Mick Lyons - Manifesto Interview

I've lived music all my life me, when I was young I worked on the fairgrounds, they used to call it 'The Soul Castle' cause we had all the American import records. Most of the records you'll still hear me playing today we had then and I still remember doing places like the Nottingham Goose Fair where all the black kids would go back in the sixties.

M. That's what surprised me about you. Brian Rae was telling me earlier tonight about how he first met you back in the mid sixties.

Yeh I remember Brian coming up to me one night and asking 'What was that record'. That was the first time we met, I think it was about 1967, that’s how far back we go. Working on the fairground and in the clubs meant that I have always been surrounded by music. Even as a kid of about 12 or 13, I always had a preference for American music. I listened to the radio stations like Radio Caroline and London and through the night they played loads of American music. Tony the Prince and all that lot. It was crossover but there was some really good powerful stuff played.

The first all-nighters I attended were at The Room At The Top in Wigan in late '65 which were on every Saturday night. They'd play a lot of American imports Robert Parker 'Barefootin' and loads of Otis Reading and that kind of stuff. In the middle of the night you'd usually get a live band that did Atlantic and Stax stuff. There was also the Iron Door at Liverpool which was a good club as was the Cavern Club which had all-nighters. Liverpool was a good place for soul in those days because of course it was all coming straight off the ships.

A lot of those records that we were into then went under and disappeared, reappearing around '72/3 and helped form the backbone of what became northern soul. At this time I was working as head doorman for Gerry Marshall at the Casino and when the all-nighters started there many of the punters thought they were discovering all these old tunes for the first time not realising they all been massive

I remember I used to lock up The Casino last thing at night and me and Gerry Marshall who used to sleep in the place would often sit down and have a drink and a chat. One night he said Mick what do you reckon we should do to get this place happening again. As I'd been watching how the crowd reacted when the Dj's who were on between the bands played soul music I said 'Mr Marshall, I reckon you should go for an all-night license. Thinking back to how popular The Room At The Top was. Soon after that Mike Walker joined the staff and everyone knows the rest.

Through my work as a bodyguard and doorman I've gotten to meet so many of the big names in fact practically all the big names of that era with the exception of Elvis Presley. I've seen em all Bo Didley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and not just once but many times. I saw Bo Didley again in California in 1990 and I've always been influenced by his music, it's really soulful. This is my opinion of soul music, feeling it from the inside and not being superficial and copying anybody else. In other words, it's not the jokes it the way you tell them.

In '73 I went to work and live in Germany and they had a good thriving soul scene over there then. I came back in '77/78 and The Casino was still doing nothing for me. It was far too commercialized I've always been a lover of underground clubs. I went to a few things during the late 70's early 80's but nothing really caught me. Then in the mid 80's I started running all-nighters. Through my security job I had access to a lot of venues and so I started opening up some of them after hours for illegal all-night sessions. We'd get around 1/200 hundred in and then Bradford started kicking in and they had it half right over there. Then they lost their license which was a shame because that could have gone on to be really good.

I wish I could remember the guy's name i liked the bloke and he had a really knowledge of the music. Over there the northern was upstairs and they'd have Rave going on downstairs and the two mixed really well. I mean I can give tapes of our stuff to mates of mine on the rave scene and they can really get off on it, and vice versa. It just seems that too many people on the soul scene now have forgotten how to enjoy themselves. Their lives revolve around not being good themselves and getting praise for that but having a go at someone else to make them look bad. People's paranoia is their problem, most of the time they're just insecure and can only make themselves look better by making others around . them look worse.

Q. Has your work on the rave scene had an effect on how you view northern.

When I'm Dj'ing I'll talk at the begining and end of a set but not in the middle because I don't think you can complement the music. When I'm MCing on the rave scene I'll be shouting all over it, it's a way of boosting up the atmosphere. Bul northern doesn't need that, just let the music talk. This fashion of stopping the record and speaking in the gap is just to make it easier for the Dj. There's no point stopping the dancefloor and introducing a new record because if people realise they don't know it they might just use the break as an opportunity to get off the floor. The way I do it is to slip something in and let them think it's user friendly and dance to it even though they might not have heard it before.

On the same token if I play two or three of these new tunes and lose the flow I'll see it and bring it back. I've got loads of crowd have come to be entertained. It's not what you've got in your box but what you play in that sixty minutes and how you effect their emotions. It all about taking them on a little journey, touching their heartstrings and helping them leave all their troubles behind. If you can do that then you've succeded. By not interrupting the flow and talking between tracks I'll get to play probably 5 records more than some of the other guys, well over 12 hours that's 60 more records that those people will get to hear which is a hell of a lot of music.

As a promoter I like to get the Dj's working as a team, not everyone will do great all the time, but if one doesn't do well it should be the job of the next to pull it back, it's the night what matters. I also think it's wrong to try and plan a spot in advance. I'll get on stage a minute before a spot and my records are everywhere. I'll look at the crowd and see how there reacting to what's being played, if it's working you try and complement that record and continue the journey. If it's not you try and pull them back and take them down another road. But I often won't know I'm going to play next until the previous record's nearly finished.

It's like when people come up and ask for requests. If that record fits in with where you're going then fine but if not and it's anti, even though I may have the record I can't take the others off of their little journey, if the majority are happy you're doing your job.

M The starnge thing about the northern scene which doesn’t happen on say the club scene, this constant stream of requests which seems to be a tradition. Trouble is most of me time don 't you get the feeling that it's done to impress you with their knowledge or to try and catch you out with things that they know you probably haven't got

Yeh, you're right, or they'll come up and ask you what was that record you played 5 records ago! while I'm in the middle of working. They love to be able to go back to there mates and say 'Oh, he hasn't got it'. But like I said earlier it's all about entertaining, you can get the crowd up and then take them higher and higher. Then maybe drop them back down into

something a bit moody and mellow, and then back up again. I used to think that many of these big name Dj's could do it but just didn't want to. Now I've realised that in fact a lot of them simply can't do it.

Some of my mates from the rave scene will come to all-nighters with me and there baffled by some of the sets that they hear getting played. They simply can't understand why a Dj who has the crowd in the palm of his hand will then drop them by playing something totally the opposite next. I've taken Dj's off at Blackburn when I see them going down badly, it's nothing personal it's just that as a promoter that's your responsibility to give the crowd good quality entertainment. Your not responsible for that Dj's ego.

With Blackburn I've tried to take them back while taking them forward if you get what I mean, that’s why you’ll hear some really old and obscure tracks played there along with plenty of new stuff and as on any scene you sort the wheat from the chaff. The middle of the road people will end up going to middle of the road clubs, and the stronger and more open minded crowd will go to the stronger clubs and I think the Blackburn crowd are amongst the latter and that's because they been fed a diet of good quality music.

The thing is not many people realise what good records I've actually got and how long I've had them. And if I do play something they don't know they won't ask me what it is. Some of the ordinary punters will but not the Dj's, they'll normally ask Brian Rae, and usually say ask him. I often laugh when reading in some of these soul magazines about the latest big record that so and so is playing because I know that I've been playing for years but then all of a sudden somebody else has 'discovered' it!

One such tune is one that's proving very popular at the moment and it's the Pee Wee Montgomery record 'Crazy In Love'. Pee Wee was one of the Iketes and a lot of people think it's Ike and Tina. I remember being in Hyde all-righter one morning and Mark Bicknell and Saus were all there and on comes this record. 'Who's this then?' they start asking. So I said 'That's Johnny Nash. No no, they wouldn't have it, but it was. I remember seeing Gary Spencer at a venue in Carlisle and he'd been playing a cover up of a record that was supposed to be Lou Pride, so I said to this lad to go up and ask him for that Fats Domino record at which point he got a panic on. The point I'm trying to make is that people tend to dismiss what I actually know about the music.

At the end of the day soul is something that's inside you and once you know you've got it there all the bullocks that goes around with the scene just bounces off you. I live for music and can't imagine life without it. If I can make people happy by playing them records that I think they'll like then I'm satisfied. If they don't like them I don't need to be told, I'll see it for myself. Some people can never have that, they'll always need to be led.

Believe me Mick had plenty more to say that day but sadly this is all we have space for in this issue but we hope that this has helped give you a little insight into what makes Mick tick.

ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN MANIFESTO MAG AND REPRINTED BY PERMISSON.