Interview with DJ Angu$ by raveprincess.With the next instalment in the anthems series of parties coming very soon, we’ve managed to hunt down DJ Angu$, who was a bit of a fixture on the Adelaide dance scene for many years. He started off at the Penthouse Club in 1987 and remembers his first gig at the strip club as “ playing crap music in between co-ordinating the performers’ music, opening and closing the stage curtains and bantering with the host.” It did, however, pay for his increasing addiction to 12” records!
Back in the days when he started out, Angu$ says the scene was very small and, at that time, there were “maybe 300-400 regular house club-goers in Adelaide and no understanding or acceptance of the music from the rest of the world. In 1989, I was resident at the Mars Bar, as it was the only place I could work and play that music. Even then it was after 4am when the recovery crowd rolled in! In 2005 it’s a very different story. Dance music is an accepted and integral part of the world’s commercial music scene and has massive acceptance – that’s the major change from when I first started DJing.”
As we all know, most DJs have a stage name – some involving a lot of thought, others starting off as a joke that stuck and some just a childhood nickname. The progression from Angus to Angu$ seems to be a bit of an evolutionary story: “I was working at a club called “Base” on Hindley Street in 1990 doing a Thursday hip hop/funk/New Jack(R&B) night. At the time it was fashionable to have a DJ name with letters in it (HMC ATB George The Boss DAMC PHD DJB PMA MPK etc), so the promoter called me Angus S (1st initial of my surname) to make me sound cooler (???!) The new name stuck and then became Angus $ for a reason that escapes me - I think Scott Thompson and the Metro crew had something to do with it. I then shortened it to Angu$, partly to differentiate between me and DJ Angus from Brisbane, and partly because it looked good on flyers I guess.”
Angu$ has also dabbled in the production side of dance music, running a couple of record labels - Taste Records, with fellow Adelaide stalwart Brendon, as well as Killa Kanga Records. He says of these projects “Both experiences were bitter-sweet and taught me that art and business are very hard to successfully combine - as well as how hard it is to collect money owed to you from thousands of kilometres away!”
Although pretty much retired from DJing these days, Angu$ does occasionally make a public appearance for his good friends at anthems – and certainly seems to love it! It’s great to know that the reasons we all love these nights is exactly why many DJs, such as Angu$, will come out of retirement to spin some well-loved tunes for us. When asked what the best bit about being involved with these nights is, Angu$ says “The memories (obviously!) but also a chance to experience again that indescribable feeling of standing in front of, or amongst, a group of people and sharing something special with them. It was a particularly exciting time for everyone because the music was really starting to reach out to a wider audience. More and more people were being caught in the feeling of the time and the music reflects the excitement and freshness of the era.”
One would assume that the record collection of an anthems DJ consists of only knock-em-dead, collector’s edition, killer pieces of vinyl that we’d all be totally envious of – Angu$ dispels that myth saying “I have way too many pieces of vinyl! Don’t forget that for every Anthem, there are 500 tunes that didn’t make it and they end up gathering dust. I think every DJ in the world has the same problem.”
He does, however, have some pieces he’s particularly happy to have in his collection – such as the Jigsaw EP. “It was a 4 track EP of Adelaide artists, which we released in 1994 after the rave of the same name. The idea of the party was that each DJ had to play a tune on the night that they had made. After the party some of us decided to try and release the tunes we’d made. The tunes on the EP were from PHD, MPK, PMA, DAMC and myself (see what I mean about names with initials!) It was a totally independent and self-funded-white label, with my girlfriend and me stamping all 500 records with a rubber stamp on the lounge room floor - then we were on the phone all night trying to flog them off! We sold the 500 copies pressed, and the tune by MPK and PMA became an anthem in Adelaide and Perth. Because it was such an exciting time, and the first time I’d ever made music, it’s certainly the record in my collection I’m most proud of.”
It seems that Angu$ lived it up pretty well during his time as a DJ and has a few people to make amends to, judging by his answer to my question “what’s been the funniest or most embarrassing moment whilst DJing? “There are too many to list… possibly vomiting on stage (for reasons I won’t go into here) next to my record box (not in the record box, Brendon!!) before my last set in Darwin many years ago, or maybe missing a certain NYE gig due to excessive celebrations earlier that night. I blame Bof for the whole thing, as he led me astray that night... To MPK, Noddy, PFG? and Maestro D (who played my set), my sincerest apologies guys!”
We all have missed opportunities we wish had worked out and in a 17-year DJing career, Angu$ says there are many. There is, however, one in particular that sticks with him – a tour of Scotland that ended up getting cancelled. “After Central Station released a group of hardcore CD’s from myself, Spellbound and Geoff the Chef, we were booked for a tour sponsored by Centrals and Fosters. Just before it was all finalised, the media frenzy started over ecstasy and the Anna Wood death, and everything fell over. It was an opportunity missed that I still regret.”
I’m sure we haven’t heard the last of Angu$ just yet – although he says in five years time he hopes to be “happy, healthy and with a better golf handicap!!” he also says “I have no idea right now what my artistic future holds for me, but I know I’m not quite finished yet.”
Well done Tara that is sik 
