When over a thousand people turned up to see Tony De Vit and Tall Paul at the Ormond Centre last month, I wondered why it had taken so long for Irish promoters to realise that these were the style of DJs the majority of Irish clubbers wanted to hear. That the venue experienced the most euphoric atmosphere since it opened nearly three years ago was no surprise to me; the heightened enthusiasm and elation among the crowd was like experiencing the birth of the rave scene again.
600 different clubbers turned up at System for the same line-up the following evening how many others could attract such large crowds two nights running in the same town? The ten-minute standing ovation at the end of the night said it all.
Both shows illustrated clearly why Tony De Vit is one of the world s greatest DJs. At the Ormond, Tall Paul turned in what many were calling one of the best sets Dublin had ever seen . It was going to take an almighty performance from De Vit to take things to a higher level, but he did so with consummate ease.
Some of the bedroom mixers in the crowd were taken aback when the Trade resident took things down for the first half an hour of his set. Tony smiles: People don t realise there s nothing worse than playing anthem after anthem after anthem. If that s what you had to do, I wouldn t do the job, there would be no point. If I have to take it down after Paul to get where I want to go, then I ll do it. There s no point in just going through the roof and keeping it there, it s so predictable. I don t mind people saying you were a bit hard or you were quite slow tonight ,but if they ever said I was predictable I d have to think again about what I was doing.
Unlike Tall Paul s crowd-pleasing formula, De Vit s style is straight from the underground. He cleverly builds his sets with the precision and craft associated with the Nastys, Weatheralls and Emersons of this world. As he explains: There are three things to being a DJ. The records you play, your programming how you put them together and the way they are mixed and your personality. Your personality does come across through your set, and every DJ should be striving to be totally different to everybody else. Programming and set-building are things a lot of DJs don t place enough importance on. Think of the tunes you want to play, the ones you ve got to play and how you re going to put them all together.
Tony s approach stems from the experience gained playing in smaller clubs for many years. I came from the underground scene in Birmingham and had been doing that for a long time and was quite happy. The scene itself was very underground then and I really enjoyed it. I had a daytime job as a computer programmer and DJing was just something I enjoyed doing on the side. It s only in the last three or four years that I made a conscious decision to go, not mainstream, but into the mainstream circuit. In a way my career has mirrored the house scene in the UK. As it got bigger, so did I.
His style is now more uncompromising than ever. When you get well known you can play a lot more stuff that you really like playing and perhaps wouldn t get away with if you were an unknown. People accept what you do much more when you re an established name.
Tony scored two top 40 hits back in 1994, launching a production career that has seen him become one of the industry s most in-demand remixers. The studio work is central to being a DJ, and how you succeed in that field comes back to your DJing. Being a DJ is like the live side of your production work, and if you re a good DJ your studio work will reflect that. You re out there week after week and you get inspiration for new ideas and you also get the opportunity to test those new ideas quite quickly. If you go and lock yourself in a studio and stop doing clubs, you lose touch because everything changes so fast.
With two successful careers based on the same sound and style, it s no surprise that many have tried to copy his unique trademarks.
There are other DJs now on the same trip as me, so I ve had to take it up a level to the next stage to keep in front. That s what it s all about for me, being ahead of the pack. I ve always wanted to play tunes before anybody else. If you re an underground DJ you re there to break new music for other DJs to hear and start playing. It s the same in the studio, we re always looking for new ideas and new sounds and if others copy them we know we re doing something right.
It s very pleasing when a major record company asks you to remix for East 17 or Michelle Gayle because they believe a De Vit mix will be huge in the clubs. It s as if they re saying to you Tony, what you re doing is right . Because my production and DJing styles are so intertwined, every time they look for a mix it s like a validation of everything you re doing.
The TdV sound is not everyone s cup of tea, but no-one would argue about his unrivalled skills in the mix. The best compliment is when a fellow DJ comes up and says your set really inspired me to go out and do a set, even if they re not into your music. I ve said to many other DJs that I m not into their music but I respect what they do and the professional way they do it. It s all to do with attitude, and you re right, you can tell by just talking to a DJ whether they know what they re doing and whether they re any good.
With every promoter in Ireland now seeking his services, De Vit should be a regular attraction in Irish clubs for years to come. Although he s been spinning for nearly 20 years, he is a complete professional with more passion and enthusiasm than many beginners.
You can tell if a DJ is really into what he s doing or if he s just doing it for a job. I try and make every set the best I ve ever done and I think that comes across. n