One Hundred Project : Geoff Bowling

What is on your stereo at the moment?

Erykah Badu – New Amerykah
Eric Lau – New Territories
Coultrain – Adventures of Seymour Liberty
Some very good disco mixes from million dollar disco.com

3 records that changed your life. Why?

Get on the good foot – James Brown
Like most youngsters I used to listen to my parents records. My mum had lot’s of Motown stuff and compilation tapes from people like Al Green, Otis Redding etc. Soul music which had made the charts. My mum was also a member of the Brittania music club and if you ordered a certain amount of tapes you got a free one, I was allowed to choose this once and because I’d developed an interest in all this old soul music I chose a James Brown compilation. The Please, please, please, It’s a mans world, Think etc was cool but it was the FUNK that caught my imagination and Get on the good foot especially. I think this set the tone for my musical tastes ever since. December the 25th will always be remembered for different reasons now!

I know you’ve got soul – Eric B and Rakim
At the time my fascination with James Brown was developing most hip hop records sampled his music. This being one of the best examples. I love hip hop from this period, still do like hip hop but I’m very choosy now. I’m a bit of an old fart when it comes to hip hop……”you call this hip hop” I’ll say to the youths.

You can’t turn me away - Sylvia Striplin
Not so much this record on it’s own but the genre it represents i.e. rare groove. It’s a slow record that people can rave to, I don’t need high bpm’s to make me want to dance. The rare groove scene taught me that lots of quality music gets discarded and you have to dig deeper to get to the good stuff (it also taught me too look after your music you don’t know how much it’ll be worth in the future)

What are you looking forward to?

The summer!

What couldn’t you live without? Why?

As a carbon based life form I can’t live without oxygen.

Most memorable gig?

From a playing out point of view I used to dj a lot as a student. No dj then no buy records. After starting working this was no longer a motivation. I did get to dj at my favourite club in Nottingham though, the Kool Kat. Alistair Whitehead played the main room, the Buddha Brothers played hip hop and there was another room which had funk, soul and rare groove. I arranged for myself and two friends to play the third room which was good because I enjoyed going to the club so much. Didn’t last long because one of the guys shafted me whilst I was away for the summer, taught me that some people use dj’ing to boost their ego and status rather than express their love of their type of music.

Who/what are your influences?

Zammo off Grange Hill, he stopped me from being a smackhead.

What is the best and worst thing about the city that you live in?

Manchester is big enough to be interesting but small enough to be social. Because of it’s size you can’t just stay within a limited musical clique and you get to appreciate a wider variety of music. I won’t change my tastes in music but it’s good to understand better where other people are coming from. A lack of quality live music in Manchester depresses me, the only time I want to go to London is when I see who is on at the Jazz Café. Also the parochial nature of the North West in general. I grew up close to Liverpool but had loads of family in Manchester. I’ve never understood the Manc / Scouser hatred thing. I see myself as a citizen of the North West of England and try and enjoy what both great cities have to offer me.

Given the accelerated pace of modern culture, what are we due a revival in?

I’m not interested in revivals. I’ll find the soul and funk I’m after in music. It will always be there. I’m sure when I’m 70 I’ll be listening to the Erykah Badu equivalent of that era.

Hero? Why?

Jan Molby, because of the way he took Everton apart in the second half of the 1986 FA cup final

Is there anything else that you feel that we should know?

I used to be a woman.

Geoff Bowling is a rugby playing black music enthusiast and if you drew a Venn diagram then I'm sure that he would be the only person in the overlap of the two circles. His musical influences range everywhere from James Brown to Jean Carne to GangStarr to Blaze and all points in between and he's a great addition to the One Hundred Project.



TRACKLISTING

D’Influence - Good Lover (touch mix)
Shades of Soul – Give it to me (4 Hero mix)
Soho – Hot Music
Marcus Valle – Para de Fazer (4 Hero mix)
Players Association – I like it
Funkhouse Express – Chase your blues away
Mass Production – Welcome to our world
James Brown – Don’t tell it
Restless Soul – Turn me out

Download the mix here.