A huge thank you to the hundreds of thousands of you who joined me online and donated with United We Stream GM last Saturday for my 12 hour “All Day Long” DJ set. Although I’ve DJ’d in clubs for 6 or 8 hours in the past with an audience in front of me, I’ve never DJ’d for 12 hours before. The fact that my audience was online made this quite challenging but when I was asked to do this by the Haçienda manager Fletch, I didn’t even think about it and immediately said yes. For the past few years, most of my DJ sets have been 2 or 3 hours long and occasionally longer but every time I DJ I can never seem to play everything I want to, especially if I have an enthusiastic and eager crowd. The rise in popularity of large events with scores of DJs on a massive bill all getting just an hours set is something I find particularly frustrating, but when DJing is your main source of income it’s hard to turn down playing at events like this. So, getting the opportunity to play for 12 hours sounded like a dream come true to me.
Photo by Katie Hall https://www.instagram.com/khall_camera/
Lots of you have asked how I prepared for such a long set and the simple answer is that I only started thinking about it a couple of days beforehand when the event was announced. I wanted to cover lots of genres and include tracks that have inspired and influenced me over the years but it wasn’t until the night before that I started digging out tunes. But that’s pretty much how I’ve approached DJing my entire career. I start thinking about a gig very last minute and get a rough idea in my head of what I’d like to do on the night. The audience will then influence what I actually play. However, with no audience in this instance I had no idea how this method would work, so I started creating an eclectic playlist of tunes after the Friday night family dinner which was a useful starting point.
Photo by Katie Hall https://www.instagram.com/khall_camera/
I decided to use my Serato DJ Pro set up with vinyl because I knew it would be more fun for me and also the fact that my laptop has over 30,000 tracks meant that I would have plenty of tunes to choose from. As midday approached, I really had no idea which track I was going to start with. I never do. In my mind my starting point was always going to be tunes I used to play in the early 1980s at The Garage in Nottingham and with less than a minute to go, I loaded up the Human League’s “Being Boiled” and off we went on a journey without any direction other than my desire to mix up different styles. A journey which I pretty much made up as I went along. A bit like going for as drive in one of my favourite Italian cars on twisty, winding roads without knowing where I’m going to end up. And what a journey it was with hip hop, funk, soul, disco, pop, house and more. I enjoyed myself immensely and, judging from your wonderfully positive comments, you all did too. Incidentally, as soon as I finished my 12 hour DJ set I immediately started thinking of tunes I wish I’d played. In fact I’m still thinking of them now!
For those who have asked, I’m going to post my set on my Mixcloud Select profile next week after I split it into three or four parts. This means that the creators of the music I feature will get paid royalties.
Photo by Katie Hall https://www.instagram.com/khall_camera/
Ahead of taking a short break from livestreaming online, this weekend I will be DJing for the Harrogate International Festival on Saturday 6th June from 8pm to make up for the postponement to next year of my DJ gig. I’ll be DJing for three hours and you can listen via their HIF Player where you will also be able to watch me take part in a q&a session with Dean Sowden from 8pm Friday 5th June.
Finally, thanks to everyone who joined me for the last of the weekly Nordoff Robbins Lunch Clubbin’ livestreams on my Facebook Page last Friday lunchtime. Over the past 10 weeks you’ve helped raise thousands of pounds for this wonderful music therapy charity, so thank you. We will return at the end of June for more and you can listen to my Lunch Clubbin DJ sets below.
I’d also like to thank everyone who joined me last Sunday for my online Salford Music Festival DJ set which you can listen to below.
As I mentioned above, I’m taking a short break from livestreaming now but I will return at the end of June with more online activity to help keep you entertained while clubs remain closed. In the meantime, please visit my Mixcloud profile where you can listen to all of my livestreams since lockdown began, my weekly Long Live House Radio Show and more.