Back in the Day (in the UK)

BBC1's 1xtra radio station were running their annual hip-hop weekend over the past few days and I came across this week's edition of The Bassment featuring DJ Mike Allen, who was one of the pioneering radio DJs for hip-hop in the UK. At this point in the mid-80s, the UK scene was in its embryonic stages so there isn't representation of UK artists on the show.

Sure, the show has a lot of the usual old-school staples, from Run DMC, Eric B. & Rakim and Afrika Bambaataa but what makes it a bit different are Mike Allen's anecdotes during the show. Allen has some interesting stories about Curtis Mantronik, Lyor Cohen's wedding and UK hip-hop concerts that went down in the mid-80s, that I wasn't old enough to attend while I lived there and this makes the show definitely worth listening to.

One of those concerts was UK Fresh '86 and DJ Cheese, the 1986 DMC champion, who is mentioned frequently on The Bassment show was one of the many performers. Mastermix.org has a live recording of DJ Cheese and the Word of Mouth crew's performance of their revered track "King Kut" at UK Fresh '86, as played on Allen's show (it's the seventh link on the page). Also check A Tribute To Ignorance's recent DJ Cheese/Word of Mouth post.
Blow your whistle.