PETE TONG

Will Simpson discovers how Pete Tong’s still riding high when other DJs are long gone…

No scene moves faster than dance music – one year, you could be the toast of your peers, and merely toast the next. So what does it take to stay at electronic music’s top table for over a quarter of a century?

DJ Pete Tong first rose to prominence on the early 1980s soul scene, before his head was turned by acid house. Since joining Radio 1 in 1991, he’s been a fixture on its Friday evening schedules, spending 15 years helming the Essential Selection, which signalled the start of the weekend for several generations of clubbers.

Apart from his radio career, Pete’s never stopped working as a club DJ and most of his weekends are still taken up playing around the UK and beyond. Quietly, imperceptibly, he’s become something of a national institution: Britain’s most recognisable DJ and, arguably, dance music’s foremost tastemaker.

Indeed, Pete’s name has become so deeply ingrained in popular culture that it’s been absorbed into cockney rhyming slang. There was even a comedy movie, It’s All Gone Pete Tong, released in 2004, which the man himself found time to grace with a cameo appearance.

“I think part of it is down to being a fidget,” Pete says, regarding his relentless schedule. “I’ve never lost my sense of curiosity or desire to check out new stuff. There’s also a certain amount of humility and an ability to champion new talent. If it had always just been about me, I would have burnt out a long time ago.” Although he downplays it, Pete’s ability to move with the times andembrace new technology has played an important role in his lengthy career.

“Well, I wouldn’t say it’s essential,” he shrugs. “I mean, if you have talent you can work with anything and make a good noise. Having said that, it’s been a big part of my reinvention and evolution. The stuff that’s come on the market recently has been very energising for me. I’m like a kid again!”

DJ technology has evolved swiftly over the past few years. It wasn’t so long ago that such top flight spinners as Pete were still hauling bulky crates of vinyl between clubs. Many moved over to using CDs mixers around the turn of the millennium, and computer software like Ableton Live means that DJs can now mix and sequence MP3s by just clicking a mouse.

The newest addition to Pete’s DJ armoury is the Korg Zero 8 eight channel mixer, which he picked up at the beginning of the summer.

“I was looking for a new controller for Ableton Live,” he explains, “and I wanted one that felt more like a real DJ mixer and also gave me more options.

“I use it as a midi controller, plugged into an external sound card. It’s been a revelation. The faders and pots are much more like a real mixer and I have eight channels to play with so we’ve also started interacting with club lights and visuals. It’s very versatile and looks great!”

Pete spent a lot of this summer in Ibiza, at his new club night, Wonderland. Happily, the Zero 8 passed passed the Balearic season with flying colours.

“As a MIDI controller in the DJ booth it’s very, very solid,” he says. “The only drawback is that I wish it had more clip buttons. But I’ve adapted the way I use it live to get around that.”

Pete already uses Korg’s Kaossilator dynamic phrase synthesiser and KAOSS Pad 2 sampler/midi controller, and says he could well invest in more Korg technology in the future. However, Pete’s always considered practicality to be the most important criteria when it comes to buying new gear.

“I’m not a gear hoarder as such,” he explains. “Most of the people I admire, in terms of production, started out mastering a very few things and I like that ethic. Functionality and being able to get a vibe going quickly are the most important things for me. I don’t have the patience for fiddling.”

With decks and vinyl becoming an increasingly rare sight in 21st century clubs, dance music is already speeding into a digital future.

“As far as technology is concerned the possibilities are limitless,”

Pete opines. “Electronic music has embraced the web and new technology like no other scene and that gives it the edge, in my opinion. Things are moving really fast right now.”

Then again, hasn’t it always? Trends have come and gone over the last 25 years – big beat, speed garage, hard house and electroclash have all had their time in the sun, only to be quickly forgotten – but it’s the technology that has always driven the music forwards.

Whatever the future holds for the dance scene, it seems likely that the mercurial Pete Tong will be at its forefront for a good while yet.