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Myspace Video CodesBig Dave Shirt
Dave Shirt was born David Coates in Nigeria on September the 14th 1953.I spent many years traveling the world with my parents, my father being an advertising executive. In 1968 I was asked if I would play some records in a club at a holiday resort in Kenya called Jezzabelles. The club was attached to an annex within a complex called the Mount Kenya Safari Club, virtually at the base of Mt Kenya. And so it began... one record deck & a reel-to-reel tape recorder. At the age of 15 or so I caught the bug, and had some fine times in the three weeks I did this gig - including developing a taste for vodka.1970: Dave becomes Dave Shirt when arriving at a club in Croydon, Surrey. The DJ, Roger Ashley, decides that my African shirt was so bright in the u/v lighting that I became Dave Shirt. Two weeks later Roger leaves the club to discover himself, & yours truly gets offered his job. Now doing two nights a week, I have started working as a roadie for the Emperor Rosko, humping tons of gear and vinyl by the trunkful. By now the favourite tipple is Bells Whisky, and yours truly is flying high.By 1971 I have my own spot with Playground Bars, working for a large brewery. I am traveling the UK, checking out DJs and guesting all over the place, while still doing Croydon/Rosko & my own spot; I now seem to be working 24/7. I had to play in a pub called the Red Deer in South Croydon, and I duly arrived only to find that the DJ booth was tiny... the manager at the time christened me Big Dave Shirt and so here we go again. I stayed there for three years.I left Justines, the original club, and started working a club called Dr Jims; still in Croydon and very busy indeed. 400 bodies a night going into a place built for 300 - it was major. Simultaneously, I started playing down the road at Penny Farthing's flagship, called Scamps, which held 900 people. I was actually competing with myself at other clubs. By now there were some very hot DJs around: Nick Love, Big N Bob Roberts who was a superb performer. The biggest problem by this time was alcohol; Bob and I were going down a very slippery slope. Bob eventually retired & dried out.I carried on until 1977, then dropped out for a year to dry out and get my act together. In 1978 I came back with a bang and a new sound: Black Dance. All the other DJs were still playing Top 50, etc, while I played disco/soul. It had been going on for a while but was underground, so my friends and I tried to bring it to the surface & by 1979 it was kicking off big time. I was having my girlfriend travel to New York three times a year to bring fresh vinyl home; this helped keep it up front.I then played all over London and Kent, doing my thing as it were, and latched onto Champs in Depford SE8, where I stayed for 11 years. 1984 saw the closure of Dr Jims - a sad demise - but we carried on as Dr Crippens in Bromley. By now the whisky is back in my life after 4 yrs on the wagon, but it is well under control. In 1992 I moved to Northampton where I have done a couple of clubs and gigs, but the music is not appreciated, so I play around in my studio most of the time.This is just part of the story, and I have not even touched on the pirate radio bit yet... do you really wish to bore yourself some more?I thought not... instead, tune in to Radiogetswild every Friday evening from 8 to 10 pm GMT for my programe: BDS, the Drunkenmaster - Back in the Day. Pop into our live StudioChat while you're listening and we'll have a chat, or drop me a note via email,
[email protected].
