Kev Beadle

Listen out for Kev every Tuesday 10pm - 12am (UK time) - SOLAR RADIO - Channel 879 Sky Digital and worldwide at www.solarradio.com . A freestyle mix up of jazzy and soulful beats with an edge... In 1984 was approached by local, and then not so famous djs, paul oakenfold and trevor fung to dj at many of the club nights they were promoting alongside djs such as pete tong, jeff young, chris hill and other then unknown djs like carl cox. It was around that time that he met up with other djs who shared a similar taste in music and dj'ing in the area. These included Gilles Peterson, Jez Nelson (now MD of Somethin' Else Productions), Chris Phillips (now a presenter on Kiss fm), bob jones, chris bangs and baz fe jazz and went onto to help form what was then london's only 'jazz' pirate radio station - k-jazz. In 1985 was drafted in to play at nicky holloway's 'special branch' events alongside gilles p and bob jones. Also became one of the weekly residents at the legendary monday nights at the now defunkt wag club in london's west end, as well as being a regular guest at gilles' sunday night residency at the belvedere arms in Richmond. In the late 80's/early 90's started working at timewarp records - a specialist soul & jazz shop in croydon. It was then that things really started to happen. Started to promote and dj at some very popular club nights including 'walk on the wild side' with patrick forge. This night became so popular that it outgrew the venue. From this london's first weekly jazz/alternative 'superclub' was started in the shape of a night called 'the fez' which took place every friday in the starlight club underneath the great western hotel in paddington. For the next two years 500 people used to see gilles, patrick and kev spin some of the most exciting music to hit clubland in years. It was around this time also that kev was approached by charly records and asked to compile a series of compilations utilising the cadet/argo/chess back catalogue. Over the next 18 months five lps were released under the title 'essential argo/cadet grooves' which included many tracks that have since become 'anthems' within the scene including Marlena Shaw's 'California Soul' and rotary connection's 'i am the blackgold of the sun'. Two artist 'best of' comps were also released from terry callier and saxophonist lou donaldson. In 1994 more compilations were in the offering, this time from the blue note label and over the next two years kev compiled the very well respected ''capitol rare' series, and making some of the world's most wanted rare soul/jazz tracks available to the mainstream. The dj'ing career also stepped up and by the mid/late-90's kev had played all over europe and completed two tours of japan. After stints at various london-based record shops including soul jazz and mr bongo kev started his own record label - clean up records. Working on a small budget the label released 'bedroom productions' from various up and coming producers. These included artists such as koop (now one of compost records biggest selling artists), and line of flight productions (who went on to become the sneaker pimps). It was from signing line of flight that kev and then label partner craig mineard were approached by independent record company one little indian and asked if they would be interested in clean up becoming a subsidary label of one little indian. This gave clean up bigger budgets and the opportunity to work on the label on a full-time basis in a label head/a&r managementcapacity which kevin did for the next five years. The sneaker pimps became one of the most exciting and talked about bands in the indie/dance scene, selling in excess of 750,000 lps worldwide and releasing classic tracks such as '6 underground' and club anthems including 'spin, spin sugar' remixed by armand van helden. Other artists on the label included ex-galliano vocalist valerie etienne. In september 2000 kev set up a weekly residency at bar/club sosho in london's vibey shoreditch called 'mind fluid' and is still packing them in every saturday. Guests at the night have included gilles peterson, bugz in the attic, bob jones, raw deal, ross allen, modaji and many more. Kev has also been a resident spinner at the much respected southport weekender for the last 8 years and guests at various clubs around the world. Also presents a weekly internet radio show every tuesday night 10pm - 12am on solar radio - channel 879 sky digital and worldwide at www.solarradio.com Production and remixing takes up a lot of time now, recording as the td project for the dadhouse label and is part of newly formed production team called messengers together with co-producer darren moss and has various projects set for release before the end of 2004. Musical style: jazzy/soulful incorporating everything from nu-jazz, neo-soul, latin, afro, funky, broken beats, house, d&b as well as jazz, soul & funk from the last 30 years. Discography - compilations Essential argo/cadet grooves volumes 1-5 (charly records) Best of terry callier (charly records) Best of lou donaldson (charly records) Capitol rare volumes 1-3 (blue note) Best of grant green (blue note) Nu-jazz generation vol. 1 (clean up) Nu-jazz generation vol. 2 (bbe) Discography - production/remixes Td project - spiritual (dadhouse) - released february 2001 Elevator suite - i feel music - messengers remix (bulletproof sonics) - released october 2003 Messengers - how true (white) - released october 2003 Messengers - beautiful sun (tbc)