DUPLEX

Mick Wilson made up one half of the infamous international duo dj'ing sensation Parks and Wilson, the guys that did some incredible stuff supporting Paul Oakenfold on the Renaissance Worldwide tour. Mick Wilson was also one third of Tilt, the others being John Graham (also known as Quivver) and Mick Parks. Mick blew our minds away with his incredible set at Duplex on May 17th 2006.  But when did it all start ?    Forming their partnership as DJ’s in 1989 at a club called “The Eclipse” in Coventry, England, Parks & Wilson played alongside prog legend, Sasha. By 1994 their status had seen them develop a full international schedule, playing alongside Simply Red in Verona with further shows in Paris and the rest of Europe.

A 1996, collaboration with John Graham resulted in what was to become their first TOP 40 under the pseudonym of Tilt. “I dream” was signed by Paul Oakenfold under his Perfecto label and was a massive success. In 1998 they were signed to “independent label of the year” Hooj Choons and made the U.K. Top 20 with their release “invisible”. The hit track was originally a collaboration with Paul van Dyk which Tilt then made the backdrop for vocals by Grace of the unforgettable “It’s not over yet” fame.

Other recent Tilt offerings have been a remix of Karen Ramirez’s “Lies” and the incredible “Space Manoeuvres” track featured on Sasha and John Digweed’s Northern Exposure album. Parks and Wilson have also been asked to do a remix on Danny Tenaglia’s label, Twisted, of “Baby do you feel me”.

Parks & Wilson were globetrotters, playing their own brand of sexy underground dance music at some of the biggest events, festivals and best clubs in the world. The duo held a residency at former London superclub Home and played regularly at clubs like The Gallery (London), Womb (Tokyo), Pacha (Buenos Aires), and Yellow (Tokyo). In addition, the duo headlined many international tours of clubs like Gatecrasher and Renaissance.

In the spring of2005, after working together for over a decade in the business, the dynamic duo of Mick Parks and Mick Wilson, best known under their Parks & Wilson guise, call it a day on their partnership and decide to go exclusively solo. The band Broken Dolls is currently taking up the majority of Mick Wilson’s creative juices:

"With my new band and all the time that I am putting into it, I haven’t got time to pursue Parks & Wilson in the capacity I would like. Don’t get me wrong, I have had some great times performing and producing within the P&W banner for the last 10 years, but I feel the need to explore new and exciting avenues. I am still performing as a dj, that will never leave my system, but I am taking the opportunity to be more diverse with my musical tastes and choices." 

One of the nicest fellas in the industry, we hope to see Mick back at Duplex very soon!
 

After discovering dance music in 1989 and attending such events as Fantazia, Dreamscape and the early Tribal Gathering parties, it wasn't long before the urge to actually begin playing the music took hold of the man from Bournemouth.

Inspired by what he'd seen from a wide spectrum of DJ's, he started playing at house parties from where word of his skills spread. This was swiftly followed by the opportunity to play regularly at Route 44, Cosies, Gardening Club, The Rhino and the Academy amongst other venues across Southern England.

Following a move to London and with close friend Rob Duffy, the opportunity to start a night presented itself and Audio Deluxe was born in May 2003. Here, Andy once again established his reputation playing a unique mix of breaks, deep and cool progressive all tinged with warm melodies and chords alongside the likes of Anthony Pappa, James Holden, and Matthew Dekay.

Through the success of the night, guest spots and promotional CDs, a second residency back on the South coast materialised at Filthy. Here, the opportunity to play a bigger peak time slot has attracted new followers and helped to develop the Newland sound. This led to mixes being aired on Fire 107.6FM, numerous guest mixes on eccentric beats, and in May 2004, Thump Radio broadcast a mix over the Californian airwaves during Andy's last visit.

Now, with further transatlantic experience and having played at Club Sugar, Casey's in Los Angeles, Spundae and for Qool Records in San Francisco, Mekka Tek in Mexico, more US dates are to follow this year. The UK scene, meanwhile, is also opening up with guest slots including our very own Duplex for the first birthday celebrations. A great character with loads of talent, we hope to see Andy back at Duplex soon !

Mike Miller has been spinning vinyl for about 12 years. Initially falling for the tailend of acid house, he then discovered the new & futuristic sound of early jungle & hardcore, which began to emerge at the start of the 90's. He was originally influenced heavily by breakbeat and by DJ's such as Micky Finn, Ellis Dee, Grooverider, Ratty & Slipmatt and by artists such as the legendary Altern8 and by early Prodigy material, "before they sold out".

In 1993, labels such as Guerilla & Cowboy began making their way into his collection, in amongst the hardcore, which gradually got pushed to the back of the box. Such was his interest in this new sound that Sasha & Digweed tapes quickly replaced Grooverider and Slipmatt on his walkman.

Not limiting himself to one genre, being labelled as a "progressive jock" can be a bit frustrating for him at times. He calls the styles he plays "Percussive House", a combination of deep, tribal, progressive, tech house & breakbeat and not just purely "pigeon hole progressive".

In 2002, Mike moved from Dublin to Liverpool, where he now works with Andy Jarrod @ 3 Beat Label Management as Promotion & Marketing manager for 22 of the world's top progressive house labels. He is also A&R head for 3 Beat Music Ltd and label manager for Liverpool based Minimal & Dirty Blue Records.

Included on the 3 Beat Label Management roster amongst many others are Border Community (James Holden's Imprint), EMP (Evolution/Fluid), Vapour Recordings (Kasey Taylor), Zero Tolerance, Musiq (Dj Gogo), SOG (Greed), Nu-Republic, DEEP & Deep Focus and Lowriders (Matthew Dekay/Nick K).

December 2003 saw the launch of his own imprint, 3 Beat Breaks and the release of it's 1st single, Chakra "I Am" (Remixes). To date, the label has had 3 releases with 4 more scheduled, and features fantastic tracks and remixes from some of the worlds most influential artists - Momu, Wrecked Angle, Kasey Taylor, Fretwell, Chris Lake, Özgür Can & Rouzbeh Delavari, Mortar & Pestle, Moshic, Jacob Todd, Relisys & more.

Anthony Probyn is one of the countrys hottest up and coming dj's. Aged 24 Anthony is a regular guest at Liverpool superclub Cream and friend to the team here at Duplex. His unique style of house music based on tech house and breaks is fast earning him the respect of many of his peers. Anthony has been involved with the dance music scene since leaving school. A visit to Cream in January 2000 showed Anthony a whole new world. He bought his first set of decks aged 17 and has continued to progress within the industry ever since.  He quickly established a good following at his nights and began to receive offers to play at various bars, clubs and parties within Chester. By the age of 18 Anthony had played at most of the venues in the city and secured his first residency at Alchemy nightclub. The gigs for Anthony started to become more frequent and he started to play on a more regular basis for various nights in Liverpool and the surrounding areas.

2002 was a major year for Anthony as he finally made the breakthrough he had been working for “I had a few meetings with the Cream promoter at the time Iain Hoskins about the possibility of playing at the club,  Iain said he’d think about it and we left it at that, a couple of weeks later I bumped into Iain in the club and he said that the gig would go ahead.” Anthony played his first gig aged 19 on 22 June 2002 and in doing so became one of the youngest DJ’s ever to play for Cream on a Saturday night. Anthony also made his international debut in 2002 playing at the legendary Bar M in Ibiza.

Anthony decided to take his career one step further and moved to Ibiza the following summer. He gained employment with one of Ibiza’s most respected promotion companies, plug promotions inc. Anthony spent the summer distributing promotional records to the islands biggest DJ’s and playing for some of the cooler bars and clubs. Anthony also continued his association with Cream playing the 11th birthday alongside Pete Tong and DJ Tiesto. Anthony also appeared in the annexe on boxing night alongside Steve Lawler.

By March 2004 Anthony had jetted off to London and Toronto in Ontario, Canada playing for several small underground nights and also hosting a Global Grooves Session in London. In April and May Anthony travelled to Marbella, Spain where he played several gigs for Silks by the sea. June and Anthony moved back to Ibiza to manage Una Mas Disco’s record store at the back of café mambo. Anthony returned half way through August for his first festival appearance at Creamfields; he played in the MTV tent along with Sasha, Sander Klienenberg and Nic Fanciulli to name but a few. September 2004 saw the birth of Urban Grooves, Anthony’s record and clothing store. Anthony also secured 2 new residencies with up and coming nights Funkadelic (Liverpool) and Revelations (Stoke) capping a fantastic year for him.

Last year started well with more appearances at Cream booked in and the news of another busy summer in Ibiza. March and May Bank holidays provided 2 more gigs at Cream, the latter seeing Anthony play the courtyard with PVD. June arrived and back out to Ibiza, he played 4 dates for Cream (including the opening party) at Amnesia, 2 dates at Steve Lawlers Viva party and one date at Carl Cox's party @ Space. Anthony also took the Una Mas brand to Ibiza and put on highly successful parties every other week in Savannah’s late night lounge. August and he returned to the UK for a couple of days to play the hospitality tent at Creamfields. Anthony returned from Ibiza in September and received bookings from Cream (October & December) and The redlight at Sankeys Soap (November). The year was finally capped off with an appearance at subliminal sessions New Years Eve bash in Manchester alongside Eric Morillo.

This year saw Anthony grace the decks at Duplex for the first time, later this summer Anthony’s website will go live, and he's also putting together a tour for the end of the year and will be in Ibiza again for the summer.

We had the privilege of Steve headlining for us back in September 2005 in front of a packed out dance floor here at Duplex. Needless to say Steve rocked it from start to finish of his two and a half hour set - to the delight of the Duplex crowd in attendance.  It was a first for both Steve and the Duplex team on two accounts, first of all Steve is a native of our fine City here in Chester and it was the first time Steve had the opportunity to play a venue and for a crowd both appreciative of the quality prog sound he creates. The capture of Steve was also our first big name dj to make a special guest appearance at Duplex.  Thanks once again to Steve for taking time out of his busy international schedule.

For those of you who are non familiar with Steve please read on.  Back in 1998, Steve won Muzik Magazine's Bedroom Bedlam competition and since then his career has gone from strength to strength. With influences that range from Sasha and Digweed, Nick Warren and Danny Howells to Adam Freeland and Hybrid and the technical skills of Anthony Pappa, he has developed a unique style. Which is: deep, progressive house mixed with breakbeat and a hint of trance, building steadily and creating a set which is more than the sum of its parts. All the while keeping in mind that it is his job to make people want to dance and keep on dancing.

Steve has been invited to play around the world at clubs like Bedrock, Home (London), Nikita (San Francisco), Giant (LA), Spundae (WMC Miami), Limelight (NYC), Skysound (Mexico), Fluid (Hong Kong), God's Kitchen, Ministry of Sound, The End (London), Progress (Istanbul), Snakepit (Denver), El Campo (Argentina), Trance Buddha (Amsterdam), Duplex (Chester) as well as being picked by Steve Lawler to be resident at his Midweek Session night. Steve’s played alongside Anthony Pappa, Steve Lawler, Nick Warren, Adam Freeland, Hybrid, Hyper, Craig Richards, Justin Robertson and John Digweed and his broad musical tastes have given him the great opportunity to appear as the support dj for rock band Oasis, in front of a massive 93,000 people!!!  

Steve's mixes have been featured on such infamous dance radio shows such as Pete Tong's Essential Selection and John Digweed's Kiss FM show in London. He also had the opportunity to have one of his mixes featured on the cover of the monthly Muzik Magazine (December 2000), which included tracks by Moby, BT, Underworld, Layo & Bushwacka! and Parks & Wilson.

In July 2002, Steve began a residency at DIRTY in Birmingham where he'll be playing alongside the A list of progressive house, including Sasha and Digweed.

As if the life of a jet-setting wasn't enough, Steve's also focusing on production in, and has just signed deals with Minimal, Intrinsic, Navigation & Choo Choo’s new breaks label, Akademia. Nick Warren, Anthony Pappa, Steve Lawler, James Zabiela and Danny Howells have all been supporting his tracks already.

Xpander called Steve "one of the most impressive upcoming DJ's in the world", and Chris from Hybrid said in Muzik magazine that "Steve is one of the best up and coming DJs I've heard in a long time. He has very similar tunes in his box to me, actually - deep, progressive tracks that aren't too shiny! I walked into a club recently and he was playing most of the stuff I was going to play... God knows where he gets all those tunes!"

For more info on Steve and many other quality dj's why not visit our links page.