Dave Wakeham has been a professional Disc Jockey and Presenter for many years and possesses a massive archive of vinyl , CDs and music rarities. His experience in DJing gos deep into the recesses of the Club and Disco scene and dates back many years. Originally from Liverpool England, Dave Wakeham was influenced by the great DJs of the seventies,from the the likes of Radio Caroline, Luxembourg, BBC radio 1. Club wise,from the Jazz Funk and Northern Soul club DJs at the time as well as witnessing the arrival of the New Wave the House music and other music scenes during the Eightees. All of this Experience took him on a long journey through the world of DJ based entertainment through various countries and agencies during the eighties to eventually end up in Hamburg Germany at the beginning of the nineties. Dave has worked extensivly in Clubs and radio towards the end of the 90s and Events far into the new millenium. Dave has produced over a thousand hours of radio, worked in over forty clubs, in ten different countries, and now speaks fluent German as well as his native English.
Here is a link to Radio Shows contributing to fourty years of club sounds https://www.mixcloud.com/daveonline/
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A big house in a little town on the Wirral peninsular, the first club I ever DJayed in.
I was 20 having crazy fun and loving disco. Via facebook someone who knew me rememberd having the tape in the loft, mailed it to me, after a bit of cleaning up in my studio and digitising, you can now relive the good old days of disco, with this live recording from a hot disco night back in 1980. A list of some of the tunes plaed at the time, seems like yesterday.
Leighton Court Tape Side 1
Invisible mans band – All night thing
Jacksons – Blame it on the boogie
Earth Wind and Fire – September
The whispers – its a love thing
Jacksons – Off the wall
BitsnPieces Lets do it Volume 3
Gino Soccio – Dancer
Gene Chandler - Get Down
Leighton Court Tape Side 2
Slow Session
Champagne - How about us
Heatwave – Always and forever.
The whispers – its a love thing
Quincy Jones ai no corrida
Tavares – Dont Take away the music
The Tramps – Disco Inferno.
Light of The World – Time
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By the time I was nineteen I had already done several private party’s in locations and homes all over the north west, I had already been out and about with some of the older DJs on larger events and picked up a lot of interesting tips. My Club work started suddenly one evening when my father called up a pub where I was at one Thursday evening and told me that , Leighton Court Country Club need a Disc Jockey straight away. I drove home picked up my records and got there fast. After a successful Thursday night I was asked to come back again and again until eventually I was working many nights on an almost full time basis all over the North West Remember at this time , Disc Jockeys had to research and find sources for good music , usually importers willing to let you have the latest music. At the beginning of the eighties I was meeting up with other Djs who were working abroad, and eventually left the north west of England to pursue a career as full time professional Disc Jockey working in almost forty clubs in ten countries.
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I was heavily influenced by those top DJs on the likes of Radio Luxembourg 208 and Radio Caroline. Radio Caroline was a pirate radio station broadcasting from a ship in the North Sea. Radio Luxembourg broadcast from the grand duchy, both renowned for personality DJs and Caroline influencing the youth of the time with some great pop music, lots of history about both of those radio stations to be found all over the internet. Back in those days we didn’t have the technology that we have today, equipment ( if any) was expensive, most of it was homemade or made by small companies serving that growing industry. I started like many a budding DJ at the time, by practicing in my bedroom with a reel to reel tape machine a microphone a record player and some records. In fact recently I found a tape of me practicing but I won’t be embarrassing myself by putting it on here. At the age of sixteen I was a member of a local Hospital radio station. I realized I had a passion for music, radio broadcasting and producing radio shows. Kenny Everret definitely had a massive influence on me for his incredible work in producing interesting radio content; he actually stretched the technology to the limits at the time.
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Working for various agents all over the place can be quite exciting but it also has its draw backs , especially being a foreigner in a foreign country not knowing the language, getting stuck when the car has broken down , having no work for a few months can also drain the bank account. It’s a very steep learning curve on self-management.
Starting in Scandinavia , Tromso is about 300 kilometers above the arctic circle and at the time about five British Disc jockeys worked in that city and many in surrounding areas would converge on the place to buy records. I found it fascinating that despite the weather everything was still happeing as normal , but obviously with a different infrastructure.