ASHLEY BEEDLE

I think Ashley is a talented motherfucker. Straight up, he’s on my type of head, and he’s a cool kid. See the Ballistic Brothers, Black Science Orchestra - that’s all experimental shit too. He’s just doing what he feels, he ain’t trying to satisfy nobody.’ - Kenny ‘Dope’ Gonzalez, Masters At Work.

Praise indeed, from one of the US’s house legends, for one of the UK’s longest serving DJs. For nigh on twenty years, Ashley Beedle has been DJing around the globe, and producing music for over half that time.

His DJ career kicked off in the late 70s and early 80s, playing a mix of reggae, soul and funk with a number of North London sound systems - most notably, Stateside and Shock, who went on to become a regular favourite at London’s Notting Hill Carnival in the late 80s. It was during the late 80s in fact, that Ashley bagged a residency at the now infamous RIP parties in London’s Clink Street.

In the more conventional histories of British house music, Danny and Jenni Rampling’s Shoom club holds pride of place as the seminal night of the late 80s. But RIP, however, had as great a part to play, if not greater, in the evangelical movement to bring house music to the heart of London. Located in a dank, labyrinthine building in Clink Street near London Bridge, home many centuries ago to Britain’s first prison, its musical emphasis was on uncompromising Chicago house in contrast to the suburban Balearic pop of Shoom. This was purist heaven, with resident DJs Kid Batchelor, Eddie Richards and Mr. C spinning up a storm of acid house and techno - no frills, just a room, a strobe and plenty of dry ice.

Like the sound system culture on which Ashley had cut his teeth, there were MCs, keyboard players and singers at Clink Street, as well as DJs. Given this, it’s no wonder that he found his niche there, his reputation steadily increasing around London and taking him further afield up to Derby, Nottingham and beyond to play a mixture of early house and hip hop.

From then on, things began to snowball for him. Phil Perry asked Ashley to play at the Sunday Sessions at Queens in Colnbrook. Then there were Charlie Chester’s Flying parties, legendary for their two-week Ibiza takeovers.

It was around this time that Ashley also became manager of London’s Black Market Records. Situated in Soho, Black Market has arguably been Britain’s most important dance music shop for over a decade, primarily for house and garage and latterly for the burgeoning jungle scene, famous not only in London but around the world. As manager, Ashley came into contact with all the major players on the London house scene and beyond. Indeed, it was on the recommendation of shop owner Rene Gelston that Ashley went on to tour with Chicago House legends Fingers Inc. A brief spell at Flying Records followed, before the Beedle reputation had grown to the extent that he was able to take on a DJing career full time.

Since those days, Ashley has gone on to be a well-respected DJ all over the globe, still playing a mix of music right across the spectrum, as well as primarily house-based sets. He’s had a string of UK based residencies from the infamous Boys Own parties (where he first met residents Rocky and Diesel) to superclubs like Ministry of Sound, Cream and Renaissance. Nevertheless, he has no truck with the ‘Cult of the DJ’ phenomenon. As he recently put it to 7 magazine: ‘Superstar DJs - just take their effigies and burn them down. Music is for the people. It’s about going to clubs and listening to the music again, instead of going "I got really off my face last night. I can’t remember what the DJ was like, but it was a brilliant night anyway." What’s all that about?’

In the meantime, Ashley had also started producing his own tracks, hooking up with David Holmes in ‘91, unleashing their first release ‘De Niro’ under the Disco Evangelists name. But he’s most famous for his collaborations with Rocky and Diesel and a string of house anthems under the banner of X-Press 2 including ‘Say What’ (which hit the top 30 in the UK charts) and ‘Muzik X-Press’, both popular classics not only in the UK but among the New York house elite. Indeed, Ashley has always been well respected by the US house congnoscenti, often DJing with many top DJs on request, Tony Humphries, Danny Tenaglia, Roger Sanchez and Masters At Work among them.

In 1994 the X-Press boys diversifed, hooking up with Dave Hill and engineer Uschi Classen to record as The Ballistic Brothers - a ramshackle collection of heads and unashamed trainspotters. By the following year the London Hooligan Soul LP was released, an astonishing mix of house, dub reggae, downtempo and hip hop influences. The 12" single ‘I’ll Fly Away’ was even adopted by drum and bass DJ Fabio, becoming an anthem at his legendary club night Speed. 1997 saw the follow-up LP Rude System, yet another genre-bending album, including a gorgeous cover of John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’. X-Press 2 had meanwhile bagged a brie