chris Golya (chris.golya@port.ac.uk)
Mon, 15 Nov 1999 12:57:02 +0000
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/observer/life/story/0,3879,103334,00.html
Agenda
Fast
forward
The
loafer's guide to popular culture
Sunday November 14, 1999
DJs -
they're the blokes who play
records when people can't afford a live
band,
aren't they? Er, yes. That's exactly what
they
were, 30 years ago. But they have
progressed a little since then. Fifteen years ago, a
DJ
was doing well if he was picking up £25 a
night
for playing in the local wine bar. (And it
was
invariably a he - women rarely mix it with
the
lads on equal terms.) Now they tour the world
like
rock stars, and have salaries to match - this
new
year's eve, at least two British DJs are
picking up pay packets in the region of
£250,000. And that's just for one night - the
Christmas parties beforehand make it a lucrative
time
of year for record-spinners.
When
did all this happen? Acid house created
the
club boom that enabled promoters to pay
football club-style fees for DJs. Many of the
British DJs who got behind the music when it
first
emerged in 1988 - Paul Oakenfold, Pete
Tong
- are still in clubland's premier league.
So
the cult of the DJ was created in
Britain? No. Much of the club culture we enjoy
today
comes from New York, from the
underground gay clubs that sprang up in the city
in
the heady days after Stonewall in the Seventies.
DJs
such as Francis Grasso and later David
Mancuso and Larry Levan were revered by their
crowds, although few in the mainstream pop
industry were aware of them - unlike now, when
a
remix by a big-name spinner is a standard
marketing tool.
And
they were the first club DJs? Ah, no.
At
first, when people danced in clubs to records,
they
put them on themselves. The first ever club
DJ
probably made his debut in 1943, with a pile
of
brittle 78s containing American swing tunes
and a
sound system cobbled together by a mate
from
bits of old radios and a gramophone. His first
gig
was in a room above a working men's club in
Otley, West Yorkshire. His name was Jimmy
Savile. Three years later, he began working with
two
turntables, as DJs still do today. So it was
Jim
who fixed it. How's about that, guys and gals?
It
all sounds interesting, but how can I
find
out more without getting sweaty and
staying up all night? Go to your local record
store
and check out the mix CDs marketed by the
major
clubs and featuring selections by all the
big-name DJs. Flick through Ministry, Mixmag,
Musik, or any one of the numerous glossy club
magazines. Or read Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,
an exhaustive,
entertaining history of the disc
jockey by Bill
Brewster and Frank Broughton -
published this week
by Headline, £12.99
-- Time is precious. Waste it wisely.Chris Golya Centre for New Media Research School of Art Design & Media University of Portsmouth Lion Gate Building Lion Terrace Portsmouth PO1 3HF
Tel wk: 01705 842297 mobile :07713477543 Fax: 01705 842077
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