|
The naked truth
I started DJ’ing at the age of 18 after saving all summer to buy my first set of turntables. Musically influenced by mad nights out at the Waterfront in Blackpool, I started buying all sorts of electronic music that I’d heard at the weekend, as well as underground tracks played on radio 1 from the bigger name DJs at Homelands and Creamfields etc.
It wasn’t long before I was becoming involved in local parties and was working for cost price just to gain the experience of playing to others and satisfying mixed musical tastes.
I auditioned for my first residency at a bar called ‘The Box’ on Blackpool south shore and got the job, playing mostly party music and chart. I left The Box after two months to concentrate on my studies at sixth form and then journeyed north to Scotland to work over the summer to save for Uni. Whilst working in Scotland I went to the local club in town called ‘Twilites’ and got talking to the DJ. I was invited to visit and play a mixed set on isles fm on a weekly dance show and this followed with advertised nights on the following two weekends at Twilites (my first taste of club DJ’ing!). More nights would have followed as they were a great success but I had to return to England and Lincoln to start Uni.
Lincoln, although seen as a quiet city had plenty to offer in the ways of bars and clubs and after playing in my SU bar frequently, took up my first residency at bar LTD on a Wednesday and Thursday night. This left me free at the weekend to do mobile disco and also compete in the Bacardi DJ competition at what used to be Bar Med. I won all the local and regional heats to compete in the UK grand final, missing out closely on the top place to DJ from Bournemouth. This fired me on to enter and win the local Ponana Fez Club competition, earning myself regular warm up sets on a Saturday night called ‘Reach’ playing funky house. There was a guest DJ every weekend at Ponana so the opportunity to play a whole night was bleak and playing only until 11/12 was frustrating, but I loved the music as well as the energetic crowd and stayed for a year.
Whilst still at Ponana I was introduced to the agency Elite Entertainment through DJ Andy Brown. I gave up Ponana to start working a Saturday night at Yates wine lodge on the riverhead in Grimsby playing commercial chart, dance and R’n’B for almost a year. As often happens, there was a change of manager at the time who left to open his own pub, resulting in a string of stand in managers who followed. After a lot of messing around I was offered a new Friday and Saturday night residency at the Litten Tree in Skegness, the busiest venue in town which a fantastic party atmosphere. Here I play all night from 9 until 2 am and the people are great; I have been playing here for five months now and am thoroughly enjoying it…
This is my short but eventful 3 year history in the DJ business so far and after finishing Uni I will have more time to spend on the lookout for larger sized club nights, so as for now, story TBC….
|
