Broughton Frank - Last night a DJ saved my life: the history of the disc jockey

Praise for Last Night a DJ Saved My Life

An informative, entertaining, and immensely likeable book.
Independent (UK)

Brewster and Broughton exhibit considerable skill in rendering the meta-story seamless, subtly turning what is essentially an oral history, culled from original interviews and other published sources, into an orchestral piece.
Hartford Courant

If youre a DJ or a dance addict, youll love it.
Daily Mail (UK)

Like an inspired set on the wheels of steel, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life fashions a vast array of emotions, ideas, and history in[to] an extended yet entertaining program. The authors condense a centurys worth of highlights, beginning with a 1906 radio broadcast, into a tome that leaves the reader feeling like a spent dancer: uplifted and a little overwhelmed, yet not utterly exhausted.... Ultimately, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life does what any successful music book should: It compels the reader to slap the music in question... on the stereo.
Kurt B. Reighley, Pulse!

[A] superb book... essential reading for wannabe DJs or indeed anybody who loves clubbing and popular music.
Time Out (London)

Very informative... takes you way back into the true roots of dance music and hip-hops culture, then smoothly brings you into the future.
DJ and producer Danny Tenaglia

Exhaustive yet entertaining... a definitive history of the disc jockey... The book lovingly captures a host of compelling stories from every seminal DJ across the last century.... The energy which so obviously jumps from the books pages, as the authors culturally contextualize club historys main players, elevates Last Night way above the trainspotter tome a book of its ilk could easily have become.
i-D (UK)

From counterculture to mainstream leisure, the DJ has always been at the heart of clubland... An illuminating, thoughtful, and insightful tome.
Muzik (UK)

Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton... have illuminated patches of musical history long hidden from sight... Written with a music lovers zeal and a populists scope, this is one for anyone who has ever found themselves lost on the dancefloor.
The Face (UK)

The comprehensive clubland history.
Jockey Slut

You arent likely to find a better researched or more wryly humorous look at the history of DJing.
DJ Times

LAST NIGHT
A DJ SAVED
MY LIFE

Also by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

Ministry of Sound: The Manual

How to DJ (Properly): The Art and Science of Playing Records

LAST NIGHT
A DJ SAVED
MY LIFE

The History of the Disc Jockey

Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

Grove Press

New York

Copyright 1999, 2000, 2006 by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Scanning, uploading, and electronic distribution of this book or the facilitation of such without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or .

First published in 1999

by HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING

Revised edition published in 2000

by GROVE PRESS

Updated edition published in paperback in 2006

by HEADLINE BOOK PUBLISHING

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-0-8021-4610-6

eISBN 978-0-8021-9436-7

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

154 West 14th Street

New York, NY 10011

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

Whosoever knoweth the power of the dance, dwelleth in God.

Rumi, Persian dervish poet

Whosoever danceth not, knoweth not the way of life.

Jesus Christ, in a second century gnostic hymn

Custom-made double turntable built in 1955 by Edward P. Casey of the Bronx, New York.

CONTENTS

You Should Be Dancing

Make Believe Ballroom

Night Train

After Tonight Is All Over

Wreck Up A Version

Love Is The Message

She Works Hard For The Money

So Many Men, So Little Time

Adventures On The Wheels Of Steel

Planet Rock

Ill Take You To Paradise

Can You Feel It?

The Sound

Bryllyant

Ive Lost Control

Keep On Moving

Even Better Than The Real Thing

Renegade Snares

God Is A DJ

I Havent Stopped Dancing Yet

ORIGINAL PREFACE

Original Preface

A lot of DJs around now, they need to know about this stuff. Someone should put a book together of all this and then we can give it to people and say, read this before you go DJing .

Ashley Beedle, DJ and producer

Theres not a problem that I cant fix
cos I can do it in the mix.

Indeep, Last Night A DJ Saved My Life

T he story of dance music resides in the people who made it. Or at least played it. And guess what most of them are alive and well and full of tall tales. We set out to meet as many as possible and start them talking. Some are extremely famous, some we didnt know were still breathing. Some we found in the phone book. Once we started asking questions, the nuggets came flooding out and we were soon brimming with details no one else knew; finding connections that no one had noticed. We were surprised that this story had never been told in full, and along the way felt a sneaking pride that we would be the ones to do it.

Because, sadly, most writing about dance music just hasnt stuck. We keep on reading the same old repeated mistakes, the same well-worn myths, the same poorly researched articles written completely without context. And were just too thick to deal with the books that have copied all these together and used them as the basis for a lot of abstract nonsense about postmodern intertextuality and Hegelian Gesundfarbensextenkugelschreiber.

So being simple folk, we wrote a simple book. There are a few socio-cultural theories in here, and we like to think weve done a pretty good job of connecting things together and showing where they fit, but what youre about to read is mostly just great stories from people with big egos, explaining what they did to change music.

We aimed to write a biography of dance musics most important figure the disc jockey. Our story is of how the DJs job evolved and how the DJ has been the driving force in popular music. In telling it weve concentrated on his crazier years when he was shaking things up, and given less emphasis to his recent behaviour now that hes settled down and become respectable.

Given this emphasis, this is not a history of dance music itself (although it nearly is). We didnt have time or space to explore the creation of every last sub-genre, so as we followed the evolution of dance music we set our limits with the motto, Remember the DJ and concentrated on the impact of his DJing role rather than the changes he made purely as a producer. And dont be disappointed if your favourite jock doesnt get a whole chapter to himself. We were looking for whoever got there first, not necessarily the ones who were the best. There are plenty of DJs who, while being amazing, talented artists that we know and love and have danced to on many occasions, are only bit players in the big picture.