How and when did you start DJ’ing? I have always collected vinyl and I’ve always wanted to work in the music business. I went to catering college but spent more time playing tunes to the students than cooking. Clearly pastry wasn’t for me! I bumped into a producer I knew and he was working with a band called Come September. He took me on to help manage the band and we built up a lot of interest from labels but the whole thing fell apart. But I had made a lot of good contacts in the industry and ended up helping out at Dave Stewart’s studio in Crouch End, The Church. I was going to the Garage and met the two guys behind React, Thomas Foley and James Horrocks. Tom asked me to organize his birthday party and it went so well they took me on to do press work for React. I wanted React to do House releases, but they didn’t want to.

So me and my boyfriend DJ George Mitchell had to choose between a new kitchen or starting our own label. So we started Sharp Recordings in December 1994. Now we’re about to release our sixth release and are getting a lot of remixing work. The DJ’ing took off from doing 20 minutes upstairs at Heaven to now being a resident. I left React last November ‘cos I had so much on, but I’ve kept the name which they are happy with and everyone knows me by.” Describe your style…”Underground US hard House.” How much do you charge? “Not enough. The gay scene is very underpaid compared to the straight clubs. I get £100 in gay clubs and £400 in straight ones!” What’s your biggest DJ’ing nightmare? “There are two. Easter Sunday this year, I had been up since the Friday and played at the Sherbert room at Bagley’s Furious Five party.

I played first but the third DJ, Tasty Tim, was late. I was, ahem, under the influence and decided to fill the gap. He arrived but went to the loo and before he got back I was really rushing and collapsed. I tried hard to avoid his flight case when throwing up! The decks were wobbling, or I thought they were, but it was my vision. An out of body experience. The other was at Ku in Ibiza last year. We did a React night at Manumission . Our guest DJ, Tony De Vit, had just finished and the resident was coming on when Manumission decided to get all us DJ’s out of the box using their armed security. We got thrown out of Ku without our flight cases and had a few bad hours.” What are your ambitions? “I want to put our next single on top of the charts. Another one is to remix Madonna or the Pet Shop Boys – my favourite band.” Best moment behind the decks? “It has to be my first set in the main room at Trade in December 1995. There have probably only ever been around a dozen DJ’s at Trade. I couldn’t believe I had got there.

Ot was a very, very special moment” Who are your favourite DJ’s? “Malcolm Duffy from Trade, who we hope to be managing soon. And Junior Vasquez. We went to see Junior Vasquez play a 13 hour set in New York’s Tunnel. He played one of our remixes and we got to meet him. He was amazing. He would play just a heartbeat for five minutes and blow them away.” Top 5 tunes now? “A bit cheeky, but top is our tune ‘Jus’ Come (remixes) by Cool Jack (Sharp). Then ‘Zumba’ Mixvibes 4 (US Manic Plant), ‘Feelin Tribal’ DJ Double S (US Digital Dungeon), ‘Fingertips 96’ Todd Terry (US Henry Street), ‘Pressure On (remix)’ Cocktail Twins (Tripoli Trax).” Top 5 tunes of all time? “In no particular order….’Volume One’ Deep Beats (white label), ‘Keep Slippin’ Killa Green Buds (Strictly Rhythm), ‘Generate Power’ Photon Inc (Strictly Rhythm), ‘Krazy Noise’ (Instranormal remix), ‘Numerical Value’ (Sharp), ‘Passion’ (Naked mix), ‘Gat Decor’ (Effective).” And a big shout to…? “George Mitchell (without whom…), Malcolm Duffy, Alan Thompson, Mrs Woods, Rachel Auburn, Princess Julia, Ben Khan, Dave Cross, Penny Burrows, Jamie and Stephen Moore, Mark Owen, React, Tarik & Steve at Pure Groove and all the Fierce club children, Dan & Pete at Sherbert, Garage at Heaven, the Trade posse, all at DTPM and everyone else important that I’m bound to have forgotten.”