Curriculum
Vitae:
DJ, producer/remixer and music businessman.
Responsible for promotion of US hip hop in Britain in the
80's after a stint working in New York. His Spectrum club
at Heaven considered one of the most influential ever. Has
remixed or produced everyone from the Rolling Stones and
U2 to Massive Attack and the Happy Mondays. Runs his
own label, Perfecto. Pioneered the DJ-as-entertainer ethic
by touring with bands and playing festivals. Resident DJ at
Cream. Regular slots on the Radio One Essential Mix.
Nominated for a Grammy and two Brits and won Q
Producer of the Year. Chelsea supporter.
Current Activities:
Just finished producing the Smashing Pumpkins. Has his
sight set on cracking America after touring extensively this
year. On the point of re-launching Perfecto.
You are officially the best DJ in the world. How do
you feel?
When you put the amount of work in that I have over the
last year, it's nice that people appreciate that you make
the effort, especially Cream.
Oakey's a Punter at Heart - The Express Newspaper
Paul Oakenfold,
the world's top club DJ, tells James
O'Brien why he'll always be a punter at heart.
Not many dancefloor legends began their careers in the
crusty environs of London's achingly grand Army and Navy
Club. But there, almost two decades ago, colonels and
commodores tucked into spotted dick made by hands
recently recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as
belonging to "The Most Successful Club DJ in the World."
LOADED INTERVIEW
Hello,
is it Paul Oakenfold you're looking for? You'll find the
world's biggest & possibly wealthiest DJ on tour and having
it large - the size of America in fact.
Seventies clubbing was nothing more than Riverdancing
with flares on. Of course there were the obvious
differences. The clothes, the cocaine, the quaaludes, the
MD powder and casual sex which blessed the disco fever.
And, we mustn't forget the arms. Formation silly arms
waving down an invisible plane that never quite landed. An
action which became twisted out of another generations
hands years later in the UK by acid house.
Blimey! It still feels fantastic today�. except you're now
paying the same price to hear a disc spinner as you would
to watch football. This is the lucrative decade of the DJ.
Around 750,000 people in the UK dance every weekend.
It's time we explored the high rolling lives of the men who
spin the records, but first we've got to iron out the current
dad-ism plaguing this phenomenon: Djing is not "just
playing other peoples records", you have to play the
records ("tunes") in the right order, at the right volume,
tempo and key, until the lights go on or the sun burns. The
big idea is to keep flicking the spring-loaded disco sensor
in people's minds. The one that not only makes you
dance, but sends the adrenaline bullets of popcorn
pumping through your veins. But if you can't mix the tunes
(seamlessly joining the beats of last record into the next)
you are not even in the game, regardless of how well you
know your music. And, since 99.9 percent of all hopeful
DJs spend most of their time on the bench or playing in
the reserves in some backroom bar, this leaves roughly a
team's worth of premier league-earning DJs for each dance
scene (house, techno, garage etc) working the dancefloors
of freaks and clubbers lost in music and ecstasy - the best
hearing aid ever invented.
