Freaky Dancing presents PIRATES OF THE TOON, 6th B'day with CAPTAIN BILLY NASTY 25/01

Freaky Dancing presents PIRATES OF THE TOON, 6th B'day with CAPTAIN BILLY NASTY 25/01

I'm trying to figure out how we can have a thing for people to walk the plank...

billy nasty's been mint everytime ive seen him like !!!!

Bastard! That looks mint but I think Im down Manchester for Kiddfectious

yeah, I think his set last time was quite possibly my favourite freaky set of last year.

Not sure how well he's gonna be able to play with his captains hat on mind

good point, will have to see if we can get some rum special offers on the bar

think il be attending this like looks good fun!

think many people will turn up in fancy dress??

I reckon there'll be a fair few in fancy dress, we usually get a decent amount of dresser uppers, and all our crew will be pirated up (or they won't be playing)

Freaky Dancing interviews Billy Nasty ahead of his headline set at Freaky Dancing’s 6th Birthday party




A brief introduction to Billy Nasty

Billy Nasty has long been surfing dance music's vanguard. He has a passion for quality dance music but also realises the importance of a party, of a packed room where everyone's letting rip. His career consists of three vibrant stages. The third is just beginning and Billy is primed, mischievous as ever, ready to go.

STAGE 3: Now based in Brighton, but with dates immediately forthcoming all over the world, Billy's keen to make his presence felt at home in the UK. We live in exciting times for electronic music and Nasty's regular performances at Fabric reminded him lately of his ever-changing role. 'Fabric know I can come up with a valid contemporary angle,' he explains, 'I play techno, minimal and electro but I'm at my happiest fluctuating between styles, a million miles away from that bang-bang unforgiving techno'.

Indeed, Billy's sophisticated recent single with Gregor Tresher, 'The Mad Real World', was Electro Single of the Month in Mixmag, referred to as the future of electro. He's also been hooking up with fresh Serbian talent Marko Nastic and releases his debut under his own name, 'Imperfections', on Datapunk, label of electro kingpin Anthony Rother who Billy tours with when he plays live. From Alkan to Vath, electro is now club land's cutting edge and it's a sound Billy knows backwards.

'Its time,' he points out, 'for the more open-minded DJs of my generation to evolve'.

STAGE 1: Nasty crash-landed in the post-acid house scene, starting the Exploding Plastic Inevitable at The Brain with fellow enthusiast Steve Bicknell. The club was a success and its mix of flavours can still be sampled on Billy's seminal 'Journeys By DJ Vol.1', the Guinness Book Of Records-listed first commercially released mix album. Before long Billy was at the forefront of the progressive scene, one of the hottest DJs in London who also produced and remixed as Shi-Take and Vinyl Blair.

STAGE 2: Wanting to showcase the new sounds of techno Billy started the Theremin agency in 1995, introducing a roster of European talent (Adam Beyer, Marco Carola, Umek, etc) to a wider audience. He established himself as a leading proponent of harder-edged techno, releasing mix CD 'Race Data' and setting up the Tortured label which became a go-to imprint for the likes of Dave Clarke and Laurent Garnier. Its success was matched by Open To Torture nights in London and the US. The new millennium saw Billy's love of electro represented by his new label Electrix which released critically acclaimed albums by the likes of Transparent Sound, The Advent and Sons of Slough. Billy's DJing, meanwhile, had gone convincingly global.

STAGE 3 AGAIN: Nasty is a musical wanderer by nature and became frustrated by the time spent administrating his labels and DJ agency. Electrix was releasing tracks by the likes of Carl Finlow, Mr Velcro Fastener and Phil Kieran that anticipated the way the dance scene was heading, but Billy wanted to get back into the frontline, producing and DJing. Thus he withdrew from Theremin and has now begun to wind down all the labels. He's out there with one foot in the future whilst retaining the lessons of his lively history, playing the most futuristic sounds - but on vinyl.

'I love vinyl's history as the centre of music culture,' he admits, 'Like the old battle between analogue and digital, there'll always be a place for vinyl'. He gestures across his flat at the racks of 12's waiting to be transported, slapped on decks to cause typical Nasty havoc on the dancefloor.

Dance music is back on the up'n'up in 2008 and so, it appears, is the irrepressible Billy Nasty.

***

The Interview

FD> Hi Billy, how’s life mate?

BN> everything's all good at the moment apart from the weather I guess? I've been living in Amsterdam for the last 6 months and really enjoying myself as most visitors here do.


FD> Do you realize you were the first proper ‘big name’ guest to play at Freaky Dancing nearly 5 years ago?

BN> no I didn't realize that at the time but now i know its all the more flattering that I'm now going to play at the 6th birthday party. It seems Freaky Dancings's come full circle and I've always fancied myself as a swashbuckling pirate. ha ha


FD> What are your memories of that night, and did you think you’d still be playing for us 5 years later?

BN> To tell you the truth I have problems remembering where I was last week leave alone remembering 5 years ago, although saying that I remember it was in an a college hall like venue and sitting up all night afterward's having a laugh n a drink in the hotel room.


FD> Thinking about it I can’t remember much about the night either, other than it being pretty rammed. OK, you’ve been producing quite a bit of your own music again over the last year or so, did you suddenly get the itch again or is this part of some BN master plan to reconquer the techno world?

BN> no, I guess now the labels have wound down and I have more free time on my hands it seemed like a good thing to get back on. I now record with my German friend n well respected dj/producer Gregor Tresher who I travel to Worms in Germany and work in his studio n stay with 3/4 times a year.


FD> Have you any plans to put together a live set with all this new material?

BN> I see myself as a DJ first n foremost and I don't like the way some people feel that its less of an achievement to DJ than performing live but again me n Gregor have spoke about it as he's currently really busy playing live and his live set includes a few of the trax we've wrote together, which is great.


FD> Other than Freaky Dancing, what gigs are you looking forward to this year?

BN> Obviously I can’t wait to return to the Toon but I’m really looking forward to this years Bloc weekend as last years was the highlight of last year for me. I also love playing at Fabric in London and Various DJ based Festivals in Holland.



FD> Yeah BLOC was class, hopefully we’ll be there again ourselves this year.

FD> You’ve been around since the early days of the techno scene, how does today’s techno scene rate compared to the early days?

BN> I think that the techno scene is constantly evolving as it always had and should, the only thing that saddens me is the demise of the record, record shop n record label... I remember fondly the good ol days when djz played records and you could smoke yourselves silly in the DJ booth.


FD> And more importantly are you still enjoying djing after all these years?

BN> Without a doubt its the 1 of best thing's in the world, it’s up there with sex, drugs n rock n roll. I never want to stop although one day I guess I’ll have to but I don't want to think to much about that?


FD> How do the Geordie techno crowd rate compared to other crowds round the world?

BN> I find the Geordie approach to clubbing is similar to how they are with there football ...absolutely fanatical .... which I think is Brilliant..


FD> So, have you got your pirate fancy dress costume ready, and what have you got in store for us for our 6^th Birthday?

BN> You’re going to have to wait n see?


FD> Cheers Billy, it’s been a pleasure as always. Looking forward to partying with you again on the 25th.

BN> Me too fella cant wait to return for I might even play friggin in the riggin, you never know??


www.myspace.com/djbillynasty
www.myspace.com/clubfreakydancing

you coming then?

just had an odd phone call from someone checking about an email going round saying this is an erotic themed fancy dress freaky... fuck knows how someone mistook pirate for erotic

fsj is still in house on the promotion team aye???

eh?

advance tickets are now available for £7 + bf at Skiddle >clicky< if anyone wants to save a couple of quid off the standard price (it's still cheaper to just turn up in fancy dress )

tickets and info for the next couple of freaky dancing's are also online on skiddle now.