London Calling Dave Clarke

Exiled in Amsterdam British DJ Dave Clarke chatted to Skrufff this week as he prepared to return to London superclub Fabric and revealed he has few, if any, regrets about emigrating to Holland.

“What do I miss about living in the UK? Nothing!” said Dave, before conceding he sometimes pines for Norwegian Fjords (English humour) ‘and the countryside.’

“And of course I miss the people that are special to me that live there (and that gets me down from time to time), but as an artist I miss very little about living in the UK,” he also added, “There are pockets of quality, but the majority of the scene has gone tits up because of only monetary interests.”

Dave’s just delivered a pop flavoured podcast including tracks from Bauhaus, the Human League and Grace Jones (Pull Up To the Bumper) and to promote the gig (click here to listen: http://bit.ly/k9ix2e ) though promoting the gig, Fabric stressed his techno credentials. Dave instead hailed Fabric’s ‘friendly crowd’ and high spec sound system.

“It’s the stupendous amount of bass that makes it special,” he enthused, “plus the fact that there are friendly and knowledgeable technicians there who it even better. That is why I often play an extra 30-45 minutes just for them where I play old school soul music. There is nowhere like it in London anymore, it is like Turnmills but with a good system.”

He also corrected Skrufff when quizzed about the likelihood of him playing Lips Inc’s Funky Town at Fabric again which was captured on Youtube some years back.

“That clip wasn’t actually filmed at Fabric, it was a café in Amsterdam,” said Dave.

“I’d popped into the café the day after a gig and was messing around for 20 minutes with the records they had, then before you know it the café ended up rammed,” he recalled. “It just happened to be captured at the beginning of the Youtube revolution.”

“The café owners gave me a bottle of vodka that was mine whenever I came back afterwards, but that scoundrel Billy Nasty nicked it,” he laughed.

He remained vague about whether he’ll be playing Funky Town at Fabric this weekend and said he won’t be taking any DJ requests (‘My DJ monitors are always too loud for that’) though was more forthcoming about the end of set tracks he might just spin.

“I love ELO (Electric Light Orchestra)” he said, “There I said it,” he confessed.

http://bit.ly/k9ix2e (Click here to listen to Dave’s (non-techno) special mix for Fabric.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNR4xfh1Qc (Dave’s favourite band Electric Light Orchestra: Roll Over Beethoven, from 1973)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vuW6tQ0218 (Norwegian Fjords)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DPbWnPuZmA (Funky Town)

Jonty Skrufff: http://listn.to/JontySkrufff

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