Stevie Wonder
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My love for music stems from my father’s passion for Calypso with a sprinkling of Reggae.
At that time we lived in South West London so he would go to the Granville Arcade in Brixton Market to buy what he considered to be the hottest tunes. Although I had the choice of two types of music in my household I opted for the Drum & Bass of what Reggae had to offer.
I was about 6 years old when I felt brave enough to touch my dads record collection and the one I remember playing the most was ‘Oh Cherry Oh Baby’.
As time went on my desire to hear more Reggae grew, I needed to buy my own records (the first being ‘I’m So Sorry’ by Carroll Thompson). During the late Seventies early Eighties Lovers Rock was king, so I would listen to David Rodigan on a Friday night and Tony Williams on Sunday afternoons to make sure I knew what to buy with what little money I had.
At the age of about 17, I joined a friend and his brother in a house party sound system. We were inspired by the Jamaican sound systems like Gemini, Stereograph and DJs like General Echo, Brigadier Jerry, Eek-a-Mouse and so forth, we also tried to imitate them as best we could.
I went to other house party sound systems, to listen how they played, including the sound system Shira Magic that The Twinz Keith & Kenneth had belonged to.
During the late part of the eighties another friend started a promotion company called Private Funktions. I would help him during the weekends with flying, etc.
In the month of June 1988 an opportunity arose for me when I discovered that a warm up DJ was required to play at the Oasis night-club in Dalston East London for Private Funktions. As my friend knew I had a small record collection he booked me on that spot to warm up for Mistri.
I played there for 5 years developing a skill for mixing Reggae/Ragga into each other and occasionally in to hip-Hop/RnB records making sure the paying punter was always entertained.
Still being in contact with Mistri, in 1995 he decided to put together a new group calling it The Mistri Crew. This comprised of The Twinz (Kenneth & Keith) who I had already known and Franky Beverly from West London.
The
rest will be........... HISTORY.