08.03 (Sat)
From childhood marching bands to disc jockey and dance music producer: Pete Heller knows a good drum when he hears one. Boom-boom. Out go the lights.
Born in Brighton, Pete Heller was a music nut right from the get-go. The Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Jam and Madness as a kid and then discovering nascent hip hop at a Clash gig in London. “I was sitting at the back before the Clash and this band came on,” remembers Pete. “I’d never heard of this music before. It was very rhythm-based. It was Fab Five Freddy doing a hip hop show. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get into this’. Found out about Groove Records, went up there and the first import I bought was Davey DMX ‘One For The Treble’. It smelt different.”
Things were different in the 1980s before house arrived and shocked our system to its core. Dance music was a minority interest, like clay pigeon shooting or wine tasting. There were few magazines documenting it, and no-one wanted to be a DJ. It was like dreaming of being a gas fitter. But when Heller discovered clubs (thanks to an older sister), he was smitten. “There was no DJ culture then. They were just blokes who played records. But I found them intensely glamorous. That whole music a... More Biography
Born in Brighton, Pete Heller was a music nut right from the get-go. The Clash, Psychedelic Furs, Jam and Madness as a kid and then discovering nascent hip hop at a Clash gig in London. “I was sitting at the back before the Clash and this band came on,” remembers Pete. “I’d never heard of this music before. It was very rhythm-based. It was Fab Five Freddy doing a hip hop show. I thought, ‘I’ve got to get into this’. Found out about Groove Records, went up there and the first import I bought was Davey DMX ‘One For The Treble’. It smelt different.”
Things were different in the 1980s before house arrived and shocked our system to its core. Dance music was a minority interest, like clay pigeon shooting or wine tasting. There were few magazines documenting it, and no-one wanted to be a DJ. It was like dreaming of being a gas fitter. But when Heller discovered clubs (thanks to an older sister), he was smitten. “There was no DJ culture then. They were just blokes who played records. But I found them intensely glamorous. That whole music a... More Biography
