“My name is Geoff Kirkwood I’m best known as the DJ and music producer Man Power, but I do a bunch of stuff including experimental art and social projects using music to benefit people from disadvantaged background. I’ve by devoting myself to the things that I love. As a result I’ve worked in music for about the last 20 years.”
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Each week we will be taking a dip into the crates and minds of some of the digging scenes most prolific collectors.
🤔 Who should be on the next RPM feature?
What are your earliest memories of collecting records?
“I remember getting bought 2 seven inches when I was about 4 years old. I wasn’t allowed to use the record player myself obviously . I couldn’t even reach it as it was on top of a hi fi. The records were Roland Rat – The Rat Rap and Stu Francis – Ooh I Could Crush A Grape.”
What is one of your favourite pieces of sleeve art and why?
“The Original Cover to Frankie Goes To Hollywood ‘Relax’ is maybe my favourite ever sleeve. It was designed by Anne Yvonne Gilbert who is from Whitley Bay too, which makes it even cooler.”
Name one institution that changed your life musically, and why…
“Shindig, back when it was at Foundation, changed my understanding of house music. Lots of people say it was better when the club was called the Riverside, but that was before my time.
Foundation still feels like the best club I ever went to, but that’s probably because of the time in my life when I discovered it. Before I started going to Shindig I didn’t really appreciate how a whole nights music can really burrow its way under your skin. I always treated house tracks as individual items, but Foundation allowed me to realise that they can be treated as words in a longer sentence instead.”
Strangest place you found a record….
“I’d left my records at The Tanners Arms in Newcastle after playing there about 15 years ago. I went to collect them the next day in a return taxi. When I loaded the bag in the back of the car the Driver started asking me about them. Normally when this happens the driver just asks me how much I think Tiesto gets paid, but this guy asked me what was in there, so I figured i might as well tell him. Turned out he was on of the big DJs in town in around 87/88 and was there for the whole change over from soul stuff to house. He asked if I wanted to buy his remaining records and I nearly took his hand off. I paid him the equivalent of about £1 a record, unseen. The first record I pulled out at home was a white label UK Hip Hop track which nearly paid for the entire collection. Other great finds were the original pressing of Galifrey on Gherkin records, Rudy Love and The Love Orchestra, and New Deep Society – Warehouse (Days of Glory). There were loads more. It was a great unexpected moment, but it meant that for about 5 years afterwards I asked every single taxi driver who picked me up whether they had any records they wanted to sell me.”
Where is your digging Mecca (city / country) and why?
“I’ve always found LA to be incredible. I’ve never went shopping there without picking out rare records way cheaper than anywhere else. Tel Aviv isn’t very cheap but it does have some very interesting stuff due to the varied origins of the people living there. I’ve got some amazing Soviet records there that i can literally find no information about anywhere.”
