Ian Geoffrey Levine (born 22 June 1953) is a British
songwriter
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music ...
,
producer
Producer or producers may refer to:
Occupations
*Producer (agriculture), a farm operator
*A stakeholder of economic production
*Film producer, supervises the making of films
**Executive producer, contributes to a film's budget and usually does not ...
, and DJ. A moderniser of Northern soul music in the UK, and a developer of the style of
Hi-NRG
Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated in the United States during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
As a music genre, typified by fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and th ...
, he has written and produced records with sales totalling over 40 million. Levine was once known as a fan of the long-running television show '' Doctor Who''.
Early and personal life
Levine was born into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family; his parents owned and ran the "Lemon Tree" complex in Blackpool, including its
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live enterta ...
and
nightclub
A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music.
Nightclubs gener ...
. Levine is openly gay. He suffered a major stroke in July 2014, leaving him with severely limited movement on the left side of his body.
Career
Disc jockey
Levine began collecting
Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...
records from the age of 13, building a collection from UK record shops and those his family visited on holidays to
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
R&B, and Northern soul. After his parents emigrated to the Caribbean in 1979, Levine sold most of his records to fund a house purchase in London.
Having attended some early Northern soul all-nighters at "The Twisted Wheel" nightclub in
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...
with DJ Stuart Bremner, on leaving school in 1971 he became a
disc jockey
A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include Radio personality, radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music f ...
at the Blackpool Mecca. Levine joined other DJs in travelling to
Stoke on Trent
Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement in Staffordshire and is surrou ...
to join the Northern soul all-nighter "Torch", which was quickly shut down but was the fore runner of the Wigan Casino events, which Levine opened. Working with fellow DJ
Colin Curtis
Colin Benedict Curtis (born February 1, 1985) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. In 2010, he played for the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB).
Amateur career
Curtis attended Issaquah High School, where he ...
, the pair was responsible for guiding the Northern Soul scene away from its oldies-only policy and towards modern soul and disco. This resulted in
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...
's DJ
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...
travelling to Blackpool to interview Levine.
In 1979, Levine began advising
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
's gay disco
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the bel ...
on its set-up, and became the club's first resident DJ, remaining through most of the 1980s. Levine was also one of the first DJs to mix records in the UK.
Writer/producer
In 1974 Levine assisted Dave McAleer with in compiling "Solid Soul Sensations", which was released on the British Disco Demand label and reached No. 30 in the
UK Albums Charts
The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...
. With the proceeds he travelled to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
and co-produced ''Reaching for the Best'' with girl band The Exciters, which reached No.31 on the
UK Singles Charts
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
selling 80,000 records. This allowed Levine to then travel to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, where he signed postman L.J. Johnson,
Barbara Pennington
Barbara Pennington (born 1950s) is an American Hi-NRG and soul music artist of the 1970s and 1980s.
Career
Pennington was born in Chicago and began her musical career when she was discovered by Danny Leake and introduced to Hi-NRG and soul rec ...
(who both after appearing on
Top of the Pops
''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most o ...
reached the UK Singles Charts), as well as Evelyn Thomas. Although Thomas's 1976 record ''Weak Spot'' was not a big success reaching No. 26 in the UK, Levine later co-produced Thomas's 1984 record '' High Energy''.
Hi-NRG and Pop
In 1983, the London-based
record shop
A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were ...
Record Shack offered Levine £2,000 to set up a new joint-venture
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the prod ...
, Record Shack Records. Through friend Jean-Philippe Iliesco he used his
Trident Studios
Trident Studios was a British recording facility, located at 17 St Anne's Court in London's Soho district between 1968 and 1981. It was constructed in 1967 by Norman Sheffield, drummer of the 1960s group the Hunters, and his brother Barry. ...
, and formed a songwriting partnership with
Fiachra Trench
Fiachra Terence Wilbrah Trench (born 7 September 1941, in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician and composer from Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland.
Trench first studied Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, before moving on to t ...
Dance Club Songs
Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as ...
charts. This was quickly followed by '' High Energy'' by Evelyn Thomas. The partnership with Record Shack ended in 1985.
Afterward his return to the UK following the financial failure of Motorcity Records, Levine wrote and produced Hi-NRG-derived singles for various bands, including
Take That
Take That are an English pop group formed in Manchester in 1990. The group currently consists of Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen. The original line-up also featured Jason Orange and Robbie Williams. Barlow is the group's lead sin ...
(he co-produced three tracks on their debut album, and co-wrote one), and
The Pasadenas
The Pasadenas were an English R&B/pop group. They had two UK top 10 albums and eight UK top 40 hit singles, including "Tribute (Right On)" (1988), "Riding on a Train" (1988) and "I'm Doing Fine Now" (1992).
Career
The group scored a UK numb ...
. During the 1980s and 1990s he co-wrote and/or mixed a number of
dance-pop
Dance-pop is a popular music subgenre that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit radio. Developing from a ...
hits for a variety of artists, including:
Pet Shop Boys
The Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of primary vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 50 million records worldwide, and were listed as the most successful duo ...
Erasure
Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a member ...
;
Kim Wilde
Kim Wilde (born Kim Smith, 18 November 1960) is an English pop singer, DJ and television presenter. She first saw success in 1981 with her debut single " Kids in America", which peaked at No. 2 in the UK. In 1983, she received the Brit Award ...
;
Bronski Beat
Bronski Beat were a British synthpop trio which achieved success in the mid-1980s, particularly with the 1984 chart hit " Smalltown Boy", from their debut album '' The Age of Consent''. "Smalltown Boy" was their only US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 ...
;
Amanda Lear
Amanda Lear (; born 1939) is a French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model.
She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and ...
Tiffany
Tiffany may refer to:
People
* Tiffany (given name), list of people with this name
* Tiffany (surname), list of people with this surname
Known mononymously as "Tiffany":
* Tiffany Darwish, (born 1971), an American singer, songwriter, actress kn ...
;
Dollar
Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar ...
; and Hazell Dean. He has also latterly written and produced several TV themes including "Discomania", "Gypsy Girl", "ITV Celebrity Awards Show", "Christmasmania" and "Abbamania".
Manager
Levine founded bands, including: Seventh Avenue, which featured two members of Big Fun; Optimystic; and
Bad Boys Inc
Bad Boys Inc were a British boy band, formed in 1993 by the record producer Ian Levine. Signed to A&M Records, the members were David W. Ross (born 15 March 1974 in Bournemouth), Matthew Pateman (born 14 May 1971 in Sidcup, Kent), Tony Dowdi ...
. In 2010 Levine formed a new boy band called "Inju5tice". After the commercial failure of debut "A Long Long Way From Home" the band and Levine split, and the band relaunched itself as ELi'Prime.
Record labels
In 1987, Levine began recording some former artists from
Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...
. After a reunion of 60
Motown
Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''mot ...
stars, including
Edwin Starr
Charles Edwin Hatcher (January 21, 1942 – April 2, 2003), known by his stage name Edwin Starr, was an American singer and songwriter. Starr was famous for his Norman Whitfield-produced Motown singles of the 1970s, most notably the number-one ...
and Levi Stubbs on top of a hotel opposite the original
Hitsville USA
"Hitsville U.S.A." is the nickname given to Motown's first headquarters and recording studio. The house (formerly a photographers' studio) is located at 2648 West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, Michigan, near the New Center area. The house was pur ...
building,Motorcity Records was launched as a record label. Initially distributed by PRT, then Pacific, Charly and finally Total/BMG, by the time that the label ended in the 1990s due to severe financial losses, 850 songs had been recorded by 108 artists.
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...
television series ''Doctor Who''. Levine was, in part, responsible for the return of a number of missing episodes of the show to the BBC's archives. He also retained many off-air recordings. Levine was consulted by members of the production team about continuity for a while during the mid-1980s.
In 1985, when the BBC announced that the series would be placed on an eighteen-month hiatus, and the show's cancellation was widely rumoured, Levine was heavily involved with the media protest covertly organised by series producer
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner ('' né'' Turner; 12 August 1947 – 1 May 2002) was an English television producer. He was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series '' Doctor Who''. He was also the final producer of the series' fi ...
. He appeared on the
ITN
Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based television production company. It is made up of two divisions: Broadcast News and ITN Productions. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, N ...
's News at One arguing against the decision, and together with the series' production manager Gary Downie gathered a group of actors from the series to record '' Doctor in Distress''. The single was universally panned.
Levine also organised a private project to recreate the incomplete 1979 ''Doctor Who'' story '' Shada'' with animation and newly recorded dialogue from many surviving cast members. Levine had hoped that the project would be released on DVD, but the commissioning editor of the ''Doctor Who'' DVD range did not use Levine's animation on the DVD release of the story. The completed Levine version appeared on torrent sites almost two years later, on 12 October 2013.
Levine has been responsible for producing a number of extras on the ''Doctor Who'' DVD releases: the documentaries "Over the Edge" and "Inside the Spaceship" were included on the 3-disc set "The Beginning", while "Genesis of a Classic" appeared on the release for '' Genesis of the Daleks''. He also co-wrote the theme music for '' K-9 and Company'', a pilot for a proposed ''Doctor Who'' spin-off series featuring the robotic dog and
Sarah Jane Smith
Sarah Jane Smith is a fictional character played by Elisabeth Sladen in the long-running BBC Television science fiction series ''Doctor Who'' and two of its spin-offs. Sarah Jane is a dogged investigative journalist who first encounters alien t ...
.
In October 2017, Levine claimed he had quit ''Doctor Who'' fandom in response to harsh criticism from other ''Who'' fans.
American comic books
Levine claimed to have the only complete set of
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery.
DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with their f ...
in the world, with at least one copy of each DC comic book sold at retail from the 1930s to 2004. He later sold the collection.
Genealogy
Levine started working on his family tree after his grandmother Golda Cooklin died on February 18, 1995. In July 1996 they organised a Cooklin Reunion in London for 400 people, covered on the BBC Evening News. They discoved that Cooklin was an anglicised version of Kuklya, from Latvia. In July 2017, they organised a huge Kuklya Reunion in Watford for 500 people from all over the world which was covered in a five-minute piece on the
BBC One
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...
's
The One Show
''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weeknights at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Jermaine Jenas, and Rona ...
. and a two-page centre spread of the Sunday Mirror. In October 2018, a group of 100 family members gathered in Rezekne in Latvia to lay a memorial stone to the family, many of whom were killed in
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
. In September 2019, there was another reunion in Haifa in Israel, for 150 family members. In 2016, Ian Levine made a four disc, eighteen hour documentary on DVD called "The Cooklins Anthology", distributing one thousand copies for the entire family. In February 2017 Levine wrote and created a 608-page book, "The Kukla Chronicles", again distributing one thousand copies for the entire family. Levine is distantly related to
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, the
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth
The Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth is the senior rabbi of the United Synagogue, a union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues.
As of 2013, the chief rabbi is Ephraim Mirvis.
See also
* Chi ...
Ephraim Mirvis
Rabbi Sir Ephraim Yitzchak Mirvis (born 7 September 1956) is an Orthodox rabbi who serves as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. He served as the Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1985 and 1992.
Early life a ...
, the celebrated writer
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow (born Solomon Bellows; 10 July 1915 – 5 April 2005) was a Canadian-born American writer. For his literary work, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts. He is the only w ...
and the film director
Harold Ramis
Harold Allen Ramis (; November 21, 1944 – February 24, 2014) was an American actor, comedian, director and writer. His best-known film acting roles were as Egon Spengler in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984) and '' Ghostbusters II'' (1989), and as Russel ...