The Campaign For Real Music
Intelligent Music for Grown-Ups

Excellent news for fans of soul and jazz-funk: Les Adams’ all new Dancefloor Classics website opens up a world of quality music for fans of the genre.  If you are yet to hear the Dancefloor Classics show, set aside 8-10pm next Saturday, tune into Solar Radio and then turn up your volume.  Your neighbours will soon coming knocking to ask you to turn it up some more, since this is one of the definitive soul shows on air.  

Les is a true icon of soul music.  His legendary mixes are master-classes in the art. It is fair to say that he is one of a select handful of individuals who set the standard for dance music djing.  Check out your record collection and you’ll find that Les is responsible for superlative mastermixes for some of the greatest of soul acts.  Les was the craftsman of choice for the likes of Cameo, Al Jarreau and Brass Construction, as well as being a fine producer too.  He’s known as the “Mixdoctor”; we prefer to call him “Sir Les”.  Check out his biog below, and you will see why.

We first heard Les back in the 1980s on London’s Solar Radio and he has been back on Solar for over a decade.  The music selection is quite simply incredible, with a constant flow of classic tunes from the great days of soul and jazz funk.

The new website is not only an excellent source of quality music, but also a useful resource for those who wish to start out in radio.  It is packed with info about Les’s own recording studio and the equipment required to produce a professional radio programme. (Our only complaint is that we are unable to take a look at Les’s enviable record collection!). Les also explains how to digitize his shows to the best possible quality and this, too, is an education for the internet DJ generation.

Check out the site and the show now at: www.dancefloorclassics.com.  Les can be contacted at: lesadams@solarradio.com

Radiocafe
September 2009

About Dancefloor Classics

Dancefloor classics has been on Solar Radio since the former London based pirate radio station first began broadcasting on satellite in 1998 when an opportunity arose for the station to lease airtime from the classic rock satellite station EKR. It has remained a regular weekly show presented by Les Adams through the various metamorphic developments of Solar radio to it’s current home on Sky digital.

Les is joined each week by Brett Baker an avid soul music fan and collector who plays his “Baker’s Choice”, a selection of four great soul dance records from his extensive collection.

The show covers the full spectrum of soulful dance music from disco to jazz funk and soul classics, mainly from the 1980’s, considered by most to be the prime decade for the genre. It also plays some of the great 70’s and early 90’s classics.

Other features include the weekly non-stop 15-20 minute mix of soul classics blended in Les “Mixdoctor” Adams style and The Chiller.

Whilst the show has been available on the Internet for some years, the recent addition of a broadcast quality podcast has extended the audience with thousands of subscribers in more than 40 countries including the USA, Asia and Australia weekly. The number of listeners and countries increases on a daily basis.

Apart from the great soul anthems you might expect to hear, the show concentrates on the lesser played gems that will have you screaming TUNE as the memories of when your Saturday night was THE night for dancing to the best in soul dance music.

Putting the show together - Production

Dancefloor Classics is pre-recorded, usually on a Friday morning and production of the next edition starts almost as soon as the show has been broadcast. Days are spent replying to listener emails and sorting through the requests. if a listener asks for a song that is not in the library a search is made on download sites such as Napster and itunes. If it is not available from there the search is expanded to the Internet, specialist record shops and even Ebay.

The vinyl record and cd library is indexed on a spreadsheet showing the BPM (tempo), title, artist, library index details and the date the track was last played on the show. Dozens of tracks are first highlighted to compile a “short list” from which the final selection is made during recording. Once the short list is completed artists are researched on the Internet to find snippets of information about them to read on-air. The weekly mix is pre-recorded and put on DAT (Digital Audio Tape) for playback on the show.

Once the pre-production is complete the show is recorded in “real time” and ad-lib just as a “live broadcast” would be. Mistakes are left in as this makes the show sound more spontaneous and natural.

By contrast to most radio shows which employ an automated computer playout system, our studio is completely self-op. That is to say the presenter is responsible for cueing records, CD’s and drop-ins, adjusting volume levels correctly and pressing all the buttons and knobs to make things happen at the right time. This is the traditional way to do things as opposed to the automated method where the presenter is little more than a hired voice and computers do everything else, even telling the presenter when to speak and for how long! This, in our view, takes away the fun of making a radio show and doing it the “old fashioned” way gives us the freedom to mould the show as it progresses.

Once the master has been recorded, the technical side of getting it to you begins. The show has to be compressed in two different formats, ogg.vorbis for the Sky broadcast and mp3 for the podcast. The masters are then uploaded via a high speed broadband link to the Solar radio and itunes servers respectively.

You can view the playlists to see the details of every record played on the show since January 2004.

About Les Adams

Les has been a professional DJ since 1979 and was one of the first DJ’s in the UK to adopt the American “beat matching” (BPM) form of mixing.

He was taught to mix by an American DJ named Greg James who was an understudy of Ritchie Kaczor, the resident spinner at New York’s legendary nightclub “Studio 54”

Les’ mixing skills on the turntables and musical knowledge led to him working in top London nightclubs and in 1980 he secured a job as the resident DJ at London’s premiere nightclub “Regines”. He was also invited to play in their New York and Paris Venues.

In 1983, Les sent a demo tape to the international DJ club DMC (Disc Mix Club), and was invited to join their production team, constructing and producing mixes that were mailed to thousands of DJ’s worldwide to play in their clubs and on radio. He became know as Les “The Mixdoctor” Adams. He also ran DMC’s DJ beat mixing DJ school.

In 1985, Les was approached by A&M records to perform a turntable remix on a track called “Stomp” by “The Brothers Johnson” which went on to be a huge hit record and established Les as a hit re-mixer.

Between 1985 and 1987, the remix and production work rolled in and Les was regularly used by record companies to give the “dance” treatment to their releases.

In 1987, based upon a simple original demo that Les had constructed in his 8-track home studio, he was signed as a recording artist to A&M under the guise of “LA Mix”. Initially this was a one-single deal, but A&M decided to take the option for a second single and Les made a track called “Check This Out” which reached NO:3 on the national charts. A&M then signed Les for a major 5 album deal worth 1.5 million. He was also signed to Sony Music publishing as a songwriter.

In the 1980’s Les was invited to join Capital Radio in London by Richard Park and the head of music Mike Childs. For 7 years Les co-produced and mixed the legendary “Capital House Party” till he moved to BBC Radio One before joining Solar radio in 1998

Throughout this time Les continued to DJ in clubs as it gave him an insight to trends and fashion in dance music.

For 5 years, Les was a senior lecturer in DJ skills and DJ technology at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford. Apart from mixing and technology, he also has a wealth of experience in many areas of the music industry.

Mixing / Remix/ Production / Sound engineer Credits include:

Aretha Franklin (Mix / Remix)

Tina Turner (Mix)

Brothers Johnson (Stomp Remix)

Cameo (Word up / Mixes - remixes)

Kool & The Gang (Mix)

Inner City (Big Fun / Good Life Remixes)

Marrs (Pump Up The Volume Remix)

Boy George (Remix)

Grace Jones (Mix)

Maurice (This Is Acid - Re-Production and Remix)

Brass Construction (Mix)

Sylvester (Do You Wanna Funk – Remix)

Arthur Baker / Al Green (The Message Is Love – UK Mixes)

Kym Mazelle (Was That All It Was – Remix)

Arrow (Hot Hot Hot – Remix)

Jazzi P (Production & Mix)

Dannii Minogue (Production & Mix)

Blow (Production & Mix)

L.A. Mix (Production, writing & mix)

For a more complete and detailed list of Les’ production and remix work click HERE

Radio:

Les has produced radio shows and mixes for:

Capital Radio (London)

BBC Radio One

Radio Luxembourg

Solar Radio

Radio Jackie

DJ appearances / residencies include:

The Ministry Of Sound (London)

The Sound Factory (New York)

The Tunnel (New York)

Regines (London, Paris, New York)

Equinox (London)

Destiny (London and Glasgow)

Volts (Kingston)

The Works (Kingston)

Liquid / Envy (Stevenage, Redhill & Crawley)

DJ gigs in:

Holland , Germany, Paris, Amsterdam, the USA and throughout the UK.

Journalist:

Former editor of “EQ” magazine

Articles and equipment reviews for “DJ magazine

“The DJ Doctor” – answering readers technical questions in DJ mag.

Numerous equipment reviews for various magazines and journals

Awards

Best UK Remixer (1985/6/8)

BEDA Club DJ Of The Year 1996

Disco International DJ of the year 1997

7 gold discs for production and remixing

Nominated for club DJ of the year award a further 4 times.

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