Everybody wants to be a dj

When people ask me what I do, I normally say one of two things, I do project management in the NHS to which I am the recipient of a blank look and silence, like when I tell people my degree is in Classics and Philosophy. The second answer, I play records, often gets a raised eyebrow, this is normally followed by the line, 'oh I've always wanted to do that, how do I get into it? '.

So looking at one of those responses I give, being a Dj. I started out at the tender age of 18 playing punk/rock/metal at the Cavern on Thursday nights, I think I sort of fell into this because I worked at HMV, so bought a lot of music, and also because I was at the Cavern all the time. I really enjoyed it and continued doing the Thursday nights until 2005.

By 2004 there were less rock kids and more indie kids, as someone who had started out as an indie kid, I was pleased to see this return and decided to start up a night on a Saturday. As part of Exeter's alternative, I, like my peers wanted something to do on a Saturday night, and maybe that punk-rock DIY ethic came through. There was nothing that played the Strokes on a Saturday night in Exeter, so why not start my own? I'd also just started my degree and needed some additional income. I started up doing it with my old school friend Tom, who now is a bar manager at the Cavern, and while I was at uni, I did the Lemon Grove on a Friday night too, my weekend was sorted.

So fast forward to 2011, what has changed? Well not much really, I'm still at the Cavern on Saturdays, where I started out with CDs and vinyl, I now use a Macbook and Traktor. The nights are busier than they have been for years and I look forward to every Saturday night as if it was my first one. Is it easy? Well actually it's not, and people say it's just playing CDs but to me it's so much more than that, I see it as an organic process. I like to respond to the crowd I have in front of me and never plan in advance.

Steve Lamaq once said to me, 'to be a successful Dj, you need to choose a genre of music to play in, and play the most popular songs from that genre', and that in effect is true. Although I enjoy a lot of what I play out, it's really important to keep that distinction between records that are suitable for your bedroom, and those that are suitable for a club floor, a distinction I've seen many fail to make.

A technically good Dj I am not, I've never professed to be, and actually I have little desire to be. What I want to see though is a packed dancefloor, dancing to the music I choose, and when I have that in front of me, I wouldn't change it for the world.

The geeks were right.

So I was having a conversation with my friend today about my blog while perusing the DVD section of Exeter's Fopp and we started discussing favourite films, so the result of this is me now writing this and thinking off the top of my head about some of the films I enjoy. I've actually decided to do the top 'geeky/nerdy' films I enjoy. When it comes to watching films I tend not to watch too many by myself, I'd rather immerse myself in music. If I'm going to watch a film, I like company, I like to be able to discuss it with whoever I've watched it with afterwards. I don't need to say loads about the films because the trailers sort of do that anyway....

Blade Runner
Ridley Scott's take on Philip K. Dick's novel, 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep', is a bleak dystopian take on the future. I might be a little bit of a sci-fi geek at times, but this film has an engrossing story, great characters and leaves you with plenty of unanswered questions. Visually this film was years ahead of its time and I sort of just get lost in Ripley's world everytime I watch it.

Spirited Away
OK it was really hard for me to choose a favourite Studio Ghibli film but this one has a special place as the first I saw. I actually saw this at the Picture House while I was at university and I'd never quite seen anything like it before. The emotion and detailed level of storytelling that Hayao Miyazaki is able to portray through this, and other, films is beyond anything any theatrical film is able to replicate.

Goodbye Lenin

This film is beautiful, from the fantastic casting, story and scripting to Yann Tierson's wonderful soundtrack. The film is really moving, following a young man's journey to try and keep his mother alive at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Part tragedy and part comedy, it manages to keep you gripped throughout at the same time reminding the viewer just how much of a lifestyle change the fall of communism must have been for East Berlin. 

 

Empire Strikes Back

I had to sneak one Star Wars film in there and this one is definitely my favourite. Why? Well because it's the darkest of the original trilogy, the battle of Hoth scene is amazing, Yoda teaches Luke how to be a Jedi and we find out Darth Vader is Luke Skywalkers father. Pretty powerful stuff to cram into one film. If people ever ask me the last time I cried at a film I always say this one, I am however joking. 

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Some people might say I'm being damn right risky to put a film that only came out last year alongside such other gems but that's the sort of live life on the edge sort of man I am. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was without a doubt my favourite film of last year, it was a real breath of fresh air and just plain fun. Scott has to defeat the seven evil ex's of the girl of his dreams, Ramona. If you haven't seen it yet, well you should. Enough said. 

Part of the weekend never dies

So with the weekend looming, as a dj I've been thinking about some of my favourite songs to throw outlandish shapes and bust moves to, I'm ignoring any guitar based bands here. I guess thinking about songs that people dance to is a big part of my Saturday evening, and I really enjoy the buzz of a packed dancefloor. If I was to hit the floor, these would be 5 of my favourites.

Blue Monday - New Order
Without a doubt my favourite song to dance to and one of my all time favourite songs, for me this song will never get old. It still sounds fresh today despite the fact that it is as old as I am. New Order were terrible live, great on record, better being played through a club's P.A.. This song will always remain the biggest selling 12" of all time in this country.

Justic Vs Simian - We are your Friends
This song is always great to dance to and has been filling the floors since it was released. This sort of acted as a platform to help launch both Justice and Simian Mobile Disco (even though this is sampled from a track from their former band Simian). You can always here people shout the words as loudly as they can when it comes on.

Hot Chip - Over and Over
Although Hot Chip are a great live band, I feel the true Hot Chip experience is this song on the dancefloor. As hard as they've tried I don't think they're been able to do anything which tops this. At the time it sort of came out of nowhere and Warning was much more of a dance album than their first effort.  .

LCD Soundsytem - Daft Punk is playing at my house
Certainly my favourite dance group, LCD produce have produced three consistently good studio albums proper, and all of them are fantastic in their own right. Choosing a favourite song to dance to is harder, today I've gone for this one, tomorrow I would probably give you a different answer.

The Rapture - House of Jealous Lovers 
Produced by James Murphy off of LCD Soundsystem, this is probably the best dance track of the naughties. Everything about this song was years ahead of it's time and still doesn't really get the recognition it deserves and it probably helped Murphy pull some of his ideas together for LCD. If there was ever a perfect song for me to pull shapes to, this is it, probably because I can't dance.

A few others include

Mylo - Drop The Pressure
DFA 1979 - Romantic Rights
Soulwax - E Talking
Yeah Yeah Yeah's - Heads Will Roll (A trak remix)
The Knife - Heartbeats
Crystal Castles feat. Robert Smith - Not in love
Metronomy - Heartbreaker
Simian Mobile  Disco - Hustler
MGMT - Kids (Soulwax remix)
The Faint - Glass Dance

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So the weekend is nearly upon us, time to Dance Yrself Clean.

The death of the high street record store

Today I was shocked by the news that HMV is to close 60 stores and its shares have plummeted. Shocked is perhaps the wrong word, I suppose the writing has been on the wall for some time, what with record industry in freefall and pretty much everything being available cheaper online. So I thought I would jot down some of my memories.

I remember my first experience of purchasing music, I can still picture the old Our Price in Exeter (I think it's a Starbucks now). I used to love Our Price, which as a chain was later consumed by Virgin Megastores, and I have a vivid memory of purchasing Kula Shaker 'K' on tape in the old Exeter store.

I worked at this HMV on Exeter High St. for over 2 years. My job there was as a back catalogue Cd buyer (I bought all the Cds for the shop that weren't chart or singles), I look back on that job with mostly fond memories. I used to often be the only person downstairs during the week and pretty much had a free reign as to what I wanted to play in the shop. It seemed then like the high street record shop was booming, we were increasing our year on year sales and getting nice bonuses.

After my degree I worked at Virgin Megastores for a while, which shortly after became Zavvi, and shortly after that folded completely. The original Virgin Megastores in Exeter was where the new Next is, I remember going into that shop the day it opened and buying a Blur cd. Tribute should also be played to Solo Records in Exeter, where I've bought too many albums and seen a few good bands play too. Solo is now a Shaker Maker, milkshake outlet.....

OK I may still be young but I remember the high street record shop to be somewhere I used to waste my Saturday afternoons, whether as an employee or customer. So where did it all go wrong? We can't put this down purely to illegal downloading, even if the record companies would have us believe this is the case. I think another factor has to lie in the prices that are offered by the Amazons and Play.coms of this world.

Whatever the cause of this decline, a decline we are in, and one we have no control over. With independant record stores pretty much wiped out, except for the wonderful Banquet Records, it would be a shame if we lost the high street record shop too. I for one would much rather spend my Saturday afternoon flicking through CDs in our Fopp records, Exeter only real last bastion than trawl through its online competitors.

A sad day indeeed.