Un-put-down-able! (Should anyone like to correct this Grammar, feel free!...)
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Are an aspiring DJ yourself? Or are you maybe a complete audiophile? Who knows, maybe you're like me where you're both! If so then you "need" (don't just consider) to buy this book.
This is the Bible of all DJ stories out there. At over 2 inches thick, you'll be forced late at night to eventually put down this entertaining read that covers just about every aspect that has shed a light in the world of 'DJing' not just as you know it today, but in all the ways you never even dreamed of it existing.
It's all here. From reading about Jimmy Savilles first gig's that led him to partially melting a grand piano, to an old vinyl-junkie learning the benefits of a felt slip-mat all by accident because he misplaced the rubber mat that would have normally been on the platter, you'll be sniggering away on every chapter to the weird and wonderful ways in which ordinary people changed the way we not only played music, but the way we created music around the notion of dancing.
Perhaps the most enlightening thing about this book is that because it covers all the stories, events, tales, and facts between the early 1900's to 2004, you judge for yourself just how placid and selfish the business has become. When reading about the lovely feel-good era that was the early 1980's, where Frankie Knuckles played smooth new 'house' tracks that influenced a whole generation of people to party wildly, the latter two decades suggest that anyone high-up in the club/marketing business is merely after a taste of £££. This just wasn't an issue back in the discothèque days.
I myself have taken Popular Music Studies as a University course, and although I was DJ'ing before I started Uni, this book opened my eyes to the truth, and I wish it had been on the course!! I'd also like to think it's just spurred me on even more to love the music for what it is, yet the book leaves you on an open note... Is technology a benefit for DJ's in the current fast moving age? While Sasha (Alex Coe) quotes in the book it does, the writer continues in a neutral but fun vein to leave you to conclude how the genre will live on in the future. Do laptops make you a skilful DJ? Does pressing a few buttons account for computer/technology skill or musical/hands on skill? It's for you to decide.
I can't rate this book highly enough. The fact that it would appeal to me even if I never realised I could DJ, or never took an interest in clubs and going bonkers at 3am is all the more credit to the writer for writing in an entertaining manner that displays an extraordinary effort for gaining so much research on such a huge, yet in reality, quite un-questioned topic and subject that few people have touched. Luckily, if you've stopped on this internet page, you need not go anywhere else. The bible is here at an incredible price!
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History every DJ should know...
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Great guide to how it all began and to different dance music genres. Even if your not a fan of Northern Soul, Jungle, Hip Hop, or what ever it's still worth reading those chapters to appreciate all that's gone before.
And who'd have thought Jimmy Saville started it all..
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At last a music bible!
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I have lost count of the number of times I have read this book, re-read it, checked out the record lists in the back, bought copies for people, used it to prop up a wobbly table. It is a seminal trip through 100 years of the DJ pushing the musical boundaries from soul, reggae, hip hop, disco, house and all forms of dance music to soundtracking the nights we've all loved. The arcane details of lost dj's seminal club figures and nights from Italy, New York, Manchester to the island of Ibizia are poured over in detail but with great wit. Not a lightweight coffee table book nor some earnest socio-cultural phd thesis but a highly informative and entertaining read. I sense a great deal of love, passion and enthusiam have been poured into this book and you can't help but be carried along. I bought the first edition and the latest one and the additional chapters on Balearic and Garage are fascinating.
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Insightful and comprehensive
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Although this book has been re-written to celebrate the centenary of the DJ, the story really begins with the rise of the Northern Soul clubs of Wigan and Blackpool and the early 1970s. What follows is a comprehensive account of dance music of the last 35 years and it is at its best when charting the explosive rise and fall of disco, the origins of hip-hop and the social revolution that followed in the wake of house music.
Brewster & Broughton clearly know what they are writing about: the development of the techniques of mixing, back beats etc are well explained although I remain unenlightened as to the finer points of what is garage as opposed to house, trance etc (if that matters?). They make a convincing case as to the creativity of the DJ and are withering in their dismissal of clubs like Manumission and its "rather tawdry sex show".
This is a book both for the dedicated clubber in search of some context and also the general reader. It also a record of personal tragedy as so many of the DJ greats have succumbed to AIDS, drug overdoses and suicide. A number of unexpected heroes emerge: Richard Burton's first wife Sybil, Malcolm McLaren, Kraftwerk; and the late greats are honoured, principally DJ Francis, Larry Levan and Ron Hardy. RIP.
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A MUST FOR ALL MUSIC LOVERS OF ALL AGES!!
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Music has been my passion since the late 1988 which is when I first started clubbing at the tender age of 17. Since then I have worked in bars & clubs, gone to some of the best club nights the UK had to offer, to see some of the best DJ's in the world during the 90's. I thought I knew alot about the 'DJ' but this book has told me things I didn't know. I couldn't put this down on holiday.
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