My DJ-ing career wasn't very high profile to say the least.. Probably wouldn't have made it onto the top 1,000,000 DJ list :)
It all began at a nightclub called Oblivion in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire where we would play trance tracks on Friday & Saturday nights. This was all thanks to my friend Andy Spencer who had moved to the area. Also as a budding DJ he found this club that was opening and recommended to the owners about having it as a trance venue. This is when they invited me to come up from Surrey every weekend to play... The first night was quite nerve racking as I'd never played in front of an audience before and as especially for an opening night they had booked the ex-boxer Nigel Benn to headline the event. From what I can remember us 3 resident DJs were better than he was but non of us were gonna tell him that... :)
There were a couple of complaints from the management about a song I used to play... This was only due to the fact that the sound system wasn't the best quality and I kept blowing the bass bins with this track :)
It was a great learning experience for me and it lasted for about 6 months before the club took the decision to close its doors... Personally I don't think Wellingborough was ready for that kind or club.
From there I played at the House of Windsor in Windsor, Berkshire. The club was pretty much across the street from Windsor Castle so was a great place to DJ. The club had quite a big reputation at the time and was a pretty huge place, spaced over 3 floors. I did a few months in the main room which also taught me a lot, basically what its like to play in front of an empty nightclub cause the time I was on the pubs hadn't even closed. Doing the opening sets are not easy as it sets the tone for the whole night and the music I was playing wasn't exactly warm-up material, big room trance... Not everyone's cup of tea before the night really gets going...
This was when I decided that maybe DJ-ing wasn't going to work out for me. Maybe it would've been advisable to have signed up to an agency rather than try to go it alone but as I didn't know anyone in the industry I had no one to turn to for advice. Rather than give up I tried one last shot and tried for the top club... Ministry of Sound :) To begin with there was no response but out of the blue they gave me a call saying they had an opening due to another DJ not being able to make it and was I available... Think I said "yes" before they even had the chance to finish the question.. No way was I going to turn down the opportunity to play in the worlds most famous nightclub :)
I was to play in The Loft which is on the top floor of Ministry and a nice place to sit and relax, drink and dance. For this set I decided to ditch the big room trance as it was not the kind of venue for this music, so went for a chill trance set with some Goa thrown in as well... The set was well received by all those in the place, some on the dance floor others chillin' on the sofa's tapping their feet and nodding their heads to the beat. It does give you great pleasure knowing that other people are enjoying the tunes that you're playing. When the set was over they did give me many compliments. To be honest it is an experience that I would've loved to have had again but alas they didn't call me back for a repeat performance....
Nothing further happened for me in performing in nightclubs after then but at least I can say that my finale was in the No. 1 club in the world, not a bad way to bow out...
Although my playing in clubs came to an end then I still continued to follow the music... In the next blog I will bring you up to date with where the music takes me now... Till next time - keep those speakers pumping fat beats!!!
