Timeless preview with Birmingham Bad Boy & new Polysexual resident Mark H
Mark H is a name that has been appearing very frequently of late in all parts of the UK hard dance scene. Founder and resident of Shaft in Birmingham, and now a newly announced resident for Polysexual, Mark has risen to prominence over the last 4 years with his invigorating blend of euphoric hard dance with all manner of DJ trickery and bootlegs. A far cry from the usual uphill struggle of up and coming DJs, Mark quickly established himself as a popular name on the Birmingham scene with his distinctive and uplifting sound and soon found himself playing out most weeks to mad-for-it crowds of Midlands nutters.
He has held a whopping 11 residencies over the last 4 years, and his continual self-promotion combined with his relentlessly popular sets are sure to propel him even further in the hard dance scene. He has recently played in London for Polysexual South, and on Saturday 1st October he will once again return to the capital to give the Timeless crowd his spin on the classics set theme. If you like classic trance, and you like it hard, then this is the guy for you!
So HF Ladies and Gents, I present to you Mark H — a name we predict you’ll be seeing a lot more of in the not-too-distant future.
Your name has been doing the rounds quite a lot in the hard dance scene of late. Could you recount your formative years of DJing for us please? When did you first get involved, and was there any particular event or occurrence that made you decide to do so?
Like most of us I was a regular clubber, I used to go to places like Godskitchen at The Sanctuary and Sundissential at Pulse, both in Birmingham. I also used to travel further afield to places like Storm in Leicester with friends to see my favorite DJs. These promotions definitely influenced me in to becoming a DJ as I wanted to be up there in their shoes on the decks. It really hit me once I had a go on my mate’s decks. Since then I have never looked back and knew this was what I wanted to do. I started off DJing in May 2001, so it’s almost been four and a half years since I purchased my first set of decks. One of the best years for me must have been 2004. This was the year when I started to get myself recognized as a DJ and promoter. The bigger DJ bookings started to come in. I actually still enjoy going out clubbing now, but it does not happen very often with being so busy.
What styles do you play? Describe a ‘typical’ Mark H set for us...
I like to think my style is a very unique one with lots of tricks and quality tunes dropped in every time — people definitely know when I am on the decks! A typical set would consist of bootlegs and remixes of past popular big tunes and the odd quality new tune. During my sets I refuse to play records to just fill the time, every record I play must be a quality tune. I love to get the crowd going during my sets so expect plenty of hands in the air action. I pay a lot of attention to progressing my sets and believe in taking people on a ride with my music. I like to play something for everyone and give people an enjoyable time. I have a good ear for music and can spot a tune before it becomes a big hit in the clubs, so I enjoy testing these out in my sets. These days I play mainly hard trance, but I have been know to play bounce, hard, techno and even funky house.
Tell us about your night in Birmingham, Shaft. How long have you been putting it on for?
It started as a progression from my DJing. I seemed to be doing well at the time and the next natural step for me was starting my own night. Shaft started back in February 2003 at the venue Radius in Birmingham. Radius is a 300 capacity club and was an ideal size for a Sunday afterhours party running from 10am-5pm, (for all those party animals that never wanted to go home after a weekend clubbing!). It soon started to become the place to be on a Sunday in Birmingham, it always had a friendly vibe about it and all the regulars would never miss a week. The summer months were the busiest as everyone would be outside in the beer garden with the music playing in the sun. It was like a community of clubbers, which made us proud to have created it. I have been promoting Shaft with Birmingham DJ ColTheMedik weekly until march of this year. This was when we decided to leave our weekly home and concentrate on one off events and hosting rooms at bigger promotions. We have hosted rooms at Polysexual on four occasions and also had collaborations with Bring Back The Bounce and Dropzone. We have our next event lined up for Sunday October 30th, which is a joint promotion with Dropzone and Shaft at Studio 45 in Walsall. DJs such as Charlotte Birch and Caroline Banx will be appearing on the lineup.
What was the first party like? Did you require a lot of resilience and determination to carry on or was it plain sailing generally?
Well, I must admit that the first ever party was quite poor. From then on it took commitment, lots of time and of course a huge effort to make it a success, I think it all goes with territory. I don’t believe it can ever be plain sailing in club promotion to be honest. You can ride the wave of success for a while but there will always be sticky times of the year when things get difficult. These are the times when you really have to double the effort you put in to make it work! It’s not all bad though as am lucky to have had the opportunity to get involved with the promotional side of things. The experience was valuable to me, and 2 ½ years on it’s good to look back at what we have achieved in that time.
What for you is the hardest thing about putting on parties? Do you ever think that you can’t be bothered at times?
The hardest thing about putting on parties is the lack of sleep and the amount of time it consumes. Having to juggle the organization of bookings, promotions, practicing DJing and working full time is not an easy task! However, now that Shaft is not hosting weekly events, it has given me more time to myself to concentrate on new ventures and put time into branching out to new parts of the UK with my DJing. It also means that I can have a Sunday dinner, which is the one thing I missed for 2 years! In the past I have had my moments where I have felt that I can’t be bothered, but I have stuck with it and am glad that I have done so. I am very dedicated to what I do and my ambition always keeps me going when times get hard.
You have a slew of residencies across the Midlands and the North of England... do you play similar styles at each of them or is it a specific sound for each one? And how do the crowds differ?
As of September this year I have been made new Polysexual resident. In all the Poly gigs my hard trance and cheeky bootlegs have always gone down really well. When playing at any gig I like to take the crowd on a journey with my music and if it’s not a ‘tune’ it’s not going in the record bag!
Earlier on in the interview I mentioned Shaft in Birmingham, the Shaft clubbers always thrived on classics, anthems and uplifting tunes, any really hard music would easily loose the atmosphere on the dance floor, so I played what they enjoyed. For the past two years I have been monthly resident at Birmingham’s popular venue, Subway City. Subway host an event called Blue/Afters, playing there gives me a chance to try out new tunes and styles on a very varied crowd. If a tune works here it will work anywhere! I like the crowds at Subway, once again the classics and anthems keep everybody on their toes and the dance floor heaving, whether it be the regulars or new faces.
Your recent demo mixes have been 100% remixes and bootlegs of old tunes. Is this because you feel that current original material is weak, or did you just want to do something different?
It just so happens that the tunes that have been doing the business on the dance floors for me have been mainly bootlegs and remixes of old tunes like you say. These tunes always get a massive response, people enjoy them and they create a great atmosphere. Not only that, but I am really passionate about the music myself. I do like some of the new stuff but I guess I have tried to do something different and unique. I hope that my demo CDs reflect the material I enjoy to play.
You will once again be appearing in London at Timeless at Koko on Saturday 1st October. How did this gig come about? How did you get yourself noticed?
Will at Frantic would have known of me from when I played in the Frantic/Harderfaster competition a few years ago and I came runner up to El Greko. Since February, I have given out almost 1500 copies of my demo CDs to promoters and clubbers all across the country. My CDs seem to have become hot property of late and I get mobbed for them, which I don’t mind, as the feedback has all been extremely positive. A lot of the work I do is down to self-promotion, and recently getting my name on flyers from bigger events such as Polysexual would have helped me to get noticed, especially in London.
Who else on the line-up will you be checking out? There’s some real hard house history on there...
Firstly K90, the guy’s a legend. It’s so good to see a DJ enjoying what he does. He really engages with the crowd and puts on a good show. Always a pleasure to watch and listen to, he’s a great entertainer. Andy Whitby will be another DJ that I will be checking out, as he is one of the few DJs who I rate highly. I always enjoy his sets, especially his bootleg tunes. Another person who impressed me when I heard her play recently was Cally Gage. With the line up on the night it’s sure to be filled with excellent music and talent, so I am looking forward to it.
Have you been to Koko before? It’s a pretty sizable venue... what’s the biggest club you’ve played in so far? Do you find it more daunting with a bigger crowd?
Yes I have been to Koko before when it was Camden Palace and what a great venue… it must be one of London’s best.
The biggest clubs I have played in are Air and The Sanctuary both in Birmingham, and The Fridge in London. All of these venues are very similar in size, the DJ booths and dance floors are huge. Also the largest crowd I have played to would be the www.gurn.net stage at Global Gathering this year — there must have been a good thousand people there. It was quite an experience as the field in front of me started expanding with a sea of bodies jumping around and all to my tunes! It took a week for me to stop smiling, I must admit (well maybe more than a week but you get the idea)! I don’t find playing to bigger crowds very daunting any more, I think my girlfriend gets more nervous than I do. It’s funny really because the larger the crowd the better it is, having the ability to entertain a huge amount of people is a challenge and I love it! Don’t get me wrong though, casting my mind back to when I had less experience, it was all very scary, a spare pair of pants was always packed into the record bag for gigs lol.
What tunes have been doing big damage for you recently?
My main dance floor weapon would have to be ‘Café Del Mar’ vs the Tony De Vit classic ‘I Don’t Care’, this tune is absolutely corkin and fills the dance floor in an instant. Ed Real, a few others and myself have been caining it for a while now. It always lifts the roof off, a true tune!
What have been your most exciting and enjoyable gigs this summer? Have you been pretty busy generally?
There have been some very memorable events this year, the highlight for me has to be playing on the Gurn.net stage at Global Gathering to a thousand people, now that’s what I call a gig. The crowd were well up for it! The feedback from my set was awesome, I didn’t want to leave the decks and the crowds never wanted to leave the field! Another exciting one this summer was standing in on my birthday and playing a 3 ½ hour set for Polysexual in Birmingham — it rocked! The atmosphere was electric. I thoroughly enjoy playing at the Polys gigs as they always have a good vibe about them. All of the gigs I play are enjoyable and this year has been no exception. I’m excited about the year ahead too and what I can achieve. And yes, I have been very busy with gigs most weekends, I don’t stop. It’s great.
Do you feel that we have reached festival saturation point in the UK? Do you think there are too many festies or are there enough punters to keep them busy?
This year I have played at two festivals and thoroughly enjoyed them, Escape in the Park being one, and Global Gathering the other. I feel that there can never be too many festivals as it’s an amazing experience for new generations and old. They are the highlight of some people’s year and there will always be new people that have never been before. It gives everybody the opportunity to come together, listen to different styles of music, see their favorite DJs and recognize some of the new talent around all in one weekend, which can’t be a bad thing in my eyes!
And finally, what was the last thing that made you laugh really hard?
Well that’s got to be Hinsley — the guy should be a comedian. Even when he is being serious you can’t help but laugh! Also, Chris Moff with those balloons they sell in the clubs, when you come across any balloon stand, he will be there buzzin away… guaranteed!
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