The History

In The Beginning  

Cast your mind back to a time when DJ’s spoke between every record, announced happy birthday to whoever was celebrating and advertised the latest drinks on offer from the bar. No matter where you went clubbing you could guarantee that there would be an introduction to each record by a mad crazy “whacky” DJ. This was the norm back then but something was stirring in the music scene, something underground was happening, DJ’s  were bored with talking, DJ’s just wanted to play the music non stop.  

And so my story begins....................... Travelling back from work in my car in 1981, I was listening to Peter Powell on Radio 1 when he featured a “mix” by a DJ called Steve Howlett, better known as “Froggy”. He played about 3 or 4 records back to back but they were beat mixed together so they sounded like one record! In this day and age we take for granted that records will be mixed but back then this was a revelation to me and many others. I needed to find out more about this exciting new “style” of DJ’ing and so my journey began.  

First Equipment  

I sought out information on equipment and made a journey to Roger Squires disco emporium on Deansgate in Manchester with my hard earned “ackers” and purchased a pair of "Citronic" belt drives and mixer. I started buying 2 copies of the latest big tunes (bear in mind that house music had not arrived on these shores yet ) much to the amusement of the local record stores and also my friends who couldn’t get their heads around the fact that I wanted to play 2 records at the same time.

I spent many hours messing round with the dodgy vari speeds trying to get records to beat match and then “Mixmag” started running a monthly article on which records mixed with which ( aah, the innocence of it all ) and I was on my way.  

First Gig  

The first time I mixed in public was at the local social club using a twin deck mobile system with the most basic vari speed facility, however, 2 records of the same BPM and similar styles can be made to mix with a bit of pushing and shoving and so I impressed at least the mobile DJ who was still well into the inter-record chat of yesteryear. I was inspired by the fact that people kept dancing whilst I mixed and they didn’t notice the join.

So I kept on practicing in my bedroom, buying all the latest tunes, mainly soul dance tunes which were big at the time. “Cameo” had just released “She’s Strange” and “ Single Life” which both came with double packs offering different versions and all had the same production so that they mixed well together. They still sound good together even now. I also used to mix a lot of Madonna records together in a kind of “megamix”, most of which I had on 7” so they were only short versions making it even harder to get the mix right. So that I could get the mix in in the right place I would write down all the places that I should be starting the next record spinning so that the mix point would be correct!  

It’s the new style  

The start of the next phase of DJ’ing was that I remember my local record store selling me a record that was just in from the USA called “jack your body” by Steve Silk Hurley and that was when my mixing career really began. House music was made by DJ’s who wanted to play music back to back for continuous dancing and I loved it. I managed to build myself a “set” of tunes that I could mix for about an hour non stop ( remember that we are still in 1986/87 here ) and I went to a local bar called “ Joe’s Wine Bar” in Chester to talk to the resident DJ and try and persuade him to let me play.  He introduced me to the Manager and they agreed to let me do an hour as a demo the next Saturday night. To say I was nervous was an understatement when I turned up the following week. I was to play from 10:00 till 11:00 (  peak time ) and was left to my own devices. I mixed for an hour and played music that had never been heard in there before, ( I played Natalie Cole’s “Pink Cadillac”,  C&C Music Factory and I think a Martha Wash tune ) the boss enjoyed the music and my career began. Big respect to Mark for giving me the chance I needed.  

Epoch  

When I had saved a bit of money I bought my first Technics SL1200 and then a few months later when I realised the beauty of direct drive I purchase a second. Things were beginning to hot up on the music scene too. I was buying “Mixmag” and “Jocks” ( later to become DJ magazine ) and read about underground parties and raves with DJ’s such as Grooverider, SS and a certain Mr Carl Cox. I also read about a bar in Ibiza where the DJ’s played music to the sunset, which was another turning point in my musical history, more of which is mentioned in another section. I also gathered together a group of friends and went to an event at Prestatyn “Pontins”. Four days of almost continuous music played by legendary names such as Chris Hill, Robbie Vincent and a then very young Pete Tong. I saw live gigs there from legends such as Bobby Womack, Maze, Joyce Simms and Roy Ayers, I also saw the full crew from “Cold Chillin” records, acts such as Roxanne Shante, Big Daddy Kane and Marley Marl. ( eating chips and beans whilst sitting next to Biz Markie in Pontins cafeteria is a memory I hold dear )

 I was listening to the Jeff Young show on Radio one every Friday night which was the fore runner of the now famous “ Essential selection”, so as you can see, I was listening to a very wide variety of music, from Soul to Hip Hop, from house to jazz, all the time buying as much music as my money would allow. Of course all this music was fine for the clubs of the big cities but back home in sunny Chester there wasn’t much going on. A night did open called “BLAST” playing soul/funk and a bit of “rare groove”, it attracted people from all over the country and provided a welcome change from the norm, the promoter John Locke was later to run “SWEET” at Blimpers another highlight of Chester's nightlife.

So I continued to play the occasional gig at the wine bars of Chester, by this time many other DJ’s were getting into the mixing thing and the music was progressing. My record collection continued to grow and my musical style was maturing. My real problem was that I was into so many different types of music that I didn’t know which venues I would best suit, I would play somewhere and be quite happy to play what the people wanted but would yearn to drop something unique into the mix to see the reaction of the punters, often becoming dismayed when they didn’t approve of a tune which I knew was a killer track. I am sure that this feeling is familiar to all the other DJ’s of the time who were trying to push the boundaries.

During the nineties, dance music continued to evolve, I discovered trance and techno and spent many a Saturday night in clubs such as Cream and Voodoo in Liverpool , which back then were in no way the "superclubs"  they are today. I continued playing occasional gigs around the city, being a bit more choosy as to where I played so that I could play the music I wanted to rather than the cheese that the majority of DJ’s played. My mixing skills became more refined and I began to produce mix tapes for anyone that wanted to listen, I became more confident and learned to be more daring with the styles I played. I realised that I could never be a resident at the local tap off joints, I was into the underground sounds with influences from all over the world. I continued to play gigs across the city right up until 2000 when I had really had enough of the scene and all the pretenders and the fact that everyone was a DJ. I took a break and took stock of myself and decided that I needed to follow my heart where music was concerned, which leads me to where I am now ( via many trips to Ibiza and other musical Mecca's )  

 A musical change  

As well as dance music, I have always had a love of rhythms, percussion and jazz from very early on in my life. I now have a big collection of this style including latin jazz, bossa nova and ethnic rhythms. At some point in the early nineties I managed to get a ticket to see the legendary Fela Kuti & Egypt 80, live at Manchester International 2. Once again this was a great influence on my musical style, seeing him play live with approximately 50 people on stage including a full rhythm section, brass section, backing singers and dancers, actually ad-libbing all the music live, building rhythms from scratch over 10 minutes or so before adding a bassline then vocals, then brass, then his ½ dozen backing singers chanting in time was a mind blowing experience. I am so glad I braved that rainy night to make my way on my own to see such a gig.

As you can see, I have such a varied background to pull from in my current musical selection. I still buy music from all over the world and take influences from many styles, the difference now is that I am confident to play my own style without wondering if it will be accepted by everyone. I know where my music will sound best so target that area to get the widest audience, I have done mix CD’s for bars, clothes shops, hair salons, fashion shows etc and am at last beginning to get a following for the style I love. The "Cafe Style" series is a winner in my opinion and i'm now up to Vol 11 ( as of June 2009 ) allowing me to flow with the style I love.