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Slick DJ Presents....
The Irish DMA Launch Party
Sunday - December 9th 2007
PETE HELLER
ROCKWELL
JAY GROGAN
Spirit 57, Middle Abbey St, Dublin 1.
SLICK DJ
Irish Dance Music Awards - Launch Party
On Sunday December 9th 2007, Slick DJ magazine will launch the Irish Dance Music Awards and announce the nominees and categories to the general public in Spirit 57, Middle Abbey Street, Dublin 1. On the night we'll have PHELA label boss PETE HELLER headlining with support from Rockwell and Jay Grogan. Pete has been a major player worldwide for almost 20 years now, building quite the reputable name from his 'Big Love' & 'Stylus Trouble' success. Over the coming weeks Slick DJ will be gathering as much information from the general public as possible to determine which categories and nominees are worthy of an award. Then, on the 27th of January 2008 we will host the awards ceremony and announce the winners of each category in Spirit 57 and will feature Layo 7 Bushwacka. More details soon...
Over the past few years, the north and south of Ireland have witnessed a steady rise in the output of its 'dance music' and the scene it belongs to. With an increasing amount of festivals taking place, it's safe to say that there has been a lot of demand for music events in recent times. The Garden Party, Oxegen, Electric Picnic, Planet Love (North & South) and The Life Festival are only some of the festivals which made an impact this year, collectively housing a phenomenal 160,000 people. Week in and week out our clubs are filled with content clubbers, ready to hear local heroes or big names play their music. We've had new artists, new releases, new record labels, new club nights and new clubbing publications flood the Irish scene over the past year...
Here at Slick DJ, we'd like to show some appreciation for those involved in making a stance by hosting the Slick DJ Irish Dance Music Awards. We need your help in not only voting, but creating the categories and nominees. Listed below are just some examples of what categories we may be considering. We would like your opinion on these and would like to hear what others you're interesting in seeing listed. All potential categories and nominees can be sent by email to info@slick-dj.com
Please join Slick DJ in showing appreciation for those who deserve it by getting involved an emailing us on the address provided. It's your vote that counts!
POTENTIAL CATEGORIES:
Best Super Club
Best Small Club
Best Club Night
Best Promoter
Best Live Act
Best New Artist
Best DJ (Numerous Genres)
Best Radio Show
Best Label
YOUR INPUT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE!!!
Email your categories and nominees now to info@slick-dj.com
PETE HELLER.......
From childhood marching bands to disc jockey and dance music producer: Pete Heller knows a good drum when he hears one. Boom-boom. Out go the lights.
Born in Brighton, Pete Heller was a music nut right from the get-go. The Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Jam and Madness as a kid and then discovering nascent hip hop at a Clash gig in London. "I was sitting at the back before the Clash and this band came on," remembers Pete. "I'd never heard of this music before. It was very rhythm-based. It was Fab Five Freddy doing a hip hop show. I thought, "I've got to get into this'. Found out about Groove Records, went up there and the first import I bought was Davey DMX 'One For The Treble'. It smelt different."
Things were different in the 1980s before house arrived and shocked our system to its core. Dance music was a minority interest, like clay pigeon shooting or wine tasting. There were few magazines documenting it, and no-one wanted to be a DJ. It was like dreaming of being a gas fitter. But when Heller discovered clubs (thanks to an older sister), he was smitten. "There was no DJ culture then. They were just blokes who played records. But I found them intensely glamorous. That whole music and club scene was very other, then."
At Manchester Uni, he got a break DJing and started to promote parties all the while traveling back to London where the early house/Balearic clubs were mu-Shooming out of from nowhere. "It was the maddest place I'd ever been to," says Heller of Danny Rampling's now-famous Shoom. "It suited my aesthetic completely, because all I did was take acid, and lots of it. I'd go straight to the dancefloor and that was it."
Against the odds for such a young shaver, Heller was handed the warm-up slot when Shoom relocated to Busby's. Aside from the instant kudos of playing at the hottest club in London, it was a satellite around which half of London's club faces revolved.
Introductions were made, friendships were sealed, including those of Terry Farley and the Boys Own crew. Heller worked in the studio on the first Bocca Juniors single (he played guitar) and somehow found himself producing The Farm alongside Terry and Madness's Suggs ("We spent most of the time playing Subbuteo, although I did program a little beat!", laughs Heller)
When the cheque arrived for Heller's contribution to Altogether Now, he bought studio gear and started making proper house music with Farley (as Roach Motel and Fire Island). Lots of records, one club hit after another. DSK's What Would We Do: massive tune at the Sound Factory. Happy Mondays' Stinkin' Thinkin': ditto. Eventually the records were big everywhere, remixes, original productions, funky, deep, guaranteed floorfillers the lot of 'em.
In the mid 90s, the pair had an unlikely crossover hit when a rejected remix, Ultra Flava, suddenly became the hottest track in Ibiza and went top twenty n the UK. Then, in 1998, Heller produced his biggest hit yet, with Pete Heller's Big Love. "Terry went to see Chelsea in the European Cup Winners' Cup final in Stockholm so I went in the studio on my own. I knocked it out really quickly. In a day. Actually 12 hours. After I'd done it, I thought it was going to be a demo so I edited it down to ten minutes and that became the final release." It reached number 12 in the UK charts in May 1999.
Since then, he's continued to produce more club monsters: Sputnik, Stylus Trouble, Simpler, remixes of Cevin Fisher, Inner City... an endless list.