Winston Hazel
(Afro Art, The Forgemasters)
AKA: The FMG (The Funk Master General)Style: Versatile Freestyle Bashment.
2006 and Winston is n the process of reviving the project, that catapulted
Warp Records into the limelight back in 1989... The Forgemasters! With partner
Rob Gordon, the pair aim to continue where they left off but with all the
acquired knowledge of the years gone by. Stay close, this is gonna be Fierce!!!
Most recent studio productions: SuPaFix: Ghetto New Yorkshire, Jomsong,
alongside fierce studio partner Ross Orton AKA Rossman of The Fat Truckers,
on Afro Art Records
Year 2000 saw Winston bounce from strength to strength supporting MOLOKO
on their 6 week Tour of Europe and the UK, followed by a 3 week solo Unique
Club Culture DJ tour of Germany & Switzerland. He has also cut into
the US scene having played at New York's most prestigious party this last
New Years eve alongside MJ Cole. More recently he appeared at Homelands
UK as a guest of Jarvis Cocker on the Jarvis Cocker Soundsystem.
Now firmly back at his monthly residency "FELT" at The Runaway
Girl, in Sheffield, Winston continues to tear up dance floors, ...dropping
a blend of local science mixed up with a pure erotic house set. He is can
also be found regularly headlining at many venues across Europe, Switzerland,
Germany, Austria, Italy, etc!
HIS-STORY
It seems only fitting that Winston Hazel should have started his career
as a DJ at his school youth club as a teenager in the late 1970s. Winston,
a.k.a.The Funkmaster General, has always been ahead of the pack in his comprehension
of what tunes make a dancefloor move: a wise head on young shoulders and
the natural leader of a generation of Sheffield DJs and musicians, his musical
evolution may have had inauspicious origins, but then Winston wouldn't mind
sharing that with you - he may wear his talent on his sleeve, but shouting
it from the rooftops is not his style. Nor is it a Sheffield thing you see,
and Winston has always remained true to his roots.
Having progressed from the school gym to working the national alldayer funk
circuit, Winston took a break from rotating funk and soul to spinning on
his head with his breakdance crew SMAC 19. The crew's two-year run took
in break battles with the likes of Goldie and tours of Northern Europe,
Scandinavia and Ireland. Back on home soil in the Republic of South New
Yorkshire, Winston moved from bodily contortions back to turntable manoeuvres
to form a club partnership with fellow Sheffield DJ, Parrot that was to
prove crucial to the city's dance music development.
The mid 80s saw Winston and Parrot spearhead a house and techno assault
on the clubs of the North and Scotland which spawned such groundbreaking
nights as Jive Turkey, The Steamer (with Graeme Park), Club Superman, Funky
Precedent, Deep, Cuba and Occasions - and a whole generation of new DJs
and producers including Asterix & Space (latterly RAC and now Swag)
and a young scrap of a lad called DJ Pipes. These nights ran in tandem with
the formidable warehouse and basement jams that were endemic across the
city and served as the true driving force behind the reviving Sheffield
scene. At the same time, Winston was further fanning the funk furnace with
three shows a week on dominant pirate radio station SCR, setting the airwaves
alight with the sounds that were firing the dancefloors.
So to the inevitable move to the studio, where Winston began
by constructing the seminal funk of "The Forgemasters Track with No
Name", the first release on Warp records and the shape of dance music
to come. Further tracks followed - with fellow Forgemasters Robert Gordon
and Sean Maher, and as The Step with Parrot and Sarah Jay - while away from
the studio, Winston continued to maintain his high profile on the national
DJ circuit, breaking the new Sheffield sound across the country and going
on to form the collective of DJs, musicians and nightclub artists known
as Stone Jamm.
Throughout the mid Nineties Sheffield was awash with corporate club nights,
with clubbers existing on a staple diet of popcorn house and last summer's
Ibiza anthems. Never willing to compromise the depth of his music for a
quick thrill or fast dollar, Winston was discerning in his choices of club
outlets, favouring community-based basement parties in preference to aircraft
hangers filled with football players and soap stars. Such choices have ensured
his continued position at the cutting-edge of the dance music be it in the
studio, on the decks or on the dancefloor. Currently writing tunes with
Olive drummer Rossman, the two have recently completed remixes for The All
Seeing I and Warp Records, where Winston - alongside Parrot and Warp's Steve
Beckett and Rob Mitchell - has also just compiled the Warp Influences album
to celebrate ten years of the Sheffield label and the music that it sprung
from.
With regular guest slots at The Electric Chair, NY Sushi, Bugged Out, All
Seeing I block parties and Electric Soul warehouse parties, Winston's continuing
influence on the Northern club scene is evident. Having hooked up with Moloko
to support the band on their Surround Sound Tour of Europe, Winston also
collaborated with Occasions soul mate Pipes as the All Seeing I soundsystem
- providing support for the band on tour, breaking-out into national clubs
in their own right and teaching Pipes not to be so cynical about life. After
all, Winston knows that the most important thing, is that the music that
they are playing comes from the right stock. As the man himself explains,
"... it's like a big soup, I just cook up all the different ingredients
in a pot and see what happens. " And the results don't so much sit
and simmer as boil over.
MUSICAL INGREDIENTS
House, US Garage, UK Garage, Tribal, 2step, Grime, Dubstep, New Jazz, Futcha
Discotek, Breaks and Loops, also plays Techno, Funk/Soul, Ragga, Hip Hop
and now droppin the sound of NEW YORKshire! (sclusive).
Favorite Club - CHOCOLATE CITY and TONIC - Sheffield UK
Hometown - SHEFFIELD UK
Mixes available special request.
Copyright © 2006 The Treatment