Is there any online resources compiling James Hamilton's Record Mirror charts from 20 years ago?

I'd like to find the old club charts that appeared in Record Mirror 20 years ago, but I don't seem to be able to find a resource that collates these items and wonder if anyone knows better? I was pointed in the direction of http://scans.chartarchive.org/ which is good, but only has the general RM charts from this time.

i might have a few issues from that time in a box somewhere (mostly bought on ebay a few years back), will see if i can find them

I've started a blog archive of all the disco/dance columns written by James Hamilton for Record Mirror, using transcripts that someone has been creating from microfilm copies of the paper held in the New York Public Library. This person (known only as Shootyourshot) was posting them in the forums of discomusic.com, but these went offline a few months ago and needed a new home. I've added copious YouTube embeds and Spotify playlists, for listening along purposes. All retrievable columns from 1975 are now up, and I've started today on 1976, adding one new column per day.

In these early days, James was writing as much for mobile DJs as club DJs, which leads to all sorts of eclectic weirdness, and a whole lot of naffness amongst the gems. But there are also periodic sideswipes into more interesting genres - and, in today's column, an extended introduction to dub reggae, which reveals impeccable taste.

The blog is at https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/ - hope you like.

Oh, and the club charts are also being posted.

Did you ever read James' early 1992 reviews of UK hardcore breakbeat and proto jungle tracks in DJ magazine? They were great but I can't find any online anywhere. Apparently he used to count the bpm (which were an essential part of his review) by tapping along by hand. He reviewed stuff like early 4 Hero, LTJ Bukem, Acen and particularly memorably Egyptian Empire " Horn Track". If I ever find any I will post. A sample from memory would be something like " droning near Eastern horns and acid squelches end up mildly subservient to the violent amen drum breaks that race in to crash and spurt their way through this 163.2bpm hardcore rattler". Yes he did the bpm to 1 decimal place! Such a sad loss when he passed away.

Actually people discussing his very distinctive style here:

http://www.djhistory.com/node/1057141

wobbly bass hooked lurcher
jiggling, burbling throbber
122-123bpm, urgently striding, piano led thumper

James always had a particular focus on rhythm, so it makes sense that proto jungle would have intrigued him. Meanwhile, today's column (Jan 31 1976) is the first of three special reports from Billboard's first International Disco Forum in NYC - including, to my surprise, his first mention of beat-mixing, which he had just encountered for the fist time. I strongly suspect that this was the first mention of beat-mixing in the UK press, too.

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/1976/01/31/january-31-1976-new-york-disco-scene-special/

I remember his pages, and the very long chart he would do. I never heard any of the records mentioned, but as you say, there were loads of musical styles he would do before anyone - Asian disco for one, as well.

The paper did sort of spoil it by running a "comedy" version of an asian disco chart a few weeks later, lots of "poppadom" jokes, and so on..

It's fascinating to see James introducing some of the key elements of disco/dance culture in such rapid succession within his Record Mirror columns. Within the space of just four weeks, we've had the first mentions of beat mixing (31 Jan 1976), 12-inch singles (14 Feb 1976), and remixing (21 Feb 1976). ("A new breed of engineers who take another producer’s finished record and re-mix the tape to make a brighter version that’s more suitable for play in discotheques.") The world was changing fast.

@mike t-diva, you are awesome.

I second that emotion.

*dimples prettily*

Doing the blog is certainly fuelling my Discogs habit. Top recent discoveries: Cameo "It's Serious" / Norman Connors "Captain Connors".

Thanks for providing the links to info Mike

this is astonishing -- massive props!

I'm doing a new post every other day, and my intermediary tells me that columns are being transcribed through to at least 1989.

one of the few people on earth that could appreciate the Rod Stewart/Scotland 1978 World Cup Squad record.

His taste is commendably broad and fascinatingly singular. He picks out a lot of hits well ahead of time, but is sometimes dismissive of future classics (Young Hearts Run Free springs to mind), and raves about long forgotten flops, e.g. multiple releases by his beloved Dooley Silverspoon.

New feature alert: a full alphabetical list, Guinness Book of Hit Singles-style, of all Disco Chart entries from 1975 to 1979, with highest positions and weeks on chart.

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/chart-archive/a-full-list-of-all-record-mirror-uk-disco-chart-entries-1975-1979/

I've also tabulated the longest runners in the Disco Chart. The table is often strikingly non-canonical.

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/chart-archive/longest-running-entries-on-record-mirror-uk-disco-chart-1975-1979/

oh God, this whole blog. Spotify black hole here I come.

surprising to see some of those charting so well! and all the older hits randomly showing up, several of which would seem to be headscratchers for disco. i don't suppose enough detail was shown directly on the chart (catalog #s etc.) to ascertain whether those were reissues, special mixes or what?

The chart was more pop-orientated in its earlier years, hence a lot of totally non-disco stuff charted high. For example, even in late 1977, Tom Robinson's "2-4-6-8 Motorway" managed to stay at #1 for four weeks. There was a shift of emphasis in spring 1978, when the number of contributing DJs rose dramatically and the chart expanded to a Top 90. By the end of 1978, the chart was purged of all but the very biggest pop hits, but even these charted much lower.

Errrrrrrr....

Andy Cameron
Ally’s Tartan Army / I Wanna Be A Punk Rocker (Klub) — 11 March 1978: 36, 1

People danced to it!

Laurel & Hardy
The Trail Of The Lonesome Pine (United Artists) — 3 January 1976: 9, 1

So, James Hamilton's Record Mirror columns will be coming out in book form next autumn: a 900-page hardback, no less. We've got a VERY well known person to write the introduction. It is all very exciting.

Oh great! Please update when available to buy!

I certainly will.

I see it as a UK equivalent of that Vince Aletti book in certain respects.

oh nice - congrats mike!

Ta-dah!

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/book-promo-image-1-small.jpg
https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/book-promo-image-2-small.jpg

The official publication date is December 7th, but there's a pre-sale, with copies dispatched well ahead of that.

We decided to split the content into two books, so there will be a second volume next year, covering 1983 to 1989.

Greg Wilson and I have also recorded a podcast to introduce the book: Who Was James Hamilton?

We are also going to talk about the book in London in late January, with some DJ-ing afterwards - details to follow.

It is all very exciting.

Is it just the record reviews or will it include the news and gossip he’d write?

congratulations mike t-diva!

Dan: there are over 5000 record reviews, but there's loads of other stuff besides: news and gossip, mini-features, monthly/year-end charts, individual DJ charts/import picks, lengthy introductions from Greg and myself, and it's comprehensively indexed in several ways, so that it can work as a reference book. There are also playlists for each month, containing almost all of the records reviewed (played end-to-end, they'd take about 4 weeks to get through!)

Excellent!

Thanks Mike, sounds great. You can hear his editorial voice in the news section and gives a strong flavour of how things were changing in this period.

brilliant! hope it goes great - will order.

ordered!

Thank you!

this looks great and is going straight on my Xmas list

i've been laid low by the lurgy for the past 8 days, but this book turned up in the nick of time and its been so much fun digging through it. haven't quite had the energy to start looking up stuff i don't know already, but just reading about the things i know and love but given this fuller historical context is so cool (wasn't expecting mag & the suspects, that was fun!). congrats mike! this book, my wife, and crisps have totally saved my christmas (maybe not quite in that order though)

needless to say i've been absolutely bingeing on disco pretty solidly, though albums rather than singles cos i can't keep getting up. from today:

sylvester - m1015
gino soccio - s-beat
revanche - music man
bumblebee unlimited - sting like a bee
black devil - disco club

(^ consider that my chart submission for the week)

My copy arrived today (super fast shipping!), I love dipping in and out of the Vince Aletti book and I already know I'll love this too

Ordered!

the Black Devil Disco Club record is unstoppable, it had a real renaissance here back at its re-release in 2005 or 2006 i recall

i can't stop listening to it at the moment! so good! just a shame about that fucking cover art

Greg Wilson and I will be talking about the James Hamilton book in London, with a Q&A, after which we'll be DJ-ing through to 1am. Tickets are via Eventbrite, either bundled with a purchase of a signed copy, or just for the event itself. What a wonderful opportunity to bang on about my specialist subject all night!

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/walthamstow.jpg

"book launch with a proper club night" is SUCH a great description of a night I would want to attend!

Is there an entry in the book for Kanu Sukalagwun?

There are nine mentions of Kanu Sukalagwun in the index, so the affair is fully documented!

I had to pay 16 euros shipping and 13 euros for customs, but I finally got the book, and the index alone is worth the extra cost. Excellent work, Mike!

Bob Stanley’s lengthy appraisal of the book, and by extension of James, on his (obv paywalled) Patreon, posted today, has blown my mind - sorry, not very informative to anyone else here, but oh my God he NAILS it.

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/norman-cook-rm-disco-charts.jpg

Greg Wilson and I have just started a new monthly podcast series, Record Mirror Disco Charts, in which we pick a Disco Chart Top 20 and examine it in detail. Norman Cook was great value for the first episode (28th August 1982), as we're just at the start of the electro-funk era, and he was jumping on board with it as a fledgling teenage DJ in Brighton clubs.

I also get to read out James Hamilton's reviews of each record in the Top 20, which were very much NOT written to be read out loud, but my struggles to do so may amuse.

That was very entertaining and interesting, and an amazing chart to start with since, as you discuss, one can hear the sound of the moment changing right there and a new era coming in. The initial divisiveness of "Planet Rock" is something I hadn't thought of but makes sense - I was a young teen when it was out and it was just a cool record that the top 40 station from Miami played a lot. Also enjoyed the discussion of Evelyn King (who pronounces her name like "ever-lyn" btw) and her curiously timeless "Love Come Down." Long live the 115 bpm sound!

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. The next one is going to be from December 1979, with a well known/well respected DJ/producer/remixer/label owner who will be a great fit for the period.

Last night at Walthamstow Trades Hall (my new favourite venue in London, proper old school social club vibes, super-friendly and wanker-free), at a book launch event hosted by Rock & Roll Book Club, Greg and I were “in conversation”for an hour, then we both DJed. I recreated one of James Hamilton’s sets from August 1979 ( it will go online soon) and the dance floor reaction was, quite frankly, phenomenal: people got really deep into it, and seeing that happen made me understand James’s strengths as a DJ all the more fully.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. The next one is going to be from December 1979, with a well known/well respected DJ/producer/remixer/label owner who will be a great fit for the period.

Last night at Walthamstow Trades Hall (my new favourite venue in London, proper old school social club vibes, super-friendly and wanker-free), at a book launch event hosted by Rock & Roll Book Club, Greg and I were “in conversation”for an hour, then we both DJed. I recreated one of James Hamilton’s sets from August 1979 ( it will go online soon) and the dance floor reaction was, quite frankly, phenomenal: people got really deep into it, and seeing that happen made me understand James’s strengths as a DJ all the more fully.

glad it's all going so well mike, that sounds like a fun night! look forward to listening to the podcast

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/dave-lee-thunbnail.jpg

It's alright, I'm not gonna spam this thread with every episode of our podcast, but we got Dave Lee (fka Joey Negro) in for the second one (tackling September 1980) and I couldn't be more pleased with it.

https://shows.acast.com/record-mirror-disco-charts/episodes/20th-september-1980-with-dave-lee

I think it would be totally appropriate for you to spam this thread with every episode of the podcast.

I was wondering about the choice to not include music samples. Are you concerned with the legality or is a production issue? I know ghere are similar podcasts that include short snippets with the belief that so long as it’s under a certain amount it’s not a legal issue? I feel like it would really help the context. When I’m listening at my computer I can pause and stream the song, but I often listen while commuting.

> I think it would be totally appropriate for you to spam this thread with every episode of the podcast.

This!

Dan, as I understand it, most podcast hosts don’t allow copyrighted material - for one thing, they’re not equipped to pay royalties for it. Strictly speaking that also applies to short snippets, although I do smuggle these into my other Which Decade podcast. So for this one, there are links in the show notes to three legit playlists: the top 20 tracks in full, a snippet medley (both on Mixcloud) and all the other tracks mentioned (on Spotify).

Oh, and I’m not doing any snippet smuggling on this series as it’s much higher profile (the last episode went Top 5 in Music) and I want to keep a clean whistle!

Understood and don't blame you.

Excellent Guardian feature on James by Alexis Petridis, with quotes from Norman Cook, Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Greg Wilson and myself. It has been my personal mission for the past 7 or 8 years to restore James's reputation as a pivotal figure, so it's great to see this coming to full fruition.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/mar/10/everyone-knew-who-he-was-james-hamilton-the-eccentric-aristo-who-catalysed-british-club-culture

Good stuff.

In the book, I dig that Hamilton will usually have a different write-up about the same song when it appears in multiple months' entries, rather than simply copy-pasting, for example, March 1980's description into April's report. It's like getting a real-time assessment of how DJs and audiences responded to a song a month or two after it reached the clubs.

I knew he was a big fella, but 6ft 8 crikey!

I think it would be totally appropriate for you to spam this thread with every episode of the podcast.

In that case, here's Episode Three with Jeff Young, a "funk mafia" DJ who presented the first specialist dance show on BBC Radio One (Pete Tong taking over the slot when he moved on). It's a chart from September 1977, at a time when pop crossover hits were still charting, when space disco was having a post-I Feel Love moment, and when three of the biggest hits were French.

https://shows.acast.com/record-mirror-disco-charts/episodes/24th-september-1977-with-jeff-young

Episode Four (December 1979) features Morgan Khan, who released all those Street Sounds comps during the 1980s, but in late 1979 was licensing and promoting for the Pye group of labels. One of the tracks he licensed, following a visit to the Sugarhill studios, was Rapper's Delight; he brought an acetate back to the UK and pushed it hard, with "mixed results" as you'll discover.

https://shows.acast.com/record-mirror-disco-charts/episodes/8th-december-1979-with-morgan-khan

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/04-morgan-khan-thumbnail.jpg

a bonafide legend - excited for this! curious to find out what he has been up to.

listened to at work this morning, fantastic episode

Just reshared this awesome diy clock https://www.facebook.com/share/p/12JaZopJSAB/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Honestly, getting Morgan in to talk about Rapper's Delight on this episode was an all-time highlight for me.

Spoiler alert maybe but the part about “rock” being a specific dance and that’s what MJ’s “Rock With You” is about is a new one to me

I don't think any of us were expecting to talk about Kelly Marie, but yes, she really did release a single in 1982 with Joe Sample and Wilton Felder, plus an uncredited Imagination on backing vocals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJQJfybCeyQ

And the Hamilton train rolls on... I was interviewed by Craig Charles for his afternoon show on BBC 6Music, which was broadcast yesterday afternoon. It's on BBC Sounds for a while -https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002cbxx - starts at 1:03:27, ends at 1:26:40.

Then today, the new podcast episode has gone live, with special guest Leee John of Imagination, talking about July 1981. OMG he was Podcast Gold (I felt a bit giddy after the recording) with stories for days, not least an eye-popping tale of a wardrobe malfunction at Top Of The Pops.

https://shows.acast.com/record-mirror-disco-charts/episodes/25th-july-1981-with-leee-john

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-leee-john-thumbnail-500.jpg

https://jameshamiltonsdiscopage.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/05-leee-john-thumbnail-500.jpg