The Agency
We’ve established the Wah Wah 45s Agency to act as a specialist one-stop shop for promoters and festivals to book our live acts and DJs. No one knows them as well as we do, and with over fifteen years of experience as promoters ourselves, we like to think we know a thing or two about bookings and how to keep things as simple and hassle free as possible.
On this site you’ll find nine incredible live acts signed to Wah Wah 45s, emitting soulful sounds ranging from dub reggae to afrobeat and electronica, and five top notch, world-class DJs available to deliver heavyweight eclectic selections for your bass bins.
History
Wah Wah 45s came about as the brainchild of the late, great Simon Goss and his brother Chris, alongside DJ Billy Whizz and later on Oscar Goldenchild, kicking off in London in the early 90s with the first proper Wah Wah session at The Old Albany (where the Chemical Brothers started their careers too).
After a series of successful underground parties, the sessions gained the attention of the London Jazz Cafe’s Adrian Gibson who headhunted Simon and Chris to run the venue’s Friday night sessions, playing host to Gil Scott-Heron, Common and Pharoah Saunders to name but a few.
In 1999, Simon and Chris enlisted Mouseorgan’s Dom Servini to join them and during that year also released their first 7″ vinyl a double A-side featuring original track Magnetica by Espen Horne and a re-issue Pearl Baby, Pearl by Benny Poole.
For the next 4 years Wah Wah 45s stuck to the same format of a re-issue coupled with an original track on 7″ vinyl every year, while continuing to develop the club session. In 2003 the label took an important turn with the release of Like Rain/Nappy by Alison Crockett. The track Like Rain was nominated for a Gilles Peterson Worldwide Award.
This was the first move to artist lead releases and subsequently Wah Wah released “Bliss” by Rosie Brown including a Quantic remix (Tru Thoughts) … and another Alison Crockett in the same year.
Many one off recordings were released on vinyl in the following years including tracks featuring Alice Russell and Aaron Jerome now also known as SBTRKT.
Due to Chris Goss’ pivotal role at Hospital records his involvement in Wah Wah became less pronounced, leaving Simon and Dom to run most of the club sessions and the record label alike.
The label continued to move it’s focus and went on to sign and develop new artists including Max Cole, Jamie Finlay, Colman Brothers, Ashley Thomas, Part-Time Heroes, Scrimshire and Talc.
Sadly in January of 2010 Simon Goss lost his battle with cancer. In the wake of this loss Dom Servini and Wah Wah recording artist Adam Scrimshire have taken the reigns of the label. Since 2010 the label has continued to expand and focused even more strongly on artist development. This has included signing new bands such as Hackney Colliery Band, Resonators, Paper Tiger and The Gene Dudley Group plus solo artists including Bev Lee Harling and Lea Lea.
The label’s live shows now take place all over London.
Dom Servini hosts a weekly radio show on Back2Back FM.
There is also a monthly Wah Wah Radio show syndicated to radio stations worldwide.
Wah Wah 45s also run Wah Wah 45s Publishing Ltd.