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Having been inspired by the Sheffield club scene, namely Gatecrasher at the Republic, I started mixing as a hobbyist and threw my self into the deep end, buying myself my first decks and begun playing Trance & Hard House, my tastes soon matured into house music and the record collecting begun.
Upon coming second in Perfect Beat's 10th anniversary DJ competition a few years later, I got a taste for entertaining a crowd and started to push myself onto the bars of my home town, Doncaster.
Spreading the word of Intelligent Dance Music was a challenge and battling the militant attitudes of local promoters was proving difficult, I was playing fairly un-played genres at the time in Doncaster.
It soon became apparent there was in fact a niche for these new sounds, with this in mind I started my own night 'Social Intercourse' a free-admission, mid-week club night at Toast Bar [with Paul O’Donnell of Bombis Records] and a few one off parties at The Courtyard.
Due to word of mouth from the successful club night, an opportunity at Camelot's arose, resulting in several Saturday night guest slots, playing alongside Owen Killgallon, Carl Waller & Jamie Fisher as a weekly guest.
As the numbers grew at my night, it was relocated to 'The Courtyard', and in time it was moved to Camelot's.
This gave me my first experience of promoting paid events in a 400 capacity club. I was responsible for booking the other DJ’s, Event Promotion and being the front of house on the night.
Preferring to warm-up the main room, I would open the night for my guest DJ's: Paul 'The Donton' O’Donnell, Darren Cross, Richard Smeaton, Dave Rowley and Aidy Carr on rotation, Playing everything from Funky Vocal House to Techno.
Always staying on top of new DJ technology and musical trends, competent in spinning 4 decks and often playing in excess of 4 hours a time gave me a great opportunity to earn my stripes in front of a discerning crowd and further build upon my technical ability as a DJ.
Unfortunately the nightclub closed 18 months later, due to the joint-owners political reasons, ending 'Social Intercourse' and temporarily muting my DJ career!!
At this point I took the opportunity to go back to the drawing board technically and upgrade my equipment to enhance my production work, taking both my DJ'ing and remixing to the next level.
I was keen to get involved with Traktor Scratch & Ableton Live and the use of Midi Controllers to perform in lieu of the traditional standards of Vinyl & CD's. This new technology was being used by the likes of Richie Hawtin, Sasha, Dubfire and Paul Van Dyk to name a few and was inspirational for me due to the boundaries it broke down.
Having put a lot of time and effort into Ableton I arranged a few one-off private parties in 2007 to test this new live venture. With the crowd being equally impressed with the power of Ableton, I again went back into the studio satisfied that the new direction was for me and further laid down what I wanted from the software.
I now DJ using Ableton Live at new venues and for guest slots, this allows improvised edits mid-set and live re-editing of music to create a bespoke set that is original every time, allowing for an extraordinary performance and crowd interaction
Fast forward to Early 2009, I acquired a guest appearance back at Toast Bar [this time upstairs in the main room with roof terrace], for 'Audiotek' a Tech-House/Electro House club night organized by Chris Burtle & Kieran Frearson.
I was met with great applaud from the Promoters, fellow DJ's and Bar Staff alike who said it was the best music they had heard in the bar for a long time, saying I must return! This was a great personnel achievement as this was my 1st proper gig in nearly 3 years so a great welcome back into the scene.
This immediately secured my return to Monthly Resident at Toast Bar, further reinforcing my commitment to the new digital platforms of Traktor Scratch Pro & Ableton Live.
Since the residency at Toast, I have three more club nights in the pipeline, all monthly residencies, one of which is at the local hotspot 'The Priory', alongside Brandon Block at Tokyo Sessions in October 2009.
I feel that I am now at a pivotal point in my career and I look forward to all my future gigs.
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