In 1988 Steve opened a record shop in the ‘Corn Exchange’ in Leeds called ‘The Listening Booth’, so called because it had booths where customers could listen their music before buying. Although Steve was DJing Funk, R&B and Hip-Hop, he was selling quite a different music in his shop, House and Rave, Quite fortunate really, as also in 1989 Paul Lamont told Steve that he didn’t want the club to play Funk and R&B anymore, and that he wanted it to be a Rave club. Steve was in good stead to fulfil the role of a Rave DJ with the music that he sold in his shop. The week after being told, Steve turned into a ‘Rave’ DJ. The rest is history.
After 3 years of packing in the crowds, the 'The Gallery' was voted 2nd best venue in Europe by ‘Mixmag’ an international music magazine. The club went from strength to strength until the sad and untimely demise of Paul. The club was handed down to Paul’s brother Chris and Chris’s wife. The club could not be run by the couple in the same way as it was when Paul was in charge, and soon got into severe financial difficulty.
Help was procured by Leeds club owner ‘Peter Riley’ and club promoter legend ‘Dave Beer’. The new owners wanted to run the club their way and told Steve that there was no room for the type of music he played, so one of the most famous nights in Europe had to finish.
This was in the year of 1994 and this was a bad year for Steve, as not only did the Gallery close, but his record shop did too, and the radio station that Steve played on, the infamous ‘Dream FM’, stopped broadcasting too.
Steve had a well deserved rest for a couple of years running his new shops ‘Racks of Wax’ and 'Choonz Worldwide’, until they too closed due to change in trends of media i.e. downloads and CDs.
The resurgence in Steve’s DJ career was when the tunes that he used to play at the Gallery, became popular again, and Steve was back in charge. Steve now plays at venues in and around the UK, not only playing Rave, but also playing the music that he loved when he first started to DJ, Northern Soul.
Comment
(Leeds Corn Exchange) 92/94 (Dj’s Tony Walker, Rob Tessera, Tim From Utah Saints all worked in there in the 90’s.
Wezza OG (2022)
Steve has managed to re-collect most of the Northern Soul tunes that he originally had and enjoys playing them out as much as he ever did.
Steve is now one of the oldest mixing/club DJs in the UK at 61 years young, and is very proud of the fact too. He has spent 41 years of his life doing a job that he loves doing, pleasing the crowds, and crowds still support him wherever he plays.