A white background with a few lines on it

On Fire 🔥

by Editorial Team 18 February 2025
We explore the thoughts of artists and music sharing. In today's digital age, discovering new music has become more accessible than ever due to online platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud, and download services such as Beatport. While traditional methods of exploring music, such as visiting record shops, have diminished in popularity, the process of musical exploration remains significant and enriching, especially when one encounters a standout track. For performing artists, the quest for fresh music is a continuous endeavor, often regarded as equally important as the performance itself. This raises an interesting question: is it appropriate for artists to keep the details of their music sources confidential? This topic invites further discussion from some of the South West DJs and producers on the nature of music discovery in the modern landscape.
Hey folks! Ben Holtam here—aka DJ BenG—your go-to guy for all things beats, basslines, and good vibe
by Ben Holtam 10 February 2025
Hey folks! Ben Holtam here—aka DJ BenG—your go-to guy for all things beats, basslines, and good vibes in the South West. As we gear up for another epic summer, I’ve rounded up the must-hit music festivals of 2025 across Cornwall, Devon, and beyond. Whether you're an avid raver, a wellness enthusiast, or a family seeking entertainment, the South West's festival scene caters to your needs. Let’s dive in!
A white background with a few lines on it

Paul Oakenfold To Play Hypnosis 30th Anniversary In Newquay

20th July 2019 | Tall Trees, Newquay

A man wearing headphones and sunglasses is playing a dj set.

We have some huge news for Cornwall and the wider South West. Non other than Paul Oakenfold will be headlining the 30th anniversary for Hypnosis events at Newquay's Tall Trees nightclub on 20th July 2019.

About Hypnosis

Hypnosis have over thirty years experience within the music industry covering all aspects of promotion. Formed originally in Manchester in 1989, at the Thunderdome when the house scene was very underground and just starting to gain momentum and notoriety. Coaches of party heads would travel from the Hacienda, Manchester to Newquay for our weekend summer events.

Through determination and hard work Hypnosis became one of the most respected organisers of dance and Indie events within the music scene. Hypnosis have organised events from club level to large arena shows from venues around the country.

Hypnosis are also the guys who are bringing Graeme Park and Marshall Jefferson to Newquay this summer for another massive club night.

About Paul Oakenfold
Paul Oakenfold is the UK’s number one DJ. This simple statement, however, doesn’t even begin to properly acknowledge Oakenfold’s stellar contribution to our musical landscape. His signature can be seen in everything from the early rise of hip-hop and the re-invention of British dance culture to the Balearic explosion and the birth of ‘Madchester’.

Indeed, it’s a testament to Oakenfold’s restless curiosity and imagination that his career shows no signs of diminution, even after two decades. A snapshot of his activities through the summer of 2001, for instance, finds Oakenfold hosting Perfecto nights in Ibiza before travelling to America where he’s the headline DJ on Moby’s ambitious Area:One festival tour. After that, there are DJ dates everywhere from Buenos Aires and Mexico City to Clapham Common.

Oakenfold has also contributed the soundtrack to America’s number one box-office movie, Swordfish, the release of which is closely followed by the Perfecto Presents Paul Oakenfold in Ibiza DJ mix album this summer. A relentless schedule that emphasises Oakenfold’s growing global status.

All this began in the late-Seventies when a very young Paul Oakenfold, together with his friend Trevor Fung, cut their musical teeth by mixing soul and rare-groove at a basement bar in London’s Covent Garden. His imagination stirred, Oakenfold decided to find the roots of his new-found obsession by moving to West Harlem in New York.

Oakenfold worked as a courier for local dance radio stations in the Big Apple. By night he checked out the city’s burgeoning new club environment, witnessing the extraordinary birth of hip-hop. Fired up, Oakenfold was determined to break into the music industry.

Returning to London, Paul landed a job as an A&R man at Champion Records. He had a keen ear and quickly signed Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - the latter, of course, to be subsequently revealed as Will Smith - and Salt n’ Pepa.

From Champion, Oakenfold moved to the London offices of Profile and Def Jam. By this time, however, he was increasingly interested in DJ’ing and producing, twin ambitions that were soon to be amply fulfilled.

In 1987 Paul, together with fellow-DJs Danny Rampling, Nicky Holloway and Ian St Paul, travelled to the Balearic island of Ibiza for a summer holiday. At that time the island was a hippie-inspired community with an over-indulgent club scene. The sunshine was great, however, and the bars plentiful. There was potential for a vivid new underground scene, although no one realised at the time just how Ibiza would come to dominate club culture in years to come.

Paul returned to England with a new Balearic house sound. He began running regular club nights in London, most particularly Spectrum of the Future at Heaven. The club became the fulcrum of a new dance attitude, attracting not only the regular London crews but also out of town rock musicians, including the Manchester bands, The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays.

Despite his dance music reputation, Oakenfold had always been an eclecticist at heart, growing up with an equal affection for rock and pop music. Through the latter part of the Eighties, however, rock had become increasingly irrelevant to a new generation fuelled on the underground explosion of club culture. Its presence permeated everything, from illicit activities through to language and fashion, thus it was inevitable that dance music itself would exert a revitalising influence on rock.

In 1989 Paul and his production partner Steve Osborne were asked to produce Happy Mondays, a band on the seminal Manchester label, Factory. The result was the Madchester Rave On EP, a mash-up of dance, indie, funk and pop that acted as a catalyst for the ‘baggy’ scene, along the way inspiring a whole string of bands in Manchester and beyond. It preceded the biggest album of the band’s career, the Oakenfold / Osborne produced Pills ‘N’ Thrills and Bellyaches in 1990.

It was the start of a long connection between Oakenfold and rock music. He was, for instance, the DJ at The Stone Roses’ historic Spike Island concert and, along with Osborne, remixed such bands as New Order, The Cure and Massive Attack. Indeed, the Oakenfold / Osborne team were nominated by the BPI as Best Producers in 1990.

A year later, in 1991, Oakenfold was approached by U2, who were then finishing the Achtung Baby album. Paul ended up remixing Even Better Than the Real Thing and Mysterious Ways, giving the band an entirely new dimension. Indeed, Oakenfold’s mix of Even Better Than the Real Thing was released as a single in its own right, reaching higher in the UK chart than U2’s original version. These activities were the start of a very long partnership with the band which, most recently, resulted in the remixed Beautiful Day, a number one hit for U2 in the American dance charts.

Determined to control his own destiny, Oakenfold launched his own record label, Perfecto, in 1990. In the subsequent years, Perfecto has been not only a conduit for Paul’s own remix activities but also a platform for new talent, encouraging such DJ talents as Timo Maas and Hernan Cattaneo.

Through the Nineties, Oakenfold’s DJ reputation went into overdrive. He held DJ residencies at Cream in Liverpool and London’s Ministry of Sound, for instance, while every summer returning to Ibiza where the strange little underground scene of the late-Eighties had become a pivotal part of dance culture. In 1995, he also became the first DJ to play on the main stage at the Glastonbury Festival.

As a remixer, Oakenfold chalked up an enormous number of credits, working with everyone from Arrested Development and Snoop Doggy Dogg to Madonna, for whom he remixed the recent single, What It Feels Like For A Girl.

And so Paul Oakenfold entered the new century as the UK’s number one DJ. Maybe that should be the world’s number one DJ, if there was any precise way of quantifying such a claim. Certainly, Oakenfold has travelled the world — among the places he’s played are Anchorage in Alaska; Vietnam; Havana; Beijing; Bombay; Rio de Janeiro; Buenos Aires; Punta del Este in Uruguay; South Korea; Macao in China; Manilla in the Philippines; Johannesburg; and Egypt.

Since the start of 2001, however, Oakenfold has concentrated his efforts on America. In January he fulfilled a personal ambition when asked by movie producer Joel Silver (of The Matrix fame) to score the soundtrack for his next movie, Swordfish. The film, starring John Travolta and Halle Berry, was released in America at the beginning of June, going to number one in the box-office charts after the first week in the cinemas. The Swordfish soundtrack album went straight to number one in the U.S. New Artist Chart.

At the same time, Oakenfold had five albums in the American Top 50 Electronic Chart. They included Perfecto Presents Another World which, when released last autumn, became America’s biggest-ever DJ mix album.

It should be no surprise, therefore, to find Paul Oakenfold as the headline DJ on Moby’s massively ambitious Area:One travelling festival tour of North America this summer. The shows open in Atlanta, Georgia, on 11th July, continuing through until California at the start of August.

After that, Paul returns to the UK to work on yet another project. This one, however, is heavily under wraps and more will be revealed at the end of 2001. Suffice to say, however, that it will signal a completely new chapter in a career that keeps moving forward.

The little south logo is on a blue background.

Written by

Editorial Team • 15 May 2019
by Editorial Team 18 February 2025
We explore the thoughts of artists and music sharing. In today's digital age, discovering new music has become more accessible than ever due to online platforms like Spotify, SoundCloud, and download services such as Beatport. While traditional methods of exploring music, such as visiting record shops, have diminished in popularity, the process of musical exploration remains significant and enriching, especially when one encounters a standout track. For performing artists, the quest for fresh music is a continuous endeavor, often regarded as equally important as the performance itself. This raises an interesting question: is it appropriate for artists to keep the details of their music sources confidential? This topic invites further discussion from some of the South West DJs and producers on the nature of music discovery in the modern landscape.
Hey folks! Ben Holtam here—aka DJ BenG—your go-to guy for all things beats, basslines, and good vibe
by Ben Holtam 10 February 2025
Hey folks! Ben Holtam here—aka DJ BenG—your go-to guy for all things beats, basslines, and good vibes in the South West. As we gear up for another epic summer, I’ve rounded up the must-hit music festivals of 2025 across Cornwall, Devon, and beyond. Whether you're an avid raver, a wellness enthusiast, or a family seeking entertainment, the South West's festival scene caters to your needs. Let’s dive in!
by Editorial Team 7 February 2025
Making her Little South debut, Sugarshaker is no stranger to the South West dance music scene having played at clubs and festivals across the region. Sugarshaker is a house, trance and techno DJ and this mix will bring a smile to your face. Expect a progressive mix with stabs of mood-lifting trance. We caught up with Sugarshaker where we learned about her DJ history and past and future residencies!
by Editorial Team 29 January 2025
The curators of the West Cornwall raves are currently preparing for their next event scheduled for May 2025. This event will take place in the fields of West Cornwall, near the village of Zennor. A lineup of DJs, including Ambassador 626 Kavos, Charlie M, Deckhead, DJ Brady, Lady Embrace, Ste Ellis, and Steve Lid, among others, will be performing. The event is a collaborative effort involving prominent dance music promotion groups such as Raw Rotation, Inception, Kernow Rave Culture, and TNT.
by Editorial Team 24 January 2025
The Paradhis Festival is a new summer event scheduled for July 4th to 6th, 2025. It will be held at Boconnoc Estate in Cornwall, providing a picturesque setting. The festival focuses on the themes of music, wellness, and nature, aiming to create an enriching experience for attendees.
by Editorial Team 24 January 2025
In episode two of our 2025 podcast mix series, we feature Reece Johnson, known for his ability to blend contemporary and classic tracks into vibrant mixes. His latest funky house mix embodies the essence of summer, showcasing an array of carefully selected songs. In the following section, Reece shares insights about his upcoming projects and what listeners can expect from him this year.
Show More
Share by: