|
 |
Features mentioning
Dave Horne - Expand
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
HarderFaster DJs >> Dave Horne >> Column
|
Column by Dave Horne
Submitted 07-Aug-07 (5408 views)
|
Dave Horne - Debut At ‘The Gallery’ @ Turnmills, London
A good few months ago now, I sent an email out to promoters asking if they were looking for DJs. I’ve DJ’d a lot in my home town of Cambridge, but have been looking for bigger and better things that lie beyond. The last person I expected an email back from was one of the promoters at Turnmills in London, saying that they were looking for warm-up DJs for ‘The Gallery’. ‘The Gallery’ is not only one of my favourite trance nights in the UK, but it’s also one of the biggest, I knew that I just had to play there!
The night runs every Friday from 10.30pm through to 7.30am the following morning, therefore, it was made clear to me by the promoters that if I played there, I musn’t play up too hard too early. One of the things I have always been prepared to be is flexible in my style of music. Don’t get me wrong, I love nothing more than to blast out Progressive Trance at 140 BPM, but sometimes it just doesn’t fit the occasion. I sent three different demos to the Turnmills promoters over a period of a month or so. They were very honest with me. The first two demos I sent were too tough, but I persevered and the third one was just right. We agreed a set style that suited all and soon they came back to me with a date: Friday 16th February 2007, warming up the main room for Andy Moor, Eddie Halliwell and Valentino Kanzyani.
It was made clear to me that I had to get 25 – 40 people in the club during my set. I knew this was going to be tough as my set was 10.30pm-12am, the first set of the night. If I lived in London then it may have been a figure that was easier to achieve, but I live 60 miles outside London, so I had my work cut out. Nevertheless, I was well up for the challenge. After all, DJing at a big night means that you have to be a name that people are going to go and see, it’s all part of the business: DJs need dancers! I quickly set about contacting friends and people who I knew had supported me before. I had a fantastic initial response. Indeed, in the run up to the night itself, I continued to get a great response from people I spoke to through internet forums / on the phone and in person. There wasn’t a single day when I didn’t spend some time trying to get people to come along. I knew what a reputation the night had in the club world and I knew I had to do everything to make it a success!
Finally, the night arrived. I was pretty nervous to say the least! I arrived at the club just after 10. I met the sound engineers in the DJ Booth, they were both brilliant. They knew I’d be a bit nervous and showed me through the mixer set-up etc. Soon it was 10.30pm and I got things under way. I have to say that everything ran as smoothly as clockwork. After dropping the first few tracks, familiar faces started to peer over the side of the DJ booth. The crowd were all brilliant, they all wanted to shake my hand and loads of people I had chatted to through internet forums etc. came to say hi and to say what a good job I was doing. I had taken a pile of 20 of my promotional CDs with me, they were all gone in no time! The glow-sticks appeared and the lasers came on as I dropped Tim Davison’s ‘Life Is For Living’ and a real favourite of mine Pole Folder’s ‘Apollo Vibes’. The most satisfying thing about my set was to see just the right amount of people on the dance-floor at 11.30pm. The sound engineers said that, most weeks, people weren’t on the dance-floor at all until later on. I had a really satisfying feeling that all my hard work had paid off.
After what seemed like no time at all, it was all over. Valentino Kanzyani mixed in his first track of the night, the crowd were really buzzing. Valentino’s set was excellent and he was followed up by similarly brilliant sets by a host of other top names.
One thing that remains left for me to say is a really BIG thank you to the promoters and sound engineers at Turnmills, who were all excellent. Also, a huge huge thank you to my friends and fans who came along on the night to support me. Big thanks also to the people who hadn’t heard me before, but decided to come early to see what I was about.
Dave Horne
Since writing this article, Dave has been back to The Gallery in May 2007, playing the Anjunabeats Album Launch Party. Once again, his set received a very positive reaction. He will be playing at The Gallery again on Friday 7th September 2007. As always, your support would be greatly appreciated!
|
|
|
|
Comments:
|
From: Mark Landragin on 4th Oct 2007 13:39.54
This was a good read Dave, hope to see more of your columns in the future.
From: AveryDJs on 11th Oct 2007 19:47.27
Cheers mate!
|
|
|
|
|
|
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by
their respective companies. All other content is (c) 2001-2024 HarderFaster.
|
![[HarderFaster] - Work Hard, Play Harder!](/images/mainbanner_top1.gif)
