DJ Lottie - March Mix 2008 - Mar 2008

Biography of DJ Lottie

The often heard claim from DJs that 'It's all about the music' may seem cliched but when describing DJ Lottie there seems no better way. Music was her first love and now it's something of an obsession. In the studio, in the clubs and on the radio: she'd play music 24/7 but for the constraints of eating and sleeping.

A cherished childhood photo betrays an early allure to vinyl with kid Lottie playing a record with big red headphones jammed over her fringe. As she said in Jockey Slut (when Lottie appeared on the cover) in 2001 of her childhood; 'I never took my Walkman off. I'd wander round school with it on, in the car, on holidays with my parents. I would just grunt; I wouldn't speak. I was really anti-social - so completely different to how I am now. My Mum would tell people that I was, 'A bit different, a bit 'special'.'

As a teen tomboy in her hometown of Chester she would frequent the nascent acid house clubs. In clubbing she found her kindred spirits. A further induction in the joys of house followed at seminal northern clubs the Hacienda and Quadrant Park before leaving home for London - after she fell in love with the seminal Trade at Turnmills. It was at Turnmills she was given her first opportunity to play, though the spotlight didn't really shine on her until (ten years after she bought a pair of decks) she won 'best breakthrough DJ' at the Muzik awards in 1999. The award sparked recognition and bookings in the world's top clubs ensued.

Lottie plays house music in its myriad forms - tinging its roots with disco, tech, deepness and funk - always searching for the latest producers and labels to add a new twist to her beloved genre.

Inspired by their annual party to the Miami Winter Music Conference, Lottie and friend Caroline Prothero launched their own night 'missdemeanours' in 1998, which started infamously at The Saint Bar and then moved to the AKA. Initially a place for a Miami reunion and friends to have a drink and a dance, missdemeanours became known for 'special little parties, like Boys Own were known for, but on a smaller scale.' Everyone from rising talent to the world's biggest Djed and Missdemeanours soon went on tour - the riotous missdemeanours boat party with Mutiny in Miami 2001 became legendary and in 2003 missdemeanours staged parties in Miami, Paris, Ibiza, Brighton and also toured the UK in a Circus Big-Top as the after party to Zoe Lewis's play 'Glastonbury'. In 2004, missdemeanours stopped the weekday parties and switched venues to Neighbourhood in London's West-side for a monthly Saturday night. In 2005, as Lottie's international bookings took up too much time, they again switched venues - this time to Turnmills and took missdemeanours onto a bi-monthly scale, with bigger line-ups and with Lottie headlining the main room of the club where she originally started.

Missdemeanours recordings launched in 2002, as a hobby label to tie in with the sound of the nights. The debut release by Aficionados was produced by Lottie and friends Steve Mac and Mutiny and gained full support by her peers - including Sneak. Releases on the label since have included Fat Phaze, Playford and Gray, Marques Wyatt and Lottie's own 'Supakilla'.

On the remix tip Lottie's has added her touch to releases by Jon Carter, Robbie Rivera, Desert, Meeker and Salsoul Nugget (with her mix of the latter a chart hit in France). Her other recorded works include two critically acclaimed compilations: '7 Live' for DMC and 'Snapshots' for React.

Lottie's forays into radio began in 1999 when Lottie and her friend Caroline Prothero were approached by producer David Dunne to broadcast a national missdemeanours show on Atlantic 252. 'I can play records I have in my collection that I can't really play out - beautiful slow stuff. There's more scope (on radio) to play all this great music.' Following a stint at Ministry radio Lottie was approached by Radio 1 to host Danny Rampling's Lovegroovedanceparty while he was on holiday - which she did and immediately settled in on national airwaves... From there Lottie became a resident DJ for Radio 1 - regularly filling in for Pete Tong to present the Essential Selection on a Friday, broadcasting live from Miami, Ibiza and many UK events and doing so until 2005.

Lottie has regularly presented on television - for MTV and T4 and she appeared on Channel 4's 'Faking It' as a coach to a classically trained cellist to dupe the professional judges into thinking her a DJ (which she did). On the written media scale, Lottie wrote a weekly column for London's Evening Standard's 'Metro Life' magazine - reaching over half a million people, until the magazine finished in 2005.

http://www.myspace.com/djlottie