Superstar Djs Here We Go!

by Dom Phillips

'It was about larging it. It was about pulling out a wad of 20s when you were buying your champagne at the bar. It was about buying your cocaine in an eight ball. It was about wearing designer clothes. At that top tier of that club scene, it was about giving it loads'. With a foreword by music journalist, Miranda Sawyer, "Superstar DJs Here We Go!" is the full, unexpurgated story of the biggest pop culture phenomenon of the 1990 the rise and fall of the superstar DJ. During the 1990s big names such as Sasha, Jeremy Healy, Fatboy Slim, Dave Seaman, Nicky Holloway, Judge Jules, and Pete Tong exploded out of acid house, becoming international jetsetters, flying all over the world just to play a few hours and commanding up to GBP140,000 a night. The plush, heavily branded 'superclubs' where they performed - clubs like Cream, Ministry, Renaissance and Gatecrasher - were filled with thousands of adoring clubbers, roaring their approval of their DJ gods.For the DJs and promoters, it was a license to print money and live like a rock star. For clubbers, it was a hedonistic utopia where anyone and everyone could come together to look fabulous, take drugs, and dance the night away. But underneath the shiny surface lurked a darker side, a world of cynical moneymaking, rampant egos and cocaine-fuelled self-indulgence that eventually spiralled out of control leaving behind burnt-out DJs, jobless promoters and a host of bittersweet memories. They went from having the clubbing world at their feet to the world's biggest comedown. Dom Phillips - former editor of clubbers' bible "Mixmag" - reveals an enthralling and at times jaw-dropping account of flawed people, broken dreams and what really happens when it all goes Pete Tong.

Genres: Music, History

384 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2009

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A no holds barred look back at how dance music, starting with acid house, changed the shape of clubbing and indeed maybe the UK itself, via the story of the rise and fall of the super star DJs. With detailed stories and interview snippets with the likes of Sasha, Pete Tong, Danny Rampling, Fatboy Slim and many more, as well as documenting the emergence of Ministry of Sound, Cream and under super club franchises.

The dance music journalist Dom Phillips who put this book together, personally knows most of the big players, so a reader really gets the true inside track of how the acid house raves of the last 1980s mutated into the all conquering dance music scene of the 1990s creating millionaires DJs and clubs with global recognition! On a personal note, I was a house music DJ and promoter back in the late 80s, and it's interesting to see how this book can cover this part of clubbing history by mentioning only one person of colour in depth and only as a negative - Lisa L'Anson. From my personal experience this is just the elitists' part of the dance music story and it sort of side-sweeps all the amazing stories, clubs and DJs of colour that were part of this. He couldn't even get a few quotes from the likes of Frankie Knuckles, Carl Cox, Fabio, Grooverider?

Above: Carl Cox
For anyone that 'went out' in the 1990s, or that likes dance music, the DJs, the radio DJs and or has an interest in modern cultural history this book is an absolute gem of a must-read though albeit through the lens of white males... although the Liverpool stories featuring mostly men from working class backgrounds rule this book! 8 out of 12 from me. Trigger warnings for a huge amount of talk of drug and alcohol abuse.

2021 read

[Александр Шушпанов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга об интересных фактах из биографии некоторых знаменитых людей c британской клубной сцены 90-х, треки которых до сих пор звучат из ваших стереосистем и персональных проигрывателей. Ещё одно доказательство того, что в 90-е клубная культура докатывалась до России с опозданием минимум на три года. Доказательство того, что многие клубные вещи в результате восприятия потребителем воспринимаются не так, как изначально задумывалось автором. Да и чёрт с этим.

Не покупайте русский вариант (ISBN 978-5-990-3760-1-4) - переводчик временами несёт совершенную чушь, не может перевести фразу "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", а также местами до боли неграмотен. Издано, правда, прилично.

[Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining skim over the successes and excesses of superstar DJs and clubland culture of the 90s. Light and nostalgic read for anybody that experienced this era. However, the perspective comes across as rather England-centric and the book could have done with more fact checking and editing. For example, suggesting the Glasgow club night Colours was an ‘Edinburgh club night’ or that the ‘Trainspotting’ film name was inspired solely by the act of watching trains. Would also have been interesting to read more about how this same pilled up cultural movement positively affected the peace process in Ireland and Northern Ireland via the clubs.

[Dean Millson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this down on the beach over a couple if days on my honeymoon. Dom pieces together a well written and entertaining (his)story tracing the highs and then the lows of dance music, its stars and its culture. A great read for anyone who was a part of it in some way, either on the dance floor or in the DJ booth.

[Caroline Juskus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this project for an assignment on female DJs. I am giving it one star as it did mention female DJs, which was a step up from other books which seem to brush off the fact that women do DJ and very successfully. However, women only appear in a chapter entitled Random Birds, Meterosexuals and Trannies and then the references are to girls dancing round handbags, a beautiful black girl in dreads saying @I've got the hots for you,' ;fluffy bra tops, heels and hotpants; women dressing in sexually provocative ways; cajoling girlfriends to play the trophy babe role; stand over there darlin' the men are talking; beautiful willing young hookers.... I can't bear to go on. COME ON!!!!! The Black Madonna could scratch Dom Phillips (the Author) outta existence, eat him for breakfast, shit him out and he'd still think he was writing a a clubbing bible. Somebody pull the plug on his sound system PLEASE!

[Ashish · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book for what it was. The book centers on British culture rather than global; The US isn’t really repressed here. Also, I wish the book had been edited better. The reason why I read this book is because I liked Dom’s sleeve notes for Global Underground. I didn’t find his writing style had the same energy in this book.

Tragically, Dom was kidnapped and killed in Brazil in 2022. R.I.P.

[Carl Rush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book but I wish I had read it a few years ago (bit out of date now and could have done with an update to the current state of dance music)

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

A reminder of the heady days of clubbing and DJing in the post acid house days of the 1990s.
Really interesting to read about the rise and fall of the superstar DJs and superclubs.