On New Year's Eve 1996 Allister played blinders at Golden in Stoke, the Canal Club in Wolverhampton and finally the Q Club in Birmingham.  This man has an agenda.... I remember a club in Nottingham called the Kool Kat in 1991.  It was a small affair - rather like a Saturday night house party where you bowl around, off your tin nut, and discover weird DJs spinning obscure hip-hop disco in kitchens and bedrooms.  You know scenario.  Two young blokes were buzzing around that same club, and walking into the main room (about the size of a big living room) a long haired Ali Whitehead was to be seen, and heard, mixing up an orgy of vocal oriented house and garage to an intimate, extremely fashionable and up-for-it-crowd.  It was like a mini rave party, those two blokes were myself and a fellow hedonist.  Allister was hardly known outside Nottingham at that time and I don't believe he really knew he ever would be.  Allister is one of the most humble and tunnel visioned DJs I have met.  Here's what happened in the interview...

Allister Whitehead Interview 1997

So Ali, whadda you up to now mate?  

"I'm pretty much doing the same thing I did at the Kool Kat in Nottingham a few years ago.   I play a lot of British stuff, I still like my vocal songs and I still like my house tracks".   Trance and the harder styles of house have become massive again recently.  Do you feel that trance has affected you?  "I think if you like the sort of stuff I like then you'll always like it.   They're so totally different but if they were related in any way, then 'd be playing it.  Just because something is new, it doesn't necessarily mean people are going to move from one to the other.  It's good that it's made the scene diversify.  I mean the harder stuff's been around for quite some time now, so there's obviously a big market for it.  Sasha's been banging it out since '92 really, about the time that him and John were playing harder stuff.  John's got bigger in the last few years.  I don't think that style of music will go out.  I think there's room for everything as long as the market is there for it."

The very first thing Allister did was the Garage in Nottingham - the original Garage before it shed its skin to become the Kool Kat.  At this time, Allister played at various venues around Nottingham, building up a following in the process, then began spinning regularly at the Kool Kat.  Since then, there hasn't been a week that he's not played out.  

"It wasn't very good for the wallet even then," claims Nottingham's house maverick.  "I didn't make a profit until 91 or 92, maybe even later than that.  I didn't make a proper living 'till 93".

"When you're being paid £100 a week to live on and buy your records, then it isn't a lot of money, so extra gigs were a God-send.  It wasn't like it is now when you can do gigs here, there and everywhere, the market just wasn't there for it.  I used to work on a Thursday in Blackpool, and I'd get £150, which was 150% of what I'd get normally.  It was a bit of a struggle, but I didn't mind it.  I was just so enthusiastic - dead riveted to do it.   I was absolutely obsessed with it.  I had to have records, records came before anything.  Looking back at it now, I could have been a bit more particular and a bit more relaxed about it, but I think the eagerness is what makes you go that far.  There were people around me at the time who were just as capable of doing what I was doing, but they'd go out and buy a Diesel shirt, or a new pairs of shoes whereas I had to have the records.  They'd look a smart in the clubs, but I'd have the records."

Danny Rampling mentioned that Allister was an 'up and coming young DJ'.  What does he thing about that?

"Brilliant!  I don't think of myself as a young DJ, and I certainly think that things are better on a national level.  Compared with Danny, I am, because he's been well known since '87, '88.  I was on Jenny Rampling's books for a while, which is probably why Danny knows of me. I think that's great.  If people think of me as an up and coming DJ all the time, I really don't mind.  I think it's just nice to be respected as somebody who like me."

Every DJ and his dog seems to be heading for the studio these days, so will Allister be taking off his DJ hat in favour of samplers and synths?   "I'm working with Tom Fredericks Sasha's ex-engineer) at the moment and it's gone really well.  We've finished the track and I've got another one rattling around in my head.  He's on holiday at the moment but what I'd like to do is belt as many tracks out as possible in the next six months.  I doubt it'll be under my name, because it wouldn't be the most marketable name at all"   Was studio production always a dream?  "The studio thing was always something I'd wanted to do, but the DJing is just as important to me, if not more.  I get a lot of enjoyment from DJing and to be able to make the records that you play, is doubly enjoyable, but I could never imagine just doing studio work.  No way.  I've dropped my own remixes in the past."

"I made a record about five years ago with Jon Crossley in Nottingham who used to be one hal of "Groove and Submit To the Beat".  We did a track call The Association "Ciao" and that was a good thing, but that's the only original track we've released so far.  The problem with production is being too critical of your own music, so there were a few things we didn't put out."  I wondered if there were any mad tales to tell of Ibiza last year.  Apparently not...  "I didn't play abroad much this year, and it wasn't because we weren't offered good gigs, but my commitments in this country were massive.  They were all done month in advance. This year, we haven't booked out to play anywhere.  I'm just doing Zero - G on a Saturday, I'll probably do the odd gig at Cream on a Friday, but apart from that, nothing.  That's the way I like it. so I can go abroad.  We fell pray to that last year."   As usual, i had a gripe with clubland to discuss.  Today, it isn't DJ fees - I'm sure you'll be pleased to hear - but the fact that the big clubs that people like Allister are touring, make it very tough for new clubs...

"I think it's very difficult for new clubs to start, so it's obvious that something has to change.  Basically, the clubs that have been around for a while, have built a rapport with the agencies and the DJs and they've got strong line-ups week in, week out.  But along with that they've built up a big clientele, so if you can't really book big names, it's difficult for someone else to come along and start something new.  People want to go where they know they'll have a good night and it takes a lot to unhinge an established club.  It's also very difficult to get these big line-ups every week.  You can only have Pete Tong and Jeremy Healy once in a while and DJs are beginning to realise that it's not in their interests to play certain clubs all the time.  It's easy to be seen as a commodity and that's why I've sort of moved away from that."   Allister has come one hell of a long way since those day at the Kool Kat.  He's played at almost every house club under the dun here and in Europe and he's just completed a stonking CD mix on the Fantazia House Collection with Tall Paul...and with that, I'll leave you in the capable hands of Whitehead himself to tell us what this guy is planning for '97?

"We did a regular night on a Thursday - Zero G in Nottingham at Essence and it's gone really well and we're moving it to a Saturday.   I'm just going to be playing there on a Saturday, so I'm not going to be playing at Monneypenney's or Cream, or anywhere then, and on Friday, I'm not playing anywhere within a hundred mile radius.  I'm going to be doing Cream once a month on a Friday, in fact to be honest, I'm literally not playing anywhere else in the UK apart from there because I've had a enough of two really good gigs, one not so good gig and so on.  I want to play in front of a crowd that know what the fuck I'm going to be doing week in, week out.  It's lucky that this thing has just come around, because it's always something that I wanted to do again, to follow on from the Kool Kat.  You get the kind of rapport that you just can't get week in, week out anywhere else."   Robin Green, 1997

Links to Fantazia

Allister Whitehead has appeared on the Fantazia albums:

Fantazia House Collection 3
Fantazia House Collection 4
Fantazia House Collection 5
Fantazia British Anthems 1
Fantazia British Anthems 2000

To buy any of these please click here