Del Gazeebo's childhood was a rather musical one. From the god-awful sounds that he made on his Nan's electric organ, to his appearance singing on National TV at the age of 10, it soon became obvious that the "music" would never stop.Teaching himself to play piano, drums, guitar & bass at school, Del became increasingly interested in the sounds he could make at home using tape machines, instruments and computers, and when he first heard Coldcut's seminal cut-up "Say Kids" he became fascinated with the concept of the turntable as an instrument/noise making device too.Using a single turntable and a twin-tape ghetto-blaster (record/overdub/overdub/overdub) Del fashioned a very hissy recording of a turntable mix to enter in a competition being run by Mike Allen on London's Capital Radio. World DMC Champ of the time Chad Jackson judged Del's mix to be the winner, and this was inspiration to start making more noise.A summer season DJing in Ibiza in 1990s was the last noise Del was to make for a while, having becoming a proud parent. A few years on, back in the groove buying records & generally being excitied about music again, a friend of a friend introduced him to Middlesborough turntablist Finlaz who was rocking bars in & around Brighton & they teamed up, playing back-to-back sets of funky Hip Hop, Funk & Breaks, under the name Soundly Beaten.Soundly Beaten went on to become the record label, set up by Del & fellow vinyl junkie Sermad, that provided an opportunity for some of the cut & paste remixes & bootlegs Del was making to be made available to others by the medium of the shiny 12", and these very limited releases were snapped up off the shelves in no time. Legendary DJs such as Norman Jay, Krafty Kuts, Quantic, Tom Middleton and Mark Rae were all over these, Rob Da Bank even dropped the label's first release on National Radio1 in the UK., and if you've ever been to a music festival, you've probably heard some of these killer Soundly Beaten cuts before. Sadly, sales of these very limited releases wasn't sufficient to keep the boys in records & loose women for very long, and Sermad moved to London to find fame & fortune. Other commitments meant Sermad had little time to focus on the label any more and the machine started to slow down, but not before dropping some great releases from the likes of Dr Rubberfunk, Dizzy Bull and Razorcuts.But Del's creative juices were very much still flowing, and so the No Identity label was formed in 2003. These releases were also very well received, getting immense support from A-list DJs worldwide. The label's second release, "Dangerously Happy" was largely based on Max Sedgley's dancefloor anthem "Happy" and Max Sedgley himself was playing our edit. Steve Lamacq also played it on Radio1, and the 12" could have sold thousands. But as Sunday Best was about to release "Happy" in the UK an agreement was sought to not press more copies. (Special thanks to the lovely people at Sunday Best Records for being down in the first place)A dream came true for Del Gazeebo when he was asked to play at The Big Chill in 2004, and he equally delighted to be asked to rinse out the Action-Aid tent at the Reading festival in 2004 & 2005 with the legend that is Peepshow Paddy, although his behaviour both years was truly appauling.With a vast catalogue of remixes, edits & mash-ups under his belt, and plenty more up his sleeve, Del was asked to do the Superchunk on Eddy Temple Morris' Remix Show on XFM, serving up the funky Hip Hop cut & paste formula across London, DAB & the internet. Unfortunately, as time went on, the label's boardroom meetings weren't sounding quite so funky as the label's releases, and in 2005 Del decided it was time to move on.So... the Art Surgery label is where you'll find Del Gazeebo these days, and not only on remix duty, but dropping some inspired original material too. Watch this space.....
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