First proper gig I went to was on my 18th birthday, Judge Jules in the Temple Theatre for Paddys weekend, it was a place id come to frequent quite a lot in the following months and years, going to see the likes of Mauro Picotto, Seb Fontaine, The Tidy Boys, Timo Maas, all the mid ninties "Superstar Dj's". My real education in dance music however would begin one winter night in the Red Box when a moody Englishman by the name of Dave Clarke was at the helm. To say my mind was blown is an understatement. Id never seen anyone djing the way he did, id been used to going to see dj's that would play the whole track mixing out in the last 8-16 bars. Here was a guy going hell for leather choping,cutting and scratching in and out of banging track after banging track. One of my fondest memories of a Clarkey gig was going to see him at a Bugged Out night in Mono, there was only about 50 people there but the atmosphere was unbelievable, he actually came down to the front of stage and had a chat with one of my mates before he went on, promising to play a request. Its a far cry from the shirt brigade queuing around the corner to get into Tripod to see the same guy a few years later.
The set below isnt the best representation of his skills as a dj but I think its a lot more balanced and listenable than others and you still get the seamless mixing combined with the relentless tempo of the type of techno that we just dont get to hear out on a regular basis on these shores anymore. Some would argue that hes been on the decline for a few years now after the release of his long player Devils Advocate but his original productions like Before I Was So Rudely Interupted and Southside are still tracks that I play out regularly combined with some of his remixes like Depeche Mode's Dream On and Underworld's King Of Snake. All in all this is a guy that introduced me to so much through going to see him play and for that Im truly grateful.
