Luke Una and Dicky Trisco reunited for a Sunday special at Campo Sancho this July…

‘So yes, it is with great excitement that I am going to be joining Campo Sancho at the Sunday Balearic session. Two words that always prick up my ears both Sunday and Balearic. Always a good combination for some reason and also joining the marvellous Dicky Trisco for this Sunday session.

I mean the first thing I would like to say is that I love the Balearic vibe, but it is sometimes a misunderstood or misreported word, concept or musical genre. Some people see it as a kind of coffee table music with Spanish guitars and it can of course involve that, but I think it is something much more important and deeper than that.

If you go back to the mid 80s and what was happening in Ibiza with DJs like Alfredo, then it was just a very natural and beautiful moment of serendipity and synchronicity when like-minded souls came together and played this beautiful soundtrack of deep-rooted eclecticism pulling from so many influences.

But I think it actually goes back further than that when you look at someone like David Mancuso who was doing something very similar. I mean the world Balearic didn’t apply it being in New York, but I think it was the same vision weaving together different elements of music in all their cosmic greatness.

It’s a tradition that I have always warmed to from the early days of Electric Chair when Justin and I were really into combining different elements so that the whole becomes stronger than the sum of the parts. And that’s the skill. I am not boasting about that, but it’s not something you can learn over night. Balearic isn’t just playing lots of different records because they are different for the sake of eclecticism. It’s about a journey that starts and ends somewhere. And I think more than any form of music I have ever known, when it’s done right, you can literally start with slow mo spiritual cosmic records like Pharaoh Sanders and then slowly mutate like a heart beat into House Music and Techno. Then take it back down again into Gospel, Jazz dance and Afro. And I think that journey is the exciting part to me and the likes of Mancuso, Alfredo and Harvey have really held the flag for that vision.

I think the other thing to say is that people have this idea that Balearic is lots of old men and women, The Balearic Silverbacks as they are called, uniting as one at Pikes all screaming when someone plays Josephine by Chris Rea at +8, which is a great record. But I think it is much more important than that and it’s probably a misconception of what that music is. I think it is a much wider vision which tries to show the golden thread that runs through machine soul records, Street Soul, Hip Hop, Boogie, Jazz, House and Techno.

Even down to the most modernist futurism from the likes of Hessle Audio or Apleton, or in that kind of Bristol camp. So I think for me it’s not about playing records that are gentle necessarily, it’s much more about a journey that starts in one place and you end up somewhere else. And it draws upon all these beautiful elements.

I have actually noticed increasingly that the biggest crowd coming to these nights and afternoon sessions are a much younger crowd. At We Out Here and Houghton are really good examples. There the biggest reception is for those DJs who do 5/6 hour sets that incorporate all these different sounds and the young lot who are maybe tired of this very fast 160 EDM Tech Pop Donk Trance and are turning to something with more musicality. I remember playing at Fabric and Koko and the biggest reception was for some of the weird cosmic Afro tracks that were played. People went absolutely wild and everyone was under 26!

So I just wanted to clear that up…not that you asked me the question! But I hate the idea that Balearic is a certain genre or certain style or a certain age group. I think the tradition of the DJ journey incorporating so many different sounds has gone back to the 60s and 70s particularly through Mancuso and been taken forward to this day. And I love to hear a DJ where you can hear Eddie Henderson or Pharaoh Sanders or Roy Ayers, but you can also hear Juan Atkins, Carl Craig and DJ Q and then go into Breakbeat. I just love that whole journey and particularly in the sunshine and particularly on a Sunday afternoon.

So to do this Campo Sancho session will be just brilliant because I know that the crowd and this whole outfit are renowned for an open minded vision and for me the idea of spreading your own musical wings is an exciting one because it makes you think and delve deep into your archive. And you collect those records that you know will take you on a journey both in sound texture and tempo, but keeping the dance floor busy.

And to do this all with Dicky Trisco – yeah, that’s gonna be a winner, we have known each other for a few decades, so I’ll see you all then!’

We then managed a little Dicky Trisco catch up….

‘Hola! I’m also very much looking forward to the Sunday Balearic session at this year’s Campo.

Luke is a friend and someone I have admired for a very long time. He has a passion for music and people, which I share. He is also bloody hilarious. I think Sheffield/Manchester/Glasgow/Dundee are similar kind of places where we have spent our lives and learned how to do what we do.

The first time I met Luke was at T In the Park in the 90s. I found their Unabombers set so inspiring. There was a lot of boom boom Techno kicking around at that time. Very samey. And I loved the way they threw it around musically. There was Boogie, there was Disco, House, Techno and even Pop. And I thought I’m gonna play like that too ha ha – Pure copy cat! It reminded me of how it used to be in Glasgow when I was a kid at nights like Fresh and Mish Mash where the soundtrack was eclectic probably because people didn’t have so many records. Then when I started to go to The Sub Club, I used to go down early and listen to Harri who would play Reggae, Funk, Disco and warm things up properly before the more classic House and Techno sound the club became famous for championing kicked in.

When Disco Deviance took off in no small part due to me being inspired by The Unabombers that day, I started DJing a lot more, travelling and playing festivals etc. And then one year thanks to the lovely Chris Massey we got booked to play Luke’s Croatian festival Electric Elephant. We did a boat party and then played up at Barbarellas at night which was a magical experience. I remember we got slotted between Maurice Fulton and Prins Thomas, basically two of my favourite DJs. I was excited but shitting it. I said to Pete Herbert who I was playing with you better jump on first pal. But it was epic!

Still remember playing the Everybody’s Feeling cut from Secret Squirrels which was really blowing up at the time in Barbs and the place going off. Michael who made the edit was on the dance floor as well which was a nice moment. And Luke was there lounging in the DJ booth checking out the crews. It was a full circle moment for me. Then for a few days we were all hanging in the same wee charming hotel in town with Andrew Weatherall, Justin Robertson, Chris Duckenfield and all my other DJ heroes. I learned a lot during those trips about what it was to be a DJ, about the community, about sharing stuff, about being part of a freaky family. Weatherall especially gave me a lot of support from those days onward and The Duck was a constant inspiration as he is simply the best DJ with the best taste in music I have ever met. They were special times.

My next encounter with Luke was in the club where I played as a resident for over a decade – The Reading Rooms in Dundee. The bookers there Jim and Grant had a real eclectic taste and would book Norman Jay, Mr Scruff, Gilles Peterson and The Unabombers. I remember popping in when they were playing and they dropped Talking Heads Once In A Lifetime near the end which was a favourite track of mine as a kid and the place blew up. For me, that journey to that moment on a dance floor where you can drop a tune like that and it all makes sense because everyone is fully open by then. Well that’s what it’s all about really.

Then I got booked to play The Unabomber’s End of Year Riot. It was another inspiring event. A mad warehouse in Manchester full of absolute loons with a cage around the DJ booth, it was bonkers in there. Next day after no sleep I had to travel to Brazil from Manchester on trains, planes, automobiles and boats. The lives we live and the things we do for music!

Fast forward to the present and Luke and I have both been playing quite a bit in Pikes in Ibiza over the last few summers. It’s another place I find truly inspiring. A lot of passionate music lovers hang there creating magic. It is the torchbearer of the Balearic spirit Luke describes and pushed by people like Harvey, Colleen Cosmo Murphy, Danielle Baldelli and new champions like one of my faves the ace Ruby Savage.

So that’s the story so far. Special places, inspiring events, good people and most of all a love of good music. I’m so excited to play alongside Luke at this year’s Campo Sunday. It’s gonna be a great day out and a proper dance. Let’s go Campo!

So that’s it…. The friend’s episode where Luke met Dicky on a stage in a field at Campo Sancho!

Other treats lined up for Sunday at Campo Sancho include a gospel choir, a new musically curated cocktail bar in the forest – Upwoods – featuring a Balearic soul session from Emma Noble, Ronnie Turner, Dan the Drum and Stuart Patterson plus of course the now legendary closing set from Sancho Panza founders Matt Brown and Jimmy K Tel in the Snare and Hi Hat. 

Continuing the cities of the north connections, Campo’s Saturday night headliners are Glasgow royalty in the form of Optimo, playing after Stockport’s Grace Sands while Nottingham’s Crazy P in the form of Jim Baron and Hot Toddy close Middle Row stage with one of their superb DJ sets.

Campo Sancho takes please from 24th July through to 27th July… more information and tickets including day tickets available from www.sanchopanza.org