#312. Megastar 90s House & Techno DJ - DJ Slipmatt

0:00How did you end up becoming one of the best DJs in the world over the last 35 years? That's a nice compliment, isn't it? I'm the best. Because I was there in the big sort of heyday, like 91, 92, that was when the whole country was into raving. When you created the tune on a ragga tip, did your world completely change in 92? It just exploded. It was mad, like, from growing up watching Top of the Pops. So then, you know, the tune charted, that was it, we got a phone call. Oh, right, you're one here for Top of the Pops this week. Oh, f***ing hell. I travelled all over the place, went to Australia, Japan, all around Europe, playing that stuff.

0:34And it was, you know, sort of top of the game with that. Give me some of the big name DJs you've played with. Very cool Stunt, Tall Pools, Seb Fontaine, Cole Cox, I suppose, would be the biggest one. You've got an amazing reputation over the last 30 odd years. Like you've lasted, what, over 35 years? Yeah. And still top of your game. Why do you think you've lasted so long?

0:56Welcome to the Eventful Lives podcast. I'm your host Dodge and I'm the founder of Bournemouth 7s, the world's largest sport and music festival. On this podcast I speak to proper characters of all lived eventful lives. Do us a favour and hit that follow button and be sure to check us out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at Dodge Woodall. We've now had over 100 million views. Matt, welcome to the show mate. Thank you. Cheers for having me. We're looking forward to this one. Nice one for making the effort. That's cool mate. A lot of traffic on the way down. On a Monday morning. End up for three and a half hours or something.

1:28It should have been two and a half from Harlow, yeah, three and a half. There you go. You're here, mate. You're here. Let's roll all the way back. How did you end up becoming one of the best DJs in the world over the last 35 years? That's a nice compliment, isn't it? One of the best. Do you know what? I could actually say it goes back from being a kid. I was fascinated with tunes from a really early age, like from before I could even walk, I think. I think my mum said I used to crawl along and put records on, you know, them old box record players, the old mono things, put the records on and then click the automatic button and then bosh.

2:06But yeah, and I was always fascinated with music. So all through my sort of growing up years, I just wanted to, you know, play records, mum, mum, play records. My brother-in-law's brother-in-law was a mobile DJ, sort of probably when I was sort of 10 or 11. I managed to get myself out with him a couple of times. Things like wiring up the speakers and just having two decks there and all that. It's just so good. I played my first school set at age 10 at the end of the juniors. I can't remember if it was a Christmas party or end of term party, but I took my dad's record player in. He had a stereo, really early stereo record player.

2:51I took that in and plugged it into the school speaker in my class. and took my records in. So I wasn't exactly mixing, but still, you know, at an early age, I wanted to play records. I played my school disco, proper school disco at 14, and I was messing around with music from a very early age as well. So I sort of... That's not why I became, just why I became a DJ, but my brother eventually started off Rain Dance. Was he the promoter, was he? Yeah. I don't know if you might have even come across Paul Nelson. Okay. He had the aquarium as well in London. Okay. From 95. The aquarium, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

3:37Was that his, was it? Yeah. Ah. Yeah, yeah. So my brother started Rain Dance, so that's what actually made me. Older brother, I take it. My older brother, yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's what actually got me the real break. I was doing like you know a couple of little bars here and there and bits and pieces had some cards made up DJ Nelson was it master of the mix and stuff I'd done a couple of DMC competitions I can never say me now I can never remember whether it was 88 89 or 89 and 90 um first one was with alongside Cole Cox yeah which is um which is really good looking back I think the next year it was like DJ Hype was in it.

4:22Yeah, so there's a few different factors, do you know what I mean? And then when my brother decided to do the rave, I was obviously the first choice for, not obviously, but I was alright, I weren't a bad DJ back then, so I was the choice for a resident DJ. And then, bosh, that was my platform. Those are opening days. Nice opening to have, eh? A bit lucky, really. Yeah, right place at the right time and stuff. So where did it start then? Did it start in the warehouses or were you out in open fields in the rave days back then? Yeah, so the first rain dance was 1989, September 16th, 1989. Where was that?

5:03That was at Jenkins Lane. Where was that? In Barking. Barking, okay. Yeah. And it was totally legal. They tried, they sort of made out it was legal. Um, maybe it wasn't like super illegal back in 89 cause they hadn't brought in all the laws by then. Um, but yeah, it wasn't licensed properly. It was just in a marquee, big 10K sound system. Um, and it went on from, I think they got going about, it didn't get going until late and the old bill did turn up. They had a barrister there who managed to, um, to get, get rid of them, wouldn't let them on the site basically. And at that point, they couldn't do anything to get on.

5:45And I think it started almost midnight on a Saturday and then went right the way through to the Sunday. They stopped it. There was a boot sale going on in the same field. And so they stopped it for a couple of hours. They said, people won't walk you around, sort of off their nut and stuff like that. It did look a little bit naughty. yeah um and then uh and it started again and it went right through till two o 'clock sunday night monday morning yeah and how did how did rain dance evolve so from there yeah they did another one which was i think it was november i can't remember the exact date i could find out but i think it was november 89 um and again not licensed properly they tried a blag actually they tried um they blagged it that it was for it was one of the um one of the bbc charities they were going to give money to charity yeah but that was their way of sort of trying to you know get around the life the whole sort of license thing uh was it pudsy or something that's right something like that yeah and um so anyway party started saturday night and then by two o 'clock i was actually on the decks at the time it was me and me and lime yeah I don't know it was my sort of music musical partner and um and the old bill come in and shut us down I thought right no we're not having it so yeah so that that was it for rain dance for then and then they went on to get the first um actual legal license legal for an outdoor right yeah yeah where was that that was back at back at Jenkins Lane yeah they did a few others they They went up to Cambridge.

7:30They went up to Wiz Beach, went up to Leicester. They did a party at the Bath and West Showground over the years. But they lasted till, I think, early 94. My brother actually left. He left at the end of 91. Okay. Why? He'd had enough. Not that he weren't getting on with the other partners. There was three of them. Yeah. Who were the other two? So there was Ray Spence. Yeah. he used to do club promotions up in Camden that's how my brother got to meet him and then there was Lou who actually owned a CAF next to where my brother worked in a CAF office and he was like a caretaker with a site over in Jenkins Lane and it was sort of as far as I remember it was sort of the other two didn't want to promote it the same as my brother did he was sort of you know right we need to be doing this we need to be doing that and they seem to be off sort of spending money yeah freeway partnerships is tough anyway yeah yeah they were nice fellas they all sort of got on but it got to the point where my brother felt like he was bashing his head against the brick wall he was like right did he go solo did he do anything well yeah so then after that he then he opened up do you remember the warehouse in Curtin Road going back to it's a long time ago he used to do the Elephant and Castle yeah what they were doing started very early garage parties happy days yeah they started and then he and then they moved into the warehouse in curtain mode just basically got a big warehouse there converted that into a venue um i think they did one of the first jungle fevers there as well actually in 93 yeah um went on to do that and then from there onto the aquarium okay yeah so how did he get how did he build i know this is about you but I'm actually yeah let's go we'll hold on that aquarium thing there because that was a quality club what was your world like at that point then were you jumping on going oh well your brother was going hold a minute get us in there get us in there get us in there or were you getting well recognised as well because it went from the raves in outdoor where I was then went into the club world right yeah actually properly legal club world I sort of my break come from the early rain dances so rain dance become very popular through sort of 1990 91 yeah and um and that was just sort of my platform i just started getting people from all over because people used to come there from all over the place so i was getting promotes from all over the country saying oh right uh slip matter how did we get over slip mat i was finding me brother and you know getting messages through and stuff and yeah it just went from there i just ended up getting gigs literally all over the place all over the country off the back of that.

10:20Obviously, I must have been doing something right. You're obviously a good DJ. All right. Yeah, I was going to say that. What happened to your world when you created the tune on a ragged hip? Did your world completely change in 92? Was that a big turning point for you? It sort of did. So our musical history goes back to 89, early 89. We did a tune. We did a white label after that. Me and Lyme as SL2. we did DJ's Take Control in 91 and that's the one that turned it yeah we the tunes for that did alright I think I think the white label before that we did like 3000 copies which was alright you know it was half decent and we put the white label out for DJ's Take Control and Wham A Brain on the flip side yeah and it just exploded absolutely exploded how old were you at the time roughly?

11:13So I was 91. I would have been 24. Okay. So it wasn't super young. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

11:23And, yeah, the white labels flew out. We got some more pressed up. And then by that time we'd had, I think it's seven or eight different labels phoning us up, saying, all right, this tune, I wanted a deal. And we actually had to hold back the next batch of records. Okay. one of the label actually ended up buying them off us actually and putting them out as promos but yeah so dj's take control um got signed in the summer of 91 and then was released god i felt like ages and ages got released in october yeah um and then charted and how does that business model work you said no you press 3000 or whatever how's the model work for you back then um so yeah we'd we'd we'd um go and get the tune cut ourselves go to the studio go and get the tune cut get 10 white labels or whatever we wanted i think it was normally 10 you'd normally get 10 give them out to the special djs and then um and then just go get a run pressed yeah take them to the distributors ourselves so for example you take you get them a run press then you'd go to the record shops and go right we'd we'd go right sometimes we'd go around about the shops but we'd normally just go to a distributor okay just do a deal to two pound a tune or whatever it was back then which was all right really across this like 60p a tune to get impressed 3 000 tunes that's like what you know four and a half grand four grand good money back then and how did that grow then you said when you get in the charts what did what happened then so it was just it's just like the whole media thing it just it just exploded um I always say it was mad like from growing up watching Top of the Pops all those years um on a Thursday night to then not expecting it at all you know I wasn't even though I wanted to be a DJ I didn't realise I was going to be a record producer and an artist and stuff to then um you know the tune charting uh and then And as soon as it charted, that was it.

13:29We got a phone call. Oh, right. You wanted to talk to the Pops this week. Oh, fucking hell. Quality. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then loads of radio interviews and, you know, doing guest slots for, you know, guest mixes for Radio 1 and stuff like that. Yeah. So, yeah, lots changed. And obviously, we got very, very busy with doing PAs. I was busy DJing anyway. So, I had sort of double work coming through. with John and Lyman and JJ and the girls from SL2 would go off and go and do the PAs without me and I'd be off DJing here, there and everywhere. So were you flat out from that moment then? When you hit that, because you would have gone, if you were on top of the Pops, all of a sudden, there was probably four channels back then, right?

14:17Yeah, yeah, it's that long ago. You know what I mean? It's like, wow, you'd have been like A-list bang on the music front. Yeah, no, it's huge, yeah. and that feeling what was that feeling like for you it was amazing yeah yeah absolutely amazing it was a bit surreal you know it was a bit like what on earth yeah just I mean for us just the things like going to Elstree and then like the EastEnders set was there as well and things like that and then meeting all the other sort of pop stars that were there say other pop stars we didn't think of ourselves as pop stars but yeah meeting all the other people like you know Phil Collins would walk by and And Kylie Minogue come in and said hello to us and stuff like that.

14:57It's like, oh, wow. Lovely. She's brilliant, yeah. We did, what was the other one up north with Normski? I can't even remember what it's called now. There's another programme on BBC Two. I'll think of it in a minute. Yeah, we did that on telly a couple of times as well. So there's a lot of TV work, was there, as well? Not loads, but while the tunes were out. Yeah. Yeah. while the tunes were out we were underground dance music people so we just sort of had a little touch of that but then when Ragga Tip come out then we did Top of the Pops another two times yeah sort of getting used to it by then yeah what was your favourite track out of all those ones what of our own of our own tracks tricky one really on a Ragga Tip's he's by far the biggest yeah uh i don't track that it's by the by far the biggest seller i think do you remember when he sold i think at the time um we've excelled i think we did about we did we did over 200 000 because we got a disc got a silver disc for it and that was 200 000 wow so um so yeah well over that i mean if you had if you count all the albums and bits and pieces as well the comps just goes into the millions i suppose and what happened then was sl2 did you go right i'm splitting now i'm gonna go solo no so no we're still best mates yeah i'm still you know still probably my closest mate and you know we're still really good mates now we it was just we followed followed the music so we did um after ragged tip we did a remix of why i'm a brain which was the previous track and by that time that come out i think it was december 92 and that was just at the point where um where the music was chat the commercial side of music was changing or the commercial scene was changing and rave was getting a little bit sort of cheesy a little bit too commercial and um and it wasn't flying in the charts as much so i think we only got we got top 30 i think we got 26 or something like that with with the way my brain thing and then so the follow up to that by that time we were into 1993 and it had all changed there wasn't really big rave tunes getting in the charts and the whole rave scene had gone down that different path of sort of dark and sort of gloomy in a way um of part you know the main part of it had the old sort of dark period and then jungle started coming in and that as well so the whole thing had sort of changed a lot um so we we did actually present excel with with another tune but it was far too hard and and break beady and stuff yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they had um adele on their label i know loads of big names on there i think that was the biggest selling she done album of all time and that was on XL.

18:01Yeah, so they've been huge. Even though they're an independent, yeah, they've been absolutely huge. Still talk to them, still get on with them. But yeah, so we didn't really want to pursue. So for a business point of view, really, looking back, I should have gone, right, okay, let's get some other people, another producer or something, and let's sort of keep the name going and make some serious money here. But that wasn't where I was at at the point, the same with John. So we just, you know, we were busy doing our thing. It was like, right, okay, well, look, you know, we don't really want to sort of sell out, you know, try and do something off.

18:41I don't know. We just didn't want to sell out, and we decided that, okay, we'll carry on with the underground stuff. Yeah, okay. Which we did, and, you know, it's been great. And what do you start on? What genre did you start on? Was it Happy Hardcore? and then what did it lead into so our first our first track back in the day was was acid house yeah full-on acid house track um and then just we just followed that uk rave thing so the second track was the noise and bass quake on the other side very sort of 1990 sounding um sort of bleepy and heavy heavy heavy bass break beat always been on a break beat yeah yeah um and then yeah and then DJs Take Control and and Ragga Tip were typical sort of night that 92 that 92 sound 91 92 sound hard it was hardcore back then but I mean listen to hardcore music now it wasn't very hardcore but that's what it was called back then wasn't it yeah yeah yeah and then um when that side of things sort of quietened down a little bit the commercial side of things I then and the music it went dark so I carried on with the dark side I used to love it real heavy break beat bass gloomy sounds and stuff and then the jungle as well I was very much into the jungle and at the forefront of that really as it sort of was sort of created but I also then started doing the hardcore stuff the proper like happy hardcore stuff which was just I could just see people wanted something with a kick drum in it still so yeah saw the opportunity and then was a big part of that of the start of that alongside DJs like uh Dougal and Vibes Seduction sorry yeah and where did that lead you on then sort of like 93 onwards what was your journey like in the 90s yeah so the whole core thing it really it was big for I'd say sort of 93 through to 95, 96 but it got harder and harder and in the end it ended up with that bong, bong, bong like you know distorted kick drum which it was alright for a while but it wasn't really as it got sort of really hard it wasn't really me so I sort of started snapping back to the sort of house more house music side of things and actually playing more of the sort of 92 stuff as old school okay by then so the happy hardcore thing was good it was good for me i traveled traveled all over the places went to australia japan all around europe playing that playing that stuff and it was you know i was sort of top of the game with with that you know the whole dreamscape helter skelter thing was based around happy hardcore and jungle with it so um It was big, it was big, but it was only a few years really.

21:37And then from going back to the aquarium, then when my brother started the aquarium in 95, 96,

21:46I then started playing housing. I was like, right, it's a good opportunity to start playing housing. Yeah, so I'll get the occasional sort of house set in the aquarium. and then also from 96, well from 94 I was going over to Ibiza and then from 96 I then got the offer to play sort of old school and house over there as well. Right in the streets. So that, yeah, so that window of happy hardcore. So, you know, a lot of people, I'll turn up clubbing and be like, oh right, happy hardcore. I'm like, oh mate, first of all, that's like a two or three year or three or four year window of 36 years now, yeah, of my career.

22:23so I still love it I still do it now and again it's always nice to go back and do a set of that it's good fun but what was it like for you back then so you were in the early 90s and you were flying out to Australia in different countries who was looking after you did you have an agent no no you just did it for yourself not really we had an agent with a lot of the SL2 stuff like the PAs and that always always done my own bookings have you for DJing yeah yeah why is that um you control your own diary i think so yeah it's probably a control thing yeah yeah it's maybe a bit of a trust thing as well i found i've only ever i've only i've actually been with a couple of agencies first one was around 2000 and there's lots of promises about we'll get you this we'll get you that we'll get you work off the back of the you know off the back of these other djs as well um and it just never really happened okay you know for a couple of months oh right some some new decent new gigs coming in and then it just turned into right matt what contacts have we got okay just giving him my contacts and then them chipping their bit off charging back on it which didn't help the promoter and then you know chipping a bit off and i did it in more in recent in recent years as well um with another agency and again it just turned into more like a management deal where they were just managing the diary of which I could do that yeah I could probably do it better than an outsider yeah so and now my mrs Rachel she she's teamed up she's teamed up me now yeah so she's director of the company now and so we look after it together yeah and she's like super organized um so yeah I think we do a good job of it now good for you I've heard you talking about um agents and then with other people and and stuff yeah and you know it'd be difficult yeah we yeah we you know we look after the promoter yeah we we give them you know we if anything we sometimes moan about the agents not about the promoters not being organized yeah you know they want you to to post stuff on the social but if you don't if i don't send you give me the right stuff how can i promote yeah yeah what was that what was the what was the club world like for you in london at the time let's talk london at this specific time and then we can talk up north of midlands and around the world but what was it like in london for you in that 90s period when all the clubs were booming yeah so i mean it was busy yeah it was busy there's loads loads going on lots of little clubs little dirty little dingy clubs and that as well which was which was good you know you pull up in the middle of nowhere like industrial place in bow or whatever and you know around a couple of dark corners and there's a little club there but it was great yeah it was great never really that dodgy um yes i've got great memories of east london loads of little places like that go on do you remember the names things like telepathy was was was brilliant it's just so like underground you know it was just i don't know just felt so sort of naughty even though it was legal yeah so sort of naughty and just raw and just underground yeah i remember telepathy had that um i don't know what they're called with like electric stuff going like a ball thing where you touch it and the electric goes yeah all right right in front of the stage i always remember that but yeah just just people you know if one off they're not doing what you know behaving themselves and everyone's happy but just that loving life yeah yeah enjoy themselves nothing not you know i think too naughty and what was aquarium like for you knowing that your brother owned it yeah it was good you have residency there no i never really played that that much there to be honest with you i was chatting with somebody the other day and i was saying oh yeah back in the day if you wanted to play house you just have to use your real name and i was like actually funny enough i did do a couple of sets down there and my brother put on the flyer matt nelson and i was like he just totally messed it up probably people didn't have a clue i was or whatever and um but the other thing was because I was playing Happy Hardcore at the time as well I think he was a little bit scared to put me down as a as a Slipman yeah yeah yeah just in case people thought yeah I'm going to the aquarium and listen to Happy Hardcore where did the name Slipman come from it's really simple so I'm terrible with names and I'm thinking of things like I'm not very creative with names and stuff like that so basically I think it I was trying to think this the other day I think it might have been for the DMC competition that I did years and years ago and I just on my decks I had these Squires Slipmats and it just said DJ Slipmat on it and I had to come up with a name I couldn't go in as DJ Nelson or DJ Matthew or something and I thought I'll do it yeah Slipmat could be a bit cool so yeah I just did that and it and it stuck it didn't slip do you prefer going to gigs or producing music I'm a gig DJ you are that's your thing I like both.

27:31Still got my studio at home, still making music. But I think that's where my heart really is. I think that's where the magic bit is, I think. Yeah. Done a few good tunes, but not lots and lots of them. But yeah, definitely, I'm definitely a DJ, a DJ. Why do you think you've lasted so long? Like you've lasted, what, over 35 years? and still top your game and still hungry right now. Yeah. I've met a lot of DJs who have done that amount of years but they've just lost, they're losing the hunger now going, you know, I can't be bothered to get that gig or I can't travel or... That's a big part of it is the travel and stuff, I think.

28:15I don't know, I just... I think for me, I enjoy it that much that I overcome that travel thing. You know, travelling can be, you know, it can be boring. It can be very tiring as well. but I enjoy the DJing so much that I don't let that bother me. I actually don't mind driving as well, which probably helps. You know, I'm more than happy to sit there in the motor for three or four hours. As long as I'm not too tired, I can sit there in the motor for a few hours and stick on some decent music or listen to a book or a podcast these days. Do you remember when you were travelling at your peak where you'd be doing free clubs in a night or going to Middlesbrough?

28:57give me an example of like the year the years that you were at your busiest i ain't really stopped to be honest but i think from probably 90 91 yeah was when it got really busy i was traveling up and down the m1 and that in 1999 i remember that because i used to borrow my brother's motor um i think i wrecked that actually at one point as to get in their engine so from 1991 and then it was two, three gigs a night Friday and Saturday sometimes sometimes four gigs on one of the days Fridays were pretty much as busy as Saturdays as well but you know I'd go to go up to Stoke-on-Trent and Manchester maybe and then come back down and do Milwaukee's at Bedford near Bedford on the way back down and did lots one of the good things that I really appreciate is that I've played all over the place as well so because I was there in the big sort of heyday like 91, 92 that was when the whole country was into raving that's right like everyone was into it and I just got to play like everywhere all over the country so I've all and that's sort of carried on I still get gigs all over the place but yeah there's been times I've done like Cornwall and then maybe Bristol and then gone up to Manchester as well on the same day.

30:26It's been some mad, mad, mad, mad travelling. Has there ever been time you've turned up at a gig and gone, you know, I ain't playing this? Someone's pissed you off a promoter's not paid you up front or something's outmanned? Very, very rare. Yeah. Very rare, yeah. Do you remember any times? I don't know if I actually, there was one that we, I drove all the way to Hull, all the way up to Hull. From Essex? From Essex, yeah. Three and a half hours. Got there and the promoter was wearing around. I think I'm sure I ended up just driving back off that, driving back with no dough or anything and there weren't many people in there either.

30:59It was just a shit promoter. Okay. Pull your chancer. I think he's going to make a bit of money here. Fur cope, no niggers. Yeah. There's a lot of him out there. There has been a lot in the events world. Yeah. Yeah. Not so much these days. No, not, no. Back in the day there was a lot of chancers when it was new. it was an easy hit yeah it was an easy hit for a promoter go well look we'll have that if i'll pack out too far i'll come out of 10 g's that'll be they see you later it's an easy hit for people you know yeah but it's not it's not like that anymore nah definitely not no no is there been a gig that stands out in your mind in the uk you go do you know what that crowd up there are the best like the northerners the midlands london bristol there's pockets of it all over There's one actually.

31:45We did an SL2 gig at the Astoria. I think it was, I'm not sure what it was actually, whether it was, that must have been 92, so it wouldn't have been Moondance. I've got a feeling it might, I know, it was a Kiss party. It was a Kiss FM party at the Astoria. And it's actually on YouTube. There's a link to it somewhere. It's really bad quality. All the music's distorted. but the crowd were just mental the way they're just like jumping up and down like going absolutely mad to the tunes but you get pockets of it all over the country all over the world as well I go to Japan I remember playing in Japan what's it like playing in Japan and you put like a real sort of emotional track on and there was people crying at the front tears coming down oh oh, this is, oh.

32:41Mental. Mental. Yeah. And you still get it now. It's still, you know, people go just as mad. Now, I played in Brighton at the weekend for Vivid People and it's like an 80s, it's a bit of a different one for me actually. It's like an 80s, 90s event but they've, you know, as a DJ, they want you to throw a few curveballs in, a few guilty pleasures made here. So I ended up playing a bit of, a little bit of sort of 80s soul and hip-hop and really mixing it up as well. And played Ragga Tip and the whole place is just... And they're probably average age about 40 as well, 45 maybe. The whole place just jumping up and down.

33:24It's memories, isn't it? I watched it on full blast coming here today. Just have a listen. Floods of memories coming back on different gigs. That's what music does. Yeah, it does, isn't it? Yeah. Beautiful feeling. Give me an example. Someone phones up and says, because you haven't got an agent, they go, Matt, Japan, that date, how are you teeing it all up? Are you saying to them, right, you pay for my flights, you pay for my accommodation and I want this for that weekend or for that gig and then I'll fly back? Would you try to tie in two or three gigs when you're there or would you just do it for one hit and go, do you know what, I'll go to Japan, I'll make five days out of it and then fly back again?

33:54I've been to Japan for a long, long time but my first thing would be make me an offer. Yeah, okay. Because you never know, they might offer you more than what you think. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's it. Damn, I shouldn't say that, should I? But yeah, no, make me an offer. And then yeah, whatever, you know, whatever I want me. It'll be flights. Yeah. Flights, accommodation, make sure I'm looked after all right. Especially if you're going a long way, you want a decent hotel and stuff. I'm not too, not too needy. Yeah. You know, I like to make things work. Yeah. Okay. For everybody. For repeat business.

34:27Yeah. And maybe that's part of why I'm still here DJing, you know, still, I'm still busy DJing. You know, my weekend I had six gigs. did you just go yeah it's gone back already yeah yeah whereabouts yeah um i did eden on the thursday you know very far and then come back i did um let's love life in all the shot saturday and then a small festival in in um deer up in norfolk and then the sunday i was in essex kent and then over to the cotswolds for um another big festival over there yeah along with alternate and LeWay from the old prodigy. Yeah, and that was straight after doing Ibiza for the week as well.

35:13So we were knackered. Absolutely knackered. But yeah, so, you know, I like things to work. So for everyone, yeah. Did you ever get the bug of going, I want to be a promoter? No. No? It was always like, I don't want the risk. Not really. I think I do do my own event. Whereabouts? I do a week in Ibiza, slip back in time, we call it. That's sort of something that I've sort of been interested in doing for many, many years. Is that just an itch to scratch or is that for proper, I want to do this as a business model so if I can turn it into something? Bit of both. Yeah, okay. Bit of both. So, you know, it's a nice little earner, but same with any sort of promoting.

35:55It's a lot of work. Yeah, mate. Promoting is a lot of work. Yeah. I'm sure you know as well. but the most rewarding as well yeah if you get it right I can't say that because I'm not a DJ playing in front of 10 ,000 people but the rewarding part of being a promoter is a proper buzz knowing you're packing whether it's a festival 30 ,000 people or 12 nightclubs every week or you're packing them out like that's the buzz then you can we get yeah getting the feedback from our event and all that is amazing the feedback is a lovely feeling yeah I also like criticism criticism constructive criticism I also like getting proper feedback and then can you tweak that for next year improve that for next year when you start tweaking improving it for everyone the following like thanks for that it's even more respect that goes around yeah isn't it but um yeah yeah yeah but yeah they're the promote you know I've done bits and pieces I think as a DJ it's very very tempting to get pulled into that yeah and I have done before you know I've been involved in promotions and stuff.

36:55But I don't know. I just find I don't enjoy it. It gets to a point where it's very, very different from the DJ world. The other promoters tend to get the hump easy. There tends to be a lot of competition in a way. I don't need it. Yeah, okay. It's high risk as well, I think. you know if you're doing well with it it's great and we do well with our with our ib for a week and that's that's great i'm i'm up for putting in the hard work yeah and doing that just for one week of the year um but doing club nights and stuff like that you know i've been there before and then it gets to like 10 o 'clock and you think you know i don't know how many people we've got what's that break even yeah yeah pay everyone off what i'm left with don't need to stress yeah yeah i guess you're guaranteed going well that's my price dodge i want that done see you later you drive home yeah i think it take i've thought this for years i think it takes a certain type of person as well yeah to do um to do that so even my even my brother look at my brother and i think he's not he's he's done a right with the club thing yeah but if he was a different type of person he could have probably could have done better yeah and he's probably been saved by some of the people that he was working with where they're sort of more out there and extrovert and whatever yeah You know, people like, like Danny, Danny Clockwork, Clockwork Orange, for me, he's like the perfect sort of promoter.

38:23Yeah, he's a full on promoter, isn't he? Full on. Yeah, good people, have a laugh, don't take himself too seriously. yeah, totally up for, you know. But he makes shit happen as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the other thing, making things happen. You know, you've got to have that firing to do it. And yeah, I can see it in certain people and they normally do a good job. Whereas, I'm not like that. Ah, okay. Rethink about it as a promoter back before social media. We were out flying everywhere. Yeah. We'd be flying, going into clubs, going into clubs, flying, put that in your back pocket, coming out of clubs on everyone's doors, under the cold windscreens, fly posting everywhere.

38:59That's what, that was the life. If you counted up your time, you'd probably be on about 15p an hour. Well, I don't know about that. Back in the day. Yeah. Well, no, you could have it off, man. You know, back then in those 90s, early 2000s, like clubs were like, we were having clubs like 1 ,500 to 3 ,000 caps. every single week. Oh, right. 12 of them each week. Oh, you're talking much bigger than I'm thinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it was all cash because no one had a card. That was just the way life was, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What was the bit for you when you went, oh, I'm going to go to IB for...

39:30What was the business model for you? Didn't really have one, to be honest with you. We started... I got asked to do... to get involved in a party over there. Yeah. It was called SOS. and they back in 2013 and they said to me oh look Matt they actually sort of headhunted me a bit in a way and I said look we want to do an old school holiday wave thing um would you want to get involved and maybe help us get some DJs and this and the other um I was like oh well okay so I've just charged him a fee for for the first couple of years and then what was a management fee to say yeah it was it was it was like 800 quid or something I think they charged something like that yeah and um just just to put them in touch with the right people and and obviously we went over and played and got paid for that um and then they sort of got themselves into a bit of trouble i don't think they were the best business people in the world um certainly not in my opinion yeah and um and i i sort of with a with a couple other people sort of went into a bit of a partnership with them but it just fell apart straight away straight away um so we ended up me my mrs rachel and then the other partners terry and jackie um we actually run the run the first event pretty much on our own without them even without these other people being involved they just just went missing it was a very very strange situation were they english yeah and they were based in england or based out there based in england they lived out well no based in england okay yeah um but they'd been out in ib for for you know lots and lots of they knew the place pretty well um and then we run the event uh it all turned a bit sour they said oh look you know you owe us money didn't actually make a penny yeah not a single penny out of that first event even that was good it was really good um so then the following year we we just thought well look you know we've put all this work in not just gonna like just go right you know we've we didn't make any money but on top of that we put a lot of work in so you know we're losing a lot of money in in that way and with what we've done so um i'd been um using my slip back in time brand for for years and years just a little bits and pieces here and there like just brand deals and stuff like that more than actually promoting um so we turned it into slip back in time in 2019 thought why not and it was a roaring success and it's we were sold out this year so it was only three weeks ago we were sold out with our hotels bosh lovely we're relaunching for next year tonight yeah good for you good for you it's interesting though you look at that model it's tight it's a tough model yeah you're putting you're getting people to come from England fly over and you're running off the hotels and you're running off the party etc etc yeah how many days is that slip back in time god this year it was a long one so seven days seven days of parties seven days one of these days yeah okay seven days party we actually did a we did a pre-party this year as well because some what happens a lot of people will actually come over early for a couple of days so we had about 50 or 100 people there anyway so we said right okay we'll keep everyone together we'll do a pre-party then we did seven days on the trot all club nights boat party and bearing in mind the average age is probably creeping up to about 50 now as well and they're still at it yeah they know how to race yeah they're proper like original ravers yeah and um and then we did an after party and then it went into my bank holiday weekend so then i did eden on the thursday as well so that was like night that was 10 days yeah on the bounce of me being out playing and look you know looking after 600 people as well so i'm sort of the most prominent one out a lot of us I'm the one that everyone recognises yeah so all day you walk your man I love it I love it it's great but it's tiring yeah very tiring and then yeah and then we come home on a Friday and then it was Saturday Sunday five gigs across the as soon as you got home oh mate yeah so by Monday I was like cream crack it is an understatement so is that something you're going to go right I'm grabbing that again next year we're doing it again doing it again so what dates will people find it next year so next year is the 13th to the 20th of May okay yeah why'd you pick that week it works out with a hotel okay so Ibiza gets expensive yeah during the main part of the summer so that's that's the last week that we could do at the price and we don't want to go yeah yeah yeah without price it'd be too I'd say it'd be too expensive but for our business model yeah it works it would start getting a bit expensive yeah and before that you know the weather's not quite as quite as um guaranteed um so yeah it just it just works but yeah it's a big risk you know there's a lot of a lot of money involved with you know we pay for the hotels up front yeah we have to yeah we pay the pain stages yeah so what makes you want that what makes you want the headache right after chatting to you he's quite a chill broke you're like you know what give me my dj gigs let me guarantee my money why all of a sudden you're jumping into Ibiza again, right, I'm trying to put people in a hotel, I'm trying to cut that deal there.

44:58Because there's lots of moving parts. You're not just going and whacking people into one club. Yeah. You're trying to move a swarm of people to these opportunities every single day, something going on. Yeah, yeah. There must be a point when you think, do you know what? Is it worth the headache? I do love it, though. Yeah, that's the addiction, isn't it? That's the thing, yeah. I do like, like you're saying, you know, if you have a good one, you're buzzing the buzz off of that, yeah. And, you know, I'm a bit of a businessman as well. And I like serving people. I like people to be happy. That's probably why the DJ, I'm there in front of everyone, playing music they like, hopefully, most of the time.

45:38And yeah, it's a buzz. Yeah, I enjoy it. Do you remember the first year you went to Ibiza? Yeah, 1994. And what was that feeling like? And that was the Happy Alcore set. Well, if you went out there and DJ, you didn't go out there to a party before then? No. Okay. No. Do you know what? I was probably too busy throughout 91, 92 and that. I know a lot of people went in the 80s. John, a few of my mates went over there in 1990 and I ended up doing a few gigs with Black and White back then. But yeah, I went over to DJ. I got asked to go and DJ in what is now Eden. It used to be called Chaos. Before that, it was Star Club.

46:17I did a happy hardcore set. And then I think I went back in 95. I don't know whether that was for M8 magazine. we did a the Scottish magazine at the time it's not around anymore I don't think but they took a load of us over there that would have been hardcore as well and I think that might have been the first time we went up to Manumission in 95 and saw all the games like midgets peeling butter peeling potatoes and people running around with no clothes out of that it's like brilliant maybe that was 95 maybe it was 96 actually and then I think I played my first gig for 1830s in, I'm sure that was 96.

47:01Is that still going, that 10 to 30s? Nah. No, it can't be. Nah. Nah, it was always a big thing back then. And they were doing the zoo every two weeks on a Tuesday. What's now the, well, the zoo, yeah, the zoo. It's called five to eight now. And it was like an outdoor afternoon into the evening. so it went from I think it was 6 till 12 and I went out and did that and played like an old school and house sort of thing and then that went really well and then they got me back another I think again that year and then the following year they got me back about 3 or 4 times and then just sort of stuck with them that was 1830s they were doing all the cool sort of places and you know they were packed I ended up doing Esparadise then I think in probably 97, 98 in Eden as well bang next door to each other yeah perfect and then yeah and I'm from there did quite a few clubs around the island used to do the space terrace for Alex P's birthday little club called Summon which we use these days which is still there that was always good fun yeah and I played the West End over there which is where the slip back in time name come from back in 2000 we said alright yeah old school tonight we're going to slip back in time they used to call it slip back in time yeah it's been mental over there 5-2-8 tell me about that club 5-2-8 because it was Cova Santa last year on Clockwork Orange which was an amazing part but this year moving it to 5-2-8 how would you explain the list of what 5-2-8 is like last time I played Ibepa for Clockwork was at 5-2-8 which is Benamusa Park it's called I think that's what it was called last time it's been changed to 5-2-8 in the last few years and it was called the zoo before that um but yeah last time played for for clockwork you know i believe it was 2019 that was amazing absolutely packed in there must have been 5 000 people in there i'm sure maybe more maybe more how would you explain to the listener what five to eight actually looks like it's well it is actually a uh it used to be an old zoo so it's got I think it's like three or four different pool areas and they've got like a seal pit so it's got like a pool and then almost like amphitheater around it like a standing area just a big outdoor outdoor complex with yeah three or four different arenas but through the day so it's just another just another way of doing it it's so good so good so so good yeah so so good i know the people that run it as well they've always got a decent sound system out there and stuff yeah give me another country that stands out in your mind that you've played in and you've gone you know what i actually loved that australia i think okay yeah a lot of djs said that to me yeah australia's good bit sort of home from home they're very they're sort of quite like us yeah like the english or the British.

50:13Made a lot of friends over there as well. I've been there something like 14 or 15 times now over the years. I'm going to go. I normally do the rounds. Go to Perth and then Sydney, Melbourne and stuff. I'd like to go back there next year actually. Hopefully. But yeah, really, really good. Lots of fun over there. Again, they know how to rave. Always up for the party. Thailand's been alright as well. I had a mate who moved over to Thailand and that was pretty cool. He managed to get me a couple of club nights. I think I've done it a couple of times on the way back from Australia. And that was really cool.

50:52I know how to party over there. I did a full moon party a few years ago.

50:58Yeah, just little pockets. To be honest with you, I don't go away as much as a lot of DJs. I'm very, very UK based these days, which suits me, actually. I think as well. So if someone gave you a belt a day, say, well, I've got Australia, I've got six gigs for you, Australia, in two months' time, do you fancy it, Matt? What would your response be? How much? How much are you offering? What are you offering? Yeah. What's the offer? No, I do like doing it. Yeah. But by saying that, I see a lot of these DJs playing in different countries, like, every week. Yeah. And I do, in the back of my mind, I do, I'll probably take some of it on, but in the back of my mind, I think, do you know what?

51:37I'm knackered. It's going to be pretty near. I'm glad I'm not flying back to some force from America and stuff like that. Yeah. Most of my gigs are in the UK. Yeah. And I do a lot of gigs. So, yeah, it's cool. I'm happy with that. You've got an amazing reputation over the last 30-odd years. Thank you. Yeah, amazing reputation. How would you explain Matt as a personality?

52:01I'm very placid. I'm a people's person. I like to get on with people. I'm not particularly loud or whatever until I've had a drink maybe. I can find out to party. But yeah, I'm lots of fit. I'm fun. I've got a good sense of humour. I don't take things too seriously. I'm quite thick-skinned as well. I've got lots of good mates.

52:29Not really, I don't like to complain about stuff. I sort of found personal development a few years ago. Well, going back, yeah, about 10, 10, 12 years ago. So I've taught myself a lot over the past 10 or 12 years as well. Listened to a lot of these authors and speakers like your older Bob Proctors and Earl Nightingale and all that, all the old classics. um i've taught myself a lot about attitude and and how to behave and how to think yeah as well you know a lot of people get wrapped up in worrying about stuff yeah also to be aware of that little man on your shoulder subconscious mind yeah yeah exactly if you understand your subconscious mind life's a lot easier well i learned all that learned all that yeah same at young age yeah yeah well yeah not even that not even at a young age but but a long time you know 12 everything changed for me since i started doing that and in fact i'll say to a lot of people i went from listening to to same old music in the in the moco up down the bit at the m1 m6 to listening to you know a lot of these audio books that's teaching you stuff and stuff like bob proctor and stuff like that over and over and over repetition and yeah exactly learning the the There's some conscious mind.

53:51It's powerful stuff, isn't it? It really, really is. But it's a game changer. My fear got me into it as a young kid. Good. Yeah, it's powerful. Yeah. Really powerful. You live a better life. Yeah, of course. Because you're not wrapped up in stuff. They don't like me or this, that and the other. Stay in your own lane. Stay in your bubble. Stay in your own lane. Do your thing. Be nice to people. Help people. Be nice. Respect people. Never give respect back. Help people out. Give them contacts. You realise how to get stuff. You don't get by getting, you get by giving. Give me some of the big name DJs you've played with over the years.

54:28Cole Cox, I suppose, would be the biggest one. Very Coolston, quite a few years ago, over in Greece, on tour over there. Yeah, I mean, all the big names, the big sort of UK names, really. there's people that I haven't met people like Paul Oakenfold have you not met? which I find strange yeah after all these years a lot of my mates yeah a lot of my mates know him and they're like oh what Paul yeah he's alright he's a lovely fella yeah I just sort of see him as Paul Oakenfold yeah strange to get to know people yeah but yeah your tall Paul Seb Fontaine I'm sort of good mates with all of these people known them well known them for years you know on the circuit yeah very good friends with Andy Galea really good mates with PZ and Blocko.

55:16Yeah. And then there's all the, you know, the old sort of hardcore DJs and I know all the drum and bass lot as well because I've done each genre. I was involved in each genre sort of quite intensely for a while. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, yeah, it's nice knowing all these people. In an order of your top three, which would be your best genre starting with third place, second place, first place? Sorry, mate.

55:44I've got to say, number one's going to be house music yeah that's that's where my heart is really because i started with house music back in 86 when house first come about 19 1986 um it was house music and that's what floated my boat then like big time i think me and all my mates were into like hip hop electro probably 86 probably electro and soul sort of the the last sort of bit of commercial soul that was coming through and yeah, house music so Marshall Jefferson and I know Marshall Jefferson as well not well but I know to say hello to, he's a nice fella yeah big into house music, I remember I actually remember actually going down to to John's house after Lyme's house after work one day and he's like I bought this record today, it's 1986 86 he's put it on it was movie Marshall Jefferson movie body and it just sounded so different there's something you know it was different from the soul thing but just that 4-4 kick and everything is like wow this is this is wicked this is great and um yeah so like I said before my windows of doing hardcore and and jungle and drum and bass and that were tiny compared to my whole span that you know my whole career and most of my career i've been playing house music so the biggest stuff was rave yeah you know and happy hardcore and stuff bigger on the on the grand scale but or back in the day it was so i still i'm still sort of um still known for that i still go to a lot of these clubs and they'll be oh matt play breakly free which is which is my biggest drum and bass tune i can't really play that in the you know in this environment but um yeah house so house music i would say second it's really tough actually so first or second so i'm a house dj but i'm a rave dj as well so i class sort of house and rave sort of all in one so i don't know would i go rave first actually it's house or rave first and second and then got to pick one yeah i'll say rave actually okay yeah because that for me encompasses house yeah but then second i'll go house very close pure house yeah very very close second and then third oh god um

58:21break beat okay i'll say break beat yeah that sort of covers a lot i'm sort of cheating but not but yeah, breakbeat, yeah. And if we talk about house music, give us your top three tracks of all time. God.

58:39Strings of Life.

58:45I'm not going to say any brand new ones.

58:52House. Yeah. Got to be House. Yeah.

58:59I'd say Movie Body it's one that still goes down there's a new mix of it as well actually a Salado mix which I prefer Salado coming on in fact coming on the podcast yeah two lads I'm not actually back I know a lot of people that know they're meant to be good

59:20third track Robin S Show Me Love Biggins yeah have you seen have you seen like over the 35 years you DJ has there been a period where you were at your peak of earnings what years were they um with music as well just just just you on the road it's funny actually because um a lot of people can't believe how little we got paid back in the day so doing that the dreamscapes and sort of through 92 93 94 dreamscapes and the hell of a skeleton we were only getting like 300 quid yeah a set we were playing to you know 4 or 5 thousand people yeah and getting like 3, 350 a set back then I mean luckily we were we were busy so if I was doing 5 gigs a week then that would have bad money back then um probably earn the most now I think okay yeah but I've sort of learnt a bit how to how to do it a bit better you know less gigs more money yeah not quite so young and naive I don't earn full tunes you know know DJ I'm not I'm not a super expensive DJ but um but I manage things a lot better as well yeah what's Carl Cox like he's a really nice fella yeah yeah I don't see much of him these days at all in fact the last time I bumped into him was probably seven or eight years ago I think I played after him actually it was a an old school event that someone had actually managed to get him to play.

1:00:50Yeah, it doesn't happen very often. I think it was Majika got him to play. I think he's like 20 years in the game or something and he got Cole to play. They used to go out together years before that I think. He's done well hasn't he? Cole, yeah. Jesus, he's done well. I mean I used to play alongside him all the time back in sort of early 90s right up to I think 94 he sort of ducked out of the hardcore thing. But he was quite hardcore as well. yeah um yeah i've been around his house a couple times and stuff we were yeah i'd say we were good we were sort of mates back in the day but yeah just don't see much these days but lovely fella yeah absolute diamonds yeah which promoters do you enjoy working with is there promoters you've been on your journey for the last god knows how many years are still about yeah i've sort of get class i've got close to a few um chris brown was always a good mate i don't know if you know chris He used to run the United Dance parties.

1:01:48He's looking after the Fish Octagon fella. Okay. He's coming on tomorrow. Yeah. Fish. Oh, right. Okay. Is it tomorrow? He's coming on or Wednesday? Yeah, he's coming on Wednesday. So he's manager. Oh, okay. So Chris used to travel everywhere with me back in the day. Like he is with Fish, I suppose. He'll probably come down with him, actually. Yeah, okay. And we had so much fun back in the day. I'd be for it. Lots of I'd be for stuff as well. Chris was over there. Should've got Chris on, you know, but he's got a good story. Oh. yeah he's got a ton of yeah yeah yeah yeah no Chris got a ton of stories yeah very very colorful yeah um where's he based out of London he's in Essex Essex yeah yeah yeah yeah um I was meant to have a mate I was meant to have a meetup with fish actually we've moved it just all got too busy yeah it never happened but um yeah it's a Chris Chris Renauty dance he used to come around everywhere with us and get into all sorts of trouble and stuff for a short period of time.

1:02:48Yeah, there's loads of decent promoters out there. Slammy Vinyl Boys were always good, very close with them. You know, your Skelters and Dreamscapes and things like that. Unfortunately, Murray passed away back in the day but I used to get on well with all of them really. There was a few There's a few that have got their issues, a few that are a bit tight, a bit stingy, for no real reason, you know, can be a bit of a pain in the arse. But I've sort of learned how to deal with them over the years. Yeah. You ever got yourself in any trouble? Not really. No, stayed clean the whole time, yeah? Yeah.

1:03:26I think the biggest trouble I got in was smoking a bit of puff when I was 16, before DJing. That was embarrassing, yeah. I thought I bought a fiver of weed off of some geezer and we went round to the youth club on our mopeds I was 16 and then right let's have a joint we just so stupid we sat on someone's front wall front garden wall and they went and phoned the old bill said oh look these two kids were outside rumbling up something looks like wacky backy and we got taken down the station they picked our mopeds up and then took us down the station and got I got a conditional discharge for that i can't believe it my mum had to go court and she thinks i was like so embarrassing i weren't really a bad boy when i was growing up you know i weren't the yeah i weren't the best but but um i was never too naughty but yeah that was embarrassing um yeah other than that i've always been a big drinker yeah okay um but then uh but then whilst working i've always been driving most most of the time so you know if i got a chance to to grab a hotel or something i normally end up pissed and go and break something.

1:04:36Yeah, I had a bit of reputation for that. Where can people find you, Matt? I've got my website, which is slipmat.net, which is all nicely up to date from my beautiful Rachel, who looks after it. And then my socials are pretty big. I've got over a couple hundred thousand on my Facebook. Yeah, I've seen that. Which is nice, yeah. All the different memes out and stuff. I thought I had a load of old shit on there. A load of old funny stuff. Oh, yeah. It's like... It's like hard fun, isn't it? You've got to enjoy yourself. Yeah. Get yourself in trouble now and again. Some people are so weird at the moment, aren't they?

1:05:12Yeah. They don't like stuff. But yeah. Yeah. Got my socials all popping nicely. Lovely. So, yeah. And you can always get a hold of me through the website. Yeah. I'm very approachable. Yeah. Fantastic. Matt, I love this, mate. A real nice conversation. Lovely. Yeah, I enjoyed it. It's great talking to you. Yeah, and you, mate? Yeah, wicked. Quality. you're a good man thank you cheers Matt take it easy mate thank you good man hi guys I really hope you enjoyed that as much as I did can you do us a favour and leave us a review as it massively helps us grow the show cheers guys