Record Mirror Disco Charts Episode 5, with Leee John

Leee John joins Greg Wilson and Mike Atkinson for a Disco Chart Top 20 countdown from July 1981.

Already a committed clubber and an active member of the Britfunk community, Leee had just started to find success with his band Imagination, who had been signed to Morgan Khan’s R&B label, and so he has vivid memories of this particular period (including an eye-popping tale of a wardrobe malfunction at Top Of The Pops).

This was a transitional time: the disco era was over, the electronic era had yet to emerge, but the beat went on, with a focus on skilled musicianship and carefully crafted production values. And as always, you’ll also get to hear what James Hamilton thought of each track that we discuss.

To accompany this episode, you can listen to this entire Top 20 in full, or alternatively as a shorter medley of snippets.

Further listening: other tracks mentioned in this episode (Spotify playlist).