In the days before House, the DJ was a greasy-haired, invariably bespectacled, frequently pitied trainspotter type whose only access into the mad, bad world of rock music was putting a needle on to a 33 r.p.m. in front of an indifferent audience. In those days you could actually approach said "saddo" and ask him to play a request - usually Stairway To Heaven or Freebird, but sometimes, if the mood took you: Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. And there used to be things called "slow sets" (not this ambient, chill-out nonsense you get these days) where Mr DJ would invite all and sundry to "smooch along with" the slow rock du jour - although the "slow set" in the disco I used to go to consisted of playing 10 CC's I'm Not In Love three times in a row. Back then it was all Jimmy Saville and Tony Blackburn wannabes whose greatest ambition was to get a hospital radio slot; people whose backs were bent out of shape from lugging so much vinyl around, and who would look at you oddly if you asked for some Velvet Underground. There even used to be "Ladies' Requests".
Get a load of it now: DJs like Pete Tong and Judge Jules command thousands of pounds for a gig, they're swamped on the dance floor as they make their way to the booth and asked for their autographs and they put out albums under their own names. Pop stars in their own right, they have managers, labels, lawyers and hangers-on just like the real thing, and they tour around the country as if they were one-man rock bands. And just try asking them to play a request or a slow set - you'll probably get punched for your troubles - unless it's the Techno Crazy remix of 10 CC's I'm Not In Love.
The House explosion in the 1980s was responsible for putting the DJ centre stage. The music wasn't live, it was recorded and the clever dick in the booth - with a whole raft of new technology at his/her disposal - started "scratching" and "mixing" to put an individual sheen on to an otherwise uniform set list. Up through Acid House, Ambient, Drum'n'Bass and Speed Garage, DJs began styling themselves "creative artists" in their own right and when DJs-turned-acts like The Chemical Brothers and Goldie started to hit the top of the charts and the front covers of the Face, a terrible new beauty was born.
In Dublin the big names on the live DJ scene are David Holmes, Johnny Moy, Liam Dollard, Billy Scurry and Robbie Nelson - but it's Dun Laoghaire man Mark Kavanagh who has made his own little bit of music history by having the first-ever Irish dance compilation album to bill the DJ/ Mixer as the artist on the sleeve. Mark Kavanagh's Clubmix is an impressive affair of bangin' tunes (as they say) that reflects his massive popularity in clubs all around the country, where his name on the flyer will attract a discerning dance music audience.
"I don't have that old hospital radio background," says the affable Kavanagh. "I started out as a fan of music - and not all DJs are - and was a punk rocker listening to stuff by Crass. Then I was a Goth, then an indie kid. I just used to buy loads and loads of records and, wanting to do something with my collection, I started DJ'ing on a pirate radio station called DLR; and that led to DJ'ing weddings and birthdays and stuff and then the dance thing broke."
Copping on to ourselves a bit later than the rest of Europe, it wasn't really until the early 1990s that dance went massive in Ireland. Early venues such as Dublin's Judge Roy Bean's (no, seriously), The Olympic Ballroom, McGonagles and Sides nightclub were pumping out the sort of music that was soon to attract a new and up-for-it crowd.
The shibboleth about dance music killing off live music in Ireland refuses to understand that it was live music that killed off live music. Too many Yellow Pack showcase nights of indie loser bands banging away on out-of-tune guitars to bedsit lyrics couldn't compete with the guaranteed floor-fillers of people spinning discs of a more contemporary and relevant nature. Whether it's the nature of the music or not, the hysteria about "E" soon turned dance into an almost sub-criminal genre for some. With the authorities clamping down on venues who played "music with repetitive beats", while completely ignoring rock music venues with full alcohol bars (hello?, hypocrisy alert) dance has to surmount more cultural barriers than rock, despite the fact that it's the dominant form of musical entertainment throughout the country.
"It has almost become mainstream now," says Kavanagh. "In Britain clubs like The Ministry Of Sound in London and Cream in Liverpool are huge affairs, catering for up to 3,000 people a night, and with all the clubs in Dublin and around the country, we're heading that way also. The so-called drug scare stories are always going to be there, but most people just ignore them. But I think in the future we're going to have to do something about different licences for bars and dance music events. The reality of the situation is that people want to continue clubbing until four or five in the morning, and if that's possible everywhere around Europe, why can't it be possible here? In EU directive terms, what's good enough for people in Brussels and Bristol will have to be good enough for us too."
As some measure of the demand and popularity of what Mark Kavanagh and his DJ colleagues are offering by way of a night's entertainment, consider that his current two-month countrywide tour is being sponsored by Smirnoff, PlayStation and D'Side, with many more companies eager to attach themselves to the youth and middle-youth clubbers. "It's at the stage now where you get asked to sign people's T-shirts and there's merchandising and everything. It's also a very fashion-conscious style of entertainment, although that's more so in Dublin in the `trendier' clubs than it is around the country, where I find they really know and like their music," he says. What about the argument that DJs aren't "creative artists" in the slightest, and merely spin records in the way any "jock" does? "Well, there's two types of DJs," says Kavanagh. "There are the ones who play the records and there are the ones who not only play, but mix and remix and write their own stuff. Most good DJs spend all day preparing their sets and learning about mixing and there's so many sub-genres within dance to get around, from Jungle to Speed Garage and some of the smaller, more obscure ones. Many people will tell you that a good remix is a creative act in itself. Look what Norman Cook did to Cornershop's Brimful Of Asha."
Mark Kavanagh's Clubmix album is released on Monday on Raglan Road Records. He plays The Pulse, Letterkenny tonight; The Clarence Hotel, Sligo tomorrow; the RTC in Carlow on the 23rd; Scoundrel's in Killarney on the 24th, and Republica in Dublin on the 25th. The tour continues throughout May. Mark Kavanagh is also expected to feature in the Irish Dance Music Awards which take place at Dublin's Red Box on April 30th.
