Episode 25 –A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray

It’s 1988 in Manchester, England, and a budding electronic music producer called Gerald Simpson is about to drop off a cassette recording to Piccadilly Radio station of one of his regular acid house jams. Simpson’s hope is that people will hear his work on Stu Allen’s Sunday show which features local demo recordings. When this recording is played on air, among the radio audience is local dj, rapper, and A & R staffer for Rham! Records, Aniff Akinola. Upon hearing Simpson’s demo, attributed to an artist called Jackmaster G, Akinola rides his bike down to the station to get a copy. The tape he acquires of the recording features Simpson’s contact details, including the address of his mother’s house where he is living. Simpson and Akinola duly meet, and on the second such occasion Simpson gives Akinola a tape containing some additional demo recordings of his. When Rham! Records hears the tape they take Simpson into the studio, where he will develop one of these recordings into the track “Voodoo Ray”, which will become an unofficial anthem for The Hacienda nightclub in Manchester, the impending summer of love in the United Kingdom, and acid house globally.

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