Danny Slade DJ Profile

Danny Slade is one of the UK’s true pioneers of dance music. From his early days of putting on free parties in the late 80’s through to today, he has dedicated his life to music. His first forays into the world of DJing were when he bought a set of decks for £200 to put on a club night, and had a go with his friends’ records for a laugh. Six months later he was playing at his first paid gig, and he hasn’t looked back since. To list all of the clubs he has played at over the last fifteen years would be impossible. A few of the better known nights that have witnessed his near-legendary sound are: Gatecrasher, Sheffield; Ministry of Sound, London; Slinky, Bristol and Bournemouth; Cream Arena tours; Peach, London; Passion, Coalville; Lush, Northern Ireland and Es Paradis, Ibiza.

Not content with his work in clubs, Danny has also lent his skills and knowledge to a number of radio stations. He hosted his own national dance show on BBC Radio Wales for a year and a half, for which he was dubbed ‘The Welsh Pete Tong’ by the national dance music press. This also lead on to work for Radio 1, both DJing for them at the first Radio 1 Dance Party of the new Millennium to over 25,000 people, and holding DJ master-classes as part of “One Live” in Cardiff.

All of his hard work and dedication over the years has not gone un-noticed. At the first ever Welsh Music Awards in December 2001 he scooped the award of ‘Nation’s Best Trance DJ’. At last year’s awards he won the same award again, and also scooped the most prestigious award of the night for Outstanding Contribution to Dance Music. This year he beat off stiff competition and was voted as ‘Best DJ in Wales’.

He has also had his fair share of media coverage on many TV and Radio programmes and the national dance press regularly sing his praises. His connection with the media does not stop there as Danny also turns his hand to a spot of writing, and in the past has written for ‘DJ Magazine’, ‘Club On’, and numerous other smaller dance music related publications. At present he writes record reviews for ‘IDJ Magazine’.

Although things change fast in Club-land, one constant was his involvement at Escape. Danny was resident at ‘Escape’, Swansea, and at all ‘Escape’ events and tour nights since it first opened its doors in 1995. He also booked all of the artists for ‘Escape into the Park’, Wales’ only dance festival, up until its sixth year. He was also head of promotions, which kept Escape ‘up there’ as one of the UK’s most successful and revered dance nights. With Danny as resident DJ, in charge of music programming and guest DJ bookings, Escape did not gone un-noticed. Last year they picked up the award for ‘Best Night’ and ‘Best Venue’ at the Welsh Music Awards and they also won awards for ‘Best Special Event’ for their festival ‘Escape into the Park’ for the two previous years running. Last year it was also picked as the ‘Best Trance Night in the UK’ and the seventh ‘Best Club in the UK’ in ‘Mixmag’, the Worlds leading dance publication, and they have just picked up the award for ‘Best Club in Wales’. As they say though, ‘all things come to an end’, and after much soul searching Danny left Escape at the end of last year to set up Klub Kaos in Swansea. Danny was again the brains behind the project and all of the radical innovations featured at the venue. Sadly due to problems with the local authorities the venue was closed down in August 2006.

He is at the moment, resident DJ at ‘Rebirth’, which is a monthly night held in Swansea and plays guest spots at various events, but due to a bad car crash earlier in 2006, he is keeping a low profile while he recovers. He will be throwing himself with full force back into the scene in 2008, so watch the mayhem commence! DJ style-wise, Danny is probably best known for his award winning Hard Trance sets. It is worth noting though that he can play many styles as he has an extensive and varied background in music. He is just as happy playing warm up and main slots and can play many different varieties of dance music. From his first indulgences as a bassist in a punk band through to his life-long love of many musical genres, Danny draws on his vast knowledge to put together DJ sets that are always energetic, upfront and full of class.