dave shirley

Bio

pair of technics 1210 2's and numark cdn22 mk2's. behringer djx 700 mixer. cloud cx-a6 amp with behringer su9920 processor, with several sets of speakers (a kef 120w center, pair of sony 120w, pair of eltax 150w, pair of b&o 60w and some 1970's akai's 100w which sound rich and rounded...love them!!) not the best set up in the world but it sounds good, especially with the processor giving the bass that extra punchiness for when i play my disco. i'm happy with it even if the neighbours aren't!!
i wont bore you all with mundane details of... the places i've dj'd and name drop the people i've played along side. i wont bore you with intimate details of how long i've been playing for, what productions ( if any) i've made, what labels i've signed upto or even founded....its all been done by countless dj's before!!!!
what i want to do is show you a little bit of my past and some of the people thats been close enough to influence me, help train my way of thinking towards music, teaching me its history and to imbrace its future and helped to nurture what has grown into an absolute love for dance music and its culture!!.....
as with a great many people, there has been a huge parental input for my musical influences, with either records being played or the radio turned on, nigh on, perminantly during my childhood years.
with such an ecclectic taste between them ranging from 60's rock and roll, to 70's glam rock, to motown and atlantic soul, to abba and commercial disco, to neil diamond and even demis rousos amongst their tastes.
to have been submerged with such varied genres of music has definately rubbed off on me and my musical tastes remain varied to this day.
but the one main style that has been to the fore of my life, even in those early years, has been...dance!!!
so, my first big thank you has to go to my mum and dad...thanks to you both, i love you (and to mum...miss you) so much xx
I left school at the tender age of 15 to work as a trainee chef in an industrial canteen, this is where i met my next set of influences.
It was 1985 and here i was introduced to the likes of james brown, teddy pendergrass, maze, luther vandross and brass construction amongst many others...by two older lads who seemed to take me under their wing!!
(you could say the 80's soulweekender music...and funny enough it was at this time i discovered 'clubbing', attending the greenways soul bashes and local soul/reggae sound systems )..
and yet there was to be another influence coming from this work place..a young lad only a year older than myself would bring in the street sound albums, rare groove and early electro hip hop.
i would religiously tape these albums and play them over and over in my bedroom, go back into work and nigh on beg the guys for any more albums that they had. i couldnt get enough!!!
i started to amass a collection of tapes...but i still hadnt got into vinyl yet.
it was only a year later in 1986 that i started college, and thanks to my love of soul/raregroove and hip hop, a college friend lent me his personal cassette player. whilst listening to his music i discovered yet another, totaly new style....
i feel very honored to have been able to hear a brand new genre of music, something so new that the 'pop' masses certainly had never heard it. something so new to me that i had to ask what the bloody hell it was......HOUSE!!! with absolute classics...mr fingers 'can u feel it', adonis 'we're rocking down the house', hercules '7 ways to jack' and farley keith's 'give yourself to me' amongst many others are still held very dear to me to this day.
so this next thank you goes out to jon and chris, rob and especially to neil vidamo for introducing me to house music.
i now have to jump forward a few years to bring you my next influence. 1991 and my brother!!!
after living in germany for a while, my mum fell ill and i came back home to england. i hadnt particulary been into music when i was abroad, but to come home and find that my brother and several of my friends had got into the hardcore rave scene, it was certainly rejuvinated!
listening to bootleg mixed tapes of slipmatt and lime, carl cox and lsd. with classic tracks such as lennie de ice 'we r ie',
oh my god, the list could go on....
larney p,larry levan, dimitri from paris, danny krivit, M.A.W, nicky siano, quentin harris, farley jackmaster funk, dennis ferrer, tony humphreys, kerri chandler, ron hardy, frankie knuckles, ross couch, dave 'strictly' norton, evil eddie richards, larry heard, andy caldwell, demarkus lewis, shik stylko, tyree cooper, cj macintosh, david morales, lil louis, todd terry, matteo & matos, soulcreation, moley, copyright, deepswing, audiowhores, timmy vegas, blake baxter, terry hunter,joey negro, norman jay, david depino, lidell townsell, mel cheren, hardsoul, mr c, miguel migs, barbara tucker, kathy brown, jocelyn brown, salsoul records, joi cardwell, groove junkies, crafty pear, loleatta holloway, onsulade, cerrone, blaze, mondo grosso, adonis, shoom, phuture, crazy penis, MFSB, arnold jarvis, bam bam, kokeshibeatz, bah samba, frank rogers, ron hall, brand new heavies, hanna hais, karizma, deepswing, mr lee, jamie lewis, yam who?, armando, jelly bean, louis benedetti, knee deep, roy ayers, roy davis jnr., atmosphere, east village, christian hornbostel, faze action, mike dunn, mood II swing, big moses, black science orchestra, marc evans, UBP, danism, danny rampling, julius papp, francoise kevorkian, steve silk hurley, danny clark,glen lewis, son of raw, ralf gum, mn2s, joey youngman, dajae, stevie wonder, ron carrol, rase, jon cutler,samantha james, kaskade, dubtribe sound system, jazzy b, M.O.S., kenny lattimore, sade, shaun escoffrey, michael jackson, jazztronik, jamie principle, earth wind & fire, jazzanova, studio apt., robert owens, scott wozniak, marvin gaye, ian pooley,fingers inc., fred everthing, jungle wonz, glen underground, liquid people,tribe, brian tappert, sumo, claude monet, mr v,jm silk, white knight, chaka khan, terry farley,the trammps, gwen guthrie, inner life, raw, eddie grant, eddie kendricks, melba moore, peech boys, taana gardner,oscar g & ralph falcon, love ranch, linda clifford, detroit emeralds, johnny fiasco, jerome sydenham, roland clark, jamiroquai, ron trent, teddy pendergrass, (dean) zepherin saint, miss honey dijon, martinez bros., jojo flores, mastercris, kcc, (more to follow at a latter date phew!!!)

kent United Kingdom

Member since: 23 Apr 2008