Sitting down and writing is something that doesn’t come easily to me at the best of times, so writing about myself and telling my story? This WILL be a challenge! My first introduction to music was listening to my late father’s old big band / jazz albums over the Sunday roast dinner; Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck, Count Basie and many others were the first ‘rock stars’ in my little world. As a child, my Star Wars soundtrack album was my only contribution to those Sunday lunch listening sessions.
My mum always tells me that when my dad was a young man serving in the R.A.F. stationed in Germany, he would always bring a new record home with him every time he made one of his regular trips home. He built up an extensive collection and, while not exactly to my taste, I am now proud to be its owner. Growing up, modern music wasn’t really played in my house. My dad worked shifts and being quiet when he was on nights was essential, so the radio was rarely on.
This meant that to pick up on what was relevant to my peers I had to rely on the bits and pieces I heard about at school. What was this Bohemian Rhapsody they’re talking about? I have to be honest, I actually remember hating it when I eventually first heard it! What about Silver Lady?
Bright Eyes? Summer Loving? No, I had no idea. But I did become curious, so decided to investigate.
Top of the Pops was the obvious starting point, and I still distinctly remember an eleven-year-old David feeling ‘a bit funny’ when first seeing Debbie Harry singing ‘Heart of Glass’ on TOTP (readers of a certain age will know exactly what I mean!). And then it happened. In May went off to my local newsagents, Knights in Woodley, and for 99p bought the number one single, ‘Stand and Deliver’ by Adam and the Ants. That was it, I had found my drug!
For the next couple of years every last penny I had went over the counter of that shop and all of it on vinyl. I still own every record I’ve ever bought! DAVE MILLS 15PROFILE: DAVE MILLS As well as watching TOTP, listening to the whole top 40 on the radio became a religious habit. I recorded it on tape every week (didn’t we all?) and also wrote it all down.
I would analyse my lists for hours – movers up and down, new entries, weeks spent at no.1 – trying to work out the magic formula to a hit record. My musical tastes were very much pop to start with, and I still appreciate a good pop song. A good song is a good song, regardless of genre, right? In my teenage years the radio was always on when I was at home; be it blasting in my bedroom or through my headphones if Dad was on nights.
Mike Read, Peter Powel, Annie Nightingale and Tommy Vance were my gateway to a world I thought to be simply magical. If I wasn’t listening to music, I was making my own radio shows and compilation tapes from the ‘studios’ of DJM Recordings (my bedroom). I sought out music from every source possible, TOTP, Radio 1, random late night concerts on the TV, Glastonbury coverage and the chaos of Channel 4’s The TUBE! But soon I found myself leaning toward a louder, heavier genre which just seemed to tick all my musical boxes.
In watched Status Quo perform their 20th anniversary concert for the Prince’s Trust on BBC1 and then listened to the second half broadcast on Radio 1, I became an instant fan of the band and I still am today. I soon started to discover other bands that made a bit more of a noise and put more into their performance than just standing there miming to a recording. Iron Maiden, Whitesnake, Gillan, Meatloaf, Slade… A whole new world suddenly opened up in front of me that I had no idea even existed, I read review after review of the Monsters of Rock festival held at Donington Park each year.
I also discovered there was a festival just down the road from me, ‘Reading Rocks’ . How did I not know about these events? More importantly, why was I not going to them? In June 1984, four days after my 16th birthday, I experienced the first taste of my next new drug, LIVE CONCERTS!
I got to see my heroes Status Quo live for the first time and I was instantly hooked on the buzz and atmosphere of a live audience watching an artist perform. I still have the ticket (it's in a large frame) and I’ve seen them many times since. The following year saw my first visit of many to Donington. I continue to be an avid fan of live music and there’s now very few rock bands of any real note that I haven’t seen live, and I’ve been lucky enough to be at some really big gigs, many broadcast on the radio and TV. [Although there was an eight year gig-free gap during ‘the married years’ , more on that later!] I was always a bit of a geeky kid at school.
Shy, quiet, socially a bit awkward. As a teen I was the one in the corner going through the music collection at house parties, which naturally meant that I ended up being the one who changed the records. It also helped that I didn’t drink then, so could be trusted to use any home hi-fi stack systems without damaging anything. It wasn’t long before I started to be asked to bring my records to the parties too, as I seemed to have all the ones everyone wanted to listen to.
As much as I hadn’t realised it, I think my DJ path had been written way back then! When I left school, my first job was in the record department at Woolworths. It seemed like a good fit at the time, but I soon became very frustrated with their stocking policies. If it wasn’t in the charts, we were not allowed to keep it on the shelves.
I left after nine months, let’s just say because of ‘musical differences’! I found a warehousing job closer to home and, in full-time employment, living at home, with no real commitments, I could indulge totally in my music habit. My late teens were a fabulous time! I could listen to the radio all day, my record (and then CD) buying continued, and my gig going exploded!
Whenever I went out, it was to a gig. Whenever I came home I had another record or t-shirt under my arm, and most of the time it was both. (History pretty much repeating itself. Thanks Dad!). I could also now drive and started to roadie for a band that some mates had formed.
Not only was I heaving the kit around, I helped with their publicity and occasionally ended up on stage with them to do the odd guest star appearance! In the late ‘80s / early ‘90s Loose Tourniquet became quite a name on the Reading live music scene and were the first band to ever play on the stage at the Rivermead Centre, just down the road from the Reading Festival site. Through the band and the increasing circle of friends associated with them, I met Chris Locke, a musician and DJ.
He asked me to roadie for him on a couple of DJ gigs and I was soon promoted when he found out that I had a few records he didn’t! We teamed up for a while as a double act although we never got ourselves quite organised enough to own our own kit, or even come up with a proper stage name. But we did had a lot of fun and even co-hosted shows on charity radio station Radio Cracker. When Chris started another band, I kept on with the DJing and continued to hire in equipment when I needed it.
With no ties, I was also happy to travel anywhere I was invited to play which included the Saturday night of the Red Dwarf Fan Club convention in Daventry. I became quite a personality among the delegate ‘Smegheads’ and, as I was a massive fan of the show myself, was excited to meet most of the cast. The one downside from that time is that’s where the inevitable and regrettable nickname of ‘Disco Dave’ came from, some people still call me it even now, though in some cases it’s been shortened to just ‘Disco’ . : DAVE MILLS Despite a few early successes, I didn’t really know how to advertise or market myself so bookings were not regular enough to invest in equipment, even though I was now being asked to DJ at friends’ weddings.
My musical tastes had changed a little too, still on the guitars but I jumped well and truly on the Britpop bus as my Rock heroes had stagnated since the arrival of grunge. I took on a parttime bar job at my local rugby club, covering match days and into the evenings when the function room needed to be turned round from players bar into a dancefloor area for private parties. Some of the discos that turned up were truly dreadful and, while I couldn’t claim to be the next best thing, I certainly knew why a 60th birthday party was a dismal experience for all when the DJ refused to play anything other than acid house!
After mentioning that I did a bit of DJing, I soon became the rugby club’s DJ (the only time I have ever had something that resembled a residency), playing the end of season ball, some private member’s parties and the big one, New Year’s Eve. This was a fantastic first for me, even if I did make the school boy error of not setting my watch for midnight and completely missing it! Big Oops!! Despite this mishap, I got the return booking for NYE the following year.
Fully pumped with a completely accurate, doublechecked watch I setup and waited for the hordes to arrive. But no one came, not a soul! And it wasn’t because of what I did the previous year! The new club management had gone to the trouble of booking me and even agreed to my ‘pushing my luck’ fee of £200 but hadn’t thought to let anyone else know!
They thought that because it was NYE all the members would just turn up, but no advertising meant no party. I got paid, but it didn’t really make up for the fact that I spent NYE alone with just my records for company! A DJ business partnership followed, but failed thanks to bad planning, bad ideas, a couple of really dodgy bookings and the fact that apparently me staying sober when working was an issue! I walked away with most of the equipment we had built up together and, since all the music was mine anyway, I decided to fulfil our final bookings solo and vowed to do things my own way from now on.
I was never going into a partnership again, so in charge of my own future, Destiny Mobile Disco was born. I had spot boxes, Comus screens, a Martin Robozap, a rope light, a pair of Citronic decks, two single CD players, a mixer AND a smoke machine! I just needed a speaker system and amp, so back to the hire shop I went. That shop will be wellknown to many in Berkshire and they also ran an entertainments agency.
I was a regular and liked customer at ‘the agency’ and after a few months of hiring PA, with Christmas coming, I was asked if I wanted to fill my diary working for them? To be honest, my diary was pretty much empty and, seeing as I had parted company with the rugby club for good, I didn’t really have much to lose. That Christmas I did ten bookings at £100 each! It was more than I was used to getting, all the money earned was mine, and it would come on a regular basis.
The only drawback was that I had to wear black tie for all bookings and felt very out of place compared to some of the clients that attended the ‘joiner parties’ I was sent to. But I got to play music and people danced, so all was good. “I STARTED TO ROADIE FOR A BAND. NOT ONLY WAS I HEAVING THE KIT AROUND, I HELPED WITH PUBLICITY AND ENDED UP ON STAGE TO DO THE ODD GUEST STAR APPEARANCE! ” 17PROFILE: DAVE MILLS The agency gig was only really supposed to be a temporary plan, but in the end I worked for them for 16 years!
And they worked me hard; for the majority of those years I worked flat out, 2, 3, occasionally 4 gigs a weekend, still at £100 a night. I was told you couldn’t get any more than that in this business and, not knowing any different, I believed them. But I played some really good venues, made some good friends at the regular ones and enjoyed feeling like part of a team. In early met my now exwife and we married in December ‘98. ‘She’ will remain nameless.
I knew she had some issues, her previous marriage wasn’t a good one, and there had been some serious incidents. She already had four children, three girls and the youngest, a boy, who I got on with brilliantly. Sadly we had a very bad marriage. I knew she liked a drink, I just didn’t realise how much until after getting married when her drinking took over.
She manipulated situations with her abusive behaviour resulting in me losing contact with almost all of my friends and family; she isolated me from almost everyone I used to know. The only outlet I was ‘allowed’ to have was the discos. We had very little money as I ended up paying for everything, including debts I knew nothing about. Working constantly was the only way to try and keep our heads above water, although that just built resentment towards me for never being at home!
I would come home in the early hours of the morning to find her absolutely paralytically drunk, we would then argue until dawn and I would have to go to work after only an hour of sleep (if I was lucky) and carry on as if nothing was wrong. In her worst drunken rages she would do physical damage to anything in the house that got in the way: furniture, windows, doors and, eventually, me. After one particularly bad weekend in June 2005, I left and the children left home the same day to live with their father.
I had managed to make contact with my family without her knowing and they helped me to get out and set up in a new home of my own. The divorce went through exactly a year later. I was still very much a step–parent though, as all four of the kids (teenagers by now) came to live with me for a time when living with either of their actual parents became impossible. It took me some time and counselling to realise that I was a victim of domestic abuse, both mental and physical; I had lost my friends, dignity and all self confidence (not that I had much to start with).
I still carry the scars and get flashbacks from that horrific time even now. Fortunately, I had managed to keep the disco kit intact; it was about the only possession I managed to protect from being destroyed! Knowing what had happened to me, the agency tried to help. They threw every booking possible at me so I could try and get back on my feet, and they even gave me a raise: £125 for weekdays and £150 for a Saturday.
It meant that I was exhausted, but at least once I got home I could sleep. I soon got to the point that I had a bit of spare cash, so was able to treat myself to a holiday to Egypt and a QUO GIG!! I was really quite happy for a while but I had to keep slogging it out for the agency most weekends. The constant changes of staff in the office didn’t help as it led to everincreasing errors with paperwork “ IN CHARGE OF MY OWN FUTURE, DESTINY MOBILE DISCO WAS BORN.
I HAD SPOT BOXES, COMUS SCREENS, A MARTIN ROBOZAP AND A SMOKE MACHINE!” : DAVE MILLS “WHEN ATTENDING THE PRO MOBILE CONFERENCE IN 2014, ALL THAT CHART STUDYING HELPED ME WIN A QUIZ HOSTED !” and the event information I was supplied.
Even then, it still hadn’t quite dawned on me that they didn’t care. I wasn’t a person, I was a wheel in their machine for pumping out cheap bookings! In early summer of 2011, I got a random message from some DJ called Alan Marshall who had befriended me on Facebook. He invited me to a NADJ meeting at Warbrook House in Eversley.
I had recently joined the association for PLI to cover the handful of my own bookings I did each year and, as it was only down the road from me, I thought I had nothing to lose by going along. I was really quite nervous, as I didn’t know anyone and didn’t know what to expect. What I witnessed was a room full of DJs who all seemed to know each other and I couldn’t believe the conversations I was hearing! Fulltime DJ?
Charging a thousand pounds? Are you mad? How? I felt that night that I had gatecrashed a boys club and didn’t know the secret handshake!
I shot out of there as soon as it finished, thinking I didn’t really belong, but something made me contact Alan again and we met for a chat. I told him my story – he knew the agency well and their working practices – and he gave me all sorts of advice on how things could be different. Getting what you’re worth, value, and service to clients all came into the conversation, they made sense, but I couldn’t achieve that. Could I?
My head was spinning with ideas and disbelief, but a little spark of a dream started. and, when attending the Pro Mobile Conference in 2014, all that chart studying and music knowledge helped me win a quiz at the dinner hosted by Mark Goodier! I began to pick up some really good bookings from word of mouth, my neighbours booked me for their wedding and, in autumn of 2014, I finally left the agency for good. Was I as busy as I wanted to be? No.
Was I happier, calmer and more in control? You bet I was! My own bookings were increasing and I picked up others from DJs I had met through NADJ, but I also wasn’t actually worried about not being out every weekend. I even found I had a bit of a social life again!
By focusing on quality bookings over quantity bookings, I learned there IS more to life than just being a DJ! In accepted an offer to join the NADJ South Central branch committee. Sadly I couldn’t attend the night it was announced as I was watching the Prodigy at the Rivermead Centre in Reading. I don’t regret it, or all the other gigs I’ve been too; I’ve certainly made up for the lost time since the divorce!
Later that same year, through another DJ’s partner, I met Gen. We hit it off immediately and we started seeing each other despite me being in Reading and her in Fareham. We have a very similar music taste and she even introduced me to some bands I hadn’t heard of and we attended several gigs discovering new I became a regular attendee to at NADJ meetings and started talking to other DJs. Nervous and extremely embarrassed at first to confess who I worked for and what I was getting for it, I found that I was very much warmly welcomed for who I was with no judgement.
I came away from every meeting with ideas, but I didn’t know how to apply them. The agency were not interested in changing their procedures to make for a better client experience. They saw no value in it and they would only cock it up anyway! I was caught between my new NADJ friends telling me I could achieve my dreams and the agency telling me I couldn’t!
I gradually got more involved with NADJ. I did a presentation on my best subject, Rock music, and have since had a number of DJs contact me for Rock advice. I started to educate myself as much as possible PROFILE: DAVE MILLS20 READY, JOIN the UK’s largest DJ Association from as little as £30 Meet and network with like-minded DJs across the UK at our network of branches. Gain access to exclusive benefi ts and industry experts to help with business enrichment and self-development to enhance your DJ profession. visit: | 0203 002 0866 Supporting DJs with no limits NEW!
MEMBERSHIP LEVELS GET SET, GO! GREAT NEW WEBSITE & BENEFITS bands together. Gen had no idea of what was involved in being a DJ behind the scenes but didn’t have a problem with the hours that I worked. She just thought, like many, that you just turn up and press play.
She had quite a shock as she found out what was involved when she came out with me. I like to think she was quite impressed! Gen and her children moved up to Reading and in with me in January 2017 and, as if that wasn’t a big enough change, I also became the new Chairman of NADJ South Central. All of a sudden I was running the NADJ Branch I almost ran away from six years previously!
Why? NADJ is more than just an association, I’ve made some friends for life through it (whether I wanted them or not!). NADJ, and the people within it, have given me so much and I wanted to give something back. In 2018, I did two all-day weddings at fees of just under four figures.
Now it’s not all about the money, and I know there are some guys reading this that demand that kind of fee as a minimum every weekend and for some its nowhere close, but it gave me the confidence that I CAN do this. It IS possible. It IS NOT a pipe dream! So where am I now?
With all the help and education that I’ve taken in, my problem is that I still struggle to know how to apply it. Balancing work, disco business, family and general life is a challenge, as it is for everyone! I’m currently working on many things, a new website being the first on a long list. I’m also back involved with my first love, music.
I am admin on several FB rock groups and involved with the local live scene again. I was delighted to be asked to assist with the lighting for local band Third Lung’s video shoots; that’s my setup of up-lighting, freedom sticks and other effects you can see on the Breaking Late and Sooner or Later videos! Gen and I are now engaged and, with her two teenagers, are starting to make wedding plans. Our family is extended by my four inherited children who are now all parents themselves; Gen and I are step grandparents seven times over.
She didn’t realise what she was getting involved with when she took me on, she’s a brave lady! Am I where I want to be? No, but I’m working on it. Do I still have moments of self doubt?
Yes. Have I given up? Hell no. Do I still get recurring nightmares from the dark days?
Only very occasionally. Looking back I’ve come a long way and, with Gen by my side giving me the push I need, I really am looking forward. Maybe she should have written this article? It would certainly have been finished a lot quicker!
I was recently interviewed on BBC Radio 6 by Steve Lemacq on his Good Day / Bad Day feature focusing on mobile DJs and managed to shoehorn in a plug for NADJ. It’s incredible to think that most major radio DJs have no idea that there are even such things as DJ associations! We still have a lot of work to do to get our message out there. As I said in that interview, if I could offer one piece of advice to any DJ, it would be don’t suffer alone.
Join an association, don’t rely on online forums, get out there somewhere and actually meet other DJs faceto-face. Don’t sit in silence, there are plenty of guys out there willing to help and in return, even if you think you don’t have anything to give, you do and you will. It certainly helped me. Not just to be a better DJ, but a better person, a better me. “I BECAME THE CHAIRMAN OF NADJ SOUTH CENTRAL.
ALL OF A SUDDEN I WAS RUNNING THE NADJ BRANCH I ALMOST RAN AWAY FROM SIX YEARS PREVIOUSLY!” : DAVE MILLS
