Right, where do i start........?????
Raindance, March 30th 1991 Jenkins Lane....
A night that changed my life forever.The night I decided I wanted to be a DJ.
After experiencing my first rave i knew this was for forever and ever amen...
I soon owned my first set of turntables,I wont go into technicals but they were rubbish, thats all you need to know, ha ha!
Raving, Pirate Radio, Hardcore music and Djing was my life for those early years but I never felt confident enough to play out anywhere as I felt if i played out in public, i needed to be at a standard that i was happy with..
Fast forward a couple of years and I found myself playing on pirate radio on a station called Conflict FM, this was the real start of my DJing career I suppose; up until then I had been happy just listening to Kool and Weekend Rush, Djing in my bedroom and having a smoke with my mates. Although i wanted to be playing at the raves we were attending I never even imagined I would get anywhere until i landed my first show playing Jungle on Conflict 88.4 from 8-10 on a Saturday night (check that primetime out...!!) alongside my then MC MC 205..
As what nearly always happens with pirate radio it didnt last forever, and i found myself bouncing from station to station never really settling on any one of them for any length of time..
Around 1999ish my friend and I were running a small UKG event in Romford, Essex called The Bomb which proved
to be a surprisingly big success and helped me to move onto the next chapter in my career which proved to be a major step but like always you never realise these things while they are happening..
2000 saw a new partnership form between myself and the management of Rinse FM, one of the biggest stations around for what they specialised in, which was UKG.. This started in the form of a rave known as Sex which was a huge success, breaking club records and cemented the partnership I had with the boys at Rinse FM..
Over the next couple of years I was busy with the everday stuff that goes on when you run a station; Rinse was really taking off, mostly due to the big names on the station at the time (Dizzee Rascall, Slimzee, Wiley, Roll Deep and Pay As U GO, Lethal B and More Fire etc etc) and this was a big education for me in how stuff works from the other side of the fence and I learned many things that will stand me in good stead for the rest of my days.With the running of Rinse came club nights, websites and a whole heap of things that people probably dont realise..
Imagine being on call out 24/7 for 365 days of the year basically, normally earning nothing a month, sometimes it even cost us money!.... Anyway thats a whole other discussion ha ha.......
Rinse was doing very well scooping all kinds of awards for best station at the time and between a few of us we started a company called Static Media which basically consisted of record labels,and distribution of vinyl etc.
The labels did very well especially one of them, Dumpvlave Recs, which was known at the time for being one of the most consistant labels for high quality material.It was known for destroying raves!.The company went from strength to strenth but I felt myself slowly becoming detached from it. My musical tastes were changing and wasn't into the music we were showcasing anymore and the five years I spent running the radio had taken its toll on me.. Around the end of 2005 i decided to call it a day with Rinse and Static Media and left the company for pastures new...
I had a few months off, it felt like my whole life had been about running Rinse and for the five years I did it
I loved it but for now it was time for a break and some time to recharge the old batteries..
It was now Jan 06 and a friend of mine encouraged me to ring the Kool FM boys for a show as they had just started
staying on all day in the week playing old skool which I specialise in. Kool FM has been something of an inspiration in my life since the day they switched on. Kool shaped my teenage years and my early 20's, their raves as well as the station; surely I couldn't end up on there after all this time away, could I...?? I have always been a Junglist at heart and even on Rinse I only really played my old vinyls I had collected over the last million years..
I already knew the Kool management and gave them a ring and was stunned when I was told yes, Dugs, when do you
wanna start?.Talk about ironic, I would have killed to get on there when I was younger and now without really thinking about it I ended up with a show on the station that I grew up listening to.
So 2006 was the start of a new DJing career for me, Uncle Dugs, (the name i was given on Rinse by some of the younger djs).
My first Kool show was and still is on Mondays from midday - 3pm. I play a different era in rave time from the late 80's through to the mid 90's. The show has gone unbelievably well and I feel I am now an established member of the Kool family thanks to this show.
I do have the occasional guest up on the show but usually its just me, myself and I presenting the Monday Connoisseur show for them what know..
AND NOW I GOT A NOMINATION FOR THE SHOW AT THE 2008 DRUM AND BASS AWARDS www.drumandbassawards.com
Its all good......!!
Through doing this show I met up with the legend that is MC 5ive-o and after doing a few musical shows together we
decided to try something different, and so the Packed Lunch Show was born... Packed Lunch is Kool FM's very own talk show for the people hosted by myself and 5ive-0 on Thursdays from midday - 3pm.. We cover all aspects of news and topics not just muscial debate, with guests from different fields coming in now and again to give their opinions and views on the topics of the day. Recently shows have consisted of live phone ins and studio debates on Gun Crime and the war in Irag, right through to Big Brother and what we all remember from when we were kids so its not all doom and gloom. We have some light hearted debate and tooooo much banter as well as the serious side...You can check out the Packed Lunch myspace at www.myspace.com/packedlunchkoolfm for more info..
Since joining Kool my DJing career has taken off and I have subsequently played at quite a few raves in the UK and abroad. Desire, Jungle Fever UK and Germany, Innovation, Menace 2 Society, Kool London, Jungle Splash, Raindance and The Kool raves around the country to name a few, Other promotions include Bassology, 20 Years of Rave, Club Ibiza etc etc playing alongside artists I never thought I'd get the chance to be on the line up with, so things are Kool with the K right now...
So that brings us up to the present; two well liked shows on Kool with fairly regular rave bookings and a nomination for best show at the 2008 Drum and Bass awards...
Who would have thought it eh...???
"Never give up on what you believe in" there has never been a saying so true,I'm proof of that and im far from done yet....!!!
Big up Guvna and Flirt and most importantly the Kool listeners and yourself if you took time to read my story, i hope you enjoyed it..
Keep it Kool...
Uncle Dugs..
For bookings you can contact me via here or
[email protected]www.kool946fm.co.uk
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