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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 gen ...
, producer, 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 the ...
, 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 ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the u ...
''.


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 entertai ...
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 ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
. 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 ''moto ...
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 East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
and
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
. He later became an avid collector of soul, R&B, and Northern soul. After his parents emigrated to the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
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 Salford to the west. The t ...
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 The Blackpool Mecca was a large entertainment venue on Central Drive in the seaside town of Blackpool, Lancashire, in North West England, first opened in 1965. In the 1970s, it was particularly known for The Highland Room, which was a major Nort ...
. Levine joined other DJs in travelling to
Stoke on Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, 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 ...
to join the Northern soul all-nighter "Torch", which was quickly shut down but was the fore runner of the
Wigan Casino The Wigan Casino was a nightclub in Wigan, England. Operating between 1973 and 1981, it became known as a primary venue for Northern soul music. It carried forward the legacy created by clubs such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester, the Chateau ...
events, which Levine opened. Working with fellow DJ Colin Curtis, 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 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
'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 belie ...
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 David James McAleer (born 4 February 1945) is the main contributor for the ''Virgin Book of British Hit Singles'', ''The Virgin Book of British Hit Albums'' and the ''Virgin Book of Top 40 Charts'', and was the sole Music Consultant for the ''Guinne ...
with in compiling "Solid Soul Sensations", which was released on the British Disco Demand label and reached No. 30 in the UK Albums Charts. With the proceeds he travelled to
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and co-produced ''Reaching for the Best'' with girl band
The Exciters ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
, 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 = Country , subdivision_name ...
, where he signed postman L.J. Johnson, Barbara Pennington (who both after appearing on
Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, 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 ...
reached the UK Singles Charts), as well as
Evelyn Thomas Ellen Lucille "Evelyn" Thomas (born August 22, 1953) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the Hi-NRG dance hits " High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Reflections", and "Weak Spot". Thomas has an ...
. 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 Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record sho ...
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 produ ...
, 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 ...
. The first record from the label was '' So Many Men, So Little Time'' by
Miquel Brown Miquel Brown (born Michael Brown February 8, 1945) is a Canadian actress, disco/soul singer, former dancer and music video director, in the 1970s and 1980s, most popular for the songs "Close to Perfection" and the Hi-NRG songs " So Many Men – ...
, which sold two million copies and got to number 2 on the American
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 t ...
charts. This was quickly followed by '' High Energy'' by
Evelyn Thomas Ellen Lucille "Evelyn" Thomas (born August 22, 1953) is an American singer from Chicago, Illinois, best known for the Hi-NRG dance hits " High Energy", "Masquerade", "Standing at the Crossroads", "Reflections", and "Weak Spot". Thomas has an ...
. The partnership with Record Shack ended in 1985. Afterward his return to the UK following the financial failure of
Motorcity Records Motorcity Records is a British record label formed by producer Ian Levine in 1989. The label aimed to record new material with former Motown artists. History Levine, a Motown fan since his childhood in the 1960s, was offered a chance to recor ...
, 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 singe ...
(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 num ...
. 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 i ...
; Bucks Fizz;
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 membe ...
;
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 f ...
; Bronski Beat;
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 ...
;
Bananarama Bananarama are an English pop duo from London, formed as a trio in 1980 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. Thei ...
; Tiffany;
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, U ...
; and
Hazell Dean Hazell Dean ( Poole; born 27 October 1952) is an English dance-pop singer, who achieved her biggest success in the 1980s as a leading Hi-NRG artist. She is best known for the top-ten hits in the United Kingdom "Searchin' (I Gotta Find a Man)", ...
. 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. 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 ''moto ...
. 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 ''moto ...
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-on ...
and
Levi Stubbs Levi Stubbs (born Levi Stubbles, June 6, 1936 – October 17, 2008) was an American baritone singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the R&B group the Four Tops, who released a variety of Motown hit records during the 1960s and 1970s. He h ...
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 purch ...
building,
Motorcity Records Motorcity Records is a British record label formed by producer Ian Levine in 1989. The label aimed to record new material with former Motown artists. History Levine, a Motown fan since his childhood in the 1960s, was offered a chance to recor ...
was launched as a record label. Initially distributed by PRT, then Pacific,
Charly ''Charly'' (marketed and stylized as ''CHAЯLY'') is a 1968 American drama film directed and produced by Ralph Nelson and written by Stirling Silliphant. It is based on ''Flowers for Algernon'', a science-fiction short story (1958) and subseque ...
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.


''Doctor Who''

Levine is well known as a fan of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
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' first ...
. He appeared on the ITN's News at One arguing against the decision, and together with the series' production manager
Gary Downie Roderick Gary Downie Pinkus (17 July 1940 – 19 January 2006) was a South African-born English production manager on many 1980s episodes of the long-running science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', and partner of its producer John N ...
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 The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
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 ''Genesis of the Daleks'' is the fourth serial of the twelfth season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. It was written by Terry Nation and directed by David Maloney, and originally broadcast in six weekly parts from ...
''. He also co-wrote the theme music for ''
K-9 and Company ''K-9 and Company'' is a one-episode television pilot, for a proposed 1981 television spin-off of the British science fiction television series '' Doctor Who''. It features former series regulars Sarah Jane Smith, an investigative journalist ...
'', 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 thei ...
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 network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...
'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 Ronan K ...
. 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; a ...
. 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 * C ...
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 and ...
, 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 wr ...
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 ...
.


References


Sources

* * * *


External links


Ian Levine's YouTube ChannelIan Levine's Top 40 Northern soul Playlist "Reaching For The Best"
*
Interview by Bill Brewster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levine, Ian 1953 births Living people People from Blackpool British Jews People educated at Arnold School English DJs Club DJs Doctor Who fandom English record producers English songwriters English film directors English film producers Science fiction fans LGBT DJs LGBT musicians from England British Hi-NRG musicians LGBT Jews Electronic dance music DJs