We welcome James Farley who is a familiar name among the hugely popular outdoor DancersHip parties on Plymouth Hoe. Giving us some uplifting house tunes he also describes how his sound is a child of Hed Kandi and Zeros nightclub!
Hi, please introduce yourself to those unfamiliar with your work.
Hi, I’m James Farley, I am a resident DJ for DancersHip events and Promotions. I have been DJing since the ripe old age of 9 where I would smash out the top 40 on a tape deck at the school disco. From being driven around by my parents to all sorts of party bookings, under 18’s club nights and having worked for First Leisure in the 90’s on all things commercial I gained a good amount of experience of the industry and feel for reading a room and ensuring everyone enjoys themselves. I took a little break from playing out in my 20s although never stopped developing myself in my own time. I’m now fortunate enough to do what I love for a brand that really does deliver the best events, crowd, and atmosphere each and every time, all with the best bunch of friends I could wish for.
How have you utilised the 2020/21 lockdowns?
Whilst we had to postpone some very big bookings until next year, we were fortunate (and brave) enough to run several outdoor social distanced and even seated events over the restricted periods. It was a big challenge logistically and a complete learning curve to play music aimed at making people dance whilst ensuring they wouldn’t dance! We all learnt a lot from that and earned some decent Kudos points in the industry for giving it a go and making it happen in a safe and covid friendly manner.

DancersHip have since squeezed in a HedKandi and Café Mambo gig and managed to run events at ADE in Amsterdam this year which were definitely aided by the reputation built up over the past couple of years.
Describe your DJ style.
I’m generally known for the uplifting vocal, nu disco and rather camp piano house, I’m never ashamed to play a bit of cheese if I think its what the crowd want. Imagine if HedKandi and the old Zeros nightclub had a baby and you’ll not be far off. That said I can turn to most genres of House and often enjoy a nice deep warm up session and equally a pumping chunky Techy bit of carnage at the end of a night. A bit of everything really, all of us at DancersHip has our own style which compliments each other but can also turn to the varied styles to support and bounce off each other, I guess that’s why it works so well.
Talk us through your podcast mix track selection.
Given that there are plenty of my vocal mixes about and that’s what I’m more known for, I decided to go a little bit more Chunky on this one, probably 80% less vocal than my usual and certainly not so hands in the air or what anyone who knows me would be expecting. I had a lot of fun doing this although did get a couple of vocals in towards the end, hard to resist at least one or two.
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