Seymour Nurse: George Power brought Paul Murphy into the Jazz Room after you and Boo left the Electric Ballroom. Paul fully established himself there and created quite a legacy. How was your connection with Paul as a DJ and record dealer?
Colin Parnell: We had little relationship with him at all. We shared some of the same crowd at times, but I was told that he never had the size of crowd to create the atmosphere we had at the Horseshoe, despite the fact that he had the same venue on a different night until we took the Friday and blew him out of there. George Power had a bit of a marketing machine and of course Paul did not. There was never any real needle between us, he was always quite suspicious of us I understand, and occasionally we would hear from the dancers on this subject that he knew us both.
I never went to any of his gigs, or his record shop in Exmouth market. I seem to remember that Boo had been a few times and then he banned him because he claimed that we were not telling people that we got our records from him. I believe we played six records from there!
That said, he knew his stuff all right and I believe at that time he made a telling contribution to the Jazz Fusion scene and the dancing that came from that period as we did.
Of course, he was the only person who could have taken over from us at the Electric Ballroom, and the ever shrewd George Power moved quickly to secure his services. The crowd was already there of course, our legacy from the Horseshoe. It was strange looking back and a little sad I guess that we never did anything with Paul.
How did you meet Paul Murphy?
I met Paul because basically I started to hang out with a friend, who was playing for Brentford Football Club, and he was really mad into Jazz, and he got me into the Jazz scene. Although I had some idea after listening to Robbie Vincent and Gilles on the radio, my friend was really into that emerging Jazz Dance scene. He was a few years older. He took me to Paul`s shop, `cos Paul had a few shops in the basement of the Record Shack, Fusion Records in Exmouth Market as well, and I used to go with him on Saturday mornings or afternoons, before or after he`d been playing football. Later I met Paul because I started going to The Wag Club with the same friends on Monday nights. I was still in school then and Paul was also doing a club called Sol Y Sombre in Soho, which was on the North side of Soho. The South side was a no-go zone at night. A Mexican place. Paul used to play there on Fridays. I used to go there and get the last train home when I was about 15.
All stories would suggest that Paul is a pretty full on character. Creating the Jazz Dance scene in London, and ditching it as soon as the media started to latch on to it. Handing his rider of a crate of vodka out to crowd in Japan.
Yeah Paul`s pretty crazy. But he`s a really nice guy, a really really cool guy. You know it`s weird but I always had a nice synergy (laughs) with him. He was always really nice to me, I think because I was so young. He always used to give me records. I don`t think he used to charge me for some of the records when I was buying in the Record Shack or Fusion. When he started playing at these clubs he knew me because I`d been going to his shops. You say he`s a pretty full on character but he`s always been really sweet with me. He would buy me tequila and orange juice at Sol Y Sombra and I would go home so pissed after two of those. He would keep bringing me drinks. He is a radical definitely. A very alternative guy and again very important for me, even though he probably does not know that.