Activist

Growing up in South London around the Mitcham/Tooting area in the eighties, there was a big influence from both White and Caribbean Sound System Culture. The trends and sounds seemed to just fit the area and his taste. Hearing the likes of SKA and Reggae music from The Specials and UB40 just sounded nice.

The likes of Aswad, Soul II Soul, and UB40 hitting the charts, along with numerous other artists and bands, formed his musical route and will always be his base throughout his journey. His favourite track as a youth has to be Soul II Soul's 'Back To Life'—he sees this as a trigger track leading him into the path he was about to head down into what felt like the underground sound.

His first record bought was JT and The Big Family 'Moments in Soul' in 1990 at the ripe age of 12 years old. He just had to have it, and usually would buy a cassette, but they seemed to break and get tangled up, so he went for the bigger, more sturdy looking piece—a vinyl record.

Around the early 90s, he had a neighbour, Ivan, who he looked up to. A few years older, Ivan would tell him about his escapades and the pirate radio station he was running, leaving him mixed tapes to listen to. At first, he was like 'wtf is this!!' but of course intrigued, he would listen to the full tape and ponder what genre it was, if he liked it, and mainly where to get more. The genre would be Breakbeat Hardcore/Oldskool.

The station was called 'Wide Awake Club' for all you originals that remember—salute! His curiosity led him trolling the FM looking for this sound. He came across a station called Don FM which was local to his area, and the music sounded the same.

Don FM in 1992 got him absolutely hooked on this music in a huge way. It was 1992, he was 14, vulnerable, and just loved the buzz of the whole thing—HOOKED! There were multiple stations over the nineties: Freek FM, Weekend Rush, Centreforce, Kool FM, Innocence, Flex FM, Rinse FM, Dream FM, Upfront, Flight, and many more. Massive shouts to all the guys repping all these stations and music!

This all stemmed him into thinking 'I want to mix these sounds.' At the age of 16 in 1994, he had a family loss—his Brother Neil, who was born with life challenges which he never let get in the way of his smile and love for life. He was and still is loved dearly.

He needed an escape, something to deflect the goings on around him and his confusion. Music, and the louder the better! He had already built a reasonable collection but wanted to delve deeper into the underground, get lost in the music. He went round a friend's house that had vinyl decks and visited after college to mix and learn mixing.

He was already aware of the Pirate sound and knew which tunes were good, and most importantly, something he takes with him to this day—he had a style. He would enjoy the vocally loops and heavy Breakbeat hardcore, and what was DNB and the jungle scene would blow up.

He could see the difference in the sets from the Big DJs at the time, from Slipmatt to LTJ Bukem with a softer almost tribal sound, to Mickey Finn who hit the scene with a Jungle sound which, from his upbringing, would fit with the Caribbean music he would hear drifting across his neighbourhood as a youngster.

Tapepacks became a thing. He would acquire different Packs—Dreamscape, Roast, AWOL to mention a few—and would go on to buying them and swapping with friends. The amount he's lost in the past is unreal; none have survived to this day!

He wanted to be a Jungle DJ. He remembers going to HMV and Tower Records but was like 'where do these DJs get these sounds?' He bought Vinyl Decks of his own in 1995—Soundlab DLP 1600. The speed/pitch was horizontal at the front of the deck, and they were belt drive, so the track would not come in instantly. Quite hard work and Jedi skills needed.

Already mixing regularly at his friend's house on the Benhill estate Sutton after college in Epsom, on route home almost daily, he felt it was time. The mixer he bought was just something from somewhere like Argos—2 channel, straight up and down, no tops, mid, or bass, just straightforward bosh, left and right mixing.

He upgraded to Technics 1210 decks and a Numark mixer with a little sampler built in at his soonest convenience and was rolling out, blasting music every single day. Flyers from raves all over his bedroom walls that he'd been given after raves—sometimes it was like football stickers with friends. If they had a flyer you didn't, swaps and trades would take place. Fully committed!

He was training as an Electrician and would sign up to agencies and chance his luck in the city trying to grab a buck. He would have absolutely no experience on a building site and would be called 'Green' as in under ripe or inexperienced, but the money was good, so he kept his head down and his mouth shut.

Walking through Soho on route to the tube home, he stumbled across a noise. It sounded similar to the sound he was hearing and wanted to fall deep into. This shop looked what only he can describe as a bees nest! There were guys buzzing in and out of the shop, shouting down the street, everyone laughing and joking, looking in their bags and everyone else's, jumping up and down like they just won the jackpot on the pub's fruit machine.

He walked in—BlackMarket Records. 4 deep at the counter. Best way to describe it would be like the stock exchange. The guy behind the counter would lay down a track, and boom, the place would erupt. Hands would fly in the air and multiple sales until there was none left, banging out Drum and Bass, Jungle like the world didn't matter.

He probably had that buzz for around a year and would go to raves in London such as Astoria, Bagley's, and basically anywhere this music was filling dance floors. He was in a rave, can't remember where it was, and there was a room 2. Now this sound was a lot more chilled, more Housey, and was absolutely filled with the opposite sex. People would go there to chat, get a drink, and chill from the madness in room 1.

But the music took him. He remembers a track—'People Hold On' Lisa Stansfield, a little booty remix—and jeepers, he was like 'what is this?' It wasn't House; it had a different sound, not straight up constant drum pattern, slightly more cut up and soulful.

He always knew of this genre; in his eyes, it was room 2 music, but he stayed in that room and just vibed with this sound. Getting into a conversation with a girl, she said 'do you like Garage music?' He was like 'huh sorry? Garage...ahhh OK.' This was another sound, a sound mainly stemming from America arriving to the UK.

He remembers hearing a Live set from a club being broadcast on pirate radio—DJ EZ. A guy was talking on the mic; he had an unreal hosting voice and would drop this deep tone, almost like he was hypnotizing the crowd, which you could tell would get the ravers lost into the set. For the first time, he had heard this genre being hosted by a guy called MC Creed, and my goodness, this worked!

He was into this new sound—'GARAGE' or House and Garage. He felt the buzz of Black Market Records was solely for the DNB culture, but just along from there was a Shop called Uptown Records, and boy had he found home! He's pretty sure you had to walk to the back of the shop to the right and down some stairs to the basement where you were met with a wall of House and Garage music, all with the first cover on show and in graffiti writing the name of the track under the Uptown Records label.

Now he needed somewhere closer to home to buy his records. He'd already hit the likes of Uptown and multiple shops depending on where he worked at the time. He would regularly go to Croydon Christmas Shopping every year, and this certain year, probably 1996 now, he walked down Surrey Street Market and heard a sound—Boom! Big Apple Records, which as a note was his favourite record shop during his journey.

He would now go every single week and spend between £30 and £60 depending on what caught his ear—we're talking £5 a record, so between 6 and 12 records a week! Gotta shout out John—he had his own shelf in Big Apple. John would put bits in for him and looked after him with white labels and pieces he knew he would feel. Good times!

Well, his collection grew and grew. He would only buy a track if he liked it; that was the way he tried to keep the spend down. And as a DJ, for him, only ever play a sound you want to hear—it gives you a musical character. Anybody could go and smash out a set of all the latest imports and releases, but he would try and show the crowd his soul through the music and shape a set.

We are now 1997, and the Scene is blowing up. UK Garage is absolutely going off. The DJs on the circuit were playing 4/5 gigs a night, places are ramming out at the sight of a flyer, and he was in his element going out.

He can remember he had his favourite DJs on the scene and MCs where the likes of Norris 'The Boss' Windross, EZ, Hermit, Ray Hurley, Jason Kaye (RIEP), Mike 'Ruff Cut' Lloyd, Tuff Jam, Danny Foster, Martin Larner all were his go-to DJs, with MCs Creed, CKP, DT, PSG, Teller, and of course Charlie Brown (RIEP) and MC Sparks (RIEP).

Now, of course, this in turn would mean the radio scene is also going absolutely crazy. DJs are breaking through, the producers are absolutely killing the sound with the likes of 'Hobson's Choice,' DJ Reds, Todd Edwards is being smashed out all over EZ's sets—the UK/US blend was on fire!

He's now 19 years old and thinking 'I want some of this now.' His collection is ridiculous, the scene is blasting off the chain—this cannot get any better! Late 1998, he just doesn't know. Did this scene rocket and we are now shot out into space all looking around thinking the rocket has blasted us off to here, now what? Did he lose a love? He has no idea. The music was definitely going more down the commercial route rather than underground in the clubs. Tracks are getting more instrumental, and MCs are taking a spotlight. For him, things changed.

Up to the year 2000, he's still visiting the record stores, but his kind of sound is a lot harder to find. He stops buying records. He stops. The scene he loved has now taken a huge sway out of the genre he knew and loved. He sells his decks, keeps his vinyl, and sits.

He was asked to do a Birthday party a couple/few years later. He thought 'OK,' out comes his sound once again. Well, the place went mad! The guy had hired a small club, and he played all night—proper set up, proper little venue. He thinks 'OK, I'm back!'

He plays another party and meets two guys, MC UNO and DJ EJB, who played on Upfront FM alongside the likes of DJ Para. He's sure Mike Millrain played on there under DJ South Central, Dexter, and loads more (shout to Para, his all-time No.1 Pirate DJ, 100% Salutes Sir!).

These guys said, 'we want to bring back Old skool Garage,' and of course, this was him all over! He immediately agreed and went down to Clapham to play at a night called Resurrection. Well, the place absolutely kicked off. The music was so on point, and the Brixton/Herne Hill/Clapham crowd knew their music and how to party!

The nights had headliners such as Mike 'Ruff Cut' Lloyd, Martin Larner, Creed, CKP, Sparks, Para, to name a few. He's now thinking 'shall I take the steps I should have done way back?' He has all this vinyl sitting there; the people want the 1994-1997 vibe—let's go for it.

A station he listened to, a station within the FM coverage blanket, was reforming after a break in the early 2000s. Flex FM was coming back on air! It had just started back up weekends only, so somehow he got a demo tape in. He got a phone call and was asked to meet, got taken to a studio in south London—a garden shed, large shed purposely converted into a soundproof studio with big thick doors, an office as you walk in, and an intermediate corridor where you had to make sure one door was closed before you accessed the main studio for soundproofing.

He walked into this studio Saturday afternoon. A lady called Lisa Ninja was playing, and the studio set up was like a spaceship's controls. His heart started racing! From now, this was him—a pirate DJ.

He needed an Underground Pirate DJ name. He got thinking. At school, he would always sit on the back of the top deck on the bus home and had a tag—ACTIVIST written in the best graffiti tag he could muster! He also had a huge passion for the original H&G and wanted to push to get that sound again, so everything seemed to fit with the name.

He was offered a Sunday morning slot and promised when they set up rolling 7 days a week, he was guaranteed a good slot. 6-8 AM. He thought 'nah,' then thought 'hang on, it's a foot in the door,' and he will chance the promise made. Believe it or not, every show from the off, the phone was popping off. People maybe coming back from clubs maybe, but they were having it and not holding back track-wise—skippy 4x4 R.I.P. belters, Tuff Jam, Todd (Edwards and Terry), full on. Activist was born.

Gotta take this time to shout the Flex FM gang top to bottom and shout out the man Quicklee and all behind the scenes. Loads of stories in abundance from them days he cannot even delve into! That's another chapter Ha!

After what was a nice lasting run of what they named Garage Wednesdays alongside the other DJs—gotta shout Primetime and Loved one who also played Wednesdays—many a sweaty studio shenanigans, he decided to take a break once again.

Had to be a year out of the radio scene. He had a couple of events he ran, pulling in DJs he knew from radio and usually would have a headliner depending on the finances available and the sales he thought he could muster and charge.

Constantly chatting to other DJs and getting that itch, he heard from his pal Gussy, who is now a close friend and a pirate legend for those who remember Don FM and the Teenrage raves. Gussy said to him Dream FM are reforming. Well, he was like 'yeah let's do it'—him as the DJ, Gussy as the host.

Dream for one reason or another did not materialize and was not on the FM dial (huge now once again btw), but another pal of mine from his youth ran another station—Flight FM.

Now he wanted another angle on his shows as he joined Flight and had enough vinyl to run bi-weekly, keeping it fresh doing a 93-96 show concentrating on the very beginning of the House and Garage era. Once again, the shows were huge. He asked for and got a 4-6PM slot. Shouts to all the guys down there—this studio was a factory unit in South West London, good coverage, well respected, and a cracker of a station.

A great run on that station, many good memories, and some shows battling the new techy house DJs, clashing the sounds of old H&G Vs new Tech. He remembers which they had to meet in the middle pitch-wise to make the two genres meet, but great shows!

Again, for one reason or another, he left and thought to himself 'I'm done now, matured and a family man.' Flex FM had gone legal, and a lot of the old skool DJs had left in one swoop after a short while of it running. He got a call—WK-END radio was formed, all the boys he had his early memories with. How could he say no! He called Gussy, and there they were, 8-10PM rolling with the original squad, Gussy on the mic and him laying down the House and Garage.

Now on his time on Flex FM, he had started bringing in the newer produced music, trying to push the scene. He remembers being given a CD on Flex FM of a brand new track, but he'd never mixed CDJs—it was all vinyl. He popped the CD in, cued it up, bosh—Activist now is a vinyl and digital DJ, that easy, like a duck to water.

He was at work, and a girl mentioned to him her Dad ran a station. He was like 'OK, what's it called?' thinking 'here we go!' rolling his eyes. 'Garage House.' Now he had heard of this and had a lot of time and respect for the people that played and had played. He wanted to be a part of this kind of movement. Listening to the sets, it was a lot of the new releases and a lot of links and pushing the sound.

For the first time from when he started all them years ago, he was no longer a 'pirate' DJ. Did it feel weird? Yes. Did he enjoy the education from everyone around him on the platform? Yes! Gotta shout all the DJs and producers on Garage House—what a great bunch of music lovers. This lot would teach him more than they ever will know and get his love back to the music from the first time he turned up at 6AM to do his first set way back on Flex all them years ago.

As we know, the world goes round, and the scene evolves. For him, the internet is as feasible to lock into shows from Tooting to China and beyond. Now linking with new people all the time in abundance, he comes across a producer, an R&B remixer and producer based in the UK—Tova Brown, a stepper who is pushing the 2step scene, and jeepers, what a sound!

He always loved mixing the 4x4 with a hefty slice of 2step—quality, quality 2step beats from Tova and signed to Big Drum Records spearheaded by Jeff Big Drum and Ray Hurley, who are without a doubt an iconic team to have in your corner! Himself and Tova hit it off, taking the piss out of each other on a regular basis! Mainly headed his way, but hey lol!

He was invited to a daytime festival in Hitchin, the other side of north London. Gotta say great set up, taking over the town—every bar, record shop, and restaurant, people were having it, great crowd and vibe all around. He met up with Jeff and Ray. Jeff and he got chatting, himself and Ray tried correcting his golf swing, and the mighty Garage Tape Packs was spoke about in depth with Jeff and the plans going forward. PEOPLE! Big things coming for sure!

He was totally hooked and now fully on board GTP DJ on YouTube!

He would like to explain his style as skippy, dubby. He enjoys a great vocal loop and fully vocal track as well as fully instrumentals. He always listens out for that old skool underground sound with every track he plays, whether it be 2step or a 4x4 beat.

Watch this space and REMEMBER to catch him bi-weekly Sundays, Pure Vibe Sundays rolling the House and Garage sound New and Old 6-8PM Live on GARAGE TAPE PACKS!

Shouts to all the Remixers and Producers—if you wish for him to roll your sound, contact him on djactivistradio@gmail.com or via the socials.