Briggsy

It could be a promo mix that was sent out to promote the album launch a while before it was officially released. I used to run a Trance forum years ago, and I used to get a lot of freebies and promos through for reviewing. Quite often, some of those would be mix CD's that are changed a later date. The reason why those changes happen, from what I was told years ago, is that when DJ's want to create a mix album for release, they have to write to each label for permission to use tracks. Although only 30 or so tracks may be used, 50 or so actually get clearance. Quite often, A DJ will want to feature a specific tune - but doesn't get clearance until the very last minute - and as the promos need to go out a month or two in advance, they can sometimes have different tunes to replace those that haven't bene given clearance at the time of the promos going out. That could be the case with this album - but I'm only guessing.

Tricky one for me. I've used all methods - and like them all for different reasons. I loved Vinyl because it was completely manual and all "hands on" - no cue buttons, no digital screens, and, best of all, your sets could have a bit of exclusivety about them if you managed to get your hands on one of a limited number of pre-release promos or 1 of only 50 records pressed in the world, etc. These days, everyone has got access to the same tunes at the same time. I liked CDJ's because they had features that you couldn't have on vinyl decks - looping, etc. Plus, once you were beatmatched, they remained beatmatched. You didn't have to keep faffing about waiting for the inevitable wow/flutter drift. It was also great being able to download tunes for £1.20 instead of £8 each. These days, I use Traktor - just for having the occasional mix at home now that I've quit DJ'ing on a regular basis. Traktor is fantastic. Its only limit is your imagination. You can pretty much remix a track live. If I were to use it to DJ out too, I can take my entire music collection with me - rather than being limited to a bag of 50 vinyl or 300 CD's. More importantly, from my point of view now that my ears are shot and it takes 6 minutes to beatmatch on CDJ's these days, it allows me to beatmatch in seconds again -- alowing me to focus on what I'm doing rather than pissing about wasting 95% of my set time beatmatching - as happened in May when I stupidly did a gig out again. Beatmatching is a big problem for me these days with me ears - so Traktor has, effectively, allowed me to continue DJ'ing for a bit longer than I originally intended. I guess if I had to pick one from the three, then I guess it's vinyl - simply for tradition, exclusively and the "fun" element. Part of the fun of DJ'ing on vinyl was actually going to a record store, buying records, talking to people, and finding rare, obscure, amazing tunes on foreign or minor labels that had gone pretty much unnoticed. With the exception of the price advantage, MP3 "shopping" was a bit dull really.

Sadly, I never saw Jules in his "prime" - I didn't see him out in clubs until quite late, when bads sets were more common than good sets, although I'd been listening to his sets from the late 90's. Can't remember all the times I saw him play - but BCM in 2005 was a real highlight. Probably the 2nd best set I'd ever heard Jules do. Started Funky - and finished more Trancey. Quality set all the way through. Absolutely loved it. Saw him about 3 months after that in Godskitchen and he was horrific. Another highlight was his first set at Global Gathering in 2006 (he played two that day - a 6pm Radio 1 broadcast - plus a late/early 4am set too). Absolutely loved his first set. Pretty full on from start to finish - and I don't know how many of you have ever experienced, but the atmosphere when Jules comes on 5 minutes before his set to announce the tent will be broadcast live on Radio 1 is something else. The whole tent roars as soon as they know its going out live on air. His second set that day was awful again and generally clumsy - mixing Team SR - Leaving London, into Team SR - Leaving London. It's really baffling how Jules could be so good one day, and really bad the next. Even on that day at Global Gathering, it was hard to believe it was the same DJ playing. The difference between the first set and second set was madness - one really good, one really bad. Very odd. Sadly, from then on, whenever I saw Jules, he was awful - with one exception around 2010 when I saw him play a late set at the Ministry Of Sound - and he played a fairly banging set with a lot of old BXR-label sounding stuff - which was really unexpected because by this time, Jules's sets had become much slower and cheesey. Would have loved to have seen Jules around 1999-2003 time. All of the sets i've got of his from that time were amazing. Sadly, I lost faith around 2008/2009 - and the final straw came in August 2009 when I saw him in BCM. My ears couldn't take the dodgy "scratching" and "Somebody Screeeeeeeam" voiceovers any more. Eddie Halliwell took Jules's crown as my favourite DJ from then on (who subsequently turned crap a couple of years after that too).

We're pretty much there anyway. SInce the CDJ-2000's came out, most DJ's have switched from CD to USB memory stick. The day is fast approaching where we'll be DJ'ing wirelessly - playing music from our phones via a wireless connection, or from our webspace "in the cloud". All DJ's will turn up to gigs with is their headphones.

Thanks Chrissie

Hi guys, I played another set for Shindigerz in Leicester on Saturday. Here's the link: https://soundcloud.com/carlbriggs_cov/shindigerz21stjune2014 Tracklisting: Paul Webster - Corruption (Original Mix) David Moleon - Drivers Of Babylon (Original Mix) Odessa Soundfreaks vs CLS - Ready or Feel It (Bryan Kearney's Smash-Up) Mauro Picotto & Riccardo Ferri - New Time, New Place (Original Mix) Yves Deruyter - Back To Earth (Hughes & Ballantyne Drop'Em Rework) Tiesto - Sparkles (Transa Remix) Binary Finary - 1999 (Gouryella Remix) Greg Downey & Mansun - Wide Open Space (Greg Downey Remix) Conductor & The Cowboy - Feeling This Way (Bryan Kearney & Adam Ellis Remix) Darte Rayne & Yura Moonlight - Silhouette (Allen & Envy Remix)

Hi guys, Been a looooong time since I posted on here. As some of you probably know, I quit DJ'ing in 2011 due to hearing problems - But I did a one-off gig on Saturday gone for Shindigerz in Leicester. I've uploaded the set incase anyone wants to check it out. I know a few people on here used to like my old mixes. Here you go: https://soundcloud.com/carlbriggs_cov/carl-briggs-shindigerz-closing-set-10th-may-2014 Tracklisting: David Moleon - Speaker Attack (Bootleg) David Moleon - Drivers Of Babylon (Original Mix) Mojado feat Mr Sam - Naranja (Dimitri Andreas Vision) Martin Roth & Frank Ellrich - The Orange Theme (Martin Roth Remix) Dark Monks - Insane (Steve Murano Remix) Sneijder & Bryan Kearney - Proper Order (Original Mix) Marco V - Simulated (Sneijder Remix) Sander van Doorn - Riff (Philip Estevez Remix) Armin van Buuren - Shivers (Matt Harrison Bootleg) Chemical Brothers vs Haslam vs Reaky - Hey Girl, Boy, Crash, Bang! (Reaky Mash-Up) Commander Tom - Are Am Eye (John Askew Remix)

I saw Paul Kershaw a few years ago. He played at Classique's 2nd birthday here in Coventry alongside Paul Morrell, Jules, Paul Oakenfold, Nat Monday and Riley & Durrant. He played 2nd as far as I can remember (after Riley & Durrant) - and he was really good - set of the night for me.

The difference between Carl Cox and Jules is that Carl Cox has always played music that he believes in. He could have made a lot more money years ago by playing the "in thing" - but he didn't. He's remained fairly underground. His music isn't my cup of tea - but the guy has some serious ability. Jules's sound has changed dramatically over the years. If you were blindfolded and heard a Jules set from 10 years ago, and heard one from the present day, you wouldn't believe it was the same DJ. It's hard to say whether thats because he's opted to play the music that is popular now (and ultimately, where the money is) - or because he's now got Tristan D filtering music for him rather than Simon Patterson. I'm of the opinion that it's a bit of both. There was an obvious change in musical direction when Simon Patterson stopped working for Jules - but at the same time, Jules knows what he likes. If he didn't want/like what Tristan D was filtering through for him, then he's had the power to replace him with someone that filters music through that he does want/like.

Radio 1 has ALWAYS been like that though. Even in the days of Mark & Lard, as you mentioned, there were people like Sara Cox or Chris Evans that were full of their own importance, talking about celebrities and how many pints they drank the night before. Radio 1 have rarely had any out-and-out natural radio presenters. They're not renowned for plucking out talented unknown DJs from local radio and grooming them for Radio 1. They go for highly paid celebrities that have never had any background in radio instead. That's why there's so many "erm's' and "oooh's" when presenters are talking. Radio 1 presenters wouldn't last 5 minutes in local radio. Radio 1 is different though - they have loads of money to spend/waste, and sadly, most people that listen to Radio 1 would rather hear a bland celebrity than a superb, talented, DJ that has been plucked from some obscure local radio station. The only difference on Radio 1 to, say, 10 years ago is the music output. They've always played whats' popular with their target age range. 10-15 years ago, it was the likes of Oasis, Blur and half-decent dance music. There are no Oasis & Blur type bands and half-decent dance acts around any more. 20 years olds don't want that these days. Music has changed - they want whats popular in the charts. Sadly, thats SHM-esque dance music and X Factor contestants. The "specialist" shows are different. When the likes of Jules and Rampling were "at their peak" on Radio 1, so was the style of music that they played. Trance and House boomed in the late 90's. Nobody wants Trance and House now. They want SHM-style commercial dance, Dubstep and Urban music. Radio 1 now cater for that audience instead. Sadly, we've got older - and the music that people want has changed over the years too. Our tastes have just changed and the stations we used to listen to are just no longer relevant to our current tastes.

£££££££££££'s It's what all the teens at BCM like these days unfortunately Jules, in my opinion, hasn't played 'club' music for a few years now. He plays commercial bar/Luminar Leisure venue type music. Those "Somebody screeeeeeeam" voiceovers sum up his market perfectly. Nobody wants to hear those at "proper" clubs like Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, etc - but they probably go down a treat at BCM in Majorca or Jumpin Jack's in Skegness.

This had the potential to be legendary with all the classics Jules has at his disposal. Sadly, it was everything I expected it to be - a Trouse/SHM Sound-alike fest with a few classics played a lot slower than they were intended to be played at. It was nice to hear Judge Jules - Without Love again though. Been a while since I heard that. As Jason said, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The tunes were tolerable if you like that kind of music. I guess my taste in music has changed over the years - and so has Jules'. Jules has slowed down and gone more Trousey - whereas I prefer the faster, pacier, more "banging" stuff.

If its just a noticeable whirr, then thats perfectly normal and fine. Don't worry. If its more of a loud rough sounding "grinding" kind of sound, then get them checked out. Could you record a sample on your phone and post a clip here? I'll tell you if its the normal CDJ-1000 sound then rather than something sinister. A service isn't particularly cheap - and seems an unneccessary expense if there's nothing wrong.

They do have an audible movement sound - with the occasional click now and again too. It shouldn't be anything too OTT though, so if its really noisy, might be worth having it checked out.

Sadly, I think the one classic will be one of his more predictable classics. I'm guessing either Ralph Fridge - Angel, Kristine Blond - Love Shy or Starparty - I'm In Love. If we're expecting it to be something like Rockafellas - Da Boss Track, or DJ Elite - That Fuct Camera, I think we'll be in for disappointment.

I think its done simply for the atmosphere. If they turned the volume down to a reasonable level, with 1000 people in a room, you'd hear lots of talking over the music. Worse still, if they turned it down to the levels that the Health & Safety Executive recommend, it just wouldn't be worth going out at all (anyone that has been to Global Gathering and been in the tents after 11pm will know what i'm talking about - the music is so quiet, you can have a conversation). I guess if the volume is loud, people have the option of either listening to it at the volume it is - or buying ear plugs to lower the volume to a safe limit. If the volume is low by default, you have no options because you can't turn it up yourself - and that will annoy people that like music loud.

Trance Nation 1 and 2 were genuine works of art. It was evident that a lot of thought went into them. From then on, they started to become a bit commercial and cheesey. Ferry admitted in an interview that he didn't enjoy making them after TN2 and that was why he stopped creating them for MoS. He had free reign over TN1 and 2, something like 50% over TN3, and then the MoS started picking the tunes instead. I remember Jules saying something similar about the old Clubbers Guide To... CD's actually too, which is why he went on to do his Clubbed CD's. He wanted CD's that represented a true club set. I never understood the logic in the MoS paying what I would imagine was fairly big money for world famous club DJs - and then dictating to them what to play. Bizarre.

Agree! Musical folklore and word on messageboards worldwide implores every serious dance music fan to already have this on their shelf. Still play this loads and it has not dated. I might even say this is where the word "classic" was first coined in terms of that late 90s Trance explosion in the UK. Not arguing with the 'Classic' status of the tracks here, but pretty sure I have them all and mixed by Jules rather than Ferry?? Are Ferry's mixing skills worth the purchase of tracks I already have? This is the best CD you'll ever own. Amazing CD. Still play it regularly even now.

I also highly recommend those Alpine plugs. I used to wear them when clubbing - and they're fantastic. Your ears don't ring when you come out of the club - and, surprisingly, I find that you can actually hear people more clearly when they talk to you too (probably because they cut out all of the bad frequencies whilst keeping the good frequencies). They come with three different filters too - so you can adjust how low you want to reduce the volume. I found the strongest filter to be a bit too strong. It blocked out a bit too much sound. The middle filter was perfect for me. Whichever you do decide to buy, make sure you buy "attenuating" ear plugs. Attenuating ear plugs lower the volume to a safe level without losing any of the clarity of the sound - whilst cheaper, non-attenuating earplugs, lower the volume but lose clarity too. They block all of the frequencies - whereas attenuating ear plugs only block the harmful frequencies, whilst allowing the good frequencies through.

It's quite sad really that even us, who all loved Jules once, aren't really expecting much from him these days

That would have been nice, but I feel we're all in for disappointment. We all expected something special for Jules's final Radio 1 show - and we were all left very disappointed when the mixes were poor, there was little imagination behind it and the "classics" were far from Jules's best ever tunes. If there was no thought behind that set, then there certainly wont be any behind this. It'll just be a set recorded at one of Jules' recent gigs - featuring a lot of the Trouse and Commercial rubbish that he now plays with lots of "somebody screeeeeeeeeam" voiceovers slapped over the top. The legendary Jules sets of old are long gone.

I think Jules's fee has always been fairly varied based on the size of the venue, and whether the promotor books him quite often. I enquired about Jules years ago when we were looking to "step things up" when the venue were offering to put most of the money in for DJs - and I was quoted quite a high price, but quite a lot lower than £6000. It was more than the venue, and myself, were willing to gamble on anyway. A lad I know that is well known for promoting in Coventry, who knows Jules personally, gets him for a ridiculously low fee. Jules has stated in his diary quite often that he's never priced himself out of smaller gigs too. Thats a real shame Aza - it would have been nice if you could have booked him, but I had a feeling that you'd be quoted somewhere around that fee. In all fairness, considering he's had exposure on Radio 1, etc, that fee isn't actually too bad. As I said earlier, some DJ's are more reasonable than others. For example, one of the Godskitchen warm-up Trance DJ's (it won't take much working out who i'm referring to) charges more than Lange. Yet another DJ I was quoted for, who is pretty much similar status to Lange wanted twice as much as him. Bizarre. Just as a guide though, sadly, £500 is about the cheapest you'll be quoted for a DJ - and they're usually residents of the big clubs, or Producer-DJs that are just breaking through. For a fairly "middle of the road" DJ (DJ Mag top 30-40 for example), you're looking at about £1500 to £2000 + VAT (plus flights, hotels, meal, etc), anyone with a Radio 1 background around £4000+. It must be the best job in the world - silly money for an hour and a half's "work" playing other peoples records - whilst getting drunk for free in the process..... That's why the Trance scene is on its arse. DJ's just cost far too much - particularly Trance DJs, who seem to charge more than other genres for some strange reason. One of my old mates used to promote Republica in Oxford. They generally had a rotated music policy of House one month, Trance another month, and Hard House another month. He said that the Trance nights were a struggle to even break even. The profit they made from the House and Hard House nights used to pay for the Trance DJs. For example, they'd book Andy Farley for a few hundred quid. A Trance DJ of similar status/calibre would charge three times as much.

I agree with Tom here. I know you like Mat and want to book him because you like his music, etc - but at the end of the day, if he costs £500, unless you're not too bothered about losing some cash, you do need to try to get that fee back. I don't know the Cardiff area, so I can't comment on that - but there are certain DJs that work better in certain areas - for example, if you put on a night in Sheffield (or the Yorkshire area in general) and put Matt Hardwick on a line-up, a large percentage of the tickets will sell immediately - whereas if you put him on in the Midlands, chances are, not many tickets will sell. If you put Big Al on a line-up in Swansea, people will go to see him. if you put him on a line-up in Sheffield, nobody is going to bother going to see him. If you put Ben Nicky on a line-up in Bristol, people will turn up in the masses to see him. If you put him on in the Midlands, nobody is going to be too bothered. It's a case of seeing what DJs will work in your particular area. For example, I booked John Kelly - not because I think he was particularly good or relevant at the time I was running my night - but simply because Banbury was a fairly commercial town, the clubbers there are generally "older" (late 20's - late 30's) and he was a "name" that allowed us to start stepping the night up, whilst keeping in with the theme of the night, but also appealing to our kind of clientelle. He suited Banbury quite well. Just before the venue went bust, we were 90% of the way to confirming Dave Pearce at a future event - again, not because I think he's a Sasha-esque DJ that everyone will come flooding to see from far and wide. We went for him simply because Banbury like commercial Trance and a "name" that they know. Dave Pearce would have pulled people in from Banbury and probably filled the club - whereas in reality, i'd have preferred someone like Richard Durand or Sean Tyas. Although they were much cheaper than Dave Pearce, they just wouldn't have worked in Banbury - and a lot of money would have been lost. Dave Pearce would have cost more - but getting the money back was almost guaranteed. The venue did book Westwood for one of their other nights - and it was a flop. Simply because Banbury just dont want Urban music (or it could have been because he's a massive bell end and nobody likes him......). Before you commit to any DJ, it might be worth doing a bit of market research first. Who have other nights in your area booked before? Which DJ's pulled people in - and which flopped? Is it better to spend an extra £200 on a different DJ that will pull in an extra 50 people and put you into profit, rather than paying £200 less for a DJ that might not work and end up losing you money? It's a fine line - so try to find some things out first. I'm no expert, so i'm not trying to teach you to suck eggs. My first few nights, literally, had one or two people in attendance all night. You could hear a pin drop. It took me a good year or so before we finally started getting people in - and it took lots of wet weekends standing out in the rain flyering, begging local businesses to put posters in their windows, local radio giving us a few mentions in exchange for an advert on a flyer, etc - and even then, there was some luck involved (such as a change of venue to somewhere more central with passing trade rather than the top end of the town a little out of the way. Another night playing at the same venue the week before us every month playing the harder side of Trance and Hard House - so a lot of their crowd also came to my night because of the similarity in music, etc).

There's still some good music around - but nothing like the quality of the late 90's. You'll never hear tunes like Cafe Del Mar, Red Sun Rising, Happiness Happening, Ludic - I Can't Help Myself, etc. They were all one of a kind back then. Some tunes were genuine works of art that people still remember today. These days, a lot of the music is very generic and has the same old formula. 1m:14 intro, little breakdown, build, big breakdown, outro. Lots of copycat/template music and too many DJ's/Producers creating music to follow trends, or jumping on the latest bandwagon in the hope that it'll get them into the top 5 of the DJ Mag Top 100 poll. So many tunes are "disposable" these days. You'll never remember them in one years time because they're just not strong enough to make an impact in your memory. I would imagine that out of all the tunes released these days, only 1% would be remembered and considered classics 10 years from now. The scene is over-satured with too many weak productions and inferior labels. Everyone has a label now. There are some amazing labels around - the usual big labels and some small labels run by one person (Defcon, Digitized, Kearnage, etc) - but there's some abysmal ones out there too that have been set up by people to release their own tunes on simply because the tunes are that shit, "good" labels don't want to sign their crap - either that, or they think they can make a lot of money by signing up shit and chruning it out by the truckload every week. So its a bit of both really - things were much much better back then, but there's still some good stuff around too. It's just that there's a lot more shit with it these days - plus too many DJ's/Producers in it for the money rather than the passion.

Fabio holds Jules in very high regard because other DJs were rejecting his tunes - but Jules had faith in him and supported them. Eventually, other DJs started to take notice too - but Jules was the first to give him some support. He hated Jules's edit of Tran-4 though. The breakdowns in the original version were quite different.