by Phil Thornton
Liverpool ’s clubbing scene is notoriously fickle and it must be said, worryingly conservative. DJs who would fill venues in London, Manchester or Glasgow often only draw only small crowds and anything experimental or different – such as the short-lived B-Music night at Korova and indeed a few of our own efforts– fall flat with a lack of interest that borders on outright apathy. With Chibuku/Circus admittedly great line-ups coupled with appalling ‘scouse-house’ or bland funky-house nights now dominating the city, its become harder and harder for nights to establish themselves. 

by Martin Hall
Despite his band releasing the best album of last year, Elbow’s Guy Garvey’s principal legacy to Mancunian music in 2005 may well be his championing of singer-songwriter Liam Frost. Describing the 22 year old from Prestwich as “the most talented young songwriter Manchester has produced for years” and “the UK ’s answer to Bright Eyes”, Garvey helped Frost secure the support slot for Stephen Fretwell’s 2005 tour. “One of the first people to talk about my CD was Guy Garvey,” says Frost.

by Phil Thornton
In the August issue of Swine we reviewed Tim Lawrence's superb history of disco, 'Love Saves The Day'. Tim kindly agreed to answer some of our questions and we will hopefully be getting him up to the north west to talk about 'Love Saves The Day' and his other projects; he's currently writing the eighties follow-up to LSD and a biography of Arthur Russell as well as leading the BA Music Culture : Theory & Production at University of East London.

by Phil Thornton
Paul Wellings was one of those rare creatures; a music journalist who actually wanted to give something back and not simply climb the careerist ladder that lead all the way from the NME to a column in the Sunday Telegraph supplement. Back when I was a hack-bothering pest, (what do you mean I still am a hack-bothering pest?) Paul, in his On The Waterfront guise as Terry Malloy, was the only one to give me any form of encouragement, so it was a pity to see that the right-on rock journal never really utilised his talent and knowledge of black music as much as they could have. Paul has now written two books, ‘”I’m A Journalist Get Me Out Of Here” and “Spend it Like Beckham” (both on Progressive Press) detailing his passions in life; music and football.

by Greg Wilson
Back in 1975 I made my debut as a club DJ at the Chelsea Reach in New Brighton . Even though I was still just 15, I was already firmly rooted in black music thanks to my older brother and sister, from whom I inherited a wealth of wonderful 7” Soul singles on classic 60’s labels like Tamla Motown, Stax and Atlantic.

by Phil Thornton
Turntable legend, Harvey has become one of the world's most in-demand DJs thanks to his genre -defying policy of playing exactly what he likes and fusing the basic art of playing one records after another with reel-to-reel, loops, edits and sign language VJ effects for the hard of thinking. Now based in LA and Hawaii, the former Cambridge Don, took some time out to speak to Swine.