I've run out of opinions so all I have left is memoir. Be warned, this is only of interest to me. And not even me.
I've had four DJ moments in my life.
DJ INCIDENT ONE
I first played records in public in the basement of a kebab shop in Cambridge. My friend Ben and I did it a few times. It was 1986 or so. We called it The Tufty Club. The idea was to get punters dancing to Go-Go* but, if I recall correctly, the most popular records were a megamix of Kool And The Gang's greatest hits and an extraordinary 12-inch mix of Dance and Shout by The Jacksons. DJing, for us, consisted of playing one record after another without too much of a gap in between. Though I do remember seeking out records with drumless intros and outros so they could be faded over each other with a little finesse.
*Go-go side note and minor celebrity addendum: In 1986 I was convinced Go-go was the coming thing and it's compelling combination of rolling percussion, hip hop beats and call and response shouting would clearly sweep the world. Especially compared to the metronomic weediness of 'house' music**. I built up quite a collection of go-go, mostly through indiscriminately buying every TTED 12-inch that found its way to R.E. Cords in Derby. I once lent that collection to Acyde of No Vacancy Inn. (We sat next to each other when I worked at Nike). As far as I know he's still got it.
**Interestingly, before Ben and I played Trouble Funk and the Jacksons, two properly trend setting other people played a set of, probably, cutting edge house and electro. This Brutal House. Every week. I couldn't understand it. What an idiot.
DJ INCIDENT TWO
Ten years later Anne and I got married. On New Years Eve. We had a do in a scout hut on the Wirral and I played records then. I remember that night very fondly, for obvious reasons, but also because DJing seems very suited to my particular position on the introvert/extrovert spectrum. I was able to say 'hello' to everyone, briefly, before popping back behind the decks to do something with a record.* It was the perfect combination of showing off and being on my own.I played Love Train by the O'Jays at midnight as a sort of funky Auld Lang Syne. I was very pleased with that.
I've tried to reproduce the likely playlist from that night.
*It is interesting** to note that the two extent pictures of me doing DJing, reproduced above and below, both show me studiously refusing to engage with anyone beyond the records.
**Not interesting***
***Though I do like the evidence, in the picture above, of my lifelong obsession with safety orange.
DJ INCIDENT THREE
1997 or 1998. We'd moved to Portland. My boss, Chris, was a big cheese in various Portland arts organisations. He asked me to provide the music at a couple of art show things. (This was probably the result of me bigging up my previous DJing experience to an unwarranted degree.) Being a reasonably remunerated advertising executive in a cheap town I was not short of disposable income so I immediately dashed out and bought two SL1200s and a little mixer. And the next Sunday I was playing records in a massive white-walled warehouse in the white-walled warehouse district of Portland. The art elite of Oregon were peering at tiny scribbles and sculptural interventions and I was playing Transglobal Underground and Afro Celt Sound System. Dance-y tracks but with that soupcon of authenticity you get from funking up some cultural appropriation. Again, there was limited actual, proper mixing. I mostly just crashed things together. It was fun.
Crowd reaction: someone came and asked me to turn it down.
*Picture above shows my DJ setup in the basement of our house in Portland. What a splendid opportunity, you might think, for me to actually practise DJing and get good at it. Didn't happen. It's a pattern I've repeated many times. Got into something relatively early. Got myself the gear. Had a go at it. And then stopped. My life has been lived in opposition to the Helsinki Bus Station Theory. I've explored every route, but I've only ever gone one stop.
DJ INCIDENT FOUR
A few weeks ago Ben from the Tufty Club asked me to rejoin him behind the wheels of steel. He runs a jazz night in Hastings and I went down to play an hour of the Modern Jazz Quartet (and associated artists). My only actual knowledge of the MJQ is that I've bought quite a lot of their records* so planning for the event was a pleasure. I actually had to listen properly to what I'd bought and plan a journey through a selection. So I dug the Technics out of storage and practised a few times. You can listen to one of those practises if you'd like an hour of vibraphonic jazz meandering.
This was also tremendous fun. Another basement. Another failure to get people dancing.
*Another website that needs updating.
DAYS TO NEXT DJING
Incident Four really reminded how fun playing records can be. And I recently got a friend to show me how to actually do beat matching, which is very satisfying. I've been practising that. So who knows? Maybe it won't be thirty years before it happens again. Let me know if you fancy, for instance, an evening of records for which Paula Scher designed the covers.