1. Who are you and what's your history as a DJ and music?
- Spencer but I go under the DJ name Spellman, as a teenager my close mates used to call me Spenny Bellman as a twist the great Benny Spellman (Fortune Teller) we were all into Scooters & Northern Soul, it then got shortened to Spellman & when it came to a DJ name it just seemed natural to use it.
- From a young age I was always the one doing Tapes of my latest music purchases for all my mates. From 9 or 10 years old I was obsessed with my Dads record collection which introduced me to the classics Queen, Rolling Stones, Pretenders, KCC & the Sunshine Band, Jonny Cash & Bob Dylan. As I got o my teens I was into Mod, Ska, 2-Tone, Punk, Northern Soul mainly music around the Scooter scene up to the late 80s when I then progressed into Indie & then House Music from 1989 on. I opened & ran a Dance Music shop in the early 90s & that’s when I progressed into DJing & putting on parties.
2. Tell us about the history of VC
- The VC was literally started by accident in lockdown, I had just moved & had been through my record collection to pack & store it so had it all sorted out in crates in the loft. Lockdown hit, I closed my Business & I was bored so I retrieved my decks & vinyl from the loft, built a temporary shelf in my living room & set it all up. At the time Facebook live was a thing but I’d never used it. So I thought I wonder if I can play some music & broadcast it on Facebook. I thought it would be a laugh & I like trying out new gadgets. I did no prep, I just had my decks & some random boxes of records, pushed the live button & played some tunes. I think initially I played some James Brown & various other bits & peaces, to be honest I shit myself & was sweating one out so it was a short broadcast & I was relieved when I switched it off.
- From that everyone started commenting saying it was brilliant, it lifted their spirits, I should do it again & can I play some of my old school dance. A couple of close mates rang & asked how I did it & from there we thought it would be good to all try & stream on one night as a sort of lockdown party, so we did that & got an even better response, then I found myself putting sets together & really thinking about what I was going to play & a couple of other mates got on board. It was so popular that we started talking about a Facebook page specifically for the broadcasts & the Vinyl Countdown was born, hence the cheesy name because we really didn’t take it seriously & thought it was just a laugh in lockdown.
- When we were finally allowed to get back to normal life & we weren’t all dead from Covid people started asking for a party, we had all done parties in the past & new the pit falls so wasn’t all that excited about the prospect but I think we had 500 odd local people on the Facebook group & though a small local venue may work. We did a party it was rammed & the rest is history. Our parties are always free, there’s always a happy friendly vibe & no trouble, it’s all likeminded people enjoying the music & having a social. Any money that beget from the venue goes towards running costs for streaming services, website & equipment. Anything leftover goes to charities like Mind, Heart of Kent Hospice & Teenage Cancer Trust. It’s amazing to think that it all began from a quick Facebook live back in 2020 from my living room.
3. What will the crowd expect to hear in your set at the OUR VIBE fest?
- I have an extensive record collection & digital library of all genres of music & of course no collection would be complete without some Chill Out. There was always a chill out tent at all the early Raves & I spent my fare share of time in them having a smoke & meeting new people, so I always appreciated it & really connected with the depth of some of the tunes they were playing. Although I was buying the tracks to enjoy at home I only ever got to share them with people at dinner parties & I never got to play any of them out, so I’m really excited to hear them out in the open on a bigger sound system as the production is normally fantastic on these types of tracks.
- Most of what I buy is between 90 &110 BPM, I’m really into Asian & Reggea / Dub influences & love a downtempo mix of something you wouldn’t expect to hear that slow or in that Genre. I like to introduce a tune that people look up & go I recognise this but it doesn’t sound right & twist with their head a bit.
- A flavour of some of the artists that I have followed for years are Nightmars on Wax, Talvin Sing, Thievery Corporation, St Germain, Moby, Transglobal Underground, Massive Attack, DJ Food, Portishead, Fila Brasilia & Kruder Dorfmeister & many more.
DJ Spellman is at the OUR VIBE Fest representing the Vinyl Countdown.
To secure your tickets at Eventbrite here is the link-
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/1981492156380?aff=oddtdtcreator
