So, You Want To Be A DJ?

SO, YOU WANT

TO BE A DJ?

Graham Charles

So, You Want to Be a DJ?

Copyright © 2013 by Graham Charles

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1482664966 (pbk)

eBook formatting by Maureen Cutajar

www.gopublished.com

For Aaliyah

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 How Do You Become a DJ?

Chapter 2 Switzerland

Chapter 3 Pink Elephant

Chapter 4 DJ of the Year Competition

Chapter 5 Luna(tics)

Chapter 6 France

Chapter 7 Malta

Chapter 8 The Beach Bums Club

Chapter 9 Malta Part II

Chapter 10 Hollywood’s

Chapter 11 Ministry Of Sound

Chapter 12 New York

Chapter 13 Back To Malta

Author’s Note

DJs Directory

Acknowledgements

Introduction

This book is more of a journey than a manual, although future DJs will find some useful information and advice within these pages. My love of music has allowed me to fulfill my dream of presenting music to people around the world as I enjoyed experiences in several countries. Some names have been altered to save embarrassment, but the people included in this book are real, as are the stories and adventures.

I thank God, for the privilege of my existence, and for allowing me to experience this wondrous life. I also would like to thank my mum, who believed in me from the beginning, and my youngest sister Peta who has always been there to help and support me. God bless you all.

So come with me on a journey, through countries, across continents, and afterwards you may know the answer to the question, So, you want to be a DJ?

Chapter 1

How Do You Become a DJ?

Most of the people I have met who wanted to be a DJ do it to get girls and some attention. However, there are many out there who choose to do it for the love of music and normally they are the ones that succeed.

Personally, I chose it for the love of music and the fact that I love to entertain. I love music, although it would be untrue to say that I did since I was born. I got hooked around the age of eleven.

After a freak accident in 1974—in which I received a perforated eardrum—I suddenly became aware of the ‘noise’ that came from the radio. My damaged ear—that was now healing—became twice as receptive as my good ear, and whenever I heard music, I found myself wanting to move. For a child who had invested every waking moment playing football—I played for the school team, the cub-scouts, boys’ brigade and anyone else that would have me—this was not good.

At school, boys that danced or played musical instruments were prone to attacks from gangs of macho boys. However, if anything musical appeared on television, from ballet to Michael Jackson, I would be glued to the screen. Afterwards I would retire to my room and practise what I had just seen. Meanwhile my football kit continued to gather dust.

My favourite dancer was Jeffrey Daniels from the group Shallamar and it was he who invented the Moonwalk not MJ as most people think. Hanging out with my Jamaican and West Indian friends, I picked up their moves and we would have regular ‘Mash-Ups’ battling against each other with new dance routines until I was given the nickname Orio and was invited to join their dance crew.

At the age of fifteen—looking older than my actual age—I was awarded a five-day work experience away from school. I was the only pupil at school to receive this prestigious award, even to this day.

I was having fun learning the art of Street Dancing (break-dancing, body-popping and robotics) with my older friends and we travelled around the UK, jumping trains to get to a town where we would set up a portable stereo and just dance. We even went to France for a while and did some great shows in the street. We entered dance competitions in clubs around the UK using different names for an alias and often took the prize money away with us.

So, at age sixteen I had embarked on my new career as a Street Dancer. I loved every moment. Busking in places like Covent Garden, making some money, and enjoying the clubs in London. It was in these clubs that I could see the DJ was the star. He ran the show, he called the shots, and played the music. And everyone loved him—well, at that time that’s what I thought.

Although I loved this gypsy life, my father didn’t, and as I was still living at home. I was persuaded to find a regular day job, which came in the form of a trainee fruit and vegetables assistant at the local Budgen’s supermarket.

For a while it was fun serving customers by day and dancing under the alias of Rusty Bobnail at night, going off with trophies and money for winning dance competitions.

The film Saturday Night Fever was showing at the cinema during this time and most of my friends would tease me by calling me Tony Manero, the character from the film, as my life was almost a mirror of his. Like the character in the film, my mum supported me and encouraged me to live my dream. She helped me so much and suffered for it too, when my father found out.

In the end, this got too much for my father who thought it all some hobby that was a waste of time. A choice had to be made. Stay at home, follow his work suggestions, or leave and live my dream.

I left.

The last words I remember hearing from him were, You will never make it as a dancer, you never had a lesson in your life.

I was determined to prove him wrong and worked hard to get noticed.

I teamed up with a friend of mine by the name of Mark Metcalf—alias Molly—and we formed a dance duo, performing ‘Robotic Dance’ in shopping malls, clubs, and eventually on BBC’s television show That’s Life with Esther Rantzen. We made appearances on a few other television shows but Mark couldn’t deal with the erratic lifestyle and left to become a—giggle—foot doctor.

My life was truly erratic. I lived mainly on toast and cereal, but my little sister would sneak food to me at my bedsit so I would not starve and helped out with the odd fiver if she could.

I entered more and more competitions, doing better and better. The competitions got me noticed by directors and casting agents as I reached the finals of the World Dance Championships, plus I had just got my British Equity Card after five years of trying for it. Now I could dance on television and in theatres anywhere in the world.

I was offered to dance in some television adverts, then the odd television show, a few appearances on BBC’s Top of the Pops and finally I was asked to dance on The Royal Variety Show where I was introduced to HRH Princess Anne backstage. A moment I will always be very proud of—eighteen million viewers!

I loved this life but I wanted to move on to something better and by the age of nineteen I wanted to dance professionally. However, in 1980 most of the theatre shows at that time were advertising for dancers with a lot more experience than I had. You needed experience in, tap, ballet, modern and jazz dance, amongst others.

I tried recording a song that I had written at a studio. It gave me the chance to hear my own voice in a song. Something I would not recommend to anyone. I could not hold a tune in a bucket. That was an expensive lesson as it cost about one thousand and five hundred pounds at that time, to hire a studio, an engineer and a producer.

I was offered the chance to dance with the then World Dance champion Jay Arneli and the UK Dance champion Frankie Johnson Jnr., on a tour which I really enjoyed. However, towards the end of the tour, I noticed people were not so interested that much and were more interested in dancing themselves, as the music scene had changed again. The clubs now attracted many guys—and girls—who could dance very well. Inhibitions were fading, new dance styles were coming in and no one was really interested in watching disco-dance competitions and they soon faded out.

It was during this tour that a club manager said to us after a particular show, that our act needed something more.

Possibly, one of you gets on the microphone and talks to the people, introduce each other, have a laugh, get the girls going..

I was nominated to do this and ended up becoming an MC for the show, introducing the dance champions, teasing people, getting the audience to sing along to certain songs and having fun on the microphone.

There was a very popular record, called ‘Jingo’, an instrumental song that everyone would dance to, and as it played, I would play with the crowd over the microphone, getting them to sing back the vocals of the song…plus a few disgusting phrases that I won’t include here. Everyone seemed to enjoy it then.

At the end of the night the manager of the disco asked me to come down every weekend and do more of the same. It wasn’t long before I was offered a night of my own (using the club’s record collection) however this didn’t last long as the disco got sold to a hotel chain and was turned into a restaurant.

I carried on dancing, but I knew I had found something special. I decided that if I couldn’t dance to it, or make it, I would present it. I was going to become a DJ!

At this time a DJ played 7-inch records, on belt drive decks, with no pitch control. There was no mixing. Only finger-mixing where the DJ would speed up or slow down the incoming record with his finger to match the song being currently played, or he would chop-mix the next song to keep the vibe going. The DJ was exactly that, a Disc Jockey.

The main skill of a DJ at that time was the ability to talk and entertain the audience as well as play the most popular dance music. There could be as many as five different music styles played in a night, with a ‘party set’ somewhere in the middle, ending with the ‘slow section’ or as some put it, ‘Last chance alley!’ or, ‘The erection section.’

Fashion changed, music styles changed, and eventually, DJ styles changed from Personality DJs to Mixing DJs. Now, we have Scratchmaster DJs, Mixmaster DJs, and Normal Mixing DJs. They work on CD, DVD, on laptops, tablets, USB sticks, memory cards, oh and on vinyl too!

Unlike today, thanks to computers and their software, where most DJs are also music artists and producers, it was very different for me. When I began to DJ there were no home studios, no modern computers, no ‘Vinyl Scratch’ or ‘Ttraktor’.

Working at this club, I got to work with some well-known names from BBC Radio 1 such as Noel Edmonds and Steve Wright, as they made regular guest appearances around the club circuit. After doing shows with these guys, I really wanted to get into radio presenting but at that time it was impossible to get into radio unless you knew the right people or had some experience. Even hospital radio was difficult to get into and you didn’t even get paid for that.

The only pirate radio at that time was, Radio Caroline—a ship that was moored out in the North Sea—and they used only top DJs that all went on to have major careers with BBC Radio 1 and a new London radio station called Capital Radio.

However, I was at the bottom of the ladder and it was time to make a start and climb up. The club that had given me work as a DJ was being sold, so it was time to look for something more regular and move a step in the right direction to gain more presenting experience. I had read that many radio and television presenters, entertainers and DJs got their start working at holiday camps in the UK.

As a dancer, I had become accustomed to scanning The Stage, a newspaper for the entertainment profession. It had a section at the back devoted to offers of employment in this industry, with news of forthcoming auditions for shows and future productions. It was here that I spotted the advert.

Haven Holiday Camp will be auditioning for, Entertainers, Bluecoats and Disc Jockeys, for the summer season.

HOLIDAY CAMPS

Holiday camps (and parks) are very popular in the UK. These camps usually consist of a huge number of six berth caravans—up to five thousand in some places—set in acres of land. There are tennis courts, football pitches, shops, restaurants, amusement arcades and a swimming pool or two. Also they have entertainment complexes that cater for the whole family. During the day there are activities for children—up to the age of ‘ninety-nine’—various stars—singers, magicians, comedians—and even ‘ex’ pop stars tour this circuit of camps and perform in the cabaret halls.

THE BLUECOATS

The bluecoats perform a multitude of duties, from bingo calling, to organising, and supervising games and competitions. Ninety-nine percent of the work throughout the day and night is done by these hard-working people.

They help out in the evening in the cabaret halls and at the weekend, have their own show to show their particular talents. They are the lifeblood of the camp, their unofficial duties range from nursemaid to peacemaker, temporary uncles and aunts to a shoulder to cry on. These people are semi-professional artists attempting to gain more experience, and are themselves supervised by the entertainments manager.

They are goodwill ambassadors for the camp, and work long hours for little pay. I am proud to have been a bluecoat, and I salute you all.

The most famous ‘coat’ has been the redcoat, associated with Butlins. Many entertainers, who started their careers as a redcoat, have gone on to become prominent figures in radio and television.

I contacted the company and was instructed to attend the auditions on the twelfth of February at the Haven Holiday Camp in South Wales—my birthday!

I was told to wear a tuxedo, and that was all. It was to be a weekend of auditions for all of the camps throughout the UK, with the managers choosing which performers and potential bluecoats they wanted at their camp that season. Upon my arrival on the evening of the eleventh I was amazed to see hundreds of people already there and more following me inside.

We were given times to report to different places around the holiday camp the next day, and allotted caravans to stay in for the night.

In the morning I dressed—feeling somewhat foolish, as I was wearing a tuxedo, complete with bow tie. I made my way to the main reception area and was not prepared for the sight that greeted me.

Magicians were producing playing cards from thin air. Musicians were practising everywhere. Drummers were playing on tables using ashtrays and coke cans for percussion. Guitarists were strumming and tuning their instruments. Singers practised their melodies, sometimes giving impromptu performances. Added to this there were jugglers, juggling everything from top hats to rubber chickens! I stopped to watch this spectacle for a while feeling quite privileged to be in the company of so many professionals.

After some time I made my way to the cabaret club and presented myself to the man holding a clipboard, standing at the entrance.

Comedian or singer? he asked.

DJ, I replied.

Right just find yourself a seat and wait to be called.

The cabaret club was almost full, again with performers of every kind. I found a seat and from it I could see a complete band set up on the stage. A drum kit, keyboards, amplifiers for guitars and microphones everywhere—but no turntables and no mixer.

The man with the clipboard appeared on the stage and introduced himself as Mr North. He began.

Good morning everyone.

I felt like I was back in school.

Mr North continued, We have ten bands to audition this morning, plus ten comedians, oh, and a DJ.

Thank God he didn’t point me out, I thought as everyone seemed to be looking around for this odd one out.

He went on, Okay first up, Catherine Wheel.

They were a three-piece band, two men and a lady, who was the vocalist and played the keyboards.

Right, Mr North continued. Comedian number one, Jimmy Little, please come up to introduce the band.

Hushed giggles came from everywhere in the room as a huge man walked up to the stage and took the microphone from Mr North.

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. Tonight’s group promise lots of fireworks.

Groans from the audience.

Well, I think they’re wheely great!

More groans.

"And if I get a date with Catherine tonight, I can promise