Passion, Energy, Personality, Good Attitude, Creativity, Kick Ass Tunes & Lots Of Practise... These make, for me... a Good DJ! It’s so important to be really passionate about music & about wanting to share your music with other people... make them dance & make them very happy & have the best bloody time ever!

More Advice I got from a Dj Agent in the UK a few years ago...

“Don’t think of an agent as the key to your success. YOU ARE! Agents, PR, Managers, Labels –they’re all Polishers. They can only polish the product.

Clubs usually don’t book Dj’s because they are good, they book Dj’s because they are well known & will draw people to their club.

Normally agents come to the artists, not the other way round. The artist need to work on their own to develop a profile. You need to be perfect technically these days & you need to have a wide range of musical style.

You should find a residency or start your own night & develop a crowd that follows you to each of your other gigs. This will grow if you are good.

Most importantly you need to Produce. It’s very hard to market your style as a Dj alone. You will only get so far as a Dj without releases. (Eddie Halliwell & James Zabiela are exceptions but you know why). Make tracks play them at your gigs, But impose very high standards & don’t work within rules & don't confine yourself to one Genre of music.

Production is so important. Very few Djs who don’t produce make it on a global scale. You may be able to last a few years domestically without production but it’s unlikely to last longterm.”

DJ TIPS… MAKING A MIX DEMO!

1. START WITH A BANG! ... Very important to grab the listeners attention from the word go! If it’s boring most people will turn off or start skipping though after the first 15mins if you havn’t given them an exciting taster of what’s to come! REMEMBER: engage your listeners from the very beginning!

2. PACE YOURSELF ... As much as a good start is vital it’s also important not to play all your aces at once! If you play all your best tracks at the start it will leave you with nowhere to go & ultimately disappoint the listener. Save some exclusive tracks, edits & reworks for the 2 nd half. Planning can be really helpful… plan how you want it to flow & use which tracks where.

3. DON’T BE A SNOB ... Finding all the weirdest, rarest, cutting edge tunes is great, but it’s good to play something people know too but in a different way – a strange cover version of a well - known song. Having a balance between the dancefloor & the music heads is important!

4. SUBTLETY IS GOOD ... You can afford to be more intricate on a cd – layer things up & be clever, make a musical connection. Dj tricks are usually lost in a club environment between distorsion, drugs & booze but on a cd hopefully it will be listened to over & over.

5. GET THE FLOW ... Like a club set it’s important your mixtape has peaks & mellow parts. Mellow parts are good to give the listeners a break occasionally, if too much is going on, the ears can get tired & the listener will switch off!

6. WRONG IS RIGHT ... Don’t be too serious! Throw in something just a little wrong at the right moment. Speech / Spoken Word can be entertaining too. Eg. Poetry, childrens stories, bits from audio books, or even dialogue from TV, Radio or films!

7. BE A MASTER CHEF ... Mix it up – Literally! Try not to play the same style of music at the same bpm for a whole hour… can be very dull.

8. CUT THE SCRATCHING ... Nobody wants to hear endless scratch solos unless you are actually Q-Bert, so keep scratches to a minimum! Keep them short, sharp & funky!

9. FOCUS YOUR MIX ... Who are you making this mix for? Yourself? Your Partner? Promoter? Make sure you know your audience.

10. END ON A HIGH! ... Make the last track count! Make it one to remember. If you leave your listener on a high they’ll be back to listen to your mix again!

2006 – MORE NEW DJING TIPS!

SOUND PEOPLE – it’s very important as a Dj to find the sound engineer when you get to the club you are playing at. Introduce yourself, tell them you are one of the Dj’s going to play & ask them to help you with the sound, work together to get the best possible sound during your set. After all these people usually know the sound for that club the best & if they do ask you to do something… like turn the bass down… well do it & respect the equipment in the club, treat it like your own.

Never buy your own Flight! If a Promoter or Dj Agency overseas wants you to come play for him/her never ever pay for your own flight unless you really know & trust this person 100% or else you could end up losing a lot of money. The promoter should always buy your flight in advance.

There are a lot of dodgy promoters out there but there are also a lot of nice promoters, so always make sure you thank the Promoter for booking you as it usually involves a lot of money… Flight, Hotel, Food, Fee etc… Without the promoters there would be no parties for Djs to play at & sometimes the promoters can lose a lot of money. Try & build up a good relationship with the promoters, advertise their party on your website if you have one, take photos, do a write up about their party, I do this anyway as it’s news for my website & promoters always thank me.

Take criticism with a pinch of salt after all it’s just one persons opinion usually & you don’t know what kind of mood they were in when they heard your set or listened to your track. Plus stay away from message boards… my god people can be so nasty & rip people apart on there. At the end of the day, if you are a Dj & play out & spend all your money & time on practising & producing… you def love it & always want to play your best & make people enjoy & have fun. But there is always some smart ass who doesn’t think about this & wants to bring you down. I listen to people’s comments but they are not always right & best thing to do is believe in yourself & keep following your heart.

No matter how well you play you can’t please everyone, just go with the feeling of the crowd.

If you have never played for this promoter before try & talk with him/her to find out what kind of music they want & will work at their party. Do some research or try talk with some other Djs who have played there. No point in playing a hard techno set to a funky house crowd.

Be prepared for everything, bring some warm up records / tunes as well as peak time even if you are booked for a peak time set. I was caught out before, booked for a peak time set then 3 hours before the party was due to start I was told I was going to play warm up???? It was so unfair… I had maybe 3 warm up records with me… and I had 4 very pissed tourists dancing like crazy infront of me.

Get on myspace.com… it’s FREE & really excellent for promoting your self. When you sign up especially if you produce your own music go to the “artist signup” so you get a “Music Myspace” so you can upload your tracks, if you just get a regular myspace then you can download an Mp3 player to play your tracks. Contact all your fav Djs & Producers, most of them actually reply! It’s really great as everyone is kinda on the same level & it’s a great way to make new friends. Mine is www.myspace.com/djclodagh

Get a website & upload your mixes, it’s amazing how many people download your mixes from all over the world! It’s also much quicker than posting a demo mix Cd to a promoter, they can go directly to your site & download your mix.

If you do post a CD to a promoter, make sure you listen to it before you send it, once I sent some mix CDs to a promoter in Brazil & realised after, I had put a 2sec pause in between each track!!!…Disaster! & it looks so unprofessional! …Doh!

It’s hard to stay motivated all the time, when you feel you are getting bored & uninspired it means you need to give yourself a kick in the ass & go out & find music that will inspire you. Mr.C told me this… “Go to the record shop & find really wicked tracks that you can’t wait to play to people… the madder the better!” …so get yer asses down to your nearest record shop or search on the internet for new music & be inspired again…

2005 TIPS...

One thing that made me stand out from the 300 DJ’s that entered the "Joy of Decks" TV Show, was my energy. When I play I really try to put my heart and soul into it... let the music take over & show the people that you really love it! That it makes you really happy. Even when things are going wrong or the equipment you’re playing on isn’t very good, you’ve gotta be professional and not let it show - ‘cos you don’t want to spread your bad vibes into the party. I can usually tell instantly when a DJ isn’t enjoying him or herself and it’s a real shame.

Try to be as creative as you possibly can and, although you should feel comfortable, challenge yourself too. Taking risks makes life more exciting and it can get boring doing the same thing over and over. Being technical is good but not essential, but for me personally, I love technically daring DJs, they’re very entertaining when it’s done right... e.g. scratching, 3 decks, effects units, turntables, cdj’s & samples.

Scratching… when it’s done right it sounds really wicked... but when it’s done bad... it sounds awful! Nothing worse than a DJ overdoing bad scratching during a set... it just gets really annoying. I use very basic little scratches at the moment to add a little extra to my sets. So practise, practise, practise!

Don’t just always buy the new tunes or the obvious ones. Go to the second hand shops, you really can get some goodies and pretty cheap too! Don’t be afraid to mix up your styles! When I play at my Spiritualised parties I play a mixture of trance, techno, acid techno, house, hip hop, breaks, drum’n’bass and even hardcore sometimes! It makes it more varied, changes the pace and people don’t know what you’re gonna do next and that’s keeps it exciting!! As Roni Size said... "It doesn’t matter what you’re playing as long as people are dancing!"

I think a DJ should be visually entertaining too! Nothing worse than seeing a miserable ass DJ with a fag hanging out of his or her mouth, with their head stuck in their record bag or mixer??!!! Dance, move, smile, have fun with the crowd! It’s a party for gawd sake! People go there to have fun, so give it to them! Play every set like it’s gonna be your last one!! If you see people not enjoying your set or they shout at you that you’re C*%P!!! … Yes I’ve been there! It doesn’t mean you are a c£+p DJ... it may just mean you’re not playing to the right crowd, you’re music isn’t suited for that venue or that night! For example, I was playing funky house to a crowd wanting Abba & Christina!!! I think if even Carl Cox were playing there, they would have hated him too!

Get into production... start making your own tracks! It’ll make you understand music better and it’s great fun! I’ve just started learning Ableton and I’m really excited about it!!

Get out there and watch and listen to other DJ’s playing. It’s a great way to learn! No one ever showed me how to mix, I would and still do dance right up near the front so I can watch the DJ! Learn, Learn, Learn... Soak in everything!! Then go home and practise it in your way... Create your own original style!

When you’re sending Demos to promoters maybe even make 3 demos... 1. for warm up 2. main set and 3. for the end of the night! Lesley Wright, Editor of DJ Mag told me this, because a promoter will usually have booked a big name DJ for the Main Set, so you’d have more of a chance of getting booked for a warm up set or an end of the night set. Show them you can play at any time!!

Even better, start your own night... yes it’s a lot of stress and time, but it’s a great experience and you learn a lot of different stuff from lighting and decorations to promotion and safety and what the crowd really want!

I started my parties, Spiritualised, 2 weeks after I bought my first set of decks, threw a small house party for friends and 3 years later we’re now hiring bigger venues! Start small then go with the flow!

Play for free!... get the experience! Every time you play out you learn something new!

And girlies... please don’t be afraid to give it a go.. I think it’s really is lack of confidence that stops more girls from playing!... WE REALLY CAN DO IT JUST AS GOOD AND EVEN BETTER THAN THE GUYS!!!

The best advice I can give was given to me in an email from Carl Cox, the day before the big JOY OF DECKS FINAL in Liverpool... "Just play some kick ass tunes and have a lot of fun, because when you have fun, the people have fun with you!"

You really can achieve anything you want if you work hard & believe in yourself. Play from your heart & you can’t go wrong! Bringing people together & making people dance & have fun to your music is a wonderful thing! Enjoy it!