A BRADFORD DJ who had a Top 10 hit that led to him appearing on Top of the Pops is re-releasing it - 30 years later.

James Sammon’s music career began in his home city. He started out spinning discs in the humble surroundings of the Jack in Jill pub in Allerton, now long since closed down.

He then worked as a pirate radio DJ before moving into club DJ-ing and music production.

James adopted the moniker Pianoman, reflecting his distinctive use of the Italian house sound, but has also used other aliases including Bass Boyz and PCP (Piano City Productions).

His reputation grew in the early 1990s with the anthem That Whitney Song, featuring a sample from the Whitney Houston hit I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me).

But it was in 1996 that James had his own taste of mainstream chart success when he sampled Blur’s hit Girls & Boys on his single Blurred. It sold 380,000 copies, reached number 6 in the UK charts and landed him an appearance on Top of the Pops.

He performed the track on an episode of the much-loved BBC TV show that was presented by Take That’s Mark Owen, and also featured music stars Celine Dion, Paul Weller and Peter Andre.

Now Blurred is set to be re-issued - almost 30 years after it first came out - after James signed a new deal with Xploded Music.

Says James: “With Blurred, I wanted to put Bradford back on the map for dance music, like Unique 3 had done before me.”

The piano lines for James’ 1992 anthem That Whitney Song have been sampled by music artist Matt Hibbert on a track called Share The Love.

It was released on record label Trick Records, owned by Newcastle DJ Patrick Topping, which is connected to Ministry Of Sound.

James, who is now based in North Yorkshire, is also planning to re-release another of his earlier tracks, called Cast A Spell.

After more than three decades of recording music for the likes of Ministry of Sound, FFRR/London Records, Polydor Records and Sony Music, he continues to be in demand, with a string of Pianoman gigs lined up over the summer at major dance music events in Leeds, Preston, Liverpool, Blackpool and Middlesbrough.