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My DJ career started back in 1978 when my elder brother,
who was quite well known as a local DJ, asked me to cover
a children’s party. It turned out to be more of a
mix of adults than children and I had to adapt fast. As
he was helping someone else that night he lent me his entire
record collection. And so, at the tender age of 13 armed
with a comprehensive selection of music I made my first
public performance. It was a steep learning curve, with
people asking for records I had never heard of. However
by doing a frantic search I was able to play much of the
requested music. By mistake
I played a few b sides and at least twice got the record
speed wrong. That night was a baptism of fire, but it gave
me a confidence to develop an interest in being a DJ. After
this I was sometimes allowed to tag along with my brother
or his other DJ friends and I picked up many tricks of the
trade. In about November 1980 I had the most toe cringing
DJ experience ever, so embarrassing I can only retell the
moment on a separate webpage (
Jim’s embarrassing DJ moments).
It wasn’t until 1981 and with the help of a friend,
Shaun James I set up my own Mobile disco. At this time I
was still at school and we had to rely on local taxi firms
to get all the equipment to gigs. Once when we couldn’t
hire a taxi we got the gear to the venue via tube train
and a shopping trolley. We called ourselves sound affex
Mobile discos, and we were rubbish. By 1984 Shaun and I
had gone our separate ways but I had passed my driving test,
got a big van and was able to seriously expand. At that
time disco equipment was generally less sophisticated than
it is now, but I wanted to create a wow factor on first
sight. I acquired a bigger light show; and re-branded sound
affex into special effects mobile disco. I acquired as much
music from every style I could, as I realized that this
is the real key to being a good DJ.
Me and Shaun, doing an office party back
in 1982, Shaun's the one in the silly hat. Shaun has now
gained fame as the internationally famous and brilliant
artiste Shaun Nielsen James.
Towards the end of the mid eighties I started organising
river boat parties. I never made any money but riverboat
parties were always a great laugh. We have some video of
one of these parties somewhere and we will add a clip to
this site, the hair styles were amazing. About then I met
my wife Cathy, normally for our clients Cathy is the first
point of contact, she makes sure everything goes to plan
and that I don't turn up on the wrong day or at the wrong
venue (trust me, DJ's giving the "sorry I got the dates
wrong" excuse is used more often than you might think.)
Cathy makes sure the whole thing runs like clockwork.
Me and Cathy back in about 1988
(I've got a bit less hair and have a bit
more skin filling since then)
It takes years to build up a good collection of music but
in 1990 and after spending thousands of pounds and countless
hours in the record stores of north London I decided to
start all over again and switch to cds. This process took
some time to complete and for several years used both cds
and good old fashioned vinyl. I had custom built a record
deck using two Technics 1200 turntables. Now one Technics
1200 is a very heavy thing but two, built into a study flight
case with mixer, 32 band graphic equalizer, and power supply
unit weighed nearly 180 pounds. It was relief to decommission
that monster. The last dj to play a tune on my Technics
was radio DJ and TV presenter Neil Fox on December 31st
1999, live on GMTV. They were doing a piece on dads doing
dodgy disco dancing at millennium parties and wanted some
retro kit to go with it. Strange why they thought of me.
Today the only time my old technics and the rest of the
retro kit come's out of storage are for film and tv work
which is always great fun.
When CD's took over it was time for another re brand. I
switched the name to Krunch (no mobile disco bit,
just krunch) I suppose it was trying to reflect a more modern
approach to mobile discos, a name that
was minimalist but delivered maximum impact, seems a bit
naff now. On reflection perhaps this was a tad confusing
so in about 1993 I added the tag professional mobile disco.
Later the fessional bit was dropped I.e. Krunch Pro Mobile
Disco and then the Krunch bit was also dropped, well its
one less thing to write. Finally I acquired a new Pro Mobile
Disco domain name, and that leads us to these web pages
today.
It’s approaching 30 years since my first DJ experience
and I’ve learnt a lot and had more than my fair share
of embarrassing DJ moments since those early days. I have
since performed for thousands of people, at numerous weddings,
birthday parties, corporate functions, theme nights and
on live TV, but one of my most fondly remembered is that
first party back when I was 13. Even if I won the lottery
I will still be behind the decks when I’m in my 90’s,
so there plenty of time to book me for your next party.
Cheers.
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