Eddie Piller is a British DJ, radio show host, and founder/managing director of

Acid Jazz Records Acid Jazz Records is a record label based in East London formed by Gilles Peterson and Eddie Piller in 1987. The label is the namesake of the acid-jazz subgenre of jazz music for which it is most famously known for producing. Background The la ...

Early life and career

Piller was born in 1962 and grew up in Essex. His father ran a firm of bookmakers and his mother ran the

Small Faces Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966. The band w ...

' fan club during their early years. As a teenager in the 1970s, Piller became interested in the punk scene, and was a fan of the

Buzzcocks Buzzcocks are an English punk rock band formed in Bolton, England in 1976 by singer-songwriter-guitarist Pete Shelley and singer-songwriter Howard Devoto. They are regarded as a seminal influence on the Manchester music scene, the independen ...

before following the mod-revival of the late '70s and early '80s. He credits bands such as

the Chords Chord may refer to: * Chord (music), an aggregate of musical pitches sounded simultaneously ** Guitar chord a chord played on a guitar, which has a particular tuning * Chord (geometry), a line segment joining two points on a curve * Chord ( ...

the Jam The Jam were an English mod revival/ punk rock band formed in 1972 at Sheerwater Secondary School in Woking, Surrey. They released 18 consecutive Top 40 singles in the United Kingdom, from their debut in 1977 to their break-up in December 198 ...

and

Secret Affair Secret Affair are a mod revival band, formed in 1978 and disbanded in 1982 during which period their work is predominantly best-known. They reformed in 2002 and have since then produced an album in 2012. Career Formed after the demise of the ...

for sparking his love of all things mod, indirectly beginning his career in music. During the early '80s, Piller began DJing at mod club nights with great success and decided to set up his first record label aged just 21, releasing a single by R&B band Fast Eddie, whilst a couple of years prior, in late 1979, he had already launched the popular

mod revival The mod revival was a subculture that started in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and later spread to other countries (to a lesser degree). The mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence lasted for deca ...

fanzine ''Extraordinary Sensations'', along with Terry Rawlings. He ran a second-hand record market stall, Marvel's Records, at

Kensington Market Kensington Market is a distinctive multicultural neighbourhood in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Market is an older neighbourhood and one of the city's most well-known. In November 2006, it was designated a National Historic Site of Canad ...

in the early '80s. He appeared in

the Style Council The Style Council were a British musical ensemble, band formed in late 1982 by Paul Weller, the former singer, songwriter and guitarist with the punk rock/New wave music, new wave/mod revival band the Jam, and keyboardist Mick Talbot, previousl ...

's "A Solid Bond in Your Heart" video in 1983. By 1985, Piller was scouted by

Stiff Records Stiff Records is a British independent record label formed in London, England, by Dave Robinson and Jake Riviera. Originally active from 1976 to 1986, the label was reactivated in 2007. Established at the outset of the punk rock boom, Stiff ...

as a label manager and A&R man for the Countdown Records label, where he gave fresh momentum to the underground mod scene by signing bands such as the Prisoners and Makin' Time, and by issuing the mod revival compilation album ''5-4-3-2-1 Go!''. As well as working for Stiff, he set up another label named Re-Elect The President which launched the careers of the

James Taylor Quartet The James Taylor Quartet (or JTQ) are a British four-piece jazz funk band formed in 1985 by Hammond organ player James Taylor following the break-up of his former band The Prisoners (band), The Prisoners, and in the wake of Stiff Records' ba ...

and the Jazz Renegades (a band featuring Style Council drummer Steve White).

Acid Jazz Records

In 1987, along with fellow DJ

Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a French broadcaster, DJ, and record label owner. He founded the influential labels Acid Jazz and Talkin' Loud, and started his current label Brown ...

, he started a new record label,

. This soon gave rise to Britain's newest musical movement, the acid jazz scene, which included bands such as the

Corduroy Corduroy is a textile with a distinctively raised "cord" or wale texture. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between them. Both velvet and corduroy derive from fu ...

Brand New Heavies The Brand New Heavies is an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing in west London. Centered around songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy, the core members of the group since its founding, Brand New H ...

, Mother Earth, Galliano and

Jamiroquai Jamiroquai () are an English funk and acid jazz band from London. Formed in 1992, they are fronted by vocalist Jay Kay, and were prominent in the London-based funk and acid jazz movement of the 1990s. They built on their acid jazz sound in the ...

, most of whom Piller signed in 1992 after Peterson's departure from the label. As well as managing the bands, Piller produced some of the records, most notably Mother Earth's album ''

The People Tree ''The People Tree'' is an album by British acid jazz group Mother Earth that was released on the Acid Jazz Records label in 1993. The album was reissued on vinyl by Acid Jazz Records in 2019. The single "Jesse" has been included on a number of ...

''. Currently, actor

Matt Berry Matthew Charles Berry (born 2 May 1974) is an English actor, comedian, musician, and writer. He is best known for his roles in comedy series such as '' The IT Crowd'', ''Garth Marenghi's Darkplace'', ''The Mighty Boosh'', ''Snuff Box'', ''What ...

is signed to Acid Jazz Records and has released four albums on the label. Piller featured in the music video for Berry's 2013 single "Medicine", as well as in two episodes of his popular television show ''Toast of London''.

The Blue-Note

In the mid-nineties Piller purchased a derelict jazz club which he turned into a nightclub named the Blue Note. Whilst initially used as a way of promoting the record label's music, the club soon built up a large reputation and was open seven nights a week hosting various different club nights including that of musician Goldie's Metaheadz label. The club closed when Hackney Council took the license away.

Radio hosting

Piller has also had a number of radio shows throughout the years on stations such as Jazz FM,

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 15 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the station broadcasts a wide range of content. ...

, and

Q Radio Q Radio was an online, DAB and DTV radio station, broadcasting on digital television across the UK and online. The station launched in June 2008 as an alternative to the UK's rock and alternative stations, with a strong relationship with Q ...

. Between 2014 and 2018, Eddie hosted ''Eddie Piller's Eclectic Soul Show'', broadcast Thursday afternoons on the Internet station

Soho Radio Soho Radio is an independent online radio station that broadcasts over two channels, Soho and NYC + Culture. The studios are based in Soho, London, and on Lexington Avenue in New York It was founded in 2014, with the New York branch opening in N ...

. Piller continues to be influential in the music scene due to his many live DJing appearances. He is a regular at most British festivals and usually appears at the Isle of Wight, Glastonbury, and Bestival, as well as hosting a regular soul-themed club night "Soul Box" at Old Street Records. In late 2010, Piller began to host a regular podcast called "The Modcast". The monthly podcast was co-hosted with

A&R man

Dean Rudland Dean Rudland is a British DJ, compiler, and general manager of record company Acid Jazz Records. Initially interested in 1960s soul music which he found via the early to mid-1980s mod revival scene, Rudland began DJing at a club nights before mee ...

, and features discussions about "all things mod and beyond" including the influence of mod subculture on fashion, television and sport with guests such as musicians Steve Cradock,

P.P. Arnold PP, pp or Pp may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Pianissimo'', a music term meaning ''very quiet'', from musical dynamics * Production code for the 1967–1968 ''Doctor Who'' serial ''The Enemy of the World'' * Police Procedural - a subgen ...

and

Rhoda Dakar Rhoda Dakar (born 1959) is a British singer and musician, best known as the lead singer of The Bodysnatchers, who were signed to the 2 Tone record label. She also worked with The Specials and Special AKA, also 2-Tone artists. Career Dakar, bor ...

, the actor

Martin Freeman Martin John Christopher Freeman (born 8 September 1971) is an English actor. Among other accolades, he has won an Emmy Award, a BAFTA Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award. Freeman's most no ...

and Olympic medal-winning cyclist

Sir Bradley Wiggins Sir Bradley Marc Wiggins, CBE (born 28 April 1980) is a British former professional road and track racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2001 and 2016. He began his cycling career on the track, but later made the transition to r ...

Journalistic career

Throughout his career, Piller has served as a consultant writer for documentaries on youth culture, mod subculture, soul music, and the film ''The Who, the Mods and the

Quadrophenia ''Quadrophenia'' is the sixth studio album by the English rock band the Who, released as a double album on 26 October 1973 by Track Records. It is the group's third rock opera, the two previous being the "mini-opera" song " A Quick One, While ...

Connection''. In 2018, Piller was co-writer of ''Mod Zines'', a book on mod fanzines of the late 1970s and early 1980s.

References

External links

*http://www.baltic-soul.de/ Eddie Piller (DJ) in Europe *https://web.archive.org/web/20080222142442/http://www.modculture.co.uk/piller/ An Interview with Eddie Piller *http://www.themodcast.co.uk/ The Modcast homepage {{DEFAULTSORT:Piller, Eddie Living people English radio DJs English record producers People from Harlow Mod revival Year of birth missing (living people)