DJ Ron Profile / Interview

DJ Ron started out on the DJ’ing scene at the tender age of sixteen. At that time, he was in a sound called TNT, who were into the Hip-Hop and Soul scene. Ron later developed an interest in DJ tricks, and that is how he became a scratch DJ. He started listening to different types of music, and whilst going to various raves around the scene, discovered Jungle. For the next couple of years, Ron’s interest lay in “being a raver on the circuit rather than being a DJ”; however, during the time he was raving, he came to realise that he actually wanted to become a DJ.

Ron’s inspirations have only been a few, first and foremost “The Father”, as he is spiritual and believes that everything happens for a reason. His other inspirations were people like Grand Master Flash, Jeffrey Daniels and Jazzy Jeff who invented loads of different types of Scratches, which Ron was into at the time. Ron also has a lot of respect for DJ’s such as Jumping Jack Frost, Fabio, Mickey Finn and Kenny Ken, all of whom have been on the circuit for a long time. These were the people, by which he set a measure of where he wanted to get to in the DJ’ing scene. Respect to all those DJ’s and respect to Ron for fulfilling his aim.

Ron got his first break, when he played out at Telepathy in the early 90’s, but his first big move came when he played at the Roast Christmas party at Turnmills in 1992. From there on Ron’s career took off and he was playing out every weekend.

I then went on to ask him about the dance scene and why it seems that the promoters tend to be moving out of London: “I have heard that the promoters are finding it very difficult to put on raves in the West End, partly to do with the capacity of some venues…. But mainly to do with the club owners. They were being hassled by the policy because of the amount of trouble taking place in raves and were warned that they could lose their licences if they were not careful”.

Samantha’s, Mars Bar and a few other clubs are the only places left in the West End, that are presenting Jungle nights. Even on the weekend, the most important time, there is nothing on, and instead everything is happening outside London. The Island in Ilford, where Jungle giants ‘Roast’ hold their events, have seen Ron become a firm favourite with the crowd.

Ron states that there is a big difference between the atmosphere of raves in London and raves outside London. As he puts it, “the punters in London are spoilt – spoilt for choice”. This is because all the top Jungle DJ’s come from in and around London. The public gets to hear and see them all the time, at raves and on the radio, whether it be Kiss FM, Kool FM, the infamous London pirate or any other pirates. The fact that there is so much interaction and communication between the artists, and people in London, makes the raves less exciting, as it is nothing new for them. However, in places like Manchester, the scene has just been “jamming”. At first, it was difficult to have a scene up there because of the gang warfare, but Ron claims it is not like that anymore. On his playouts, Ron has found that the crowd up there is of a maturer age, and says that there has been absolutely no trouble at raves.

Ron’s DJ’ing skills have not only been seen and appreciated by British audiences, he has been acknowledged worldwide. He has played out in places like Chicago, Los Angeles, Germany, Switzerland and Amsterdam. He found that Germany had got a serious scene happening, but in Chicago “it was really tearing”.

Kool FM plays a very important part to the jungle scene, in that it gives out information on different subjects that are going around the circuit. Ron believes that Kool FM is important to the scene, as “people like listening to it and it is their means of really communicating with the scene”. Ron has a slot on Kool FM on Friday evenings, which is known as the Dream Team and A-Team Show, and consists of Ron, DJ SL, MC Moose and MC Five-O.

After starting the successful London Some’ting Record label late in 1994, Ron has been a very busy person, and recently the remix of ‘Crackman’ which has been tearing it up on the circuit, has been released, the fifth release on his label. This label has done really well, after it’s first release by The Prisoner in 1994.

“I have a lot of new material in the very near future, and perhaps an album with one of the major labels – but that’s in the early stages, so watch this space as they say”.

Ron’s advice for up and coming DJ’s is to persevere, but at the same time to be real, meaning “don’t waste all of your money on buying records!”. Another piece of advice from Ron is directed towards those young people who come to the raves and cause problems. He says “Fix up yourselves” because you are affecting the rave scene in the West End in a serious way.

So there you have it, a quick insight into the world of DJ Ron, Jungles most promising asset, whose career from here on in can only spell success.