Born the youngest of 6 sisters and 2 brothers, in Islington, North London - the year that James Brown was in the charts with ‘Give It Up or Turn it Loose’ - I already knew I loved music from the age of 6.But it was Reggae that was generally the rule in the house with my Mom and Dad. So I guess tunes being played at the time would have been something like ‘Do The Reggay’ from the Maytals.My first record was Carl Douglas, ‘Kung Foo Fighting’. Not particularly proud of that now but I loved it at the time - and I did know the dance routine!One of the big things for me at the time was to wait for my big bro, Glen to come home and play Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino on his Phillips reel-to-reel whilst my other brother, Gary introduced me to Soul, Jazz and Funk.When I was 12, I heard DJ Froggie ( RIP) mixing records on pirate radio whilst also listening to Greg Edwards, Steve Davonne, Mastermind and Robbie Vincent.At that time, if you wanted to hear underground beats and mixes then you had to tune in to the pirates like Invicta Radio, Solar, Horizon to name a few.
Froggy was great at mixing but for me it was the ‘Mastermind Roadshow’ that blew me away - they were doing things that I’d never heard of before.-----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------I was completely hooked and I just had to find out for myself how these guys did it. I managed to get hold of an Aiwa and an Hitachi turntable but obviously they didn’t have pitch controls so getting the tunes spot-on tempo-wise took hours of practice !It wasn’t long after that I managed to find a semi-automatic turntable and straightaway I installed a start/stop button. At least I could now cue up the record ready to play.But it soon became obvious that if I was going to improve my mixing skills, I would really have to seriously think about Technics turntables !I begged my Mom to give me my Post Office savings book so I could pull out £200, which was the going price for Technics in those days. She hit the roof – as you would expect – and told me to ask my father. He then told me to go back and ask my Mom! In the end, after a long tussle, she eventually gave in and at the age of 15, I was finally the proud owner of my first SL1200MkII – in the original silver..brilliant!------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------My first mixer was a Realistic. Not a very clever device – it didn’t have any cue buttons to hear the tracks before you played them. But my next mixer was the well-known Phonic MRT60, which was a large step up at the time. To this day I still hear DJs talking about their first mixer being a Realistic or the MRT60. Technology has developed beyond all recognition and you can buy mixers now with so many incredible functions that you could not have possibly dreamed of in those early days.Next thing I knew, I was playing at school parties as I had already started to amass a large collection of vinyl – enough to keep a party going, anyway. It was at school that I got into partnership with a close mate, Chris Baxter, and together we started a sound called ‘Sweet Beat’ where we we’d cut up, scratch and mix hip hop beats with soul a capella records.----------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------Later Chris and I began ‘Dancin’ & Prancin’ , a series of DJ party events centred around North London and which is still talked about to this day by those who were there and into the beats we became known for.Our first break came at the age of 13 !We were asked to play at the blues parties in Perth Road, Finsbury Park with UK’s finest,
Soul2Soul with Jazzie B, when they were still just known as a sound system and hadn’t begun their career as a band.The next big move was when I joined ‘Secret Agents’ who were an agency that specialised in corporate events. But my true love always lay with dance music, US House in particular - my early influences being Paul 'Trouble' Anderson, Tony Humphries, Masters At Work, Erik Morillo.Another interest that I took up back in the day, was breakdancing. For a while I was hanging with a crew called ‘Skyline’ and we even toured a little. Yep, I can still bust a move – but I don’t do it in public!-----------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------In the early 90’s I got briefly involved DJ’ing at the Global Gathering / Big Love all nighters staged at Luton Hoo by Universe.I have dj-ed for Sony Playstation, Sony Ericisson, Mix tapes for BMG and Tim Westwood, Channel 4's Big Brother, Sega UK, The BBC launch parties for primetimeTV programs, the launch for Oceans Eleven, Camelot National Lottery promo parties, BMW and Audi Car launches and countless wrap parties....From 1996 to present day I've been specialising in installing sound systems in bars, restaurants and club venues throughout the UK.DJ’ing has taken me right round the world - Istanbul, Los Angeles, Australia, New York, Italy, Johannesburgh (SA) Cyprus, Hong Kong, Greece and I’m still a resident DJ at London’s Fabric on private and corporate nights.Outside of DJ’ing, my long-time love has always been basketball, especially when Magic, Bird and Jordan ruled and skiing, whenever I can find the time to get away to a snow covered slope. And I’m quite into salsa dancing too.Last year I took up Boxing, which I have really got into and I train regularly although I’m not quite ready to step into the big time ring as yet. I have an interest in photography, have a thing for seafood – and not a bad cook either!
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