Discover why Clapham is the place to Get FunKT!
By admin on Jul 1, 2008 in DJs and Producers, Events
Get FunKT is the name on everyone’s lips in Clapham! Every month the Get FunKT boys deliver a night of electro and tech house to Inigo Bar, and they keep the crowd rocking all through the night, dancing on the tables and generally having a great time! Freshly FunKT, the sister party,, is a new night that is planned to run every 6 weeks at Gigalum, with the first party stirring up a storm last month.
We at London Club City manage to catch a few minutes with Andy Collings, the promoter behind the nights, to find out what these events are all about and why you should get down to the night!
The following is a transcript of selected questions within the interview. To hear the full interview, please download the audio file using the “Quick links” box at the top right of this page.
Andy, the Get FunKT nights, started out in Kingston before they moved onto Clapham. When did they start and how did they come about?
It’s 3 years ago now. Because I DJ myself, I wanted a platform to promote myself initially, and I had always wanted to run a boat party. I’d never seen one run from Kingston-Upon-Thames, there were plenty of people around there, so I thought I’d book a boat and run my own. It all really stemmed from there.
When did you first get into DJ’ing?
It was a long, long time ago actually. I’m in excess of 40 now, it was back in the days when I used to go to a youth club in a little Cornish village, in deepest, darkest Cornwall. I essentially started as a youth club DJ and would go to Woolworths on a Friday afternoon and buy the top 10, take it down to the youth club and play the tracks. There was no mixing involved at this point, I’d never even heard of mixing at that age. From there, a Dj was booked every fortnight to come and play, so I started playing on the same night as that guy, and he took me on as an apprentice going around doing weddings and the like. So, I’ve always been involved in music, and playing music.
The Get FunKT and Freshly FunKT nights that you run are hosted at Inigo and Gigalum, respectively. How often and when are the nights run?
The first Freshly FunKT party was at Gigalum on 15th june and the next one is on the 20th July. After that i plan to run them more regularly, maybe every six weeks. I think if you do something too often, people get too familiar with it - less is more. The Get FunKT nights are thrown on the last Wednesday of every month, 8pm until 2am. It’s really for the people who like a little wrongness mid-week.
For the DJ’s who are just starting out in the scene, what advice would you give them on their quests to DJ stardom?
I think the best advice is to get into producing your own tracks and/or remixes. It’s something I’ve been meaning to get into, and I have some time in the studio over the next couple of weeks. The other important thins is being a bit of a personality. You need to get out there, you need to speak to people and make friends. The sad thing with being a DJ nowadays is that you need a following. Most promoters expect you to bring a crowd with you in order to get a booking. I don’t know whether I agree with it or not, but unfortunately that’s the way things are right now.
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