Submitted By: TonyH

Genre: Techno

Date of Set: unknown

Filesize: 42.50 MB

Total Downloads: 25

BILLY NASTY has been DJ'ing half his life, a career that has seen him spin for ten of those years at a professional level. Travelling the world as one of the most in-demand DJ's, he has performed at some of the biggest dance events and some of the most famous venues on the globe and consistently featured in the upper regions of DJ Magazine's annual Top 100 World DJ's. He has also enjoyed an extensive recording career, formed a techno label that's as respected as his DJ'ing and set up his own DJ agency to expose nurtured talent to the rest of the world.

Having spent a handful of formulative pre-House years soaking up the rhythms of rare-groove, go-go and funk, Billy was already pursuing DJ'ing when Housemusic exploded in the UK.

Securing a job at London's cutting-edge Zoom record shop in the latter part of 1989 gave him a frontline job which acted as a meeting point for figureson the evolving scene and helped him to build up his reputation as a DJ.

At the beginning of 1990 Billy started his first residency, The ExplodingPlastic Inevitable (with accomplice Steve Bicknell) at the legendary BrainClub in Soho. It ran for two and a half years with Billy playing 'Nu Groove records, loops, European stuff and a lot of dance mixes of bands like My Bloody Valentine, Happy Mondays and James'; sounds and a style that were aprecursor to the progressive house scene that would come.

By 1991 Billy was gaining a reputation for his deck skills to the extent that he was asked to contribute the first mix for a new CD series entitled 'Journey's by DJ' (JDJ). Segueing together emerging artists of the time like Leftfield and Where Eagles Prey, it displayed Billy's fresh and developing style and even gained him an entry into the Guinness book of records for being the first ever DJ to produce a mix set available commercially. He alsoundertook his first studio project when he was invited to remix St Etienne's 'Join Our Club', with whom he then accompanied to Japan as tour DJ during 1992.

Throughout 1992-93, bootleg mix tapes of Billy's were flooding the UK in such amounts that they were consequently acting as an agent for him. The bookings came thick and fast with Billy securing gigs at burgeoning nights such as Venus, Renaissance and Back2Basics as well as numerous other clubs that welcomed the tougher progressive and tribal sound that Billy was pushing.

At the front of the pack when Progressive House boomed in 93, Billy's DJ'ing schedule became ever more frantic. Besides being a regular at four of the most prominent clubs in London (The Drum Club, Open All Hours, Final Frontier, and Strutt), he begun to reach wider audience's as he travelled the whole of the UK and undertook an increasing amount of European gigs.Studio adventures came with Dave Wesson (Zoom owner) as Shi-Take - enjoying a six single career on the shop's own label - and alongside future Chemical Brothers engineer Steve Dub as Vinyl Blair, as whom they found support at the recently founded Hard Hands label of underground house compatriots Leftfield.

1995 saw Billy's workload multiply ever more dramatically reaching such a stage that he left Zoom to concentrate on his DJ'ing, which now had him playing between 3-5 gigs a week at home and abroad. So in between studiosessions with Aloof/Sabres members Jagz & Gary as Kamaflarge, he founded his own DJ agency to manage his now hectic diary. Theremin soon begun to represent other British DJ's like Jim Masters, Mark Williams and Phil Perry, followed by European spinners like Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Joel Mull, and over years of development has consolidated itself into one of today's premier techno agencies.

Whilst the miles clocked up through 1996, Billy was nominated for best national DJ and best Radio One Essential Mix at the UK Muzik awards and played prime spots at Tribal Gathering's in the UK and Germany.

Having evolved into playing more and more harder-edged techno, 1997 was an appropriate time to update an audience, some of which were still comparing him to his past. So a second mix CD 'Race Data' (Avex) was released featuring tracks by the likes of Planetary Assault Systems, Dirty House Crew and Vegas Soul and a comprehensive summary of Billy's sound at the time.
Frustrated also that the style of music he had been playing and championing was only minimally supported by a few labels and people in the UK, he set up his own imprint Tortured to tie-in. 'The reason I did 'Race Data' and started a label was so that people could see what sort of music I was now playing, because they were all listening to the old tapes and the old CD. And even though all the music I've played has had a power and a dirty funk to it, my style was changing from progressive house into trance and then into techno. 'Having also been responsible for nurturing the likes of Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Joel Mull, Umek and Gaetek, (Billy flew them over for their debut UK gigs) I knew I was sort of looking after all these talented people - who at the time nobody really knew who they were, so it was natural to start Theremin.'

Billy also started Open to Torture (with Jim Masters); a bi-monthly night at London's The End which has to this day been one of the few quality techno nights in London and has acted as an all-encompassing showcase for the talent both attached to and surrounding the label (other guests have included The Advent, Green Velvet, DJ Slip, Oliver Ho, Holy Ghost, Swag, Laidback Luke, Cherry Bomb and Access 58). Studio time was eaten up with a new project Barb-Wired (with Swag's Richard Brown) and a brief re-formation of Vinyl Blair for the remixing of Gravediggaz and Howie B.

Finally to round off a magnificently creative year, Billy became a father to the first of two daughters.

1998 saw Billy's first expedition to the States, the Americans quickly warming to his decks dexterity and there have been frequent returns to spinat New Yorks' legendary Twilo club and at venues in places such as Chicago, Detroit, Washington, San Francisco, LA, Toronto, Seattle through Canada also, gaining popularity along the way. All the while Billy has continually enjoyed return trips to many places throughout the UK and Europe where the crowds and promoters are exceptional and his reputation and rank most enduring. In Holland where his following is enormous, he's voted second most popular international DJ of '98.

1999 up to the present has been spent constantly running and shaping Tortured (which has now achieved over twenty releases) and Theremin which has been rapidly expanding over the last 18 months.

In May 2000, Tortured released 'The Torture Chamber'; a brand new mix CD by Billy which showcases the quality of Tortured's pounding beats and power cuts. 'I wanted to do the mix CD as a label compilation because I think that we've put out some superb music out on the label. When I started it I made a list of some of my favourite ten producers and I'm proud to say that I've had eight of them work for it. 'It will be the first in a series with the other DJ's involved with the label mixing future ones. I want this to be the best series of techno CD's for the next decade.'

In support the Tortured team was out on the frontline with a mammoth tour from mid-February until the end of May that travelled around the globe (with Adam Beyer, Steve Rachmad, Craig Walsh, Holy Ghost, Umek, Joel Mull, Daz Saund, Gaetek, Marco Carola all supporting Billy on varying dates). Straight after he remixed Leftfield's 'Double Flash' with Richard Brown.

A new label has also been launched; Electrix which deals in 'Experimental electronica - everything from Maurizio style stuff to electro'. The success of Electrix has surprised everyone, with the media going mad for this new outlet of classy underground music. Billy will be releasing tracks on Electrix soon.

2001 sees Billy returning to Ibiza for the first time in many years where he will be playing at Amnesia for Dance Valley. As well as the now legendary techno sets, Billy played an extra special tech-house set for Slam’s residency Freelance Science in Glasgow. He will be dropping back down to Headstart at Turnmills for an Electrix Records showcase with a farely hefty electro set. The Tortured parties are still thriving down at the End, plus Billy has taken up a bi-monthly Tortured residency at the Red Box in Dublin. Later in the year, he plans to launch Tortured parties in Amsterdam.

Now in his 11th year of professional DJing, Billy has moved through varying genres in his time turning his back on the cash lined path to preserve his musical integrity. He still remains at the summit of underground dance music.

Things are looking Nasty.

Not available