'Psychedelic Dub Dub' was one of the tunes off this album was played early on. A sort of breezy reggae number with toilet flushing noises at the beginning. Thanks to Jonathan Edwards for this information.

Manu Dibango was born in Cameroon and is now living in Paris. His music is an all-encompassing work with involvement from African and non-African musicians alike, where a fusion of jazz and Camoonian makossa music collide with avant-African funk. He has worked with all the stars of the World Music Hall Of Fame, including Youssou N'Dour, Ray Lema, Geoffrey Oryema, Salif Keita, Papa Wemba and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, as well as Peter Gabriel, Manu Katch and Sinéad O'Connor. Albums include 'Afrijazzy', 'Bao Bao', 'Electric Africa', 'Gone Clear', 'Live '91', 'Live 96-Papa Groove' & 'Wakafrika'. Whirl-Y-Gig fave is Senga Abele, which features on the Live 96 album.

You'll either love or hate this one - its essentially Shaft's cheeseathon 'Mucho Mambo', embedded in a pounding trance tune as remixed by DJ Mellow-D and Pulsedriver. On paper this really shouldn't work, but if played at the right time and in the right environment then I have to admit that its quite fun and does work wonders on the dancefloor.

The dance classic 'Dreams' from the early '90s (by Quench) was revamped in 2000 by Miss Shiva with a little help from Sunbeam.

A current Whirly fave is 'Ola Chica', which is a superb cheesy Spanish influenced track taken from the album "You're always Welcome at Club Montepulciano" and also as a single on Ciano Records [CIAOCD004]. Also, Monkey Pilot has just started playing an equally kitsch track, 'Mambo Schambo ', from the CD single 'Continental Bossa Nova' (also on Ciano Records). Club Montepulciano is described as "London's hippest lounge club featuring live events, the best international cabaret, cocktails, roulette, romance, moonlight and martinis....".

Moodswings is the brainchild of Grant Showbiz and J.F.T. Hood, and are probably best known for their 3 track epic re-working of State of Independence (originally written by Vangelis), featuring the voices of Chrissy Hynde and Dr Martin Luther King. They have given amazing live performances at Whirl-Y-Gig in the past, with the bulk of their live set reflected in the 'Live at Leeds' album. There are three albums to date; 'Moodfood' (featuring Spiritual High/State of Independence), 'Live at Leeds' and 'Psychedelicatessen'. Whirly faves include Spiritual High, Redemption Song (Oh Happy Day) and Brutal.

A fast and furious trance classic played at Whirl-Y-Gig for many years is Dreams by Morning Wave. Released on the excellent compilation Goa Trance Volume 1.

Two big trance tunes by The Morrighan that featured heavily during 2002 were the Lange remix of 'Remember to the Millennium' and 'Requiem', which is a powerful and haunting take on Mozarts original piece of the same name.

Formed by Martin Swan, a Sheffield born Scot, and an American, Talitha MacKenzie, Mouth Music made an impressive debut in 1990 with a fusion of Gaelic vocals, African percussion and synthesisers. The 1992 EP, 'Blue Door, Green Sea', which features the award winning 'Drambuie' TV advertisement theme, confirmed their direction, and a constant stream of influences made their live shows exciting as well as experimental. One of the EP's tracks, a dance mix of their earlier 'Sienn O', revealed a further advance. On 'Mo-di' (1993), there were more apparent moves into the dance area, and it seems that the band's apparent folk origin is now only one aspect of its work, which includes samba and hip-hop. When Talitha MacKenzie departed, she was replaced by vocalist, Jackie Joyce. Whirly faves include Here and Blown Away and Move on (Got to Mix), the former featuring on the Whirly Waves compilation.

A classic Whirly track that still gets played regularly is Zi Pompa where an uplifting fusion of global beats, African style samples of "Zi Pompa, Pompa...." bounce along in a Balaeric fashion. It was released in '93 on ZYX Records (Germany), available as a 12" and CD single.

'Zig It Up' was a good time ragga track from the Shoreditch days.

Another Shoreditch classic was 'Pied Piper'. Unbelievably cheesy house with incongrously hard ragga style 'people follow me like the pied piper' hookline.

The ambient-dance classic 'Little Fluffy Clouds' was a Whirly mainstay back in '92/93.

'Vila Nova' by Orinoko is a top notch single - summer vibes ooze from the club mix where delicious Spanish guitar licks float over digeridoo and a pounding 4/4 trance beat, all topped off with an uplifting, catchy tribal chant of 'Oriney Yassaneiy' - superb. Also by Orinoko are the singles Mama Konda and Island.

The 1991 single 'Give Peace a Chance' by Peace Choir is a re-hash of the John Lennon and Paul McCartney anthem. It was originally recorded back in 1969 when the former Beatle and his wife held a week long protest against violence in their bed at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel in Montreal. Peace Choir's version features the same chorus of "...all we are saying is give peace a chance..." along with additional vocals and rap written by Sean Ono Lennon. It's produced by Lenny Kravitz and features vocals from a very long list of artists from the world of pop including Kravitz, Adam Ant, Peter Gabriel, Tom Petty and Iggy Pop (and Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon). Over the years it's been used as the pre-parachute track, normally at times when the world is in conflict.

A rare German vinyl release was 'Nothing is Over' by Possible Words. This was a powerful trance tune played regularly in the mid-90's.

'Loaded' (on Creation Records) was a fairly mainstream tune that was played back at Shoreditch.

This Italian/Danish duo (Alex Puddu & Morten Varano) mish-mash styles ranging from funk, 70's disco, house, d'n'b and through to soul and not least, latin and rock. Morten Varano also collaborates with DJ Ramon Santana under the name Los Chicharrons. At Whirl-Y-Gig expect to hear 'Columbia' and 'Star 70' from the album 'Star 70'.

'Din Daa Daa' was originaly released back in 2001, but it wasn't until early 2004 that I created my own edit of the JamX & DeLeon remix of this fierce end of night vocal-percussion based trancer.

A trance anthem from the mid-90's was 'Dreams' by Quench, made famous by the late Tony De Vit.

Who would have thought that good old Madge would end up on the Whirly playlist?! The track in question is a very rare trance remix of 'Substitute for Love' remixed by Quietman, and only released on a white label vinyl titled 'The Mad E Fan Club'.

Max Pashm, a Hebrew man dedicated to his roots with a lifetime in the UK underground and the dance world. Signed to Sony France for the last 2 years he has become massive over the water where he is dubbed the King of Falafel Techno or Hassidic House. His debut album 'Weddings, Bar-mitzvahs & Funerals' is available on Krypton (Sony Music France) and features the incredible 'Wedding Dance', which has been on the Whirly playlist for many years. Max played live at Whirl-Y-Gig on the 1st April 2000.

Can U Dig It? was originally written by the Mock Turtles in '91 and was released as a CD single on Siren Records. Steve Prockter remixed the track and one of his remixes featured on the CD single. However, it was his stunning Can U Dig It? Yeah! remix that featured on the second of the two 12"s (also on Siren Records) titled 'Can U Dig It? - The Steve Prockter Remixes', that is still played to this day at Whirl-Y-Gig. Can U Dig It? has since been remixed by numerous artists, including Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI) and That Kid Chris - needless to say that the Steve Proctor remix remains the best mix.

'Fever 99' was a fantastic track at Whirly, with big beats and distorted/muffled vocals that induced a slightly disorrientating effect. It featured on the German album 'Come Touch the Sun' on the Stereo Deluxe label.

Mombassa's Cry Freedom is choc-a-bloc with uplifting tribal vibes. Its an oldie Whirly fave that challenges Mory Kante's Yeke Yeke for the number of times that its been re-released. The original '92 mix is the one to home in on, which also goes under the name of the Malawi mix.

Although primarily a dub group, the Moody Boys have produced a couple of Whirly faves in the past. Both Center of the World (Nubian Club Mix) and Destination Africa are uplifting, slow paced tribal-influenced trancers from the album "Product of the Environment" on Guerrilla Records.

From his Paris base Mory Kante has fused the ancient sounds of the kora (west African harp) with black American dance music. Kante moved to Paris with a slimmed-down version of 'Les Milieus Branches' in 1982, and continued the stylistic innovations set out on Courougnegne. In 1984, he released the superb 'Mory Kante A Paris', which spread his name beyond France and Francophone West Africa to the UK and USA. In 1985, he collaborated with other African musicians on the 'Tam Tam Pour L'Ethiopie' project (a pan-African fund-raising effort for Ethiopia, based on the Band Aid principle). Kante's biggest success to date came in 1988, when his single, 'Yeke Yeke', an inspired fusion of Mandinka kora and black American house music, enjoyed major chart success throughout Europe and West Africa. It was subsequently remixed and re-released numerous times in the '90's and is a regular favourite played at Whirl-Y-Gig. In 1990, the similarly inspired and sublime album Touma further developed this direction, including input from South African guitarist, and Paul Simon collaborator, Ray Chipika Phiri, plus Carlos Santana.

'Pablita From Havana' is a fantastic outing of tropical flavoured beats that I gave to Monkey Pilot. It's a cheeky, upbeat little number lead by a solid 4/4 beat, with a catchy trumpet melody and funky guitars. A very typical Whirly tune.

Natacha Atlas started out with the Balearic beat crew ¡Loca! and Jah Wobble. In '91 'Timbal' was released by ¡Loca! on Nation Records'. The success of Timbal cemented Natacha's relationship with the ground-breaking Nation Label, who introduced her to Transglobal Underground, at that time enjoying Top 40 success with the anthemic Templehead. As chief collaborator, lead singer and belly dancer with TGU, Natacha has performed all over the world - playing Glastonbury, WOMAD, Reading, Phoenix and the Brixton Academy and many international festivals. Natacha Atlas released her first solo LP, 'Diaspora', in the summer of '95, which combined the dubby, beat-driven global dance of her long-time associates TGU, with the more traditional work of Arabic musicians. Her second LP, 'Halim', sees Natacha exploring further her deeply felt affinity with Arabic musical heritage. A Whirly fave is Leysh Nat'arak which features on the single of the same name.

Fans of early Banco-de-Gaia will no doubt find comfort in the spaced out global dub-fest that is OTT's debut album 'Blumenkraft'; atmospheric and spacey mixes with funky delicious grooves and, in places, upbeat danceable beats. This is more than dub! OTT played live on the Whirl-Y-Gig stage at the 2003 Canterbury Fayre.

Liebert was classically trained at the Rheinische Musikhockschule and later travelled Europe absorbing musical influences from Russia to Spain, where Flamenco first fired his imagination. His early bands were in a jazz/funk groove, first in Cologne, then in Boston, Massachusetts in the early '80s. A move to Santa Fe, New Mexico in '86, found him working in restaurants, simplifying Flamenco styles to forge a dynamic contemporary instrumental sound, which he developed further in '88 when he formed the group Luna Negra. His '89 limited edition CD, 'Marita: Shadows And Storms', brought exposure on the west coast New Age radio network, and was picked up by the Higher Octave Records label who re-issued it as Nouveau Flamenco. A move to the major Epic label brought 'Solo Para Ti' in 92, with guest appearances by Carlos Santana. 'The Hours Between Night And Day' found him interpreting soul and blues standards, while the subsequent 'Euphoria' featured re-mixes by Steve Hillage and others, aimed at the ambient-ethnic-dance crowd. Tracks from 'Euphoria', including Lush and Havana Club, are Whirly faves.

'Visions of Medusa' is the bagpipes track that was played throughtout 2002. It features on the German compilation CD 'Afromania Vol.9' which also features the Djibooti track 'Haila Hypno'.

Photon Project are Geert Huinink & Alco Lammers, who also record as the Dawn Seekers. 'Enlightenment' is a huge 11 minute trance anthem with a huge orchestral introduction, breakdown and finale. It's another tune that I gave to Whirly and is now being played regularly in the later half of 2001.

One from 1997 is the 'Fatboy Slim Malpaso Mix' of 'Psyche Rock', which is an uplifting combination of big beats and elements of the cricket theme tune. Released on 12" and cd single in '97, featuring other mixes by Ken Abyss and William Orbit.

Arnie Freidman and Tom Gee team up as the Prophecy, with a little help from AFRICA TRUe. The Vision is another Whirl-Y-Gig favourite that eventually got released ('95 / CD single and 2 x 12") after a bit of airplay by Annie Nightingale's Chillout Zone on Radio 1. It's an usual track that combines heavy guitar riffs with gospel choirs, which of course fits perfectly at Whirl-Y-Gig! Monkey Pilot and Saracen remixed the track, which also features on the single.