After a spell living overseas, I returned to Cornwall and started the Get Up To Get Down sessions at The Hub in Falmouth, which then became Toast (as it is now).

This was Falmouth’s longest running funk night and between myself and the Reverend Al Bean, we kept it going from 2004 to 2022. If people wanted heavy and authentic funk, soul, Boogaloo, Afro-Cuban, Jazz and Brazilian, they knew where to come. I’ve also played for Jelly Jazz and numerous private parties.

Then in 2020 fatherhood came and late nights out ended (I can’t do 2am finishes anymore). However, my obsession with music and buying the best records I can find hasn’t stopped and so the opportunity to play you some of my 30-year long collection is one I’m delighted and honoured to have.

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I have been fascinated by funk, soul and dancefloor jazz since the early 90s when Acid Jazz was taking off. Growing up in Truro, I played in a band that covered Jamiroquai and the Brand New Heavies. Then I discovered Miles Davis and I was hooked.

As a student in Manchester, I began DJing regularly in city centre bars and clubs, as well as playing drums and trumpet in several bands.

We’d often have guest DJs from London including Keb Darge, Snowboy, Si Cheeba and many other stalwarts of the Deep Funk movement of that time. Unpretentious, fun, danceable, heavy, authentic – we loved having a packed dancefloor where records by James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Jimmy Smith, The New Mastersounds, Sharon Jones and the like ruled the roost.