80s music never went away...it's everywhere

GARY DAVIES was nine when his cousins Jack and Ivor took him to their 60s nightclub and changed his life forever. It wasn't just any nightclub the Abadi brothers owned The Twisted Wheel, an iconic all-night soul-and-sweat drenched Manchester venue beloved by pill-popping Mods and Northern Soul aficionados.

- 

"It was an amazing experience," the DJ known universally as "woo, Gary Davies" tells me.

"The bands were fantastic, the atmosphere was electric. They had Wilson Pickett playing, Georgie Fame, Junior Walker & The All-Stars... and they'd take me backstage to meet them." Celebrities came too, including football icon Georgie Best, who left as soon as he realised the club didn't sell alcohol.

Where other relatives bought young Gary socks and handkerchiefs for his birthday, his cousins bought him Top 20 singles and cool contemporary albums.

"They were responsible for me discovering my early passion for music," says Gary, now 67.

It was a passion that eventually propelled him from the clubs to Radio 1 and Top Of The Pops, and established him as the UK's biggest champion of 80s music.

Davies still hosts Radio 2's Sounds Of The 80s on Saturday nights and tours his Kick Up The 80s live show from next month.

Success didn't come easily though. The Twisted Wheel closed in 1971, and his cousins opened new club Placemate at the same Whitworth Street location.

When he was 17 they asked him to work the door, collecting entrance fees.

"I did every job going. On the door, behind the bar, in the cloakroom..." recalls Gary.

"It had three discos - a soul room, a pop room and a Bowie/Roxy room which was phenomenal, everybody dressed up to go there.

"One night the soul DJ was sick, so I ended up doing my first ever DJ gig - and then I was properly hooked. I was behind the decks as often as possible." Davies had various day jobs. He worked in a Lancashire textile mill and for a Manchester mail order company, but nothing surpassed the buzz of live DJing. He sent demo tapes to every UK radio station, looking for a break. None came.

"After two years of getting nowhere I was on the verge of quitting.