Growing up I listened to a variety of musical genres in social settings – from standards to rock and roll, be pop, Blues, Soul together with big band music from Glenn Miller and Duke Ellington. At school and in my bedroom I danced to Tamla Motown. Then I rebelled and took to Ska and Reggae. It didn’t occur to me that ‘a girl’ could be a DJ! I just bought the music I liked. Then I discovered the West End and the music shops there, I bought white labels and imports.
I got older, had ‘proper jobs’, dropped out of the music scene but kept most of my music but added to it in the new-fangled form of CD’s. I re-discovered the music I loved during cancer treatment– I went back to jazz funk, soul and reggae. I listened to community radio stations, started dancing again and of course buying music. I impressed and irritated some of the male dj’s by my knowledge of certain genres of music. One radio station eventually banned me from entering music competitions as I won prizes every week. My first appearance in a studio was a birthday gift in the form of spinning some tunes live on air. I occasionally DJ’d for friends hosted ‘You Tube’ parties.
Life events and two house moves meant I had to sell a large amount of vinyl and once again music was on the back burner. I moved to Kent and re-discovered live music and that lovers of vinyl were in abundance. I attended Open Decks sessions, became familiar with decks again, learnt how to use CD mixers, ‘selected’ tunes via Twitter, joined the #funkclub and have begun buying music again.
Jazz, Jazz Funk, Motown, Reggae, Ska, Mod, Swing, Rock and Roll, Standards – Anything Goes!