Hi Brian, Great video.😊 Interesting that you say most clubs had records. Here in the UK, I never came across a club with their own records. (I worked clubs from 1980-2005.) As a Dj you needed to bring all the music yourself (plus your own mic and headphones). You say you didn’t know how some DJ’s could afford some of the tunes they had. I used to limit my record spend to around one night’s wages, and each subsequent night was profit (I would work 2-4 nights a week). Each Thursday or Friday lunch break (from my 9-5 job) I would hit the local record store to listen to what was new in, and buy those I liked. Then on Saturday morning travel 2 hours to London to pick up the stuff I couldn’t get locally (like the latest imports from the US). My final note is that most of us couldn’t practice mixing at home (as we couldn’t afford the equipment). We could only build our mixing skills at the club, in front of the customers.😮 I didn’t get my first decks and mixer at home until I had been DJing for 5 years. (I still have those same Technics, and they still work perfectly after 40 years.)
I DJ every weekend with vinyl records at a country club playing only disco thru 80’s music. I’ve known the owner for years and It was a let’s try it out to see if we can get a crowd. Well it took off and I’ve been doing it now for 10 months. I’m having a great time and the owner is extremely happy with the older crowds that show up to have a good time.
Started with a pair of Numark turntables and a Radio Schack mixer. Those crates of albums and 45's were back breakers. And in Chicago you always had to go through the kitchen hallways in the hotels. The gymnasiums had raised stages and the kids during the high school dances would jump up and down to make the needle bounce and scratch just for fun!
Great video Brian! I still have my turntables and record collection, every once in a while I mess with them for nostalgic reasons. I really enjoy using both analog and digital music and gear. Salute 🫡
I started DJing my first paid job at a rollerskating rink in Florida, I was fortunate enough for them to have the 1200s turntables and all I did was beat mix. They had a professional Newmark mixer back then as well from there a lot of other clubs that I worked in also had the 1200s, I miss those days
I would add that the thing people take for granted now is INFORMATION. Put the issue with being able to afford equipment and music aside. You needed to know WHAT equipment to buy, HOW to scratch, HOW to mix, WHAT certain records were, etc. These were closely guarded secrets back then! There was no internet, no instructional videos, no "how to DJ" books, etc. This kind of knowledge was only gained if you (a) knew other DJs who would share their knowledge with you or (b) you spent hours and hours teaching yourself by ear with trial and error. It wasn't until the late 90s that you started to see internet resources, instructional videos, etc. So, I think you are being too hard on yourself as to the skill aspect. If you had the requisite knowledge in the 80s, you absolutely could have been mixing and scratching with the best of em. Most people who put in the practice will pick up those skills. Thanks for posting this. It's really great to get that perspective because, you're right, most people don't know how challenging it was way back when. The tools and resources available now are amazing and people should be thinking about how to push the envelope further now that the cost of admission is so low.
my friend has a big sound reinforcement system that can cater to thousands of people but his current dream is to own what you have there Technics SL 1200MK3 dual set, high quality battle mixer and tons of vinyls. He still has none of any of it but I'm rooting for him to acquire so I can practice vinyl mixing too, I am of the CDJ era so I'm very curious with vinyl and eager to learn. Already know the basics of vinyl mixing, beatmatching slowing down speeding up and manually counting bpm's ^_^
I remember records well queuing up the next song and turning the turntable back a turn or so to allow it to get up to speed, I never really mixed songs back then I just concentrated on not getting any silence between songs. I was a mobile DJ in the 1980's and carried 1,500 7" 45RPM single records plus 12" singles and albums, they weighed a ton !
I was lucky enough to be a member of the Dixie Dance Kings record pool which got me a ton of music every week. I just had to provide my feedback. I can remember going to meet the UPS guy in my town early in the day so I could BPM all my tracks that I got on Fridays so I could break them on Friday night at the club. Watching this video brought back a ton of memories of my early mixing days. We also had a cassette deck at the first club I worked at that I used to record my sets on. The only thing was it was old and the motor ran slow, which made all my cassettes playback too fast. Thanks for taking me down memory lane Brian.
My brother and I started in the mid 80s but our market was tough. We became tuntablists out of necessity. Even today we have Chris Villa and his brother Matt, Dj M2, Dj Akshun, Z-Trip just to name a few. All these guys are out of the Phoenix AZ market and it’s just so competitive it always has been. Great video Brian.
I came into DJing on the tail end of analogue. When I started, beyond ripping off your buddy’s tracks onto cassettes, you had store bought CDs or if you had a connection, a record pool membership. We used records as a medium to play audio from. Few of us actually mixed and if you beat mixed, you were golden, even if half the time, all you did was create the sound of galloping horses that devolved into a bunch of bouncing balls crashing. lol
I started DJing in 97 after HS and had about 6 credit cards that I maxed out at different stores here in Chicago. Lets just say those monthly fees were not pretty lol But would i do it again? ABSOLUTELY! plus i still have all my records. They are my children.
Nice t-shirt 👌🏻 Buylink? And great video 👏🏻 Learned to DJ on a pair of Technics SL-23 in ‘85, bought myself a pair of 1210s in ‘89 which I’ve been rocking records 😉 on ever since 🥰🥰…and they are now paired with a set of Denons SC6000Ms….with dem spinnin’ platters of course 😁
Vast majority of open format mobile guys simply radio fade mixed, we used radio shak mixer with BIC turntables. Hell at one point I was using a B&O "linear" tracking table. They called them crab walkers. If you were lucky you had a friend with some cool releases they'd lend you to help your library for a gig
I am agree, but you have to adapt with time like everything else. For a mobil Dj taking all that to every party was a pain in the ass. My opinion as Dj for more than 20years is to use your own style of working ... People appreciate that ... When you playng as you, thats original. Thx anyway for your great video's. 🙌
If you were huge in your market, you got picked up by a record pool where the record companies sent you promos... yes we were the ones that broke the hit's .. I have a room full of all the vinyl promos from the 80's all the way to 2000's .. The places I played we had the rane mixer and 4 technic MK 2 1200's
It was fun but my back appreciates the external hard drive now. I started in high school in 95.
Hi Brian, Great video.😊
Interesting that you say most clubs had records. Here in the UK, I never came across a club with their own records. (I worked clubs from 1980-2005.) As a Dj you needed to bring all the music yourself (plus your own mic and headphones).
You say you didn’t know how some DJ’s could afford some of the tunes they had. I used to limit my record spend to around one night’s wages, and each subsequent night was profit (I would work 2-4 nights a week). Each Thursday or Friday lunch break (from my 9-5 job) I would hit the local record store to listen to what was new in, and buy those I liked. Then on Saturday morning travel 2 hours to London to pick up the stuff I couldn’t get locally (like the latest imports from the US).
My final note is that most of us couldn’t practice mixing at home (as we couldn’t afford the equipment). We could only build our mixing skills at the club, in front of the customers.😮
I didn’t get my first decks and mixer at home until I had been DJing for 5 years. (I still have those same Technics, and they still work perfectly after 40 years.)
I DJ every weekend with vinyl records at a country club playing only disco thru 80’s music. I’ve known the owner for years and It was a let’s try it out to see if we can get a crowd. Well it took off and I’ve been doing it now for 10 months. I’m having a great time and the owner is extremely happy with the older crowds that show up to have a good time.
I started over 40 years ago. Records were fun, but challenging. I still have my original Techniqs 1200s
I find the old school DJ sets far more organic than modern sets. Definitely an art to DJ’ing before modern controllers.
Started with a pair of Numark turntables and a Radio Schack mixer. Those crates of albums and 45's were back breakers. And in Chicago you always had to go through the kitchen hallways in the hotels. The gymnasiums had raised stages and the kids during the high school dances would jump up and down to make the needle bounce and scratch just for fun!
Great video Brian! I still have my turntables and record collection, every once in a while I mess with them for nostalgic reasons. I really enjoy using both analog and digital music and gear. Salute 🫡
Great video! I always said I wasn't a serious DJ until I got my 1200's.
I started DJing my first paid job at a rollerskating rink in Florida, I was fortunate enough for them to have the 1200s turntables and all I did was beat mix. They had a professional Newmark mixer back then as well from there a lot of other clubs that I worked in also had the 1200s, I miss those days
Numark, a professional mixer..😂
Back in the day when Djing was a real skill.
I would add that the thing people take for granted now is INFORMATION. Put the issue with being able to afford equipment and music aside. You needed to know WHAT equipment to buy, HOW to scratch, HOW to mix, WHAT certain records were, etc. These were closely guarded secrets back then! There was no internet, no instructional videos, no "how to DJ" books, etc. This kind of knowledge was only gained if you (a) knew other DJs who would share their knowledge with you or (b) you spent hours and hours teaching yourself by ear with trial and error. It wasn't until the late 90s that you started to see internet resources, instructional videos, etc.
So, I think you are being too hard on yourself as to the skill aspect. If you had the requisite knowledge in the 80s, you absolutely could have been mixing and scratching with the best of em. Most people who put in the practice will pick up those skills.
Thanks for posting this. It's really great to get that perspective because, you're right, most people don't know how challenging it was way back when. The tools and resources available now are amazing and people should be thinking about how to push the envelope further now that the cost of admission is so low.
my friend has a big sound reinforcement system that can cater to thousands of people but his current dream is to own what you have there Technics SL 1200MK3 dual set, high quality battle mixer and tons of vinyls. He still has none of any of it but I'm rooting for him to acquire so I can practice vinyl mixing too, I am of the CDJ era so I'm very curious with vinyl and eager to learn. Already know the basics of vinyl mixing, beatmatching slowing down speeding up and manually counting bpm's ^_^
This was amazing, I had a feeling of what it was like, but not the specifics
I remember records well queuing up the next song and turning the turntable back a turn or so to allow it to get up to speed, I never really mixed songs back then I just concentrated on not getting any silence between songs.
I was a mobile DJ in the 1980's and carried 1,500 7" 45RPM single records plus 12" singles and albums, they weighed a ton !
This is a great video! I love that you brought some reality to the conversation. A lot of people look back on those days with rose colored lenses.
I started in 1985, my buddy had 2 mis-matched tables, he scratched using cut out cereal boxes slipmats. I just blended hi energy and New Wave 😂
This is how I started even though they inspired me I started out with Gemini decks cheap djq1200's and a Gemini mx2200
I was lucky enough to be a member of the Dixie Dance Kings record pool which got me a ton of music every week. I just had to provide my feedback. I can remember going to meet the UPS guy in my town early in the day so I could BPM all my tracks that I got on Fridays so I could break them on Friday night at the club. Watching this video brought back a ton of memories of my early mixing days. We also had a cassette deck at the first club I worked at that I used to record my sets on. The only thing was it was old and the motor ran slow, which made all my cassettes playback too fast. Thanks for taking me down memory lane Brian.
My brother and I started in the mid 80s but our market was tough. We became tuntablists out of necessity. Even today we have Chris Villa and his brother Matt, Dj M2, Dj Akshun, Z-Trip just to name a few. All these guys are out of the Phoenix AZ market and it’s just so competitive it always has been. Great video Brian.
They don't know they're born today...... lol. What I remember most is the weight of those records!
I came into DJing on the tail end of analogue. When I started, beyond ripping off your buddy’s tracks onto cassettes, you had store bought CDs or if you had a connection, a record pool membership. We used records as a medium to play audio from. Few of us actually mixed and if you beat mixed, you were golden, even if half the time, all you did was create the sound of galloping horses that devolved into a bunch of bouncing balls crashing. lol
I started with twin citronic dj system, two decks and a built in amp
I started DJing in 97 after HS and had about 6 credit cards that I maxed out at different stores here in Chicago. Lets just say those monthly fees were not pretty lol But would i do it again? ABSOLUTELY! plus i still have all my records. They are my children.
We also said records also, but we also said 45’s or Album
33s or 45s in my case. We were always hunting them or selling duplicates.
Nice to see a couple of white labels on the decks that takes me back.
Nice t-shirt 👌🏻 Buylink? And great video 👏🏻 Learned to DJ on a pair of Technics SL-23 in ‘85, bought myself a pair of 1210s in ‘89 which I’ve been rocking records 😉 on ever since 🥰🥰…and they are now paired with a set of Denons SC6000Ms….with dem spinnin’ platters of course 😁
That was one of the Promo Only shirts 5 or 6 years ago
YES, awesome video Brian!! Thank you.
Great video, and I love your setup there!!
I was a poor DJ with Pioneer turn tables, for many years. I still have them, but I love CD's and MP3s more.
Vast majority of open format mobile guys simply radio fade mixed, we used radio shak mixer with BIC turntables. Hell at one point I was using a B&O "linear" tracking table. They called them crab walkers. If you were lucky you had a friend with some cool releases they'd lend you to help your library for a gig
Technic 1200 MK II !! ALOT of "cue burn" remember that? and buying D4...I miss those days so much...
Love your videos can you tell us more stories about the old days!
Even back then our needles Trackmaster or Concord were $100 each
Stanton 680ELs for me. lol
Stanton 500 were the standard in clubs, and I dreamed of owning some 680s. (Which I did eventually get.)
I am agree, but you have to adapt with time like everything else. For a mobil Dj taking all that to every party was a pain in the ass. My opinion as Dj for more than 20years is to use your own style of working ... People appreciate that ... When you playng as you, thats original.
Thx anyway for your great video's. 🙌
If you were huge in your market, you got picked up by a record pool where the record companies sent you promos... yes we were the ones that broke the hit's .. I have a room full of all the vinyl promos from the 80's all the way to 2000's .. The places I played we had the rane mixer and 4 technic MK 2 1200's
Great video… fat boy slim only got hired due to the fact he had a great record collection like a stamp or antiques
I have some techniques cuff links for you. Very rare