djrogerramjet

Roger Close began selling imported tunes under the guise of FULL HOUSE PROMOTIONS (FHP) with accomplice Chris 'Kooljack" Ripoll from a garage in a little known suburb in the national capital of Australia, Canberra in 1988. FHP had been promoting a dance crew, Devotion 2 Motion, which dazzled the local audiences with freestyle routines, yes this DJ was a dancer first, just don't ask to see the video. Our first gig, on a sunday night featured guest DJ's Paul "Flex" Taylor and Scott "SGT" Thompson from Sydney, an awesome fashion parade (styled on Melbourne's Chevron show's), choreographed by Belinda Broomhead, and of course D2M in action - the lads doing SMOOTH CRIMINAL by MICHAEL JACKSON choreographed by Dancin' Danny, and the girls THE ONLY WAY IS UP by YAZZ choreographed by Belinda.

In the heady early days, a small group of local DJ's interested in anything other than the top forty, actually had to toss for records (to make it fair) due to the limited supply of hip-house music. The idea of an interstate guest DJ was unheard of, and we could only dream about the possibility of internationals visiting our unknown shores. Local night club owners were only interested in selling alcohol, and the music and lighting was incidental, if not a jukebox in the corner with a set of traffic lights.

Within a few months, FHP had joined forces with Jon Wicks (Clan Analogue) and the D-Mix radio show was born, airing late on Sunday night on a local FM sports station, 2SSS. With an ex Canberra DJ (The Phantom) working in a pub in London sending out tapes every fortnight of Danny Rampling's dance show on BBC1 and Graham Golds Hot 100 on KISS FM, plus one nutter on the ground giving us his crazy weekly round up from his bedroom, the show featured the very latest international underground music. We found ourselves experiencing the novelty of playing interstate at the Tunnel on the Gold Coast, crossing live to D-Mix. It was a little strange to find tapes of our Canberra radio show playing in a local Gold Coast record shop. The counter guy did not even believe it was me, when I asked where it had come from.

We launched a weekly club night in 1989 called VOODOO and dance music landed. The first interstate guest was AUST DMC Champ Drew Muirhead. We later featured the Melbourne based John Course (absolute legend on three decks) of Vicious Vinyl. The only thing that worried us was the Criminal Justice Act in England which looked like closing down dance music before it even started. Over the next 7 years, we worked with ACT authorities including a representative of the Chief Ministers secret youth initiative, independent MP Micheal Moore, the Federal Police, and the Canberra Institute of Technology, to validate the profession of dance event promotions.

As the music landscape changed over the next few years, we developed and followed the freshest possible sounds. The day I picked up a phone in 1990 and listened to an offer beyond belief, I knew things would change dramatically in the club scene. On boxing day, a Monday night, a small posse of rave protagonists landed in Canberra on a door deal, and over 500 witnessed the sound of The Prodigy and Dream Frequency, with Sydney's finest Peewee and local DJ Chris "Fresh" Fraser, and you guessed it, the crowd would not go home at 5am, they were all crying, they were so happy. The EXPERIENCE party series had launched!

Despite these successes, it was not until 1993, that the community really took off around the country, and another club night RAW finally brought regular visitors from Sydney including Abel, Jumping Jack, Nik Fish, Sugar Ray, and Phil Smart. It also became the lauching pad for several young then unknown DJ's from the ACT including Danielson (Koolism), Nic Toupee, Ken Cloud (Poxy Music/Mad Racket) , John Mclean (Deep Techique/Melt) , Jeremy Joshua now signed to DJ Sneak in the USA,and of course DJ Archie (The Ladykillers). I am proud to see bands like ASHTON SHUFFLE and D'Opus and Roshambo breaking new ground.

In 1994, Chris Fraser joined the team full time, and thanks to my brilliant graphics artist (Kirsty) the ground swell continued with the EXPERIENCE series. The Prodigy returned on yet another door deal and we squashed them into a small indy band venue with a very large PA called the Asylum, the night was simply called SMILE, and it rocked hard!!! I don't know how we ever got the lads on stage in the squeeze. One of my best memories was having a private party the night before the gig in a friends 7 bedroom house (he kicked his parents and grandmother out to pull it off). Somehow, we managed to keep gatecrashers out, and we watched them run around the house to determine who slept where on arrival(that was very funny). My door girl Beck organized a feast fit for kings, and the lads met and played live on decks with all the local DJ's, a local skate board manufacturer (they left town with several home-made decks) and our FX factory wiz who sold them three four foot life-like green aliens in silver space suits, which they took home on the plane after playing jokes on airport customers in the deli, before waving goodbye and catching their plane back to Sydney. We had a ball, and Canberra had witnessed the best techno band in the world! Later that year, with DJ MUSH-E we returned to the Australian National University for a memorable party called POW WOW.

Following the evolution of DUB HOUSE DISCO, while Chris and I chased the sound of NRG and TRANCE, Jon Wicks joined forces with Ken Cloud and Nic Toupee - and the Canberra Housing Authority was born, the club, not the government department. This laid the foundations for house music in all its forms to enter the Canberra Scene drawing the likes of Derrick Carter. With the announcement of the Olympics in Sydney, Southend created history and suddenly the world started to notice the best island scene in the world. As Ken Cloud left us for bigger things in Sydney, SMILE grew from strength to strength with Chris Fraser and Nic Toupee joining me as residents, and weekly rotating locals Speedloader, Fink, Mik-E, Downtown Baloo Brown (formerly NRGMC), Squid, Jeremy Joshua and the cream of Australia's finest rave/trance, hardstyle and breakbeat DJ's including MPK from Adel, Jumping Jack, Nik Fish, Spellbound, Paul Holden, Jade and Peter Tribe from Sydney, and my good mate Jahlion.

While always in love with swing and funky discofied house music, from the days of the earliest Chicago house in the late 80's, I had also fallen in love with breaks from my introduction to hip-hop, so after delving into trance for a while, I started playing English breakbeat and found support from two labels in the UK, Remix records and United Dance. Thanks to Peter Tribe and Chester, I became a monthly resident at one of the wickedest club nights in Sydney, known as The Breakfast Club by 1995 and the Scottish sound of Scott Brown become integral in the hardcore sound. We witnessed an invasion of UKs bigggest names as we played with SLIPMATT, CRU-LT, VINYLGROOVER, and RAMOS & SUPREME to name a few, thanks to tours coming through Sydney. SMILE moved venues to one of the best clubs ever built, Xtreme which included Mik-E's laser system, intelligent lights, three split levels, a thirty foot long DJ box and lighting console (for some of the best lighting tech's in Australia;)

Meanwhile, combining three dj's, mixing on three decks, under the banner DJ's IN FULL EFFECT, with one as a scratch/cut sampler with ARCHIE (the scratch master always in the mix with other local Canberra DJ's including DJC, Whippy and Jon Wicks as guests, we made several tapes (before CD's arrived) with the inspiring SLIPMATT and the magician CRU-LT which sold out at Central Station and in England at record shop called REMIX RECORDS. For me personally, the best part was finally receiving promo records direct from England before many other DJs around the world, we were now at the cutting edge.

For the collectors out there, check out the stupid answering machine message on the triple pack from Cru-LT! Lesson is don't call London at 4am after a forest party folks, or you will find yourself sampled - and used on a record lol We also had the pleasure of working closely with two of Sydney's finest underground DJ's, Sugar Ray and Phil Smart who had both played at RAW several years earlier, and the SABOTAGE tour finally landed in Canberra with a crowd of over 400 enjoying the tech-house beat and what was then called the electro sound (a minimal dub sound to a techno beat). By this time FHP had several nights running, with funk bands like SWOOP and SKUNKHOUR and hip/hop/acid jazz djs Baloo/Mr DowntownBrown and Jude Fox, and house events featuring the likes of Mark Farina and Scott Hardkiss. Hardcore went mainstream and hearing Malorca (Ultra-Sonic) say...thats the wickedest Wednesday night we ave played anywhere in the world...made 1996, as Ultrasonic came to town and blew us away. The funny part was my friend Jah-Lion dropping in by accident with a part posse, to play back-to back with me to finish the gig - I never forget the look on his face just as I was closing the door, after I let his six friends in, he came running back up the stairs shouting "there's over 600 down there"! We also witnessed ULTIMATE BUZZ, SEQUENTIAL ONE, WESTBAM and FORCE MASS MOTION (DJ Michael Wells).

On the party front the crew produced the best event of the year, and we invited groovers on a journey out there and beyond. Aptly titled RAVE NATION, it included an outdoor arena (the Holodeck), where Canberra's finest battled the nation's best back-2-back with Chris Fraser v MPK (Adelaide), Speedloader v George Vagas (Syd), myself v Jahlion (Melb), Mik-E v Culture (Brisbane). The skate crews built ramps, and the pyramid (from the flyer) complete with the eye, using a mirror ball - which the laser hit in spectacular fashion - in the rain, creating "green raindrops". The indoor house room (The Aboretum) featured a wall of 10 foot ferns surrounding the dancefloor, and featured Julian, Baloo (DowntownBrown), Andrew, Nicole (Nic Toupee), Ken Cloud and Jon Wicks. To complete the event, and thanks to the owner, the front room was full of pin ball machines pool tables and video games. The following week, FINK produced a new yearly event at Canberra University, DJ's were invited to play at Oktoberfest amongst the bands, and I received a very strange phone call from Sydney. In less than 24hrs, a production came down from Sydney, along with SLIPMATT, and PEACETRAIN came to town.

After proving our professionalism at every event, we had finally created a relationship with the local police to protect events from unwelcome outsiders, as the sons and daughters of many federal politicians joined the sway. As the Canberra Institute of Technology instigated a course on both music and event production, the political tide had begun to turn. Following a move to Sydney, my focus shifted to dance radio and production with Ray and Phil on SABOTAGE tours and LOVE parties at the Metro. With my original door temptress Beck joining me, and while acting as Program Director, I co-produced the morning show, Brunch on community license contender Radio Dex, while Jon Wicks produced the weekly Breakfast shift.

My favourite residency in Sydney was a regular Sunday arvo called CRISP playing fused and filtered disco and funky jazz tech house all in the same sandwich. The best remembered gigs were a Warm-Up gig (intro by Jazzy Jeff, exit by twisted acid breaks), deep filtered disco tech at Sublime, a Deep End appearance and a funky breaks intro through to driving tech house with a twist of disco set at Tweek'n. In recent years, I finally made it to Launceston in Tasmania (thanks to Millsy and Forthy:), and back to Canberra (thanks to Gav my old high school buddy).

In October 2008, I joined my good friend and brother in rhythm Jon Wicks, playing some of the house and rave classics from 89-93 back-2-back for REUNION:BACK AGAIN, playing the main room at the Metro on George St (a lifelong dream), after one of my local heroes DJ Robin Knight. Along with the pioneers of the Sydney scene, I played a 95-96 UK breakbeat and hardstyle set at ANTHEM 6:GOLD SERIES on ANZAC DAY 2009, and was blown away by the crowd response. The next morning I joined the UPSIDE DOWN DJ's for their 21st show (every sunday from 8am-4pm EST), and played hip house, house and rave classics from 88-94 in a monster mash up on www.housefreaksradio.com with 6 DJ's rotating on 6 decks, with live drums, bass, rhythm, bongo's and keyboard in the mix. Whenever I get the chance, I fly up to Sydney to play on the show. In over 15+ years, I met and played with the some of the worlds finest DJs and artists, and many of my heroes, across virtually all known genres. A joint release with TSM (Three Stoned Maniacs) on Sony Music, and collaborations with Jon Wicks can be found online around the traps. Thanks to Marc Taylor, the next mission is B@M RADIO - check out www.bamradio.com,au