincent, a DJ who hosted the BBC Radio 1 soul and disco show on Saturday afternoons around the mid 70’s.

“Robbie Vincent was a very important DJ for many people, he was the original radio taste maker for dance music. He inspired many who would go on to have successful careers in dance music. I had a conversation with Pete Tong about Robbie Vincent. Pete said he would never have got onto the radio if it hadn't been for Robbie.”

As Paul forged his reputation in clubs across the north, Pete Tong was doing the same down south, as both started to establish their names at the top of the clubbing tree in their respective regions.

Bringing names like Carl Cox to the heart of Lancashire was a big deal for me
“That was in about 1992 when Retro was gaining a name for itself. When I got people like him, Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong and Sasha to come up to play for us, that's when I knew I had made it.

“People like Joey Beltram, and then between 1990 and 1995, Pete Heller and Terry Farley played for me. We wanted to find DJs to play for us who were creating their own sounds around the world.

“Despite the massive explosion of acid house it couldn't last for ever, but it cemented itself in history. I remember the UK was the first place outside of Chicago where it took off, but then the Belgians, Italians and Germans started to make those kinds of records. In the UK, there was a bit of a split between the north and south. If I'm honest, in my opinion, the DJs in the north had a better knack of understanding and connecting with people on the dance floor.”

Never under estimate the power of music for prisoners
“For a long period of time I found myself DJ’ing for pirate radios stations, and in particular, the most popular in Yorkshire, Dream FM. I encourage and still do, people to send in requests for records to be played and dedicated to loved ones inside or outside prison. It always showed me how music connects people when they're apart. In fact, back in the late 80s and early 90s, those pirate radio stations were much better than the mainstream ones.” I ended getting into a lot of trouble one night when noise limits were very excessive in Armley Prision, Leeds. This actually ended my pirate radio career. “rattle your cages” feature.

Pete Waterman and Kylie Minogue had a big impact on my career
“Pete Waterman and I became great friends when I was designing sleeves for PWL and we used to spend hours talking music. I persuaded him to come and see me play at Angels, in Burnley. He was also a big fan of Northern Soul – which was our main connection. He asked me to record a cassette tape for him, out of the blue, one Thursday night, he later invited me to the studio in London to produce a dance record for Kylie.

“At that time I was new to the studio environment, but an engineer, Tony King, showed me the ropes. She was very sweet and we worked so well together we completed a track overnight and it got released and became a no 1 dance record in the UK.

I was then totally in love with record production and created a band called Loveland which had many no 1 hit singles in the national dance charts.

As a producer, I’ve worked with many people, one of the most professional and beautiful souls I’ve ever met was Lulu! She was one of the most talented vocalists and performer I have worked with.

“Soon after recording, Pete was setting up a label and he wanted me to run it, Eastern Blok Records. My first release was Atlantic Ocean, Waterfall which sold over half a million units in the UK.”

I dislike EDM
“There’s absolutely no soul in this genre of dance music; I believe the youth have been bought by a completely different form of love for music and nightclubs, it has lost its mojo. People want to make themselves famous for coming up with something different and are more concerned with trying to create a new sound rather than really work on making a great record.

“I understand a DJ is an entertainer, but I’ve never understood the adulation of DJs. We play other people’s music on equipment which now doesn't even need skill to mix. Today DJing could be, and has been proven to be, cheating.”

Fame? Never needed it
“I started in my own bubble in dance music and remained in it, simply I because I loved it. I was never comfortable with the fame aspect of it. I just believed in what I was doing; and I did it on my own terms.”
Retro Volume 10, the last ever Retro compilation, featuring three discs mixed by Paul, Rob Tissera and Mark Plumb, is out now.

Taylor made
As producer, Paul Taylor has been a pioneer behind several dance chart hits during the past 30 years; here are the moments his handiwork reached the limelight:
• Vision Masters (Paul Taylor, Danny Hibrid and Tony King), feat Kylie Minogue: Keep on Pumping It, 1991.
• Loveland (Paul Taylor, Paul Waterman and Mark Hadfield), feat Rachel McFarlane on vocals: Let the Music (Lift You Up); Don't Make Me Wait; I Need Somebody; The Wonder of Love, 1994-1995 and many remixes and productions for labels round the world.