About Me
Born and bred in East London, Daniel (as he was christened) has lived his whole adultlife in record shops, dj booths, studios and social situations! Swapping his christianand middle names round as a pseudonym for his early DJ gigs it stuck and still today helives the life of Danny amongst close family and friends but to the the masses ofcontacts that he has gathered through life he is and will always be Craig!
Now that is clear, we can move on to the career. Starting off playing in someextremely dubious places in London’s Vauxhall Craig soon found himself manager of aneven more dubious little record shop in the back end of London’s China town. The nowlong gone Record Cellar was a damp old pit of a place … a shoe box in fact. Stockedfrom floor to ceiling and beyond this was a haven for record collectors… you would findthe rarest of tunes from disco, hi-nrg, soul and european dance music thrown in rackscovered in dust and priced way below what they were worth most times! People wouldfrequent the shop like a shrine, week in week out and Craig would be there helping outas much as he could and usually never seeing the light of day for 8 hours plus! It wasthe smallest but busiest shop ever .. you got 4 people in and it was packed. Craigbuilt up a clientelle of customers and along with his bosses they finally branched outand went overground, taking lease of a shop in London’s every bustling Soho and callingit Trax Records. Record Cellar ran alongside Trax for some time before eventuallyclosing due to the building being sold and finally all the stock ended up being soldthrough in Trax alongside the new and fresh material. Craig became the shop managerand ‘face’ of Trax and still continues to be so!
Trax opened it’s doors in May 88 .. right bang smack in the height of rave culture.Smiley faces and huge flyers adorned the walls of the shop whilst Craig became theBalearic King for some time. This was the first shop and the only shop of it’s time toget deep, deep into the Balearic scene and Craig became supplier of tunes to each andevery big name DJ of the day… some who are still around and some that aren’t. Routinedaily and weekly visits from the likes of Danny Rampling, Phil Perry, Nicky Hollowayand more, ensured that Craig kept his finger on the button and for a fair few years,with the exception of perhaps Charlie Chester’s Flying, Craig and his shop mates wereundoubtedly the front runners of the massive explosion in dance music in the lateeighties and early nineties. Craig featured on many tv shows reporting on saidexplosion and particularly the Balearic scene. Ironically, Craig only visited Ibizafor the first time in the summer of 2001, all those years after selling all thoserecords!
Over the years, Craig guested at many a club of it’s day and is frequently beinginvited to play at some of the world’s finest venues. Taking things a little furtherhe now also has his own label, Lifting Cars which ticks along as and when Craig hastime to put something out basically! Not the best way to run a label but then again hehas never really done things conventionally!
The first outing for Craig in the studio was back in the early nineties with a thenunknown Paul Newman, now known to millions as Tall Paul, top flight DJ and producer.They released a tune titled ‘Love Rush’ by Decktition. The tune was massive! Afterthat there were several more studio jaunts .. tunes such as Petra & Co ‘ Just Let Go’,Capella ‘U Got To Know’ and more recently his remixes (along with Jonesy) on Tweet’s‘Boogie Tonight’ and Britney Spears ‘Toxic’ have given Craig another twist and he isnow being sought after as a producer/remixer as well as a DJ!
Deck wise Craig is a monthly resident at Heaven Nightclub. He also plays in London’sVauxhall and has regular guest spots around London’s finest and coolest clubs and bars.
The future sees Craig taking on more international work, more studio work anddefinitely more DJ work. He is also still at the helm of Trax Records as manager andstill continues to supply London’s DJ’s. International DJ’s still flock to Trax on aregular basis as they are still one of the the best suppliers of European dance musicin the world. He is even looking at getting some bits of acting coming in, somethingthat he has always fancied even since appearing in ‘Joseph and his TechnicolourDreamcoat’ back in his schooldays!
A ‘face’ around town for many years now Craig is always a massive success wherever heplays and whatever he turns his hand to. Bigger and better things beckon for sure.
