I was really proud to receive this accolade from my home country where I spent many years regularly DJing in many different venues from Gravesend, Dartford, Gillingham, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Bexleyheath, Higham plus others. Sounds silly today but back then there was a Soul dance music scene in every town, you could literally feel it in the ether as you drove into that area, you knew you were going to have a good time DJing at the club with the local dance music fans. Happy days. Thank you Alex ‘Minto’ Hughes aka Judge Dread who sadly passed away a few years after..
1989 my Sleeze night in Gillingham wins an accolade as Kent’s coolest club night out, which is pretty cool as we only ran it once a month on a Friday night upstairs in Joanna’s, with some great regular guest DJs, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Gravesend home-boy Pete Tong etc. This was one of the easiest nights I ever put together, it just clicked with great people coming in from many different local towns.
I put together a ‘The Big Sleeze’ one August Bank Holiday Sunday taking over the entire club with Tim Westwood, Pete Tong, Aadil, & myself DJing downstairs in the big room plus Norman and Gilles DJing together with Craig & Marcus upstairs. £10 a ticket and totally sold out. That line-up today would be impossible to get together in Gillingham. Times have changed so much. Great memorable times.
Press for Manifesto Records, my label for Mercury Records with Judge Jules had 9 No.1 Club Hits in one year with our first 14 releases all hitting the UK’s National Top 40 singles chart.