Paul Stuart

hi all.. i suppose my taste in music stems from my Dad.. he loved Jazz (Brubeck etc) and Soul, and when we got our first decent stereo system (a toshiba with a record deck and seperate tape deck on top and a 4 band radio on the front.. cutting edge eh?)around 1976/77,he started buying records again,(Earth,Wind and Fire/WAR/Isleys Brothers/Motown etc)..this was around the time of Saturday Night Fever, and the world was DISCO mad... and my first record purchases were a couple of Tavares 7"s .."whodunnit" and "heaven must be missing an angel".. a few friends at school were also into the same music, usually through elder siblings, we had our own crew.. we listened to Robbie Vincent on Radio London. Greg Edwards on Capital.Tony Prince on Radio Luxembourg.. we read Blues and Soul and Black Echoes, soaking up all the info about the artists and the UK soul scene that we were too young to experience, and hearing fantastic music.. the first proper soul night i went to was Hustlers (@ the Heath Park in Hemel Hempstead)in the summer of 1980..Brother Louie and Mike Allin were the djs.. i was 15 years old and i was hooked.. through some friends we met some older soulboys (The Rabble) who were travelling all around the south east to soul nights. Flicks/Goldmine/Caister/Rio/the Bull in Royston just some of many places we visited, and along with a strong local Hemel scene (Hustlers/Whip and Collar/Midland Hotel/the Railway) with Joe Field and Mike Allin hosting the top names (Froggy/Sean French/Bob Jones/Martin Collins/Pete Tong/Jeff Young/Chris Brown,etc)we had a great time and a great apprenticeship into the soul scene.. the first Caister weekender i attended was #08 in October 1981.. the atmosphere was electric and the music even better.. and for a young lad of 17 , it blew me away.. it was around this time i started dj'ing, i'd always bought records, and always played at house partys etc.. (we had a LOT of parties), and a few warm ups at the Hemel soul nights .. i'd heard soul mafia dj, Froggy, doing his monthly mixes on Robbie Vincents show in the early 80s, and latterly in the clubs and at Caister etc.. it fascinated me the way records were put together in this way.. i got my own decks(technics SL1200 mk 2) in 1985, from Spin City on the Fulham Palace Road. around this time i was playing soul,funk,jazz, early hip hop, the NY stuff on Easy Street.. then at the October Caister of 1985, i heard J.M.Silk - "music is the key" on DJ International.. couple of weeks later, i bought a copy.. a couple of months later Fingers Inc (mysteries of love),Steve "Silk" Hurley (jack your body) and Adonis (no way back) had appeared on Dj Int,Underground and Trax.. i loved them.. my soulboy mates didn't, they couldn't see the soul.. i was buying my records at Bluebird in Luton and going to the Swan & Sugarloaf, the Royal Oak and the Special Branch doos,Delirium and stil a few soul nights .. it was a great time.. things were changing both music wise and club wise.. the next few years were great, HOUSE music blew up, there was fantastic music coming from all over the world..we were still going to all the special branch nights, even the first Ibiza holiday in 1986.. the Bournmouth bank holiday weekends.. theTrip/Made on Earth/Sin @Astoria.. lots of warehouse parties in and around London.. TBC...MySpace Layouts - myspace layouts