Around 22 years ago there was a small, dirty little club in a small, dirty little town. In this club I was given many, many musical lessons – not to mention pulling ropey birds and downing more drugs than Pablo Escobar in his time – but it is also where I met two Djs who were to shape my musical life.

These men were called Andy and Jay. In this interview I talk to Jay Innit, himself.

1/ So Jay, I’m not going to rattle on too much about Patsy’s Nightclub, as that is a blog I have lined up for the future, but tell me how long you played there, and how long were you DJing before you and Andy ‘took over’ the place.

I cant believe it was that long ago!! i was 18 years old when i first started playing that fabulous little club’ that we wont mention’ [*coughs* Patsies *coughs*, it was 1988 and , I had just started the whole clubbing thing and the forenamed club was my local haunt, I’d only been going there(as a punter) a few months when the staff there were spreading the rumour of possible closure due to lack of interest (they were lucky to be getting 50 people a night)….. and troubles with getting DJ’s ,(it is worth noting at this point that clubs back then were stuck in the 70’s and it was common place to play slow records at the end of the night).

Well i couldn’t stand by and let them shut my local club.. i loved it there, so one evening after a DJ quit i drunkedly said i would take over the night and became resident DJ , a week later i met Mr.B [Andy Bailie] who was DJ-ing the under 18’s night , he was really good at mixing…. (my mixing was still a bit… vague back then), he ended up staying late and doing the over 18’s with me (1988 was still right at the birth of clubbing as we know it today, Acid house was a fairly new phenomenon and we found we had a shared love of this music and the art of ‘mixing’) things just evolved from that point for the next 13 years following the evolution of house/club music (that has to be one of the longest DJ residencies on record) we played many other clubs also during that time , but that club was our baby so in summary to your question I had been djing for about 20 mins before i started there *laughs*, that was 23 years ago , i’m still going today and still searching for something new.

I played there for 13 years and was heartbroken to see the site go for redevelopment, we had built it up from nothing to being rammed packed every week it stayed rammed for 11-12 years right up to and including the last ever night. we built a loyal following , in fact the ‘crowd’ are the real stars of any club ,they give any night that special buzz ,with a little guidance from the the chap up the front with the vinyl , and possibly also the dodgy looking bloke handing out smarties in the shadows…. i miss each and everyone of them .

2/ I can’t stress enough how much I learned about music just from listening to you two mixing it up every weekend, and even then heading to Andy’s to dig around the thousands of bits of vinyl he had in his basement as you two made me mix tapes straight off the cuff.

So, back to 2001, ‘the’ club shuts… so what do you do with your weekends after 13 years of breathing life into Ryde?

At first , was at a bit of a lose end ,and done things ‘Normal people’ probably do ( (looking back this probably saved my life)… as you can only burn the candle at both ends for so long 😉 . after a short while the boredom set in so we hatched a few new semi regular nights in a couple of clubs over in newport town… and kinda been doing that ever since 🙂 if you’re interested you can have a listen to one of my sets i recorded from our gig last xmas –> ( http://soundcloud.com/stinky-3)

I’ve also started a podcast , which means i can branch out and play other musical genres under some new aliases *laughs* Oh and i’ve bought some great new toys, my favourite being a Kaoss3 pad (great for adding live effects to a dj set ) and the latest being a Native Instruments MASCHINE (great for live remixing during a set)… so my weekends are taken up by doing other ‘new’ things … or sitting about chilling whilst collecting as much new music as humanly possible.

3/ What format do you mix with these days? Are you completely tech-savvy, or do you still use vinyl on occasion? I have roughly 22gb of music stored on my PC and memory sticks, but I’m sure you can put that figure to embarrassment…

At home i pretty much only use Traktor on the PC ,mainly because of a space problem as my place is about the same size as a matchbox, If i was putting on a night somewhere that didn’t have equipment already ,then i would take my technics 1210 mk5 ‘s and serato as this would give me the option of playing mp3’s/wav and vinyl , mainly i would use mp3/wav (unless it was an old skool night where i would dig through the vinyl room for some forgotten gems *laughs*

Saying that i quite enjoy playing on pioneer CDJ 1000’s if a club has them , and lets face it most have as they have become industry standard in the same way technics dex were back in the day *laughs* *again*

As for how much music I have stored?

‘Some’.

4/ Have you ever attempted to convert all of your vinyl into MP3 format? I’ve actually got a USB convertor for the stack of olf vinyl I have, and I’ve been putting it off for about two years. My stack is about two foot high. I dread to think what yours is like…?

Well my vinyl is so old it has started to bio-degrade *laughs* so in short .. ‘ No’.. i haven’t been attempted to convert my vinyl to mp3, if i needed one of my vinyl tracks to play i’d probably download a better copy anyway , lets face it if you look hard enough you can find almost anything you want online, and also the conversion would only be as good a quality as from the source in the first place , most of my vinyl has been soaked in beer/spirits and silly string over the years plus whatever else that gets chucked around in clubs *laughs*

You seem obsessed with the ‘size’ of my music collection!

Ok, I will estimate that i have around 24-30 foot of 12″ vinyl/albums , around 1 – 2 yards of 7″ vinyl and 2 large HDD’s of mp3’s , but by the time this goes to print i may have started on my 3rd HDD…

5/ Size impresses me. I just remember the stacks that Andy Baillie had stored in his little ‘dungeon’ once upon a time… So, for a guy that has seen many, many ‘talents’ come and go, who has impressed you musically over the years, and do you like any of the new DJs/producers out there?

That’s a tough question , there’s many good new dj’s /producers so its hard to single any out; Amon Tobin , Danny Byrd, even Norman Cook’s many aliases over the years , ((Dave ‘Switch’ (although not that well produced, bonkers ideas)) Andy Weatherall ,not forgetting the legend that is Tony Coleman of London Elektricity fame, probably the best band ever!

Oh then there’s Underworld during the Darren Emerson years. i should also mention my mate andyB {Andy Bailie aka Future King of The World] whos dj mix creations are truely inspired sometimes …i also like what you are trying to do on Vectis Radio and dragging our little rock into this millennium.

Theres many good productions nowadays as musical production has been opened up to the masses in recent years as the equipment needed has become more compact and afordable , you no longer need a huge studio to produce quality sounding music, you just need a good ear and a few hundred quid for a pc , a good audio editing software package and a few plug-ins, i use cakewalk sonar 6 mainly , i have version 7 , but it wont run on win xp , i have it installed on my new pc, , but i always come back to my beloved xp machine for doing anything musically (its faster) … xp rocks!! win7 is for rednecks! *we both laugh*

6/ Win7 sucks cocks for rocks. As a man who has DJ’d everywhere over the years, what was/is your favourite venue? And do you still get the urge to get behind the decks on a night out?

I prefer small dark and dingy clubs over superclubs , the atmosphere is always better , my fave venue of all time would have to have been the small sweaty subterranean club known as patsys… but then I am biased *laughs* I used to like the Opera House in Bournemouth , Matter in the London dome was a good venue if you looked past the bare breeze block construction , and the Concord down in Brighton .to be honest most clubs ive been to have been a bit of a blur…

Yeah I still get the urge to get behind the decks (and occasionally still do ) but its not the same as back in the day, nowadays every 15 mins you will lose half the dancefloor as people are forced to go outside for a smoke, which inturn is killing off the smaller clubs , this is evident by the amount of festivals that have started to pop up as people go back outside to party.

7/ I never thought of the smoking ban effecting clubs like that… but you’re right! Ok, final question before we stick in a link to your mix; What would you ideal musical life be like if you had one wish…?

I’m not really into musicals.

Thanks Jay, and thanks for shaping my musical future, whether you accept it or not!

Now, I gotta go find a man called Andy B to see if he’ll give me an interview…