Biography February 10th, 2009

Here’s my life story with all the boring bits left out…

I made my debut stage performance as a teenager playing bass guitar, whilst dressed as a pre-Raphaelite Angel as part of a one-off adaptation of a nineteenth century Socialist hymn, supporting Autechre (Warp Records) at a night with a free Absinthe bar.

A couple of years later I joined Sheffield based electronic supergroup Kings Have Long Arms on synthesisers. I managed to get by with limited musical ability and ride the crest of the post-Electroclash/ Northern Electronica wave; played gigs all over Europe including supporting LCD Soundsystem in Paris, and released a critically acclaimed single with Phil Oakey from The Human League (recorded before I joined the band).

In the meantime influenced by the decadence and excitement of these club class forays and trans Europe excess, I launched the iconic, über-glamorous and forward thinking club night Razor Stiletto, a night of ‘sonic, sartorial and sexual excess’ (apparently), in Sheffield, the birth place of electronic music (irrefutably!)…

Words like ’seminal’ and ‘pioneering’ have at times been used to describe Razor Stiletto (by other people, not me)… Amongst others, we booked acts and DJs such as Hot Chip and Erol Alkan before they were famous, alongside musical legends like Mark Moore (S’Express) and Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), as well as sword swallowers, burlesque performers, neo-cabaret starlets, and transvestite talent contests.

We also did Razor Stiletto events in London and Dublin, set up our own little record label, did the back room for Bugged Out! on a couple of occasions, and even hosted a party for Vivienne Westwood.

Razor Stiletto ran from summer 2003 to NYE 2008/9, when we killed it off whilst still in it’s prime, and it has since been on hold with no plans for a comeback yet… but never say never (as they say)…

By the way, did I mention that I DJ…?

As my reputation for throwing fabulous parties began to spread, people started to ask me to DJ at their club nights and events. In the past few years I have played music at Nag Nag Nag (RIP), Queens of Noize, Kill ‘Em All, Liars Club, Dot to Dot Festival, Glastonbury Festival, and a few places in Berlin, including White Trash and Neon Raiders club night, and Le Nouveaux Casino in Paris.

In Summer 2009, myself and Fil OK of Atomizer/ Nag Nag Nag launched our ’stereo-sexual, existential, freakshow disco’ Space Cabaret; a showcase  for provocative and boundary defying performance artists, experimental music, neo-cabaret theatrics and the sort of weird stuff that nobody else will book. It began with a couple of one-off events in Berlin, and premiered  in London in  Spring 2010, with more one-offs around the UK and Europe to be announced