Founded by Tony Prince and named after his radio show, Disco Mix Club began releasing tapes in 1983 to provide a promo service for DJs in the UK. Subscribers were vetted to make sure they were practising pro or semi-pro DJs and a subscription service provided promotional tapes and vinyl (and later CDs) of upfront dance music, megamixes and remixes by a cache of DJs working with the club. This cassette isn’t listed on Discogs and dates from just before any that are there (the first is February 1983), sounding more like a promo for the company at times, it could well be the first DMC tape or certainly one of the first. Initially the organisation would send out between two and four cassettes a month before vinyl versions arrived mid-1984.
Side 1
Tony Prince intro and interjections over Shalamar Megamix 1 by Alan Coulthard – 11.27 mins
Love the way he pronounces ‘genuinity’ (is that even a word?) and the address of DMC near the end.
The unexpurgated Shalamar mix is available on the February 1983 DMC tape
Excerpts from the K-Tel’s ‘Disco Dancer’ album interspersed with very of their time DMC jingles in between sections highlighting mix crossover points between tracks – 3.21 mins
Tracks included:
Evelyn King – Love Come Down
Rockers Revenge – Walking On Sunshine
Raw Silk – Do It To The Music
David Christie – Saddle Up (ooof!)
Shakatak – Easier Said Than Done
Imagination – Just An Illusion
The Sugarhill Gang – The Lover In You
Daryl Hall & John Oates – I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)
The K-Tel album in question is this one, again, mixed by Alan ‘The Judge’ Coulthard (due to his training in law). One of the founding DJs of Disco Mix Club, Alan provided many mixes for the company from 1982-86 before he parted company with them, returning in 1992. He sadly passed away in 2021.
DMC advert inc. Indeep – Last Night A DJ Saved My Life – 0.42 mins
Excerpts from 22 forthcoming ‘disco’ releases introduced by Tony Prince
Each preview runs for approximately 3 minutes before Prince cuts in to introduce the next one and information usually includes the label and release date. Most are slated for January or February of 1983 hence my guess at the date of this tape as none exists on the cover although I’d also guess this was recorded in late 1982 making it one of the first DMC tapes.
Tracks:
Michael Jackson – Billie Jean (just the first of many singles from Thriller)
Ray Parker – Bad Boy (no hit here for Ray but Ghostbusters was only 2 years away)
Syl Johnson – Ms. Fine Brown Frame
Aretha Franklin – Love Me Tonight
Thompson Twins – Love On Your Side (their first big breakthrough pop hit)
David Jospeh – You Can’t Hide Your Love
The Peech Boys – Do Something Special (future classic)
Set The Tone – Dance Sucker (obscure post punk/ electro funk from Glasgow)
Side 2:
The previews continue…
Stevie Wonder – Frontline
Bobby M – Lets’ Stay Together (The Al Green classic later covered by Tina Turner to great effect)
The Dazz Band – Let It Whip
Icehouse – Hey Little Girl (minor hit here that’s stood the test of time)
Melba Moore – Mind Up Tonight
Kajagoogoo – Too Shy (which of course ended up going to No.1)
Bumble & The Bees – My Life
Level 42 – The Chinese Way (another huge hit to be)
Janet Jackson – Come Give Your Love To Me (no hit here but her time would come)
Howard Johnson – Say You Wanna
Stone – Girl I Like The Way You Move (absolute monster electro funk, check the B side Dub mix for some serious tweaking electro – sampled by many later)
Art School & The Mighty Motor Gang – Emotion Explosion
Jerome Jasper – I’ll Do Anything For You
Rockers Revenge – The Harder They Come (another cover but no follow up hit here guys)