SIMON ANDREWS

A passionate music collector who ended up a dj… To cut a very long story short, I’ve always loved my music. I started buying records from the age of 12 and so the collection began.

I used to be a keen ice skater in my early teens and used to go to the ice rink every Saturday night where they had a DJ and everyone skated to music. I started slipping the odd two or three twelve inches into my skate bag and get the DJ to drop them; immediately Nitro Deluxe’s ‘This Brutal House’ and Monie Love’s ‘I Can Do This’ springs to mind!

Not far off from then the house parties started. Not the ‘house music’ parties but those parties that started happening around 15 years old at school when someone’s parents were away…the logic back them seemed to be ‘Oi Andrews, you’ve got records, you’re playing the music’
This used to happen with a miss-match of ‘dad’s record players and dual amplifiers (no mixing console or variable pitch turntables!) – I enjoyed it, it was good fun.

Within a year or so I went halvsies with a good pal of mine at the time (Hey Colin) on a mixer and I saved up and bought some Technics turntables. The world of beat matching, scratching and tricks began to unfold…

I went to do my A Level’s at The Henley College and met a guy who became a very good pal of mine who was a year ahead of me, both literally and also in Dj-ing. I met one of the most technically gifted DJs I’ve ever heard – Chris Giorgi.
Wednesday afternoons were free periods meant for sports. We used to go back to Chris’ and hit the turntables. Chris taught me a great deal, my mentor.

Whilst at college I did my first club for another pal Toby Winter. Benson’s on Remenham Hill, Henley. A small-ish place, say 150 people? I was very nervous but the thing that sticks out in my head was having to get the bouncer to cut the padlock on my record box as I forgot the key! The following year I did the big college party at Washington Heights in Reading in front of some 1500! Keith Nunnerly’s ‘Greed’ flashes into my mind here.

I left college in June 1992 and went to Magaluf to DJ for the summer, encouraged by my pal Brandon who was already out there, repairing cars or something.
I had two residencies out there: Pappy’s then later Sounds Bar opposite BCM. Djing 7 nights a week I met the BCM resident Des Mitchel who asked me to fill in for him, the biggest stage yet with a full 2000 people capacity.

Went to University in Bournemouth and progressed to playing all the clubs down there.
Around this time, I had my first taste of radio: Red Eye FM (1993). I played occasionally for a year or two including the live outside broadcast at the Bug Jam 1993 at Santa Pod.

Fast forward to 2000 and I started a night with another friend in the West End, London. This ran for three years.
Shortly after that, in 2005 I joined Point Blank FM. I started doing 08:00 – 10:00 every Saturday. After a few months I got offered the Sunday 16:00 – 18:00 slot and am still there to this day.

Having been a member of The Loft congregation (and previously Trouble’s House) since 1992, I was delighted that eventually my dream came true and I became a resident DJ at The Loft alongside my mentor and hero Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson.
That just about covers that…