The Dale Winton of banging house

Over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp our latest "exhibit" features the legendary Laurence Malice and his notorious gay nightclub 'Trade'.


Laurence Malice with curator Anne Marie Garbutt in front of the tribute to Tony De Vit at Islington Museum

I was pleased to be invited on Thursday to attend the preview/launch of a new exhibition Trade - often copied, never equalled at Islington Museum, celebrating 25 years since the "mother of all super-clubs" opened its doors - which coincides with the club's very last ever outing next week. One of its centrepieces is a tribute to one of the individuals without whom 'Trade' would not have been so successful...

Among the hordes of DJs who graced the decks of 'Trade', one name stands out above all others - that of Tony De Vit, a man for whose innovative mixes and ineffable ability to whip a dancefloor into a frenzy many who followed in his wake have paid due homage. After his death, Carl Cox dedicated a DJ award he was given to Tony as a tribute.

Famously described as "the Michael Barrymore of techno, the Dale Winton of banging house" (for his perma-tan and his self-deprecating wit), Mr De Vit (pronounced "de vee") in his day was ranked 5th in DJ magazine’s "Top 100 DJs In The World", 2nd in Mixmag’s "Best DJ Of The Year 1996", "Best New DJ" in Muzik magazine, "Dance DJ Of The Year" at the Molsen BEDA Awards and "Best DJ" at the International Music Awards. He also earned Music Week’s vote for "The Groundbreaking Mix of 1996" with his remix of Louise’s Naked.

And so, in keeping with today's "all things 'Trade'" theme, here are just a few of Mr De Vit's finest moments:

Louise - Naked (Tony De Vit remix)

99th Floor Elevators - Hooked (Tony De Vit Radio Edit)

S-Express - Theme From S-Express (Tony De Vit 7 Inch Mix)

RIP Tony De Vit (12th September 1957 – 2nd July 1998).

Read an interview with Tony De Vit in the 90s.

The exhibition Trade - often copied, never equalled is at Islington Museum until Saturday 16th January 2016.

It's about fun, it's about joy

Connections, connections... Yesterday I featured the sublime sound of Rose Royce Is It Love You're After. Today it is the turn of the man who revived, rejuvenated and relaunched that classic (or parts thereof) on the eager masses in a new form.

Many happy returns today to the dance music pioneer and DJ Mark Moore!

From his early beginnings as an acolyte of the early 80s post-Disco, post-New Romantic world of Philip Sallon's Mud Club and underground gay Italo-Disco, Mr Moore's quirky DJ style got him noticed by the mega-club Heaven, at the time the epicentre of the (mainly gay) dance music scene in London.

His love of the experimental, the new and the unusual led him to feature in his set some of the underground sounds emerging from New York and Chicago at the time, music that heavily sampled disco riffs and merged them with more modern clips - "Yeah, you know - House!". His "Pyramid" nights at Heaven were the first in the UK to play house music, and the venue attracted the likes of the Pet Shop Boys, Danny Rampling, the Shamen's Mr C, Pete Tong, Paul Oakenfold and even Liza Minnelli!

Mr Moore, inevitably, did not leave it there, and in his hands the house sound - merged with the classier end of the European electronic genre - created a launch-pad for the style of dance music we know and love today.

To celebrate his birthday, I have found a fabulous and fascinating interview with Mr Moore by the esteemed music journalist Paul Morley:

Paul Morley talks to S'Express producer Mark Moore

And, of course, here's his ground-breaking magnum opus (for which we are eternally grateful) - Theme From S-Express. Happy birthday to one of the greats...

S'Express - Theme From S-Express

Mark Moore and S-Express website

Enjoy this trip, and it is a trip

Unbelievably, it is twenty years since the world of acid house was rocked by the talents of Mark Moore, and The Theme from S-Express was at number 1!

I feel old.

S'Express - Theme from S'Express