Celebrated UK disco revue band Miss Disco today (18th October 2024) release their glittering debut single “One Step (After Another)” some five decades after the song was originally written by veteran radio broadcaster and DJ Mark Wesley.
With Miss Disco’s line-up performing disco’s greatest hits at festivals such as Glastonbury, they’d not considered releasing original material until former Radio Luxembourg DJ Mark Wesley contacted them.
After seeing them several times live, he recalled the song he’d penned in 1974, and asked if they’d be interested in recording the track which he wrote back when the disco phenomenon was beginning to spread across the world.
Mark eventually self-produced a demo of “One Step (After Another)” in November 1976 at great expense, complete with a full orchestra. He was confident at that time it could be a big disco hit, but his plans were scuppered by the emergence of punk.
He also wrote and produced records for a variety of record companies’ artists, including The Philadelphia Flyers, Leroy Brown and The Miracle Workers, among many others.
Mark, now a successful author, recalls: “The Sex Pistols’ ‘Anarchy In The UK’ was still ringing in everybody’s ears by the time I started hawking my demo to the various record companies I was working with in early 1977. Unfortunately for me, all they wanted to hear at that moment in time was punk’s next big thing. As they say, timing is everything, so I reluctantly shelved the project and moved on.”
Now 50 years since the song was written, it has finally found its home with Miss Disco. As a long-time fan of the group, Mark’s lightbulb moment came at one of the band’s concerts. “It seemed such a blindingly obvious idea, it’s a wonder I didn’t think of it before,” he says.
“My song has the provenance of an original disco track written and produced for those times, so this has given Miss Disco the opportunity to record an original song that came authentically from the 1970s to fit seamlessly into their set list. And of course, it’s a song they can call their own.”
It is produced and arranged by Miss Disco’s keyboards player Marc Rapson, who has also contributed as a writer to the new version. Vocals: Sue Darwar, guitar: Bill Lennon, bass: Dave Clarke, drums: Warren Woodcraft, trumpet & trombone: Adam Brown, alto, tenor sax’: Loren Hignell, percussion: Simon Todd, backing vocals: Georgie Sweet, Marc Rapson, Sue Darwar. Lyric Video by Warren Woodcraft.
- Miss Disco’s line-up have performed together for 20 years, headlining stages at major festivals and events including Glastonbury, Standon Calling, Cambridge Club Festival, Shambala, Silverstone’s F1 and Moto GP weekends, Camper Calling, Bug Jam and Hamburg Pride. Plus performing at countless private parties, weddings, corporate events, and dozens of their own sold-out shows.
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