2002 onwards University of Durham
Since arriving at Durham I have involved myself in all the various music scenes there. The first was DJing for my college.
Every few weeks we hold what we call Formals. These are black tie dinners followed by an all night disco. As there
are 16 different colleges at Durham we are also getting involved in doing other formals as well.
However this is out-done by my work at Durham Students Union (DSU). DSU boasts one of the best sound and lighting
systems in the country. It uses many of the same components as used in big name clubs such as Ministry, Cream and Gatecrasher.
I have the privilege of being one of the six resident DJs. Where we play everything from hip hop and funk to commercial house
and dance.
Every Friday nightat DSU we hold what we call Planet of
Sound. This is when we turn the 3 largest rooms in the union into massive dance floors each with their own style of music
and their own advanced sound and lighting system styled depending on the music choice in that room for the night. I play in
any of them depending on the event in progress.
I also do a lot of charity
work. I am on Durham Universities Charities Kommittee (or DUCK for short) payroll. DUCK is a registered charity and holds
regular charity discos, among which are the ever-popular Back to Skool themed nights. At these several non-resident DJs and
myself play an alternate variety of music.
I dont just play at events though.
I also crew at most events I dont play at. Correctly setting up sound and lighting equipment is one of the most important
aspects of putting an event of any sort on. Although not always appreciated by a crowd if done well, if set up poorly then
its noticeable and sets a poor atmosphere.
As well as playing in club environments, I also play on Purple
107 FM, the student radio station. This puts me in a completley different situation to that of playing in clubs. While the
way I mix obviously does not change, the difference between working in a radio studio and in a club DJ booth is obvious.
Playing at uni. has also presented some major breaks for me. During the
last few years we have had: Judge Jools playing on the Radio 1 Tour, Busted playing at last years Freshers Ball, and Goldie
DJing. While it might be surprising, out of the 14000 students I am the only student DJ at the union. Therefore I
get to play alongside these celebrity DJs and bands. The other DJs are from Galaxy FM and Sugar.
2000 - 2002 Felsted School
It was during my time at 6th form when I first got into DJing. However I didn't just get into it over night. I have actually
been organising large events for a lot longer than I have been playing at them. At 6th form I was part of the social committee
which was a group of volunteer students who organised events for the other students. I organised my first major event when
I was just 16. It was in organising these events that I first became mesmerized by the art of DJing. During the last
year of 6th form I was joint in charge for organising the social aspects of these events, from the actual theme to DJing and
music choice during the evening.
