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Ian Levine
Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer and DJ. A populariser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has co-written and co-produced records with sales totalling over 40 million.
Ian Geoffrey Levine was born on 22 June 1953 in Blackpool, in Lancashire, England. His parents owned and ran the "Lemon Tree" complex in Blackpool, including its casino and nightclub. Levine is openly gay. He suffered a major stroke in July 2014, leaving him with severely limited movement on the left side of his body. Levine has also survived nasal cancer, bladder cancer, sepsis and sarcoidosis.
Levine spent decades tracking down 3,000 of his relatives. He has organised several meetings with hundreds of family members over the years, which have been covered by media outlets. Levine has written books about his genealogy search.
Levine began collecting Motown records from the age of 13, building a collection from UK record shops and those his family visited on holidays to the US. He later became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern soul. After his parents emigrated to the Caribbean in 1979, Levine sold most of his records to fund a house purchase in London.
Having attended some early Northern soul all-nighters at "The Twisted Wheel" nightclub in Manchester with DJ Les Cokell, after leaving school in 1971 he became a disc jockey at the Blackpool Mecca with Tony Jebb. Levine joined other DJs in travelling to Stoke on Trent to join the Northern soul all-nighter "Torch", which was quickly shut down but was the forerunner of the Wigan Casino events, which Levine DJ'ed on the third all-nighter. Working with fellow DJ Colin Curtis, the pair was responsible for guiding the Northern soul scene away from its oldies-only policy and towards modern soul and disco. This resulted in BBC Radio 1's DJ John Peel travelling to Blackpool to interview Levine.
Opening on 6 December 1979, Levine became the club's first resident DJ at London's gay disco Heaven on its set-up, and remained there through almost all of the 1980s. He finally left in 1989. Levine was also one of the only UK DJs to mix records.
In 1973, Levine caught notice when he turned Robert Knight's "Love on a Mountain Top" into a UK Top 10 hit, leading to him assisting Dave McAleer in compiling Solid Soul Sensations the following year, which was released on the British Disco Demand label and reached No. 30 on the UK Albums Chart. With his father's investment, he travelled to New York City and co-produced Reaching for the Best with girl group the Exciters, which reached No. 31 on the UK Singles Chart selling 80,000 records. This allowed Levine to then travel to Chicago, where he auditioned and signed three unknown singers: Postman L.J. Johnson, Barbara Pennington, and Evelyn Thomas. Thomas and Johnson's debut records would both chart in the UK Top 30, ensuring them both an appearance on Top of the Pops on 19 February 1976.
Barbara Pennington had a disco hit in the U.S. the following year with "24 Hours a Day" (No. 4 Billboard Disco Charts) as would James Wells whose "My Claim to Fame" reached the same position in 1978. Following several albums towards the end of 1979, Levine's record production came to a halt.
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Ian Levine
Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British songwriter, producer and DJ. A populariser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has co-written and co-produced records with sales totalling over 40 million.
Ian Geoffrey Levine was born on 22 June 1953 in Blackpool, in Lancashire, England. His parents owned and ran the "Lemon Tree" complex in Blackpool, including its casino and nightclub. Levine is openly gay. He suffered a major stroke in July 2014, leaving him with severely limited movement on the left side of his body. Levine has also survived nasal cancer, bladder cancer, sepsis and sarcoidosis.
Levine spent decades tracking down 3,000 of his relatives. He has organised several meetings with hundreds of family members over the years, which have been covered by media outlets. Levine has written books about his genealogy search.
Levine began collecting Motown records from the age of 13, building a collection from UK record shops and those his family visited on holidays to the US. He later became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern soul. After his parents emigrated to the Caribbean in 1979, Levine sold most of his records to fund a house purchase in London.
Having attended some early Northern soul all-nighters at "The Twisted Wheel" nightclub in Manchester with DJ Les Cokell, after leaving school in 1971 he became a disc jockey at the Blackpool Mecca with Tony Jebb. Levine joined other DJs in travelling to Stoke on Trent to join the Northern soul all-nighter "Torch", which was quickly shut down but was the forerunner of the Wigan Casino events, which Levine DJ'ed on the third all-nighter. Working with fellow DJ Colin Curtis, the pair was responsible for guiding the Northern soul scene away from its oldies-only policy and towards modern soul and disco. This resulted in BBC Radio 1's DJ John Peel travelling to Blackpool to interview Levine.
Opening on 6 December 1979, Levine became the club's first resident DJ at London's gay disco Heaven on its set-up, and remained there through almost all of the 1980s. He finally left in 1989. Levine was also one of the only UK DJs to mix records.
In 1973, Levine caught notice when he turned Robert Knight's "Love on a Mountain Top" into a UK Top 10 hit, leading to him assisting Dave McAleer in compiling Solid Soul Sensations the following year, which was released on the British Disco Demand label and reached No. 30 on the UK Albums Chart. With his father's investment, he travelled to New York City and co-produced Reaching for the Best with girl group the Exciters, which reached No. 31 on the UK Singles Chart selling 80,000 records. This allowed Levine to then travel to Chicago, where he auditioned and signed three unknown singers: Postman L.J. Johnson, Barbara Pennington, and Evelyn Thomas. Thomas and Johnson's debut records would both chart in the UK Top 30, ensuring them both an appearance on Top of the Pops on 19 February 1976.
Barbara Pennington had a disco hit in the U.S. the following year with "24 Hours a Day" (No. 4 Billboard Disco Charts) as would James Wells whose "My Claim to Fame" reached the same position in 1978. Following several albums towards the end of 1979, Levine's record production came to a halt.