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The new & improved Big Daddy G!

Reported by Tom Cypher / Submitted 01-03-06 10:24

Big Daddy G is one of the key players on London’s ‘wonky’ house scene. He’s the driving force behind superb London club night Playtime, an event that regularly sees some of the most cutting edge European DJs play alongside some of the UK’s finest to one of the nicest, most music savvy crowds in town. We had a chat with the Big Daddy (or B-Diddy as he’s more affectionately known...) following a very heavy weekend as he prepares to launch his new project New & Improved.

So Big Daddy G, for the uninitiated… in less than 20 words please tell give us yer CV.

Australian hits the big smoke, starts DJing, starts club, starts record label, it all works. No-one is more surprised than me.

So Playtime is one of the London’s coolest clubs at the moment, what has given it the edge over so many other events?

There’s two things. First, we’re the last mixed house club left standing. Playtime isn’t a couple of hen nights taking over the dance floor of a men’s club or a few gay men huddled round the edge of a straight dancefloor feeling a bit uncomfortable. We always promoted the place up as 50/50 men/women gay/straight — it’s just a better balance, and it means you avoid the edgy mood of many other clubs.

Second, we’ve always booked the guest DJs we wanted to book. Even when we had to cross our fingers and hope that people would get a line-up like crossing Fabric favourite Phonique with a huge mainstream DJ like Tom Stephan. Or a well-known UK DJ like Tom Neville with the UK debut of someone mostly unknown here, Claude von Stroke of Dirtybird — which is our April lineup. We book a lot of the European jackin’ house DJs that don’t play here much — which means, again, that we have a particular sound you won’t hear elsewhere. That kind of beepy stripped-back electronic house is getting popular now, but we’ve been pushing it long enough that we now first choice for a lot of producers when they want to play London.


Big Daddy G, yesterday


Who else is involved in the event?

Mike Monday, our other monthly resident, is a huge part of the Playtime sound. He’s the main artist on our label. And this year, for the first time, we’ve also got two new residents who play every three months. David Duriez is the don of the French house scene and runs about four million labels. And Supa DJ Dmitry of Dee-Lite, who is playing at the next playtime on March 24 at Egg, is a terrifically underrated DJ.

He DJs because he’s got new music of his own he wants to play, not because he’s a megastar who thinks he could make a few easy bucks out of DJing. I’m really glad he’s agreed to play for us, actually — his music is terrific. A kind of very tough melodic house.

Music aside, there’s also a team of two people who help stage the club, Simon and Vanessa, plus our door guys Tom, David and Mark, who are responsible for making sure everyone who gets in there is going to play nice. We don’t give a shit how you dress, we just want to make sure you don’t have a problem with homos — or with heteros, for that matter. Gay men can be almost as much of a nightmare to integrate as homophobes.


G & Mike Monday


You mentioned the label — what’s happening with this?

It’s doing amazingly. We’re thrilled. [/i]IDJ[/i] described Playtime Records as “one of the finest labels to come out of 2005”. The first release, Mike Monday’s ‘What Day is It?’ sold 3500 copies on vinyl — which is unheard of for a new label. It’s going to be re-released on David Duriez’s label Brique Rouge later this year.

And the fourth release is out this week — Tom Mangan’s ‘L-O-V-E’. The reviews were great — DJ said Mike Monday, who did a remix, and Tom Mangan will be “two of the key players in 2006”. We’ve also got tracks lined up from the Insignificant Others and Cass and Mangan, Tom’s other outlet. And then after that, Mike’s first album — well, an 8-track mini album due out in May.

Rumour has it you’re involved with a new Sunday party in South London, care to share the gossip?

There’s a group of London producers and DJs — Mike Monday, Tom Mangan, King Roc, the Insignificant Others and I — who’ve been doing playing together so often and doing remixes and tracks with each other that it’s become a scene in itself. So we’ve decided to do a new night called New and Improved because it’s the set of us showing off new music — well, them showing off new music and me standing on the sidelines saying “eh, can I get a copy of that?” The official launch is this Sunday at Inigo.

Sundays are the new Saturdays please give your opinion?

Anyone who said Sunday was a day of rest clearly wasn’t at veryveryverywrongindeed last Sunday. A good Saturday gig is great because you’ve got everyone there — townies to cool people, freaks to geeks — but they can be a pain because there’s too many new clubbers out and peoples’ manners can be a bit sketchy. Sunday, though — well, it’s for the clubber who knows the score ... and isn’t afraid to call in sick on Monday.


Feeling blue...


Electro house is a term bandied about by any old Tom, Dick or Harry… What makes your sound so different from the electro house we hear at most parties?

Electro house, as it stands today, is as brainless and boring as funky house. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve cheered ‘Guitarra G’ at Bora Bora with the best of them. But funky house went off the boil years ago and now producers are tarting up the genre with “funky new electronic sounds”. But it’s still the same formula — barely musical, lyrically boring, big sounds and very little action. If your record box has 30 records in it that can be played in any order whatsoever, what do you add to the music as a performer?

What can we expect from Big Daddy G in 2006?

We are going to do Playtime in Paris. Mike and Playtime Records are huge in Paris and I love the place, and every time we’ve played there it’s been insane. We’re also hosting the bar at Ministry four times this year — Saturday week March 11 with Tim Sheridan, Mr C and Jo Mills, then in July with Steve Angello’s Size records. I’ve got a couple of incomplete tracks that will one day be finished for the label, and we’re planning a boat party plus a few more New and Improved events in different locations…

Finally, if you were a cheese what would you be and why? (Sorry.. I’ve always wanted to ask that...)

Only an English person could answer that question. Australians just don’t care enough about cheese to know one variety from another...

Well ‘cheese’ Big Daddy, thanks for taking the time to ‘camembert’ our ‘gloucestershire red’ if you know what I mean! You don’t? Oh bugger...

Get yourselves down to New & Improved which kicks off this Sunday (5th March) at Inigo — South London’s favourite DJ Bar, it’s going to be ace.

The next Playtime event is Friday 24th March @ The Egg, Kings Cross.

For more info:
www.inigobar.com
www.playtime-club.com


All images courtesy of Big Daddy G and Playtime. Not to be reproduced without permission.

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Other Features By Tom Cypher:
Perfect Stranger Takes a Leap of Faith With His New Album
Marco Scherer's Patchwork 17
Lee Mortimer goes Loopy.
My Digital Enemy
Studio Talk with Organ Donors
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
Comments:

From: benz on 1st Mar 2006 10:55.20
didn't see his set at Twist on Sunday but met him and he's a really nice dude! Look forward to checking out Playtime sometime soon

From: twist on 1st Mar 2006 14:11.56
he played a cool set. Very original. good luck with the new venture!

From: Richard Launch on 1st Mar 2006 15:02.56
Nice one Grant. Thumbs up

From: Alex Parsons on 4th Mar 2006 15:55.00
Good stuff Grant... Glad to hear What Day Is It? is coming out on Brique Rouge. Love the track and it's a top label!

From: the Greg on 7th Mar 2006 17:26.31
Nicely Done Big G, Roll on the Good times in 06 and may the Beats be with you~! (-;

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