How did the Trade residency come about?
My Trade residency came about in a surprising way. I had played Trade's test lounge a couple of times and was the only guest to be asked to play twice. It was Christmas day evening 1995 and Trade was on. I walked in to be met by Laurence Malice (Trade promoter) he asked if I had my records with me , I said no why?, so he told me if I go home and get them then the last set is mine. It was Christmas for me in many ways more than one, so I shot home picked up my box and returned in an excited and nervous state.

Once Steve Thomas had had enough he told me to get ready and off I went on. There was tape deck on top of the mixer so I popped in a tape to record the set. All was going very well when all of a sudden there was silence. What he had happened was a can of drink that I had put on the tape deck had moved because of the vibration of the bass and fallen on top of the deck that was playing, what a horrific thing to happen to me with a packed dance floor going for it, oops. I had to start the next record from the very beginning and it was just beats for a while, I nearly died. Then Laurence came rushing in to see what went wrong I thought that was gonna be the end of my short DJ life at trade, instead he said to me Glenn I did not know you could mix so well and do I want to play the last set in the leisure lounge on new years day , and that was how my trade residency started...


Who were your favourite DJs?
my fave DJ'S were obviously Tony de Vit, Dave Randell, Steve Thomas , Queen Maxine, there were many but these are the one's that i played with week in week out and knew what they were capable of.


Which DJs inspired you?
The DJs that inspired me were Daz sound and Trevor Rockcliffe, when I first went to Trade I knew nothing of mixing or DJing, it was Trevor who in the middle of his set showed me how to que up a record and scratch a beat, from then on that was what I had to learn to do, and I did.

What were your favourite clubs to play at?
I really loved playing at Trade and even though it was weekly I could never tire of the place. The sound at Turnmills was massive and very loud. DTPM was also fantastic I was asked to play there when it first moved to the END and it had only just opened. Both rooms had great sound systems and I was lucky enough to play the last slot, usually playing a more cheesey style of music. Plus I was sometimes put on in the other room, in which I could play much harder.

I also represented Trade in Brazil a couple of times which as you can imagine was fantastic. I went back another 6 times and ended up living there for a while because I was offered a residency in a brand new club that was being built , how could I turn that down.

My top 11 records are in no particular order.

Zero B , Lock Up
Marmion , Shoneberg
Number 3 , Rabbit City Records
Bush Babys, Belicious
The Shaker , Just Lick It
Baby Doc , Lover Man
Sourmash , Pilgrimage to Paradise
X-cabs , Neuro
Richard F , Cookie dough dynamo
XVX ,Illuminate
Praga khan , Injected with a poison

If not playing out now why did you stop?
Not playing at any clubs now , I stopped as it got harder to find new clubs to play plus my management were crap. I'd love to give it another go but I do not think it will happen.

Longest set played?
The longest set I ever played was only a 4 hour one at Trade one August bank holiday, as most of the residence were doing some Trade thing in Scotland. And I had the honour not only to cover Tony's set but to do Steve Thomas's set as well. In my opinion these were the best times to play as the club would have been heaving. It was fun and time went so quick had a blast.

Any regrets?
The only regret I have is not about my DJing its about not spending more time with Tony, the more huge Tony became the more I would give him space He was a true and great friend. Then one day in January he called me to tell me he was ill and why. I thought Tony being Tony he will be fine this wont get to him he's to important and special. He passed away the following July.

On the day of his funeral he was supposed to play in Taunton Sommerset. Tthe promoter phoned me after Tony died and before the funeral to ask me if I could play instead, it was a shock to be asked so I told Tonys brother Andrew and he said to me "what would Tony say to you now? he said he would say do the gig , just do a good job. So did it for my good friend in his honour.

Favourite Tony De Vit production?
My fave TDV production must be Are You All Ready. Because it was me that inspired him to make it. As I had played the record that the sample was taken from in a set I played at Trade in Tonys absence on the 2nd June 1996.

The old Doc Scott - NHS Surgery record was recorded on 33 but was very old and slow so I had the idea to play it on 45 so it would fit in the set, trouble is I had to play my set so fast to fit this track in but I did and it worked very well, and went down a storm and the roof came off.

Tony heard about it through the grapevine, then when he asked me onto his kiss show the next Wednesday night we chatted about the last Trade and how it went. He then played it at the right speed and I explained to him and the listeners what had gone on with the set last trade. Within 2 weeks he had bought the rights to the record sampled it and made Are you all Ready. As you can imagine I am very proud.

Favourite TDV remix?
Fave TDV remix has to be 99th floor elevators. - Hooked.

Any memorable TDV moments?
The best way to sum up Tony's as a friend is this. When Tony first got his studio going in the Custard Factory in Birmingham he invited me up to see it. When it was time to go I was asked by Tony to park my old escort van on his drive as Handsworth Wood in Birmingham is not a safe place to leave anything, even my beat up old van which had a huge hole in the exhaust and sounded like a plane.

We went to town and spent a few hours there looking at his pride and joy studio which was stunning, then went back to his. When I was leaving the next day I said my good-byes jumped in my van and started it up , there was something wrong with the van so I switched it off and wondered what was wrong. While this was going on Tony and his partner Steve were laughing at me from the doorway because I was confused at why my van sounded strange. The reason why it sounded strange was because while I was out with Tony , Steve had taken my van at Tonys request to get a new exhaust fitted and a service , Tony did this because the thought it was very funny and loved to look after the friends he cared about. I loved Tony dearly and still miss him to this day.

I also used buy records for Tony in London as he rarely got the chance to shop here and I was free all week. That was soon after he started his residency at Trade. Up until I started mine as it got a bit of a conflict of interests, as I was supplying most of his import stuff. His first compilation was for Trade Vol 1 it had I think 15 tracks , 7 were from me , so long before I was playing at Trade I was influencing the sound, which I was always proud of.

So how did your friendship with Tony de Vit come about?
I'll tell you of my first meet with Tony as its quite funny and sums Tony up,

I cant remember the fist time Tony played Trade as a guest or if he did at all, but i know for a fact ( quite sure anyway) that Tony's residency at Trade started on the 18th July (not sure which year 92 maybe) I know this as its my birthday .

I had a lot of friends that worked at the Marquee club that was on Charing Cross RD I actually did the door on the old Marquee when it was in Wardour St , so we would go to a club called Fusion there every Saturday night, the night was aimed at a young crowd and a bit cheesy . as I had already started to mix (not at all well) I knew enough to know a good DJ when I heard one.

Anyway on my birthday we all met at the Marquee as it was gonna be an excuse for a few more people than usual to go to Trade, on this night the music at Fusion was very good both mixing and music, I mentioned this to the promoter and told him the DJ was the best that's ever played for the night but he said no he was too hard.

A load of us went to Trade and as it was my b/day it was carnage. I was in a heavenly stupor, the thing I can remember before it went blank was the DJ that had played at Fusion was gonna play at Trade, I perched myself by the DJ booth for a while as standing was gonna be a problem and this was in the days when the DJ booth was open, so I Lent over the side and just watched while I turned semi conscious just leaning and watching , the night was good I think.

The next week the DJ from Fusion and the Trade slot who I never knew came over to me and said "happy birthday for last week Glenn" and introduced him self to me at the same time as giving me one of his mixed tapes , yep it was Tony. he told me how I was the week before and how he tried to say hello and my mates had told him it was my birthday and my name , we became friends from that moment .

Tony was just one of the nicest people you could ever meet, the trouble was he liked to joke, a lot. He gave me his home number and said to call anytime. I was introduced to Steve his partner. Me and Steve got on great and he even took me on his books for DJ Poole (Steve Poole's DJ agency) when I actually became a good enough DJ, as he had all the Trade DJ's.

My fist gig for him was in Brum for £200 , which was way more than I had earned before. Then after I was a Trade res my next gig was £400 , Tony said I was worth it and that was good enough for Steve.


Tell me a bit about your DJing at DTPM?
When I first played DTPM I did the last set in the slightly smaller room, with DJ's like Smoking Jo, Troy , Tasty Tim, Jeffry Hinton. I played much more pure house than my Trade sets lots of Italian house and some much slower than usual even cheesy ( I used to play , White Lines by Grand Master Flash lol. it got hard to mix in there sometimes as Tim and Jeffry would have there hands all over me while I was mixing to try and wind me up.

They were always commenting about me making sure my mixes were long and accurate. So I took it all as a compliment, I even had Mr C the End co owner come up to me at the end of the night and congratulate me as he was on the dance floor for the whole of my set and loved it. Which was really nice of him.

in the other room I could play a bit tougher, not quite as mad as a Trade set but getting there. Again it was always the last set