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Ian Levine

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Ian Levine
Born
Ian Geoffrey Levine

(1953-06-22) 22 June 1953 (age 71)
Blackpool, Lancashire, England
EducationArnold House School
Occupation(s)Disc jockey, record producer, songwriter
Years active1971–present
Known forBlackpool Mecca, Heaven, Record Shack Records, Motorcity Records

Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953)[1] is a British songwriter, producer, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of hi-NRG, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million.[2] Levine is known as a fan of the long-running television show Doctor Who.[3]

Early and personal life[edit]

Levine was born into a Jewish family; his parents owned and ran the "Lemon Tree" complex in Blackpool, including its casino and nightclub.[4] Levine is openly gay.[5] He suffered a major stroke in July 2014, leaving him with severely limited movement on the left side of his body.[6][7]

Levine spent decades tracking down 3,000 of his relatives. He has organised several meetings with hundreds of family members over the years, which have been covered by media outlets. Levine has written books about his genealogy search.[8][9]

Career[edit]

Disc jockey[edit]

Levine began collecting Motown records from the age of 13, building a collection from UK record shops and those his family visited on holidays to Miami and New Orleans.[4] He later became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern soul.[2][4] After his parents emigrated to the Caribbean in 1979, Levine sold most of his records to fund a house purchase in London.[2]

Having attended some early Northern soul all-nighters at "The Twisted Wheel" nightclub in Manchester with DJ Les Cokell,[2][4] after leaving school in 1971 he became a disc jockey at the Blackpool Mecca with Tony Jebb.[10][2][4] Levine joined other DJs in travelling to Stoke on Trent to join the Northern soul all-nighter "Torch", which was quickly shut down but was the fore runner of the Wigan Casino events, which Levine DJ'ed on the 3rd all-nighter.[4] Working with fellow DJ Colin Curtis, the pair was responsible for guiding the Northern Soul scene away from its oldies-only policy and towards modern soul and disco.[2][4] This resulted in BBC Radio 1's DJ John Peel travelling to Blackpool to interview Levine.[2]

Opening on Dec 6, 1979, Levine became the club's first resident DJ at London's gay disco Heaven on its set-up,[2] [10] and there remained through almost all of the 1980s. He finally left in 1989.[2][5] Levine was also the first UK-born DJs to mix records.[11]

Becoming a Songwriter & Producer[edit]

In 1973, Levine caught notice when he turned Robert Knight's "Love on a Mountain Top" into a UK Top 10 hit[1], leading to him assisting Dave McAleer in compiling Solid Soul Sensations the following year, which was released on the British Disco Demand label and reached No. 30 on the UK Albums Chart.[12] With his father's investment, he travelled to New York City and co-produced Reaching for the Best with girl group the Exciters, which reached No. 31 on the UK Singles Chart selling 80,000 records.[2] This allowed Levine to then travel to Chicago, where he auditioned and signed three unknown singers: Postman L.J. Johnson, Barbara Pennington, and Evelyn Thomas. Thomas and Johnson's debut records would both chart in the UK Top 30[2][3], ensuring them both an appearance on Top Of The Pops on Feb 19, 1976 [4][5]. Barbara Pennington would enjoy a big disco hit in the U.S.A. the following year with "24 Hours a Day" (No. 4 Billboard Disco Charts)[6] as would James Wells whose "My Claim to Fame" reached the same position in 1978[7]. Following a string of albums on artists such as Evelyn Thomas, Barbara Pennington, L. J. Johnson, Doris Jones, Tyrone Ashley, Eastbound Expressway, and Seventh Avenue, towards the end of 1979, Levine's record productions came to a halt when he had 4 album deals fall through due to demise of disco, leaving him indebted due to the high production costs[8].

Hi-NRG and Pop[edit]

Main article: Hi-NRG

In 1983, the London-based record shop Record Shack offered Levine £2,000 to set up a new joint-venture record label, Record Shack Records.[2] Through friend Jean-Philippe Iliesco,[13] he used his Trident Studios, and reformed his songwriting partnership with Fiachra Trench after his 3-year recording hiatus.

The first record from the label was "So Many Men, So Little Time" by Miquel Brown,[14] which sold two million copies and got to number 2 on the American Dance Club Songs chart.[2] This was quickly followed by "High Energy" by Evelyn Thomas, Levine's biggest hit, selling more than 7 mio. copies worldwide.[15][16]. Several other dance singles followed, before the partnership with Record Shack ended in 1985.

After several more releases on various labels throughout 1986, Levine set up his own Nightmare Records in December[9], releasing 90 Hi-NRG singles over the next 3 years[10]. He also mixed numerous dance-pop hits for a variety of artists, including Pet Shop Boys, Bucks Fizz, Erasure, Kim Wilde, Bronski Beat, Amanda Lear, Bananarama, Tiffany, Dollar, and Hazell Dean.[2]

Motorcity Records[edit]

Main article: Motorcity Records

It was during his Nightmare Records period that Levine got to work with former Motown singer Kim Weston in 1987, a collaboration that lead Levine to record several other ex-Motown acts, incl. The Supremes' Mary Wilson, Jimmy Ruffin and Brenda Holloway. After a reunion of 60 Motown stars, including Edwin Starr and Levi Stubbs on top of the Pontchartrain Hotel close to the original Hitsville USA building,[2] Motorcity Records was launched as a record label.[2] Initially distributed by PRT, then Pacific, Charly and finally Total/BMG, the label ended in the 1992 due to severe financial losses,[2]. 750 songs had been recorded, and a further 107 songs would be added in the late 90s with Pat Lewis and Brenda Holloway. The label only enjoyed one Pop hit with "Footsteps Following Me", a UK Top 20-hit in 1991[11], ironically by one of the least known singers of the whole roster, Frances Nero.

The Boyband Period of the 1990s[edit]

Following the financial failure of Motorcity Records,[2] Levine wrote and produced hi-NRG-derived singles for various bands, including Take That (he co-produced three tracks on their debut album and co-wrote one), and the Pasadenas (He co-produced three tracks on their Yours Sincerely album of 1992 with Billy Griffin, including the No. 4 UK hit I'm Doing Fine Now (and co-wrote one track with Billy Griffin)).[2]. Levine founded bands, Optimystic; and Bad Boys Inc. After Levine's falling out with Take That's Management, he formed Bad Boys Inc. in 1993 and enjoyed 6 UK singles and a Top 20 album[12] followed by further Top 40-hits with boy band Upside Down[13], Gemini[14], and mixed group Optimystic[15]. He also co-wrote and co-produced the theme music for the 2004 Donna Summer television special "Discomania"[16]. In 2010, Levine formed a new boy band called Inju5tice. After the commercial failure of debut "A Long Long Way from Home"[17], the album release was cancelled, and the group and Levine split. [18].

Returning to Northern Soul[edit]

By 1998, Levine tracked down 179 former Northern Soul singers in the USA for his 4-hour documentary "The Strange World of Northern Soul"[19].

Following the various artists album "Solid Ground" in 2006 (named after his collaboration with Sidney Barnes in 2001 which had become a favourite on the Northern Soul scene[20]), Levine formed Centre City Records in 2007 especially to record a series of albums of tailor-made Northern Soul music, and released 9 albums of 24 tracks each between 2007 and 2012.[17] After a hiatus of 12 years, Levine released his 10th album on the label, "Northern Soul 2024" in March 2024[21] which saw him reform a songwriting partnership with his previous collaborator from the 1970s and 80s, Fiachra Trench.

Doctor Who[edit]

Ian Levine is known as a long running fan of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who.[3] and put a halt to the destruction of old episodes in 1978, as well as returning 21 missing episodes. By purchasing private copies of all the existing episodes, Levine in conjunction with BBC-employee Sue Molden successfully stopped 4 further episodes junkingsMissing episodes. Levine was consulted by members of the production team about continuity for a while during the mid-1980s.[18][19]

In 1985, when the BBC announced that the series would be placed on an eighteen-month hiatus, and the show's cancellation was widely rumoured, Levine was heavily involved with the media protest covertly organised by series producer John Nathan-Turner. He appeared on the ITN's News at One[20] arguing against the decision, and together with the series' production manager Gary Downie gathered a group of actors from the series to record "Doctor in Distress".[21] The single was universally panned.[22]

Levine also organised a private project to recreate the incomplete 1979 Doctor Who story Shada with animation and newly recorded dialogue from many surviving cast members. Levine had hoped that the project would be released on DVD, but the commissioning editor of the Doctor Who DVD range did not use Levine's animation on the DVD release of the story.[23][24] The completed Levine version appeared on torrent sites almost two years later, on 12 October 2013.

Levine has been responsible for producing a number of extras on the Doctor Who DVD releases: the documentaries Over the Edge and Inside the Spaceship were included on the 3-disc set The Beginning, while Genesis of a Classic appeared on the release for Genesis of the Daleks. He also co-wrote the theme music for K-9 and Company, a pilot for a proposed Doctor Who spin-off series featuring the robotic dog and Sarah Jane Smith.

In October 2017, Levine received criticism for his negative reaction to the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, with some deeming his comments sexist.[25][26] In response, Levine claimed he had quit Doctor Who fandom[27] though he later set up a Facebook group Ian Levine's Doctor Who Group.[28]

In 2024, thoroughly disheartened with the BBC’s animation of the old missing episodes, and the way in which they changed them drastically for a new younger audience, Levine privately remade the missing episodes using six separate AI animation teams, and his own audio recordings, making them look as faithful to the original transmissions as was humanly possible. This caused a furore online, with thousands of older fans loving and adoring the work, but in turn, raising a large number of very vocal detractors, who went to amazing lengths to attempt to sabotage the project. As of July 2024, twenty missing episodes were completed with many more in the works.[22]

American comic books[edit]

Levine owned the only complete set of DC Comics in the world, completed in 2004,[29] with at least one copy of each DC comic book sold at retail from 1935 to 2015. His collection was photographed in D.C.'s own official history book.[30] He sold the collection in 2008 "“for a tiny fraction of their value"[23]. Starting November 2023, the entire collection was eventually auctioned off by PBA Galleries[31] in Berkeley, California.[1][32][33][34]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Levine, Ian (7 February 2007). "Ian Levine CV". Ian Levine's MySpace blog. Archived from the original on 7 February 2009. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Ian Levine". DMC World Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  3. ^ a b Turbervill, Huw (10 October 2013). "Doctor Who: the missing episodes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Bill Brewster (2 February 1999). "Ian Levine". DJ History. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  5. ^ a b Tom Bower (2012). Sweet Revenge: Updated Edition. Random House. ISBN 9780345533944.
  6. ^ @IanLevine (5 September 2014). "Tomorrow is my gig in Hammersmith, Cutting Edge, which I need all my true friends to support while I'm in hospital recovering from my stroke" (Tweet). Retrieved 30 November 2014 – via Twitter.
  7. ^ "UK songwriter and producer Ian Levine ailing". SoulTracks. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  8. ^ Panther, Lewis; Harpin, Lee (5 August 2017). "Holocaust survivor's 22 years tracking down 3,000 relatives across 15 countries". mirror.
  9. ^ "Israeli grandfather who thought family perished in Holocaust discovers 500 new relatives". Haaretz.
  10. ^ a b Nowell, David (1 May 2012). "Selected Pages". The Story of Northern Soul: A Definitive History of the Dance Scene that Refuses to Die. Pavilion Books. ISBN 9781907554728.
  11. ^ Brewster, Bill (2014). Last Night a Dj Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey. Grove Press. p. 212. ISBN 9780802146106.
  12. ^ "Solid Soul Sensations". Allmusic. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  13. ^ Famous of the 1981 remix of Burundi Black and Space's 1977 smash hit Magic Fly.
  14. ^ O'Brien, Lucy (2002). She bop II the definitive history of women in rock, pop and soul. New York: Continuum. p. 280. ISBN 9780826435293.
  15. ^ "Evelyn Thomas High Energy". allmusic.com. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  16. ^ O'Brien, Lucy (2002). She bop II the definitive history of women in rock, pop and soul. New York: Continuum. p. 280. ISBN 9780826435293.
  17. ^ "Centre City Records". Discogs.
  18. ^ Bailey, David (1 April 2009). "The Fact of Fiction: Logopolis". Doctor Who Magazine (406). Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent: Panini Comics: 57.
  19. ^ Wood, Tat (2013). About Time 7: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who (2005–2006, Series 1 & 2). Des Moines, Iowa: Mad Norwegian Press. p. 396. ISBN 978-193523415-9.
  20. ^ A clip appears on Trials and Tribulations DVD documentary
  21. ^ "Who cares?". 45cat.com. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  22. ^ McGurk, Stuart (22 October 2005). "Shows of support". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
  23. ^ Southall, J. T. (12 September 2011). "Doctor Who and the Shada Man". Starburst. Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  24. ^ Southall, J. T. (26 October 2011). "TV News: DOCTOR WHO – SHADA Update". Starburst. Archived from the original on 7 July 2013. Retrieved 4 February 2013.
  25. ^ Johnston, Rich (16 July 2017). "Ian Levine's Anti-Jodie Whittaker Doctor Who Tweets Turned Into Hi-NRG Song". Bleeding Cool.
  26. ^ "Ian Levine, Doctor Who's Resident C*nt, Is Quitting the Doctor Who Community". Digital Spy. 17 July 2017.
  27. ^ Levine, Ian [@ianlevine] (10 October 2017). "My 54 year love affair with Doctor Who reduced to this" (Tweet). Retrieved 28 May 2019 – via Twitter.
  28. ^ Facebook post [user-generated source]
  29. ^ "PBA galleries auctioneers new collection 40000+ Every DC". 30 May 2023.
  30. ^ "75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking by Levitz, Paul: Very Good Hardcover (2017) | Vibes & Scribes".
  31. ^ "Home - PBA Galleries".
  32. ^ Flynn, Daniel J. (16 May 2012). "Lost in Time". The American Conservative. Washington, DC. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  33. ^ Zurzolo, Vincent (9 August 2005). "DC Completist Ian Levine Interview all the way from the UK!". Comic Zone. World Talk Radio. Archived from the original on 9 November 2006. Retrieved 25 November 2006.
  34. ^ Levine, Ian (15 July 2005). "The DC Collection Is COMPLETE". Collectors Society Message Board. Retrieved 25 November 2006. [permanent dead link]

Sources[edit]

External links[edit]

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