Russ Winstanley (born 21 October 1952) is an English DJ, originating from Beech Hill, in

Wigan Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

Early life

He attended Wigan Grammar School.

Career

He is best known for his championing of Northern Soul music at the Wigan Casino. Since its closure in 1981, Winstanley has still been active, both on the Northern Soul circuit and in

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

. He has hosted his own show on BBC GMR and XFM in Manchester, and has had a regular northern soul show on BBC Radio Lancashire. On 23 September 1973, Winstanley had the idea for putting on and DJing at the Soul Allnighters at Wigan Casino. Over four million people passed through the venue, which ran four nights per week, until 6 December 1981. Both Wigan Casino and Winstanley won many awards for best venue and best DJ. In 1997, Winstanley compiled Telstar Records northern soul album ''Soul Survivors''. In 1998, his book ''Wigan Casino Story'' joined the bestsellers' list. He was also music consultant on the Bolton Octagon's re-staging of ''Once Upon A Time in Wigan''. It was based loosely on Paul Sadot's original sell-out production of 2003. Ace/Kent Records released a CD

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

in 2004. featuring music consultant and director, Paul Sadot's tracks from the original production.

References

English radio DJs British club DJs Soul music Living people 1952 births {{UK-music-bio-stub