“I had to get the energy right, the bass had to be absolutely pounding, the place needed to be shaking, I had to have the harmony soaring out over the board.”
The night before his debut performance, Kelmscott’s 64-year-old DJ Bully only got two hours of sleep because he decided to change his mix at the last hour.
“I’d been up until 4am that morning tweaking my set,” he said.
“I spent six weeks having DJ lessons running up to the event, courtesy of Your Shot and I wasn’t happy with my 25-minute mix.
“I wanted to build momentum and keep it going and get everyone jumping and dancing and cheering.”
DJ Bully competed at The Court last weekend and said despite having a smaller afternoon crowd, his music got the party going.
“For the first five minutes I was terrified – absolutely terrified,” he said.
“It’s really nerve wracking – I had my first song playing, I’ve got my second song in just on time and then you’ve got to load in song three, get that one lined up, start blending that in perfectly and it doesn’t stop.
“Once I looked up and saw everyone was loving it, I was awake.
“I can’t remember anything that happened in the middle except that I was jumping up and down and running around.”
Despite being one himself, DJ Bully didn’t think the DJ should be the star of the night.
“Back in my day, you didn’t know what the DJ looked like or who it was.
“I think the DJ should be more like the conductor of an orchestra.
“I think nowadays, because DJs are more of a celebrity, it can take away from the idea of going dancing.
“What happens in a club is everyone ends up facing the DJ and watching the DJ, rather than just having a good time.”
He said it was an interesting paradox to want to be filmed and shared on social media but to dislike looking up and only seeing a sea of phones.
“It shows you’re worth publishing or recording.
“I want people to take images and post them but I don’t want phones in the air and no dancing.
“They can hold the phone up for a minute and then put it away.”
He said he was blown away by the support he got after his set.
“The great thing was I had young kids coming up to me all day, and the following day on the Sunday, fist pumping me going, ‘man, your set was so sick’.”
With his debut performance done and the rush of competition preparation out the way, DJ Bully said he was ready to take it easy.
“I’m taking it easy for the next week or two, winding down a bit from the buzz of it and also getting my real life back together.
“But I would love to get my first gig done and dusted where I can play for an hour or two and really see how the crowd go with my music and hopefully they’ll love it.”
