Welcome to my blog.
You can use the contents bar on the right to navigate to particular posts - it's work in progress so not all are working yet.
So what is this blog all about....?
Well in a word it's all about 'music'.
My love for music, and in particular my various exploits in the world of music. From working behind the counter of a record store selling tracks to playing tracks, producing tracks, promoting tracks and of course a ton of parties in between. If I met you along the way please leave a comment and say "Hi", otherwise I hope you find something interesting amongst the various ramblings!
Paul Farris
WANTED - Please share your clubbing photos and stories.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Gigs and flyers
Back when I was running Simon's Records in the early 90's I started really getting back into the idea of DJ'ing and invested in a pair of Technics 1210's. I was already involved in promoting
a few local events we were the only record store selling house music in the area so I got to know all the local DJ's pretty well. As well as a few local gigs I started promoting a few events (always the best way to get gigs!) such as the 'Smile' nights which took place above Capers wine bar in Camberley (Surrey.) Guests for this night included Bobby & Steve, Sarah HB and Judge Jules who I paid a measly $300 because he was not the 'superstar DJ' he is now (and he also played pretty good music back then too!!)
Original Smile ticket - 6th May 1993
One of the first events I ever promoted and I forgot to put my name on the bloody tickets and flyers!!
A few years later when I joined the team at Uptown Records I started to get more involved in the London scene and early gigs included the Satellite Club at the Colosseum Vauxhall and Garage City amongst others.
As Uptown started to gain a higher profile I got asked to play at more and more events up and down the country and eventually started playing overseas initially in Italy (as a result of my regular mix on Station One FM. My busiest period was 2001 - 2006 when I was a regular face at places like the Ministry of Sound, Garage City, The Cross and Pacha and was playing international events on a near weekly basis.
Here is a small selection of flyers which I will try and update on a regular basis....
My first set in the Ministry of Sound main room 2001
a few local events we were the only record store selling house music in the area so I got to know all the local DJ's pretty well. As well as a few local gigs I started promoting a few events (always the best way to get gigs!) such as the 'Smile' nights which took place above Capers wine bar in Camberley (Surrey.) Guests for this night included Bobby & Steve, Sarah HB and Judge Jules who I paid a measly $300 because he was not the 'superstar DJ' he is now (and he also played pretty good music back then too!!)
Original Smile ticket - 6th May 1993
One of the first events I ever promoted and I forgot to put my name on the bloody tickets and flyers!!
A few years later when I joined the team at Uptown Records I started to get more involved in the London scene and early gigs included the Satellite Club at the Colosseum Vauxhall and Garage City amongst others.
As Uptown started to gain a higher profile I got asked to play at more and more events up and down the country and eventually started playing overseas initially in Italy (as a result of my regular mix on Station One FM. My busiest period was 2001 - 2006 when I was a regular face at places like the Ministry of Sound, Garage City, The Cross and Pacha and was playing international events on a near weekly basis.
Here is a small selection of flyers which I will try and update on a regular basis....
My first set in the Ministry of Sound main room 2001
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
FourFour Promotions
Established in 2000 FourFour Promotions was set up to look after the promotional needs and interests of independent house music labels.
I initially started promoting Soulfuric records releases as a favour whilst working at Uptown Records. As things progressed and with a steady stream of releases from Soulfuric and related labels I decided to leave Uptown to concentrate on promotions full time - FourFour was born.
Our policy was simply to work with labels that we respected and loved and provide the maximum support and promotion possible by ensuring the promos got into the right hands.
Labels we promoted
WEST END RECORDS
SOULFURIC
PLAYER RECORDS
PEPPERMINT JAM
NEON WAVE
MOCHICO
MAINLINE MUSIC
MN2S & 1 TRAX
KIDOLOGY
GENERATE MUSIC
FARPLANE
ELAN RECORDS
deVICE
ONEPHATDEEVA
CLEAN CUT RECORDS
MAINLINE
CREDENCE
7th DISTRICT
COPYRIGHT RECORDINGS
ZOO GROOVE STEREO
TOMMY BOY
GROOVE ON
SALTED MUSIC
PURPLE MUSIC
PHILLY GROOVE
NOCTURNAL GROOVE
NEO DISCO
MOREHOUSE
KNEE DEEP
HOLOGRAPHIC
J:SOUL & J:FUNK
JELLYBEAN RECORDINGS
GROOVEFINDER
IDENTITY
EQUAL RECORDS
DTENSION
CON BRIO
CATCH A GROOVE
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Radio shows and guest mixes
One of the greatest pleasures for me has always been sharing music that I love with others. I managed to do this by initially hosting small parties and later DJing around the globe.
I have also hosted a few radio shows over the years which is a great way to
reach a much wider audience.
Girls FM 106.8
I was given the opportunity to play on GirlsFm in 1996 which at the time was London's biggest pirate radio station. The studio was in a tower block in South London and I remember turning up with my records in a plastic bag as we weren't allowed record boxes or bags as we didn't want the neighbors to know what was going on! It was a shambolic studio run but was an immensely popular station and had a huge influence on the house music scene in central London and the suburbs.
Other DJ's included Huckleberry Finn, Kenny Hawkes, Luke Solomon
Ministry of Sound Radio / Defected in the House
After Ministry of Sound installed a radio studio in the office adjacent to the club I was offered the chance to present the weekly Defected in The House show on rotation with Alan Thompson.
The show was professionally produced and was my first opportunity to broadcast a high quality show with guest DJ's, interviews and more.
At the FourFour front
After Defected pulled the plus on their show I was asked to stay on with Ministry radio with my own weekly show. At the FourFour front was a two hour show featuring all the latest tracks that my our company (FourFour Promotions) was working on at the time as well as the favourite tracks I was featuring in my DJ sets. The show was also sometimes hosted by Joel Chapman who would cover for me and eventually took over the show.
Later on I recorded the show at my home studio and broadcast the mixes exclusively via my website Paul-Farris.com
Guest mixes
I was invited to perform guest mix on several shows over the years. Some were live some were pre-recorded and some I still have copies of on cassette or DAT so I'll upload them as I find them.
Paul Farris live on Danny Rampling LGDP BBC Radio1 18 Nov 2000 by paulfarris
Paul Farris live on Bobby & Steve show, Kiss FM (London) by paulfarris
Paul Farris - FourFour show live Ministry of Sound radio 20.12.04 (hour1) by paulfarris
Radio 1 - Danny Rampling LGDP show (broadcast 18th Nov 2000)
Kiss FM - Bobbi & Steve
Station One Italy
1Xtra FM (BBC) (Aaron Ross show)
Radio 1 - Dream Teem show
I have also hosted a few radio shows over the years which is a great way to
reach a much wider audience.
Girls FM 106.8
I was given the opportunity to play on GirlsFm in 1996 which at the time was London's biggest pirate radio station. The studio was in a tower block in South London and I remember turning up with my records in a plastic bag as we weren't allowed record boxes or bags as we didn't want the neighbors to know what was going on! It was a shambolic studio run but was an immensely popular station and had a huge influence on the house music scene in central London and the suburbs.
Other DJ's included Huckleberry Finn, Kenny Hawkes, Luke Solomon
Ministry of Sound Radio / Defected in the House
After Ministry of Sound installed a radio studio in the office adjacent to the club I was offered the chance to present the weekly Defected in The House show on rotation with Alan Thompson.
The show was professionally produced and was my first opportunity to broadcast a high quality show with guest DJ's, interviews and more.
At the FourFour front
After Defected pulled the plus on their show I was asked to stay on with Ministry radio with my own weekly show. At the FourFour front was a two hour show featuring all the latest tracks that my our company (FourFour Promotions) was working on at the time as well as the favourite tracks I was featuring in my DJ sets. The show was also sometimes hosted by Joel Chapman who would cover for me and eventually took over the show.
Later on I recorded the show at my home studio and broadcast the mixes exclusively via my website Paul-Farris.com
Guest mixes
I was invited to perform guest mix on several shows over the years. Some were live some were pre-recorded and some I still have copies of on cassette or DAT so I'll upload them as I find them.
Paul Farris live on Danny Rampling LGDP BBC Radio1 18 Nov 2000 by paulfarris
Paul Farris live on Bobby & Steve show, Kiss FM (London) by paulfarris
Paul Farris - FourFour show live Ministry of Sound radio 20.12.04 (hour1) by paulfarris
Radio 1 - Danny Rampling LGDP show (broadcast 18th Nov 2000)
Kiss FM - Bobbi & Steve
Station One Italy
1Xtra FM (BBC) (Aaron Ross show)
Radio 1 - Dream Teem show
Soulution records
In 1997 I set up a label called 'Soulution' with one of the ex-directors of Uptown Records.
We signed and release two tracks "Henny's keys" and "Rainbow" from Crash Control aka Toronto based DJ, producers and good friends Dino and Terry which we released on 12" vinyl.
I can't recall now how many were released but we certainly sold a bucketload at Uptown!
Sadly I fell out with my label partner shortly after so this was the one and only release on the label, however for a while we had a cool office in Ladbroke Grove which had a great roof garden and amazing views of Notting Hill carnival that year!
Oh and by the way Henny's Keys was named after and dedicated to Dino's wife Henny!
Crash Control 'Henny's keys'
A1 Henny's Keys (Original Mix)
A2 Henny's Keys (Industry Beats)
B1 Rainbow (Original Mix)
B2 Henny's Keys (Industry Mix)
We signed and release two tracks "Henny's keys" and "Rainbow" from Crash Control aka Toronto based DJ, producers and good friends Dino and Terry which we released on 12" vinyl.
I can't recall now how many were released but we certainly sold a bucketload at Uptown!
Sadly I fell out with my label partner shortly after so this was the one and only release on the label, however for a while we had a cool office in Ladbroke Grove which had a great roof garden and amazing views of Notting Hill carnival that year!
Oh and by the way Henny's Keys was named after and dedicated to Dino's wife Henny!
Crash Control 'Henny's keys'
A1 Henny's Keys (Original Mix)
A2 Henny's Keys (Industry Beats)
B1 Rainbow (Original Mix)
B2 Henny's Keys (Industry Mix)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Paul-Farris.com 2001-2006
At the beginning of 2001 I launched my first website Paul-Farris.com
The first design was black and yellow and featured a chart with soundclips, gigs list and photos from events that I played at.
A year later and I launched a new look website which guest charts, house music news and gossip, competitions, mixes and guest mixes as well as linking to the 'Farris Forums'
What helped make my website successful was that I worked really hard at keeping the website content updated every few days so that people could hear all the great music that was about.
My website is still active although now features information relating to my photography.
The first design was black and yellow and featured a chart with soundclips, gigs list and photos from events that I played at.
A year later and I launched a new look website which guest charts, house music news and gossip, competitions, mixes and guest mixes as well as linking to the 'Farris Forums'
What helped make my website successful was that I worked really hard at keeping the website content updated every few days so that people could hear all the great music that was about.
My website is still active although now features information relating to my photography.
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