Saffron Walden band Miss Disco releases debut single

The song, 'One Step (After Another)', was originally written by Mark Wesley 50 years ago in 1974.

Miss Disco have performed disco's greatest hits at festivals including Glastonbury and Heritage Live for the past 10 years, but they had never considered releasing original material until Mark got in touch.

L-R: Blues & Soul magazine publisher Claire Daniel, Marcus Tinkler of Miss Disco, Blues & Soul editor Pete Lewis, Susan Pinky and Dave Clarke of Miss Disco and songwriter Mark Wesley (Image: Courtesy of Miss Disco) As one of the six Radio Luxembourg DJs in the 1970s, Mark also wrote and produced records for a variety of artists, including Philadelphia Flyers, Leroy Brown and The Miracle Workers.

In November 1976, Mark - who lives in Saffron Walden - self-produced a demo of 'One Step (After Another), complete will a full orchestra at huge expense.

He was confident the song would be a big disco hit, but his plans were scuppered by the emergence of punk.

Mark said: "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."

Mark said he was inspired to send the song to Mis Disco after seeing them perform at Saffron Walden's Dance in the Square event in 2022.

He said: "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 70s to fit seamlessly into their set list.

"And of course, it’s a song they can call their own."

Due for release on Friday, October 18, 'One Step (After Another)' was produced by Miss Disco's keyboard player Marc Rapson (aka Marcus Tinkler).

Marc said: "As a busy live band, we’d never stopped to consider the possibility of becoming recording artists.

"However, a chance conversation with the editor at Blues & Soul magazine convinced us to go for it.

"And we’re so glad that we did, the whole experience has been fantastic."  

The band played a work-in-progress mix to Mark Wesley towards the end of their recording sessions.

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Miss Disco's bassist Dave Clarke (aka DCI) said: We kept the melody from the original demo exactly the same, but we changed the music to better suit how we naturally sound as a live band, which meant we weren’t entirely sure how Mark would react to what we’d come up with.

"Thankfully, he loved it and, as a producer himself, suggested a couple of great ideas which proved to be the icing on the cake."

Mark added: "After all these years, I’d truly resigned myself to the song never seeing the light of day, so Miss Disco have made an old songwriter very happy!"

'One Step (After Another)' will be available on all the usual streaming and download platforms.