Once again DJ Father Time has spun his last tune for the year and 2011 ends and what a year it has been in music and the DJ world. This blog will look back at some of the big news and stories from the last 12 months.

Last year I said that 2011 could be the year of Dubstep and while it didn’t explode the way I thought it might, the sound is certainly in a lot of current hits and it’s taken quite a stranglehold in the clubs. Whether it’s any good or you can dance to it is up for debate but you can’t deny its influence.

The charts seem to have shown some stability with records such as ‘Jar Of Hearts’, ‘The A Team’, ‘Price Tag’ & ‘I Need A Dollar’ all having extended stays in the UK Top 10. But the real success story singles wise has to be the strange collaboration of Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera with ‘Moves Like Jagger’. This record has spent nearly 4 months in the UK Top 10 and has been one of the biggest records out in the bars and at discos since the middle of summer.

Artists wise, in my opinion 2011 has been the year of LMFAO. Yes they had a couple of minor club hits but ‘Party Rock Anthem’ exploded them into the commercial mainstream with their looks, videos and funky tunes LMFAO end the year strong with ‘Sexy And I Know It’ and look destined to continue this well into 2012. Other big successes of the year have been Pixie Lott, Emeli Sande (a BIG name for 2012) and Rizzle Kicks who have joined the likes of Rihanna, Lady Gaga, The Wanted and Adele in having big selling records.

Mastermix celebrated its 25^th anniversary this year and amongst the celebrations and congratulations to them an album was released around that time that changed my life. I have done previous blogs about it but I must give many thanks to NADJ and all at Mastermix who supported me in the creation of Grandmaster Rewind, my first album which I won the opportunity to make at the NADJ show held at Mastermix. Yes, this is a little ego trip but I can look at that CD and think “I did that and it’s good”, enough of you have agreed with me as GM Rewind was one of the top 5 selling CDs released by Mastermix in 2011. I’m proof that if you have the ideas then they can come to reality. Again thanks to NADJ, Mastermix and especially my co-pilot in the studio Danny Holland…have a Hob-Nob sir!

2011 was also a time where we lost artists and influences on the music industry, some like Dobie Gray, Sylvia Robinson (founder of Sugarhill Records) and Clarence Clemons had lived their lives but the likes of Heavy D, Nate Dogg and Amy Winehouse passed away before their time and we will never know their full potential.

So what does 2012 bring? A continuation of the emergence and commercialisation of Dubstep? A return to Swing with the likes of Olly Murs, Pixie Lott and others bringing a soulful nod to the ratpack era to the 21^st century? In my opinion I think 2012 will be the year of the girl group returning, Little Mix stand a chance to really excel themselves but it will take careful management to avoid the McElderry trap and I think the likes of Oh My! will come good.

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2012.

Dave

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Many DJs will perform at the same venue throughout December. Each night will usually see a different audience but how much will the music you play change each night?

This year I was asked to DJ at Magna in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. Magna is an old steel works that has been transformed into a science park and events venue. The main room will comfortably seat 850 people and still have room for a large dancefloor, stage and even dodgem cars for the punters to enjoy as part of their evenings entertainment.

The night’s entertainment is shared between the DJ and a live band. Now I’ve worked with many bands in my time and some are good and some are…well not so good…but this band are fantastic! They call themselves the Bootleggers and not only are they great on stage but also easy to get on with off stage. They are a party band and their set list includes a large number of tracks that I would normally play as part of my set so I had to give my playlist a little more thought this year.

In order to create the right atmosphere in the room my Christmas set starts with Music For Food: Christmas which I use as guests arrive in the main hall. Once the guests are seated then I use a selection of festive favourites that I have compiled into 2 x 60 minute sections to play throughout the meal.

The music has been carefully selected to create the right atmosphere whilst the guest enjoy their food. Once the meal is over and guests are on coffee then I play a 20 minute section of more upbeat festive tunes with the volume slightly louder than through the meal, to create a livelier atmosphere in the room.

During this section of music the dodgems are opened and the lights in the room are dimmed slightly. This allows guests to enjoy the dodgems, have a breather after their meal, go outside for a crafty cigarette or pay a call of nature!

Because Magna is such a large venue I didn’t want to start playing music to an empty dancefloor whilst standing on an empty stage so I created an intro mix to allow the audience time to acclimatise to the darkened room and louder music.

This section of music allows me to entice punters onto the dancefloor and also give me time to put on my Santa suit…did I not mention that? I like to do things different when DJing so invested in a high-quality Santa outfit that I wear as part of my entrance onto stage for my Christmas events. By the time the intro jingle plays, provided by an X-Factor voice over sound-a-like, the dancefloor is usually packed to the rafters. Imagine the atmosphere when Santa arrives in the room…they love it!

Once I have made my entrance on stage then I kick into the first of my two main sets:

The age group of the audience varies from 18 to 60+ so I like to start with a selection of pop/dance tracks as the young girls are always the first on the dancefloor and they will give me a core group to work with in order to build the right atmosphere. A strong 30 minute pop/dance section creates the base for me to change the music direction without fear of everyone walking off the dancefloor.

The change of music can be anything from 60s or 70s but I choose to go with the 80s and use Wham’s ‘I’m Your Man’ to move into a party section. The screams from the audience assure me that I have made the right choice.

The first set is rounded off with a couple of guaranteed party favourites. Jive Bunny ‘Soul Banana’ never fails, although I have had to engineer a special version as the band perform ‘Sweet Soul Music’ as part of their set. Shakin’ Stevens ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ gives the room a seasonal lift and ‘Mony Mony’ is on stand by just in case the band aren’t quite ready…which happened last weekend!

My second set is a lot less structured than the first as it allows me to play a few requests amongst my planned set:

‘Billie Jean’ is always a winner, I love this track and so does the audience. The next section of tracks is inspired by the recently produced Grandmaster Christmas Party. I’m a great believer in keeping things simple so using the tracks within the mix as a guide I mix some of the set live and use some pre-mixed sections to allow me to work the crowd from the stage.

The second set features a bit of everything, from Rihanna to Usher, Rainbow to Madness and rounding off with ‘Let’s Party’ by Jive Bunny & the Mastermixers before ending my show with ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ by Mariah Carey. Everyone has their own way of rounding a night of but this one just works for me as it achieves a euphoric high to end on.

My Christmas set is made up of individual tracks, Extended Floorfillers, Triple Trackers, Mixes & Grandmasters and they serve me well whatever event I am performing at. By taking the time to plan a set for each event it allows me to create the perfect playlist. I always encourage requests but when playing at larger venues like Magna it isn’t always possible to play them all. A structured playlist gives me a head start on the night and gives me the confidence to deliver the right selection of music to my audience.

I’m performing 11 times at Magna and each set will include a large selection of the same tracks in almost the same order. Whilst I, and the staff, have heard the same tracks in the same order each night, the punters haven’t and they are the most important factor to take into consideration. Of course each night won’t be exactly the same, where’s the fun in that, but if it isn’t broken…well you know the rest!

Happy DJing everyone!

For the past few months at Mastermix HQ, the term ‘V3′ has become very commonly used… It stands for ‘Version 3′ and is  the nickname we gave to the latest incarnation of www.mastermixdigital.com that’s been in development over the summer months!

To our great delight, V3 is now fully launched with a brand new look and some interesting new features, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk you through a few of them in more detail!

Home Page

We’ve redesigned the look of the homepage so you can quickly find everything you need, as well as seeing the latest products at a glance! The central box will also be updated regularly with offers and seasonal products.

Product Pages

We’ve changed the focus of the downloads site so that all our product ranges are easy to find and navigate through. When you select a product range such as ‘Grandmasters’ from the menu bar, you’ll be presented with a list of all the albums in this section, as well as options to refine the results for particular genres or occasions.

Theme Tunes

Our Theme Tunes collection is pretty colossal, if we do say so ourselves, so we’ve taken the time to sub categorise the entire range into genres and particular types of shows. So you no longer need to rack your brain for the name of that American Sitcom that you can’t get out of your head – just select that sub category and scroll through the results!

Back Covers

We’re now delivering the front and back covers of our albums along with your order, so you can add these to your digital music collection and have a handy reference point for each mix or track. The covers are delivered as jpegs and included in your zip file order. We’re currently uploading all the back covers from our older albums, so be patient with us or email us if there’s a particular back cover you’d like, for an album you’ve purchased recently from Mastermix Digital.

Cue Sheets

When we first launched Mastermix Digital, we chose to deliver any mixes as one continuous file, rather than chopped up into separate files at the mix points. We decided on this approach because some software can put gaps between album tracks, which would of course spoil the mix – even if you instruct the software not to leave gaps, MP3s very often embed tiny bits of silence at each end of the track, barely noticeable but enough to spoil a mix! However we know that this doesn’t help if you have a 70 minute Grandmaster and want to jump to a particular point in the mix, so now we’ve given you an area to download Cue Sheets for the Grandmasters that you’ve purchased. Cue Sheets are text documents that contain timecodes of all the mix points within the album, and can be used by certain software packages to add track markers to the file.

Search Facility

If you’ve not got the results you were hoping for when you’ve completed a search on Mastermix Digital, there’s now an advanced search facility that enables you to refine your results by Artist, Title, Product Type, Genre, or Occasion. You can also search by Track or Album, depending on what you’re looking for.

That’s just a few of the enhancements that we’ve introduced into Version 3 of Mastermix Digital; we’re constantly tweaking and altering the site to make it more user friendly, as well as uploading new content on a daily basis, and we’d love to hear your feedback!

Let us know what you think by commenting on here, or on our Facebook Page, or sending us a Tweet!

Helen xx

The silly season is almost upon us and as DJs it is time to prepare for one of the busiest times of working year. Many DJs will enjoy increased amounts of work as venues cram punters in on any night, and some afternoons, of the week. The average DJ will probably be working between 15-20 times in December, making loads of extra money but at a cost…your sanity!

Christmas parties seem to bring out the best and unfortunately the worst in people and that can mean a difficult night for the DJ. Many hotels host Christmas Party Nights which attract a variety of people and age ranges and that can make for an interesting night for the DJ, plus there is the fact that most DJs will be playing the same selection of tunes night after night…is this beginning to sound familiar?

In the 1990’s I was working for a large entertainments agency and at Christmas it was not unusual to be working over 30 times throughout the festive period. I would be working at the same hotel throughout December as it allowed me to set up a large rig and leave it in for the duration. The format was simple. The guests arrived and were shown to their tables. A basic 3-course meal was served…sometimes it was still hot…then coffee, short break…then the DJ!

The lights would be dimmed in the room, the audience would scream, and Dean Martin’s ‘Let It Snow’ would begin…a song that I still use to open my Christmas shows to this day!

The track would finish and I would welcome everyone to the party. This included a shout out to each party to see who could make the most noise and give you a heads up on where the idiots were in the room. Once the introductions were over, and a few mince pies were thrown for good measure, then the disco began. Within 10 seconds the dancefloor was crammed with punters fighting to get the best position. Handbags in the centre…and we’re off!

The first 30 minutes is easy. Play the big tunes and everyone is happy. Then the requests start coming in and that’s when things get interesting. “Can we have some Motown?”, “Can you play some dance music”, “What about some Oasis for the lads?”, “Are we having a bit of rock & roll?” and as soon as you move away from the 20 minutes of upfront chart hits that you have just played you’ll get the younger punters asking “When are you going to play some modern music?”…and not a “please” amongst any of the requests!

You have to put up with the same comments every night not to mention having to play the same songs too…’YMCA’, ‘Fairytale Of New York’, ‘Dancing Queen’, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ & anything from ‘Grease’. Every night, and some afternoons too, for nearly 30 days. It’s enough to drive you mad!

At the end of the night you are met with the usual slurred cries of  “more, more, more” but you will just smile politely as the lights in the room are turned up and everyone starts to leave…but not before the traditional drunken rendition of ‘Show Me The Way To Go’ or ‘New York New York’.

Wherever you are DJing this year I hope that all of the above is irrelevant and you have a brilliant time, or at least you have the courage and conviction to tolerate the tricky parts of this busy season!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

From Rich and the Mastermix Team!

Check out the full range of Christmas Party Music at www.mastermixdigital.com

In pt. 1 I started my countdown of my top 10 TV music shows. These were 10 – Glee, 9 – The Max Headroom Show, 8 – Razzmatazz, 7 – Juke Box Jury & 6 – Later…with Jools Holland.

In this blog I will reveal my top 5 UK shows (so no place for Soul Train unfortunately). Some will be obvious but maybe not the one at number 5 in my countdown…

5. Beavis and Butthead (C4 1994-1998)

There had never been a show like B&B and there probably never will be. Whereas Max Headroom just introduced the video the two teens actually commented on them while they were playing. Often arguing with each other over videos (or anything else) B&B provided a critique that hit home with the audience because they were probably saying the same thing. A simple B&B comment could make an artist look ridiculous and if you had big hair or were from England then forget it, it was abuse time. From a music perspective it showed all genres from Michael Bolton (to which Butthead announced he had soiled his pants) to AC/DC (cue shot of heads rocking and fingers in the air). Coupled with the cartoons between the videos, B&B changed the concept of the music video show and has recently been revived by MTV.

4. The Tube (C4 1982 – 1987)

When Channel 4 launched it gave us possibly the most anarchic and controversial music show ever. While Mike Read was doing his Pop Quiz on BBC1, Jools Holland and Paula Yates were swearing, flirting with guests and generally having a good time. Artists sang live in a time when miming was rife but The Tube also broke a lot of bands in the 80’s. FGTH first got noticed on there. U2 performed live from Red Rocks on the show and it also featured the last live appearance of The Jam on the very first show just before the split up. Part of its attraction was that you never knew what would happen next.

3. The Old Grey Whistle Test (BBC2 1971 – 1987)

Before there was Jools, there was ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris. The shows first presenter may have been Richard Williams but it is Bob and Annie Nightingale that will be associated with a show that took the slant that serious music deserved a place on TV. As basic as a studio as you could get provided the back drop for names such as David Bowie, Lynryd Skynyrd and the very first UK appearance of Bob Marley to be seen by the viewing public. Without the OGWT there probably would have been no Tube, Word, Later…, etc as its format paved the way for future shows. Not many shows finish its run with a New Years Eve special featuring the Eagles and Meat Loaf but that was the Whistle Test for you.

2. The Chart Show (C4 1986 – 1988, ITV 1989 – 1998)

The Chart Show is at number two as it truly was unique in its presentation and broke new ground for music shows on TV. Having no presenters the show consisted purely of music videos with “pop-up” information shown over the top of them. It also featured a different chart each week, indie, urban, pop, dance with a rundown of all the other charts that weren’t featured. In the days before satellite TV, the Chart show was the main place to find music videos that you wouldn’t normally see on network TV. If a song was successful but didn’t have a video yet (Black Box – ‘Ride on Time’ for example) then it would just show a screen shot of the singer or band and play the music. Today it is a whole channel and is the most successful example of how a single show has grown from a half hour concept to a full 24/7 station

And at Number 1……………………….

Top Of The Pops (BBC1 1964 – 2006 weekly, 2006 – Current Special Editions)

Could it be anything else? First presented by the late Sir Jimmy Savile from a studio, based in a church and originally scheduled to only run for one season, TOTP became THE show to be seen on for over 42 years. Based on the chart used by Radio 1 anybody who was anybody in the music industry appeared on it. Having artists who were climbing the charts, and of course the No.1 song, TOTP was a Thursday night institution until the BBC moved it to Friday and that was the beginning of the end for the show. Who can forget the likes of DLT both presenting and appearing on the show (Convoy) or All About Eve’s “performance” of ‘Martha’s Harbour’ where the audience could hear the song but the band couldn’t in order to mime along to (they came back the week after and sang live)

While it may have changed in its style and was home to a great load of miming gaffs, (Marillion’s Fish using a board with the words on instead of singing or Simon Le Bon singing into a mic stand after his microphone had flown off stage for instance).

Top Of The Pops quite rightly deserves its place as the number one music show in TV history.

That’s my top ten, what would you change?

Check out Mastermix’s TV Themes Collection!

In this digital world there are approximately 50 satellite channels that show just music, catering for every taste from classical, through dance and urban to heavy metal. Whatever your choice is you can now get it 24 hours a day.

But for this blog I’m going to take you back to when terrestrial TV (or just TV as it was back then) had shows just for music on it and start my countdown of my top 10 music shows from 10-6. Some of these are still on in this satellite era but for the purposes of the blog I will just go with terrestrial TV channels. Some you may agree with, some you probably won’t but isn’t that the point of any top ten?

10. Glee (C4/E4 2009 – Present)

Yes, Glee! Is there a show that is more musical than this on the box at the moment? You could call it karaoke but it has been a phenomenon and has helped bring back records such as ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’ and also gave us Gwynth Paltrow’s vocal talents on ‘Forget You’. Let’s not forget the impact on the charts either. Glee has become the quickest artist to have 20 hit singles. That alone gives it a place in the top ten.

9. The Max Headroom Show (C4 1987-1988)

This is a personal choice for me as I used to love watching it. It was interesting as the videos were broken up by links from a “computer generated man”. I think this was the first time that it had been done but I’m not sure. Max was funny and was as much of the show as the music videos were. Pity about the film though!

8. Razzamatazz (ITV 1981 – 1987)

Razz-razz-razz-razz-razzmatazz. Just what you need when you get home from school and turn on the TV, a bearded, shades wearing, Alistair Piere gurning into your face introducing 3 or 4 of the biggest chart acts who would perform their latest hit on the show. It featured the introduction of Lisa Stansfield, though as a presenter so not all bad. Razzmatazz was a long running hit and, whilst it might not have had the credibility of other shows, it was a major platform for artist to get to the kids market. They even had specials such as the Solid Gold Christmas Special in 1984.

7. Jukebox Jury (BBC 1 1959-1967)

The original review show, JBJ, was such a successful show that at its peak,

7^th December 1963, it was watched by 23 million people, over a third of the UK’s population. The premise was simple, 4 celebrities would judge a record to be a “hit” or a “miss”, simple as that. Its appeal was to both old with young as the ‘pop’ movement was in full swing and it transcended possibly 8 of the most important years in UK music history. Occasionally the artists whose records were being reviewed would be on the show and it’s interesting to watch the faces of the panellists who were slating an artist to be confronted with them after. Revivals in the 80’s and 90’s weren’t as successful but it certainly deserves its place in my top 10.

6. Later…With Jools Holland (BBC 2 1992 – Present)

Originally a part of  The Late Show, for 19 years the natural successor to the Old Grey Whistle Test (which will feature in the top 5) has entertained audiences both in the UK and also worldwide. Jools brings music from around the world from new artists and established acts. It has no set genre and you could find En Vogue on the same show as Shane McGowan or Oasis and Zap Mama together. Part of the appeal is undoubtedly Jools’s laid back style but you can’t argue with a show that brings in the New Year and has had numerous albums and DVDs released from it.

In Part 2, I will reveal my top 5 music shows and I think I will definitely surprise you!

Check out Mastermix’s TV Themes Collection!

Ivan Brackenbury!

For this blog I’d like to talk about my first experience in radio and how I started. When I was 14, and first started taking an interest in DJing at youth clubs, I found out that a friend of mine also ran a “pirate radio station”, now I’m not condoning pirate radio at all but in the 80’s there were a few in the area and his was one of them. I won’t name him as he is still involved in radio but for the purposes of the blog it piqued my interest.

So as a hungry young DJ I wanted to do radio but had no idea how to break in. Reading ‘Jocks’ magazine (there’s a blast from the past) it advised that hospital radio was a good way to cut your teeth and start to learn about radio presenting. Remember this was in the 80’s, nowadays there are courses and tutorials online that you can do but back then it was a case of getting your hands dirty. So I found out which of my local hospitals had radio stations that were willing to take on people.

I owe a man called Carlton J Stocks a great deal of thanks and if I could ever track him down I would buy him a beer as he picked up the phone when I rang Mexborough Montague Hospital Radio and invited me down to the station. Montague was a curious station as it was located 3 miles away from the hospital in an old church house and broadcast down a phone line to the patients and staff. It made getting requests a bit hard compared to other stations but I was an impressionable lad and was still in awe.

I was expecting a plush studio but very quickly found out it was just a small room with a wall full of singles (supplied by the local Woolworths), a pair of turntables, a mixer and a tape deck for adverts. No computers or automated payouts like nowadays. After a short chat I was offered Saturday mornings, just like that! No training, no instruction, just thrown in at the deep end. Did I care? Not one bit, I was on-air!

Regardless that my audience consisted of Lol the cleaner (Lol was a legend at the hospital, he was known for always been there regardless of the time of day, Lol was always working and listening) and that was about it, the number of patients was never known as we weren’t in the hospital but as Carlton said to me in the very first interview “someone is always listening”, that advice has stuck with me throughout my whole DJing career. I was the happiest kid on earth when I did my first, very nervous, link. After all I had made it, I was now on the same level as Robbie Vincent, DLT, Keith Skues et al in that I was a radio presenter.

The station was awful though, needles used to skip because they hadn’t been changed, the station record collection was very limited and I was greener than a family size can of peas, but it provided me with 2 years of experience where I like to think I got a lot better and provided me with an experience I will never forget. The weekend saw a 24 hour broadcast where 5 presenters did a full day and I came straight from working in a club to do the late Saturday night shift into a Sunday morning and then straight out to play football for my local side. I slept well that afternoon!

I even joined in the true spirit of hospital radio by taking part in a week long broadcast after breaking my ankle and broadcasting with my leg in pot.

Strange how memories can come flooding back though. I had a TV repair done last year and when the gentleman turned to do the repair it was one of the DJ ‘originals’ from the station all those years ago.

So in this day where stations can broadcast all day automated with a play list of thousands and all the information you could ever need to present a show is at your fingertips, spare a thought for those of us who used to be in a room in an old church house where one deck was broken or the tape player was jammed and someone had “borrowed” that weeks top 5 because they had a disco that night and “didn’t think anyone would be playing them”. It was fun and I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.

Mastermix is Europe’s premier DJ music service, offering mixes, remixes, mash ups and DJ friendly compilations on CD from www.mastermixdj.com and on download from www.mastermixdigital.com You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well!

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Sir Jimmy Savile who passed away peacefully at the age of 84 on the 29^th October 2011.

I suppose I first found out about Jimmy Savile the same way as most DJ’s and people around my age (40) when I used to watch Jim’ll Fix It on BBC1 on a Saturday afternoon after Tom Baker had foiled an alien plot in Dr Who.

To me Jimmy was the man with the big jewellery and cigar who gave children their dreams and you got a medal afterwards. I never wrote in but friends of mine did, they never heard back to get on the show but every week we used to watch to see what magic he would bring to kids’ wishes.

If he wasn’t on TV on a Saturday or a Thursday on TOTP, then every Sunday while we had lunch it would be ‘Jimmy Savile’s Old Record Show’ on Radio 1 with Jimmy there (or not, as he used to always announce his taped shows as being “he is not here today as he is out somewhere”) playing music from days gone by which my mum used to sing along to.

Then as I started to get more into my music I learnt of the importance of Jimmy to the DJ world. Behind the ‘jingle jangle’ and the “now then, now then guys & gals” was the man who really was the first DJ to play at gigs using two turntables and a microphone whilst plying his trade at clubs in Manchester. He may have got a break when he was caught on a TV camera but if Jimmy hadn’t started using 2 decks then we probably wouldn’t have a job nowadays.

The first host of a new hip TV show based around the charts on the BBC, Top Of The Pops really brought Jimmy to national fame along with his Radio 1 show following his stint on Radio Luxembourg. Jimmy always seemed to stay the same to me, always the white hair, always the big chains and rings and always the same connection with an audience be it old or young.

You can’t deny his contributions to charity with his marathon running or other events but he never stayed in the public eye when not performing. He was one man you never read about in the papers courting controversy or scandal. Reports say he was a very private man that just had a big heart.

His contribution to the broadcasting world will never be forgotten and I don’t think that in this media driven world there will ever be another like Sir Jimmy. So on behalf of all DJ’s who have ever used a twin pair of turntables or its modern equivalent I’d like to say thank you Sir Jimmy Savile, may your memory last forever and enjoy sitting in your big chair in the sky with a big cigar.

Mastermix is Europe’s premier DJ music service, offering mixes, remixes, mash ups and DJ friendly compilations on CD from www.mastermixdj.com and on download from www.mastermixdigital.com You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well!