I’ve been a DJ for over 20 years now, playing mostly soul, jazz, funk, latin, plus some hip-hop and house. I generally don’t enjoy doing parties – mainly because I don’t like Abba or Black Lace – but I can be persuaded to do them from time to time, but only usually if they’re for a friend. There are a couple of notable exceptions: I usually play on New Year’s Eve at The Cellar in Southampton – the best venue in town, by the way: have you tried their home-made burgers ??! – and I also do the annual Southampton CID Christmas party a couple of weeks’ before. Let me tell you: you’ve not lived if you haven’t seen a dozen or more policeman stomping to The Jam !

I generally like to use vinyl, but do carry CDs and – if it’s anything other than a soul night – a laptop. In fact, I’ve been using it increasingly of late, having finally got round to trying out Virtual DJ. Mixing house on it is fantastic fun, but the creativity is really unleashed when you start mucking about with genres, different tempos and all the features that are included in the software. I do find it hard to let go of that flange button …