QTheMusic.com

Designer Wayne Hemingway is curating the Vintage Festival which is taking place at the Southbank Centre in London next weekend (29-31 July). The event is aiming to recreate the spirit of 70s discos, 40s jive and the northern soul palace Wigan Casino among others.

The festival will feature performances from the likes of Percy Sledge, Sandie Shaw, Depeche Mode's Alan Wilder, David McAlmont and more. See Southbankcentre.co.uk for line-up and ticket details.

To mark the festival, Hemingway has picked a personal 'Vintage selection' playlist for Q:

Ashford & Simpson - It Seems To Hang On
"What a Soul record! What a Disco record! The remixes of it that have been done by the likes of Dimitri from Paris, and any version of it... I defy anybody, whether they love black music or don't love black music, not to feel uplifted, and want to get on the dance floor to that, but also to sing along. It's just a timeless amazing record."

The O'Jays - I Love Music
"That track probably came out when I was 15, and I first heard in Blackpool Mecca. It sums up everything that I've always felt about soul music. Number one, I love it. Number two, uplifting lyrics that made you just want to sing, and want to dance. I don't think I've ever DJed a dance set and not played that track."

Norman Connors - Once I've Been There
"He was just a brilliant writer and a brilliant producer, and did a limited number of his own tracks, and this is probably the best one."

Archie Bell And The Drells - Let's Groove
"Well Archie Bell And The Drells have been around since the 60s and did an amazing funk record called Tighten Up. This one again, just packed the disco dance floor. This one just reminds me of getting on the floor with Mrs H, and all our mates as teenagers."

Chaka Khan - I Know You, I Live You
"Chaka Khan is obviously known for I'm Every Woman and all sorts of big dance tracks, but this one was off of a later album that she did at the beginning of the 80s. It's soul music at it's best. It's always great to find underplayed tracks from artists that everybody only concentrates on a couple of their tracks. I think it's great to explore artists and see what else they've got to offer, and this is something special."

Funkadelic - One Nation Under A Groove
Well this is George Clinton having his day and he was part of Funkadelic. This was political; it came out in a time where black power was being talked about a lot at the time. And this was saying that we're all one together. It's got an amazing beat and it was fresh at the time, and it's still fresh today."

Gene Chandler - Get Down
"This is an example of out and out pure disco, not trying to be clever, not trying to do anything political... just saying, let's just get out on the dance floor and dance, and that's quite a nice sentiment really."

Gill Scott Heron - The Bottle
"Without a doubt, this would be in my top three records of all time... maybe number one because this is a guy that was campaigning against what was going wrong in black society. Not just black society but all society. He used to come into it himself all the time, but yet he was still trying to solve the problem. The great thing about this record is that people genuinely applaud after you've played it. It's one of those things that just makes you think, Oh my God, could anybody ever have made a record that good, and you think, yeah!"

GQ - Disco Nights (Rock Freak)
"GQ, another kind of band that people don't know a lot about but they had some hits in the 70s. It just has a great hook to it and some great little beats to it, and would defy anybody to dance to it."

Kool & The Gang - Open Sesame
"It's just a really funky, groovy, track with nonsensical lyrics, Get down with the genie. I love the innocence of it . So many tracks nowadays are either a bit aggressive or about things that have gone wrong in life, and sometimes, all we want to do is dance."

Positive Force - We Got The Funk (12" Mix)
"Amazing. It's got a break down in the middle where it names all of these fantastic 70s names, the people in the band, and they're all saying we've got the funk. It's a bit like rap before rap was thought about."

T-Connection - Do What You Wanna Do
"Very unusual dance record, isn't it heavy on the drums? Builds up into a crescendo, and then takes you down. Another enormously long track. When you're DJing, you always just want to let it play out as the people are getting down to

Shalamar - Take That To The Bank
"Shalamar did three or four amazing dance tracks but this is probably the one that wouldn't get played as the cheesy disco thing. But it's the coolest track and my favorite by a long way."

James Brown - Get Up Off That Thing
"Well James Brown obviously, the Godfather Of Soul... this one just absolutely packed the floor and it still would. The great thing about playing a James Brown track is that it's just infectious.

11:04 AM | 22/07/2011