Now in his fourth illustrious decade as a DJ, UK house legend Terry Farley continues to spread the gospel of house music to new generations. With a history that includes running the incredible Boy’s Own Recordings and Junior Boy’s Own imprints and the Boy’s Own fanzine, countless productions alongside Pete Heller and legendary parties like Faith, his value and contribution to house music cannot be overstated.
In the first of our new Lucky Seven feature series, Farley takes us through seven definitive and memorable records from his sets across his career.
Yello – The Race [Mercury]
It was 1988 and Paul Oakenfold had asked me to be a weekly resident at Spectrum which was London’s biggest weekly acid house party at Heaven with nearly 3,000 inside and on occasions just as many outside. Acid house for us meant a freedom to play anything that worked and that included this Yello track with its crazy car noises and European madness and its Ibizan Balearic vibe. We played it about three or four times during that night and then every week throughout the craziest summer London ever saw.
DSK – What Would We Do [Boy’s Own Recordings]
A Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley production that we at Boy’s Own signed to our label we were running with Pete Tong at FFRR. Pete Heller and myself did a 8-minute version that at the time was considered far too long but became an anthem at my Friday residency at The Yellow Book (a night at the much-missed Covent Garden Gardening Club) – but it wasn’t until Tony Humphries played at the Ministry of Sound and kept on playing it in and out of the mix that it really broke big, and then word came back from New York that Junior Vasquez was playing it for up to 30 minutes at a time at The Sound Factory and it became quite ‘legendary’.
Roach Motel – Ultra Flava [Boy’s Own Recordings]
This was a unwanted dub that was on a remix package we did for the US remixes of a Ultra Naté song. We quite liked it and stuck it on a ‘unreleased’ EP. Pete and myself played at Pacha in Ibiza for about six months after the 12″ came out and the reaction was amazing. We had no idea that everyone on the island had been canning it and to this day it still sends dancers wild.
Sounds of Blackness – The Pressure (Classic Mix) [Perspective Records]
A beautiful Frankie Knuckles remix that I first heard at The Sound Factory in New York and have had in my box ever since. I’ve played in Tokyo pretty much yearly since 1990 and about 12 years ago I finally got to play at the legendary Yellow (it had been renamed Eleven by then). Yellow was a club steeped in culture and had almost every truly legendary DJ gracing its booth. I finished up around 5 AM and knew it was time to play this. The Japanese house heads are up there with any crowd in London, New York or Ibiza and as soon as that first piano note dropped the place erupted. I must say it was quite emotional to be playing that record in a booth that Larry Levan (a small picture of him was on the wall near the decks) had played in on his last tour of Japan before he passed.
A Hundred Birds – Jaguar [Wave Music]
So some crazy Japanese jazz live band did a cover version of the DJ Rolando techno classic and I was booked to open the terrace at Circo Loco at DC 10. This was around 2004 and DC 10 was still an afterhours club that the dancers from Space hit once it shut at 6 AM. The inside dark room was heaving and they never opened the terrace until 9 AM. I stuck on the 12″ and they opened the doors to the roofless sun drenched terrace and the crowd literally skipped and danced into the light. The madness of the jazz track hit the vibe and literally the energy off the floor pushed me back onto my heels .
Kerri Chandler – Bar A Thym [NRK Sound Division]
This was THE anthem at the Faith parties I was co-promoting with Stuart Patterson and Dave Jarvis. We were lucky to have been able to book DJs such as Kerri, Âme, Dixon and Dennis Ferrer while they were unknown enough to play in small cool rooms. The cowbell and techy riff makes this track a anthem and I played it this year at Notting Hill Carnival and the crowd erupted .
Intruder feat. Jei – Amame [Defected]
My fave all time producers have to be Oscar and Ralph the Murk boys out of Miami. These guys made so many amazing ‘90s tracks then big room classics as Funky Green Dogs and are now back doing innovative and relevant music like this track. Tyree Cooper asked me to play his party at Tresor in Berlin and this hit the spot perfectly: deep, Druggy and still soulful. It’s the music I like playing the most and the style Berlin really gets.
Click here to enquire about Terry Farley via the MN2S booking agency.