GILES PETERSON

Now in his mid 30s, Gilles Peterson has been at the cutting edge of British music for over fifteen years, collapsing musical boundaries with his eclectic style. His is a long and action-packed biography, stretching from his Sunday Session days at Dingwalls in Camden to the Talkin Loud label today, the ground-breaking imprint over which he presides. We caught up with the Arsenal devotee, soul-boy and one-time ‘Eligible Bachelor’ to chat about past achievements and future goals...

Born in Caen in Normandy to French-Swiss parents, Peterson moved to London at the age of 4. He was surrounded by music from an early age, his Dad a classical music buff, his brother into progressive rock and his sister a Simon & Garfunkel and Beatles fan. But it wasn’t until his mid-teens that Gilles became the music-obsessive he is today:

‘I remember really loving an album called in In The Land Of Grey And Pink by Caravan [70s UK progressive rock band, notable for their jazz influences], and looking forward to coming home from school and listening to that on the record player. I used to buy Smash Hits and cut all the reviews out. I was always a bit of spotter. Then I discovered people like Robbie Vincent and pirate radio stations.’

By the age of fifteen Peterson had well and truly caught the DJing bug when a friend introduced him to his older sister’s collection of soul records. He started going to small clubs, including The Drift Bridge pub in Belmont where Pete Tong used to play. It was here that he first encountered other luminaries in the making, Carl Cox among them. The die was cast: ‘Within a few months I’d got Technics with my mates on HP.’

His first regular gig soon followed at a gay club in Croydon (‘I used to tell my mum I was going to see a mate but actually I’d be sneaking out with my records’) as well as his first stints on pirate radio. But the residency which really broke him to a wider audience was upstairs at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, ‘playing manic jazz records to a bunch of schizophrenic dancers’. Even here, both his eclectic style (with its emphasis on the DJ as a selector and connoisseur of good music) and his penchant for the avant-garde (‘It’s generally the left-side that has the initial ideas’) were clearly in evidence.

Peterson cultivated both, building up the extensive record collection for which he is famed today, inspired by more senior DJs like Paul Murphy, Colin Curtis, Bob Jones and Chris Banks. By 1988, he had moved to Dingwalls, where every Sunday he pushed his own jazzy, eclectic sound. The sessions became famous, attracting a host of famous names in the crowd - Roy Ayers, Courtney Pine and Gang Starr all graced the dancefloor while Gilles manned the decks. It wasn’t long before his growing reputation led to a host of gigs all over the London scene.

‘On one hand I was playing the West End circuit, the black circuit, the pirate radio scene, while on the other I was playing soulboy gigs, the white suburban scene with people like Rampling and Oakenfold and Pete Tong in the early days, all the weekenders. I had a foot in both scenes. And I also had a foot in the Soho trendy scene by playing at The Wag club. I’ve always tried to keep it that way, never really committing fully to playing on one circuit. I like to DJ all over the place.’

1988 also saw Gilles establish the Acid Jazz label on the back of the acid house explosion. In fact, his association with that scene is often forgotten. Indeed, while running a night at The Belvedere Arms pub in Richmond, Peterson regularly came into contact with the Rampling crowd: ‘That was the club where all the heads used to come - all the original Shoom crowd.’

The initial success of the Acid Jazz phenomenon is well documented, but, restless as always, Peterson decided to move on after two or three years at the helm. ‘The whole acid jazz thing had never really been understood. The one thing that acid jazz wasn’t in my opinion was strictly retrogressive music. The whole ethos of my Sunday afternoon at Dingwalls was about mixing the old with the new - we’d play ‘Acid Trax’ by Phuture alongside some way-out free jazz. The whole essence of acid jazz for me was esoteric, avant-garde - so when it became too standardised and mod-esque, I left to do something more wide-ranging, musically open-minded. That’s what I want Talkin Loud to represent.’

Talkin Loud, the label he set up after his departure from Acid Jazz, has been an unmitigated success story. Joined by Norman Jay in running the label, the pair have secured a host of remarkable signings, reflecting all aspects of today’s musical spectrum, acts which include Roni Size & Reprazent, MJ Cole, UFO, Nuyorican Soul (aka Masters At Work), Terry Callier and 4 Hero. Virtually all the releases have been acclaimed, by public and critics alike, setting light to many a dancefloor, including Peterson’s own night - That’s How It Is - at London’s Bar Rumba which ran throughout ‘93 and ‘94 (where Mo’Wax boss James Lavelle also graced the decks).

And all the while Peterson’s radio career has gone from strength to strength - from his days on the pirates to London radio (before it became GLR) to Jazz FM (where he was fired for playing peace records during the Gulf War) to three years at Kiss 100 before the offer came to go nationwide with Radio 1.

‘I like being with the BBC,’ he stresses, ‘because there aren’t the same restrictions as there are on commercial radio. Radio 1 brings in people who are pioneers - they’re more free to improvise.’

Today, you can sample that ever-expanding Peterson sound every Wednesday on 97-99FM, from midnight-2am, which also goes out live over the net. Alternatively, those of you who reside in London can catch Gilles every week at This (Monday nights at Bar Rumba, Shaftesbury Ave).


7 Quick-fire Questions - Gilles Peterson tackles the 7 questionnaire...

If your house were on fire, which three records would you rescue?

The original acetates of Terry Callier’s What Color Is Love? LP, my J R Bailey After Hours album and ‘Do You Want To Rescue Me?’ by Elsie May.

If you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be?

I’d love to be Tony Adams, captaining Arsenal, walking out to a packed Highbury stadium.
What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you in a club?

I remember Snowboy throwing up all over my records once. The smell of his vomit continued to remind me of that night for several months!

What would the Gilles Peterson motto be?

Look for the small room.

What changes would you like to see on the British club scene?

I couldn’t say. I love the British club scene because it’s constantly moving forwards. I love it when people think they’ve got it sussed and suddenly things move along. For that reason I think the whole superstar DJ thing sucks a little bit, though that is the result of what we’re living through right now. But we’ve got to have new blood coming through, pushing the old fuckers like me. Otherwise you become bad.’

Your all-time favourite DJ line-up?

Masters At Work, DJ Krust, Jazzanova, Larry Levan and Norman Jay.

Have you got any ambitions to go into production?

I’ll be doing something next year. You’ll have to wait and see.


2000 will see a host of new releases on Talkin Loud, including new albums form MJ Cole and Raw Deal. Meanwhile Reprazent, 4 Hero and Masters At Work are all in the studio recording forthcoming albums. Peterson himself will release a series of mix albums this year, under the banner ‘GP Worldwide’. If you can’t wait for those, check his Journey by DJ with Norman Jay (released in late ‘97) or last year’s The INCredible Sound Of Gilles Peterson.