Happy Birthday Gary Van Den Bussche, Patrick Biggerstaff and Lol Williams

Three friends of the blog are all celebrating their birthdays today.

Firstly Starpoint radio presenter, UK record promoter, and DSG (Disco Soul Gold) label owner  Gary Van Den Bussche, Izipho Soul Records supremo Patrick Biggerstaff and lead singer of Down To Earth Lol Williams.

I hope both Patrick and Lol's birthday present is the success of the vinyl release of Down To Earth's album "Still Ridin' High" which was officially released on Friday.

I think for Gary it may be a 'big one' i.e. a significant birthday! Gary has been involved in music since the age of 16 when he ran a record shop in London's West End and then became a DJ with residencies in some of London's top night spots including Tramps. He started his own label Disco Soul Gold in 2014 and joined Starpoint Radio in 2017 with his lunchtime show and Get Down Saturday night show.

Every day's a school day! Gary has just commented that his first label was Wizz Records which released house records in the mid 90s and had three UK #1 hits (I get the Ed The Red comment now!). There are plenty of others he has been involved with in his 40 + VAT years (in joke). (Discogs)

Patrick set up Zip Promotions in Oct 2012 which will celebrate its tenth anniversary this year and a spin off from it is arguably the best reissue label in the UK: Izipho Soul. The first (listed) release was in 2017 with Melvin Brown & James Matthews "Love Stormy Weather"  which has a cat. no. of ZP03 ... so I'm not sure whether there were two previous releases. No doubt Pat will let us know.

Lol  (Lawrence) Williams is the lead singer of Down To Earth with his partner Stevie Paul who have been together for over 30 years and had a UK Soul Chart #1 with their album "Still Ridin' High" last Autumn. Lol also released an album in 2005 under the moniker The Lol Williams Band