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'I signed Calvin Harris while he was stacking shelves in M&S'

Giancarlo RinaldiSouth Scotland reporter
News imageAuthor's collection A black and white photo of DJ Calvin Harris in a suit with a T-shirt underneath alongside Mike Pickering in a leather jacket with dark glasses and grey receding hairAuthor's collection
Mike Pickering signed Calvin Harris - real name Adam Wiles - after hearing his music in the background of a phone call

Mike Pickering was fed up with listening to "absolute turgid indie bands playing rubbish music" when he stumbled across a sound that excited him.

It was the mid-2000s, when he was working as an A&R man with Sony's Columbia label. He was on a phone call to a publisher when he heard some music he liked playing in the background.

He "zoned out" from the conversation and zoomed in on the tune - The Girls by Calvin Harris - and immediately asked for his number with a view to signing him.

They met in a Costa Coffee at King's Cross Station and Harris - real name Adam Wiles - told him: "If you're interested you have to do this deal straight away because I'm sick of stacking shelves at Marks and Spencer in Dumfries."

News imageA man with a reddish-grey beard wearing glasses with a grey and blue scarf on, flat black cap and leather jacket. He is sitting on a spotted sofa.
Pickering has written a book about his own music career which included signing Harris

"He was very gangly and geeky," recalled Pickering - who had a major musical career of his own with M People and as a DJ, which is recounted in his new book Manchester Must Dance.

"He looked nothing like he does now - he just looked like a normal kid from Scotland or the north of England."

However, he said he recognised something in Harris that would work for his label.

"Adam always knew what he wanted to do, always, and I used to look for that in an artist," he said.

"You get artists who sometimes may be talented, but they don't really have an idea of what they want to be and that's a bit of a battle.

"He didn't know he wanted to be the world's number one DJ - you know what I mean - but he had belief in the music that he was making and he was obviously a very talented songwriter."

Calvin Harris talked to BBC Scotland as he set out on his musical career

It didn't take them long to hit it off in that first meeting.

"We spent about 20 to 25 minutes and I told him what I thought and he obviously liked it because we signed a deal," he said.

"We've been very, very close in a working and a personal relationship ever since."

Initially, that included a band before Harris went solo.

News imageAuthor's collection What looks like a Polaroid picture of a band on a plane with Calvin Harris back left and Mike Pickering front rightAuthor's collection
Initially Harris was part of a band from Dumfries but went on to a solo career

"He had a five-piece group - all the guys were from Dumfries, actually," said Pickering.

"So it was good fun as well, I mean, because they were really funny guys, and as you can imagine, five guys from Dumfries on the road was never a dull moment."

Their close relationship has continued down the years.

He said: "He still sends me tracks now to say, what do you think of this?"

News imageGetty Images Calvin Harris with very dark hair. He is sitting in a low deckchair, wearing black jeans, trainers and a brown jumper. Getty Images
Calvin Harris looked very different when Pickering first met him

In Pickering's estimation Harris sits somewhere "between an artist and a DJ".

"Unlike other DJs, everything he plays is written by and produced and made by him and they're all global hits," he said.

"He's one of the greatest writers that Britain's ever produced.

"He's broken so many records - he broke Michael Jackson's record on the 18 Months album of hits from an album, I mean, it's just incredible and it keeps going."

It is the kind of longevity that few artists, in Pickering's experience, enjoy.

"People don't normally have this time span of hits, when you think about it," he said.

News imageGetty Images The band M People pictured in the 1990s with Mike Pickering on the left and Heather Small at the frontGetty Images
Pickering was part of M People during his lengthy career in music

He said even great artists tended to be successful over quite a narrow time frame.

"They have like two or three albums in a five to 10-year period that they're still playing out now," he said.

"Adam's still doing them - he's got another one in the can now.

"He sent it to me a few months ago - he wasn't too sure about it - I said, it's a smash, and that's coming out soon."

Harris himself has contributed to Pickering's book - published by Manchester University Press - writing one of four forewords along with Martin Fry, Johnny Marr and Noel Gallagher along with a separate chapter.

News imageGetty Images A statue of Robert Burns in Dumfries on a snowy day with lots of people with umbrellasGetty Images
Pickering suggested Harris deserved a statue of his own for helping put Dumfries on the map

Despite their long-standing relationship, Pickering said he had not been to the star DJ's home town.

"When I first started going up to Scotland, they had that place in Glasgow but I always wanted to go to Dumfries," he said.

"There was a club there that they used to all go on about.

"I was like, I want to DJ there and they were like, no, you don't - you really don't want to DJ there.

"But it's fabulous that he's put it on the map, isn't it? Surely a statue beckons."

There are no plans for one yet, nor any performances in Dumfries, but Scottish fans will at least get a chance to see Harris in action in homecoming gigs at Hampden next summer.