DJ Graeme Park - Interview 3

Interview at Chop ‘em Out Sound Cellar, London

It’s always the way isn’t it? When you have got to go somewhere important by foot, it’s always pissing it down. Anyway, despite the weather being less than impressive I didn’t stay at home to watch Top Of The Pops, I trudged off to a recording studio, just off Ladbroke Grove in West London. I arrived at the entrance to the studio and walked down the driveway towards a big iron gate. After ringing the doorbell a couple of times the gate automatically opened. If I had been a bit more imaginative, I would have thought I was on the set of a James Bond film going to some exotic headquarters to meet a nasty villain for a head to head, but no, I was going to meet Graeme Park, one of clubland’s favourite DJ’s.

I entered the building and was immediately show into a studio to meet the man in question. Graeme was in with his engineer working on a new mix of tracks for a Hacienda entitled CD. A few minutes later we went to a quieter part of the plush surroundings to start the interview. I found a plug socket to plug in the Coomber 393 ‘hi-fidelity’ tape recorder that I had brought with me – at least I didn’t have to wind it up.

I explained to Graeme that I used to live in Nottingham, so had heard him DJ many times in the late eighties at the Kool Kat in Nottingham, but I wanted to know how long he had been DJ’ing in total.

“I started DJ’ing in 1983 at the Garage, so that’s twelve years. It became the Kool Kat after about four years. I left to go to the Hacienda, but whilst I was there I DJ’d every Saturday; Fridays as well for a while”. I asked if Graeme still has the time to return to Nottingham, to play at some of his old haunts, “Yeah”, came his immediate reply, “I’ve done Deluxe, ‘bout twice this year. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really good. I was doing the student thing on a Thursday (Ask yer Dad), which was packed. It was completely different to what it’s like at the weekend”.

So after a long and distinguished career behind the 1210’s what’s the best experience Graeme has had, not just thinking of his own sets, but thinking about the night itself? “The best experience I’ve had”, Graeme begins, “was playing to 7000 people in the Horden Pavilion in Sydney, March 1989. I’m sure there’s a lot of DJ’s who have played to 7000 people, but in 1989 the concept of being able to play to over 2000, well, you couldn’t do it!”

When he is under the spotlight, the focus of an “anorak” mentality, has he ever had a total disaster and just felt like coming off? “No, because you can’t”, he states firmly. “I know that there are some DJ’s of my ilk, my calibre who do have disasters and do come off, but you can’t. If you’ve got flu, you’re in a bad mood or you’ve got a headache, or you’ve lots of fuckin’ problems to deal with and everyone’s doing your head in, it doesn’t matter because most people in the club have paid between five and ten pounds to get in and there’s gonna be a lot of people in the club who have never heard you before. They don’t fuckin’ care if your girlfriend has just left you or you’ve done too many drugs the night before. All they’re concerned about is that you play and you just do it. You’ve just got to get on with it”.

If, as stated above, there are drawbacks to the glamorous lifestyle of a nationally adored DJ, what it is it that keeps the enthusiasm alive through those lonely nights out there on the road? “I’m the only person who knows what the next record is going to be”, he states positively and in no need of a prompt, “If you’re really buzzing and it’s a really good night, that is all the ingredients to make a perfect night, which you know without bragging is usually like every Saturday at the Hacienda – the right people, the right vibe, a great atmosphere, everyone’s rocking. I’m the only person in the whole club who knows what the next record is. I can hear it in one ear and I can hear it working with the record that’s playing, I know that when I mix it in I know it’s gonna sound great. I know that everyone’s gonna go wild and I’m the only one that knows that. I get a real buzz out of that”.

One thing that I needed to know out of general curiosity was who had influenced Graeme in his career? Had there been any? “No, it’s important not to get too influenced because it will affect what you do too much”, he says resolutely. “It’s better to be someone who influences other people. I can say that because I’ve got very high standards and I know that I’m good at mixing. I know that a lot of new DJ’s or DJ’s that have come to the fore in the last four years, are good mixers, but a lot of the DJ’s from my generation are crap mixers and they haven’t improved much in ten years of DJ’ing”.

Care to give us a few names then Graeme?

“No, I can’t do that. I think it’s outrageous that they haven’t, but they keep getting the work because of the position they are in rather than their talent. I do like to listen to good DJ’s, but unfortunately when I listen to a lot of British DJ’s, and mainly the ones which are well known, I have to get away, they may be playing great music but they can’t mix and that does my head in. It’s not just missing the beats, but key and vocals clashing and everything. I just think that there is no excuse for it. It’s shoddy and shows a lack of commitment, but I do like to listen to the American DJ’s as they seem to have higher standards and I like what they play. I saw David Morales play recently and I thought he was just fantastic”.

“I like Roger Sanchez as well. My early influences are still my main influences and that’s Tony Humphries . He used to have a radio show on WBLS about twelve years ago. I used to listen to those tapes. I never tried to copy them. I used them as influences and they gave me ideas to try things out – I like to think I’ve got my own style. It’s like, if you listen to too many remixes, when you do your own, you end up being a pale copy of them. There’s too many people in this business who have made a career as remixer’s by purely saying, “Oh, I’m gonna do a Morales style remix or a Master At Work type mix’. It’s like, fuck off, why don’t they just get Morales to do their remix or Masters At Work, or do something original”.

So is originality of paramount importance to you when you buy records, or do some other factors come into the equation? “Oh yeah, definitely. In an ideal world, all records would be white labels they were on. They would have to judge each record by its own merits. There are too many people who say things like, have you heard the new Strictly or the new Nervous, or the new Morales remix and therefore their opinion of it is coloured. I know it’s hard to get away from that because you want people to know what you have done, but I’m always looking for things that are a bit different or original and if you listen to my sets over the years, you always hear records that you wouldn’t expect me to play.

I like doing that – it keeps me interested and when I’m on my radio show in Manchester called Kiss 102, I don’t just play on the radio what I play in the clubs; for one, it’s Sunday lunch time and I’m fuckin knackered, and two, there are lots of good records out there that I can’t or don’t play in the clubs that I think I should play on the radio”.

Going off on a slight tangent, I suggested to Graeme that perhaps the scene as it is today has become too commercial with the advent of the “club empires” that have sprung up over the last few years. What does Graeme think about this? “The business empire is hideous, but it’s only to be expected. Dance music was once on the fringes and was always seen as mainstream rock or pop’s poor relation. Dance has grown up and has become a major force. There are separate dance charts and every record company has got it’s dance division and it’s dance A & R people, so the business side is obviously expected and you’ve got all that rubbish about super clubs, but I think the scene is healthy and it’s good because things such as Jungle can come along and kick everyone up the arse and the good thing about dance is that different genres are formed under the dance umbrella, but they all borrow off each other, they are all influenced by each other and as long as that keeps happening I think things are healthy really”.

So does the “underground” exist anymore? “Erm, well that’s a matter of opinion really”, he says diplomatically. “You can have a small club that no one knows about playing the same records as Jeremy Healy and I would think that could be called the underground, but then you can have a big massive club that everyone knows about, but you could have Andy Weatherall playing or Farley and Heller and that could be underground, so it’s all subjective. It can be a snobby thing as well, people like to say, yeah man we’re underground, just to try and make out they are a bit cooler and that they are different from the mainstream, but then what’s mainstream? It’s like, is what I do at Hacienda mainstream or is what happens in Ritzy clubs up and down the country which play big dance tunes is that mainstream? It’s all a matter of opinion really”.

What about Ibiza, is it the dance mecca that the music press make out, or just another example of capitalist greed? “Oh, I went to Ibiza. I hated it this year. Absolutely hated it”. Do you think it’s had it’s day? “No, people will keep going, but it’s just not what it was and that sounds really terrible, because I hate people who say that, but it’s just different. It’s not better, or worse, just different, but I don’t like it.

It’s just really, really commercial and there’s too many people out there determined to have a good time for the sake of it rather than having a good time because there’s a good time to be had. I was supposed to be out there in August at this big event with M People, Jeremy Healy, Cream and Up Yer Ronson and Kylie and everything. It may sound miserable, but I pulled out. I couldn’t handle another visit to Ibiza with everyone doing my head in. It was just horrible, horrible!!”

The conversation turns to the subject of the Hacienda, of which his name is synomonous. During the period of the much publicised gang violence, Graeme left the Hacienda for a while. Why? “Well, I only left for three months when it shut down over the problem with gang violence. I thought that was it, it was over, but after three months they persuaded me to go back for a while and I’m still there”.

Do you prefer the residency thing? “It’s important. I think that if more big name DJ’s did residencies I think you would find that the standard of DJ’ing would improve vastly, because if you have a regular crowd and they know you, you can try things out, so that when you are a guest it’s not so much a stab in the dark and you’ve seen which records work and you can use it, especially if it’s something a bit different, you’re not sure about”.

Due to the huge sums of money that people are offering to pay certain DJ’s these day, I wanted to find out whether or not Graeme was affected by the big money on offer to him and the select few? “No, I never do things for money, ever. I got offered so much money to do things after the Hacienda. I got offered three times what I would get at the Hacienda to take nights off to do things – I’ve been offered ridiculous amounts of money to do Bank Holidays and New Years Eve.

I’d go, you’re missing the point, I DJ ‘cos I enjoy it. And OK, I’m lucky I can turn things down”. We are suddenly interrupted by a loud squeal. It’s the engineer from downstairs telling Graeme that he’s got something for him to listen to. Graeme replies that he will only be a few minutes, so the engineer decides to make a phone call to his mum.

Graeme manages to get back on track with the interview – he was in full flow after all.

“I’m lucky that I can turn down job offers, but I’m fortunate to be in a position to be able to do that”.

But when you are offered money to go to a certain club, do you actually find out what the club is like, what the people are like? “No, because you know about good clubs. For example, there’s a club in Hereford called ‘Naughty But Nice’ and I’d heard so many good things about it and they were always trying to get me there. Eventually I say, yeah, let’s do it and it was wicked, so now I try to do it two or three times a year.

There’s always little clubs around the country that you get to hear about and often those clubs can’t pay you what you want, because they’re quite small clubs and you either go fuck it or do it, or you can suggest they make it a special night and they put a pound extra on the door so you can get more. I love playing at places that I’ve never played at before, but I’d never do anything for the money, ever. I wish a lot more people wouldn’t. It would be a much healthier dance scene”. Do you think a lot of promoters are in it for the money? “Definitely!”.

Have you met many promoters who aren’t in it for the money? “Yeah, a couple. They’re not very rich, but they are happy and they do good clubs”.

I decide to take the interview off at another tangent and ask Graeme about his involvement with the recent DJ’s At Work compilation album on Pimp Music, when was that? “I did that about two months ago”. Did you choose all the tracks” “Yeah, I chose all the tracks”.

Which are your favourite tracks on there? “On that, erm, God, I can’t remember what’s on it. I can’t remember. Oh, I like the Jhellisa one and the Bassment Boys”. Is it like a typical set that you would play in a club? “Yeah, that would be, although it’s condensed into 78 minutes. I like to do three hours minimum. Most of the time when I guest on a Friday, it’s two hours. At the Hacienda it’s usually three, sometimes four. If you can get longer that’s great. I like to have peaks and troughs and vary it”.

I wonder about the future. I ask Graeme what his plans are as regards his role as pioneer DJ. “I will give it up”, he begins, “I’m 32 now, I can’t imagine people taking me seriously when I’m 36 and that’s four years away. It’s bad for your health DJ’ing it really is. Several times I’ve thought about giving it up and then you have a really wicked gig and you think, I’m not gonna give this up. As long as I enjoy doing it, as long as people want me to keep doing it and as long as I’m good at it then I may as well keep doing it. If any of those factors change then I’ll give up, but hopefully, ideally, I’d like to give up before any of these things occur”. So, what does he think he’ll be doing when he’s finished DJ’ing? “I don’t know what I’m doing on Sunday!”.

Live for today eh?

“Yeah”.

With all the media attention that falls onto a high profile DJ like Graeme I wanted to know if he read his own press. “I don’t read them, no”, he states matter of factly. “Sometimes I’ll just glance through, but usually I’ll rely on other people to read things about me and tell me about them and if they say, oh, it’s terrible or it’s really good I may look at it. I have to say that one day I was reading Update in the toilet, we didn’t have any toilet paper – it’s perfect for wiping your arse”.

I decide to probe him further on this subject. Does he ever contribute to magazines apart from giving a list of charts? “I used to be a reviewer for Update, but I haven’t done it for months. I used to do it quite a lot. I used to write a column for a magazine. When I was at school I wanted to be a journalist, not a DJ, so I do like writing, but I haven’t done much this year. I once made up the name of a record, the artist and the label.

I once made up the name of a record, the artist and the label, reviewed it and said it was the best record I’d heard in ages and it sounded like Morales meets Joey Negro and made it up. Funnily enough, that record ended up in the DJ top 100 compiled by DJ’s who’d put it in their charts and A & R men and other DJ’s started ringing me up to ask me where I got it. I’d tell people and they’d say, ‘yeah it’s wicked innit’. That just shows you what a load of shit this whole thing is”. A fair point.

Finally, to finish off, I had to ask him the next question, ever since I had spotted it in the London A-Z. Did he know that there is a place in North London called Colin Dale?

“Yeah”, he answers slightly perplexed. I ask if he knows there’s a place called Grahame Park right next to it? “Yeah, it’s a hideous estate through Grahame Park, it really is, an awful council estate”.

As the interview comes to an end I thank Graeme for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to me.

“Perfect! That was quite easy actually”, he offers as a parting shot.

OK, so Graeme thought it was perfect did he, well let him wait and see how the whole thing gets doctored? Only joking!
 

Graeme Parks Links to Fantazia

Graeme Park appeared on the Fantazia album:

Fantazia House Collection 1

As well as playing for Fantazia on there Australia Tour.   A copy of which can be bought here