A Midland(U.K) lad from birth, Andy Williams, one half of The GOODS SOUND SYSTEM team, spent the first dozen years of his life in Littleover, Derbyshire, England. An early musical guru was Jimmy Saville on Top of the Pops, through whom Andy discovered Sly & the Family Stone, Richie Havens, Jackson 5, David Bowie, Desmond Dekker, Minnie Small and Slade.He also learn how to play the piano at 10 years old,under the tutelage of a dreaded Russian Teacher,who would smack the youngsters hand with a ruler for not having the proper technique with his hands.Sports was always an alternative from music,frequently swimming to playing soccer.

Andy's early dreams of stardom on the soccer green were cut short when his Mother(i.e. Iris Victoria Williams) was offered a post in New York as a hospital Matron. Because it was the early '70s, the household was filled every Sunday with Soul Sisthas(Black Female Hippies) sporting Afros and Dashikis,burning and smudging incense, and the sounds of Aretha Franklin, Johnny Nash and Miriam Makeba—not too mention Miles Davis (Coltrane would come later).

Sent to study in Jamaica for two years, he made the Clarendon College soccer team, and the youngster was hearing tropical sounds from reggae to calypso around his environment. Andy's ears were opened up to the artistry of sound and turntable tactics that marked the evolving deejay party culture of Jamaica. His uncle Clyde would wake him at midnight to catch a nearby deejay(Mr.Brown), with toasters like I-Roy and Big Youth, and all the latest hits coming hot off the press.

Williams went on to Toronto,where he attended Parkdale Collegiate,Bishop's University,Sutherland Massage School, and the Toronto Institute of Medical Technology, where he steered himself toward Chiropody (Canadian version of Podiatry).Although Williams' showed a strong interest in academics and health-related programs within the sciences,he had a fascination for radio.

Around the same time, Williams started a radio show at Toronto's CKLN, and met Bruce Tisdale,Jason Palma, A Man Called Warrick and Victor Baines-Marshall.

Though Williams couldn't know it at the time, Toronto was where his future GOODS partner Scott Clyke, a fifth-generation Canadian son of Black Nova Scotian parents, was born and raised—listening to the family LPs, a big stack of Bill Cosby records, Al Hirt,Tito Puente, Mahalia Jackson and lots of church music.

Taking piano lessons until he was 11, Scott elected to become a self-taught drummer at 13, and has stuck with the drums ever since. Where Andy took his musical cues from Top of the Pops, Scott grew up watching The New Music on CityTV (which he calls, "The greatest music show ever created"). That's where he was introduced to Public Enemy, Stetsasonic, the Police, LL Cool J, Kate Bush, Tom Waits, David Byrne, Bad Brains, Prince and Steely Dan. If the show taught him one thing, it was that behind every great song is a person with stories, opinions and views on the world. Ironically Scott's colleagues were also the CKLN radio programmers mentioned above.

Scott made his official debut as a DJ in 1990, with a regular gig alongside DJ Serious at Lola's Lounge at College and Bathurst in the heart of Toronto's downtown scene. With his roots firmly planted in early-'90s hip hop, and the purchase of a cheap sampler, Scott's love of beats and rhymes lead to further musical awakenings in jazz, funk, fusion, soul and the Brazilian spectrum.

In 1994, Andy made the move to Montreal, and found himself DJing at several small venues and loft parties, his favorite being Isart, a laid-back, gallery/perfromance space at the edge of the Old Montreal district. There he found an audience ideally suited to his preferences and vision, and before long discovered the impeccable taste and timing of one Scott C, who in 1995 had moved to Montreal to attend Concordia University, and taken a room upstairs from Isart, where he regularly played records and organized events.
The two, as one might imagine, quickly clicked and began doing nights together. This soon led to the pair enlisting fellow DJs Simahlak and Simon B to form The Brass Knuckles Crew. The quartet established a regular night at Blizzarts on Montreal's main drag, Boul. St-Laurent, where they shared a then-unprecedented mix of funk, soul, hip hop, house, disco, Latin, jazz and Afro-beat with the capacity crowds they attracted for a healthy five-year run.

The dissolution of The Brass Knuckles Crew led to a more ambitious project—the soon-to-be-internationally-renowned monthlies called The GOODS, at la Sala Rossa. Under the banner of "you know what you like, and so do we...," The GOODS' only mandate was and is great music, known, forgotten or yet to be discovered.

Part of the Mile-End concert-hall/café/bar/gallery network central to Montreal's recent high profile in the world's music media, la Sala Rossa boasted a large stage and solid sound system, which could only mean one thing—Scott and Andy were going to bump it up a notch and begin bringing in bands and big-name DJs from around the globe. The guests who have graced The GOODS since its inception in 2002 include Keb Darge, Mr. Scruff, DJ Spinna,Daz-I-Kue. Movement, Quantic, Moonstarr, Tom Thump, Mark de Clive-Lowe, Robert Strauss, Afrodizz, Philarmonix, Mr. Attic, Bembe Segue, John Kong, Kokolo, Specifics, Kahil El-Zabar,Nickodemus, Moonstarr,Dom Servini, Russ Dewbury, DJ Format, Mad Mats, DJ Nu-Mark,Bugz in the Attic,Soul Jazz Orchestra,Joe Bataan,and many more... not to mention the live painting sessions of Heavyweight Art Installations.
Were that not enough, Andy and Scott figured out a few ways for fans of their nights to take The GOODS home with them. They currently host The GOODS radio show on Montreal's CKUT(Radio McGill) every Sunday afternoon, and have compiled charts for Straight No Chaser magazine.

Beyond the GOODS, both Andy and Scott frequently pop up behind the decks at the right parties and shows, in Montreal and beyond. Scott, a music journalist and a former columnist for the Montreal Mirror newsweekly for the last eight years, founded a showcase called Turf Builder, a monthly night showcasing Montreal beat-makers and producers, in 2005. The same year, Scott contributed seven original tracks to Pablo Aravena's feature documentary NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting, alongside music from Quantic, Moonstarr and Sixtoo, while beginning work on his forthcoming albums, the Turf Builder Vol. 1 compilation and his solo production LP, Songs for the Rugged Individualist, both slated for release on Toronto's Public Transit Recordings. Not to be outdone, Andy is the seasoned traveler of the two, having played records around the world in places like London, Cape Town,Paris,Berlin, Bordeaux, Budapest,Frankfurt,Balantamaldi,Addis Ababa,Montego Bay,LA,San Francisco,Belize,Strasbourg Budapest, Graz,Cologne, Vienna, Barcelona, New York,Copenhagen and Stockholm, to name a few. He also has a jazz compilation called Variations in Time on Public Transit Recordings, as well as another project for Chicago's Delmark Records, along with a jazz compilation for Cuban pianist Omar Sosa,and continues work on a long term film archive project called Jazz Diaspora, featuring interviews with jazz legends from around the globe.

On Facebook: The Goods (the event) and The Goods Soundsystem (the team).