Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter
The SAS Crew set about their mission to track down
the man we all know as Billy Bunter, real name being Daniel Light.
The mission commenced at 18.00, and it took us through the most
dense fog imaginable. At the same pace as a snail on crutches we
crept along, being able to see no further than a few feet ahead. In
spite of the abysmal weather the mission continued to investigate
the man in question.
An eternity later, well realistically three hours later we had found
Potters Bar in North London. The next objective was to locate the
dwelling of Billy Bunter and family for interrogation. Easy! Maybe
not, as half an hour later our destination had still not been found.
So it was to the nearby call box, to maintain further directions,
and equipped with this added information we found the homestead. We
were behind the planned schedule but nevertheless had made the
initial contact.
The investigations proved to be fruitful. A young DJ at only twenty
years of age, this isn’t to say that youth is a downfall, quite the
contrary as in addition to his youth is such adoration of the music
he both makes and spins on the decks. Informed that Billy Bunter is
superstitious the conclusion was made that he is leaving his career
in the hands of fate. He’s striving hard for the future of Hard and
Happy music, and in Billy’s words:
“You shouldn’t be a DJ just to be the owner of a flash car, or to be
the one with the babe on your arm. To be a DJ you have to both enjoy
and believe in the music, and above all else you must love it!”
His interest in spinning the decks began about six years ago, and
found original inspirations came from people like Andy Weatherall,
Kenny Ken, Vinylmatt now known as Matt Maurice. Also inspired by
Frankie Valentine who was into House in the early 90’s, much
inspiration came from Hip-Hop, which still influences him today. His
love for the music found him a job in a record shop, this must have
obviously given him good opportunity to practice his hands on the
decks.
He first played out at Club Labrynth, where he became resident, it
was every Friday and Saturday where he would get the Labrynth
regulars rocking.
This was before the scene segregated when anything from Shades Of
Rhythm to ‘Who’s The Bad Man!’ was played. ‘Who’s The Bad Man?’ is
played by House DJ’s of today which just shows how the Hardcore of
yesteryear is often compared to the House of today.
Billy’s own first love is Happy and Hard dance music but is open
minded enough to enjoy all types of music, including House, Jungle
and Techno. Originality is what is most important to Billy, anything
original is approved by him. He would love to see an event with
integration of music, allowing all music to be enjoyed at one event,
he is aware though that Promoters would be taking a big risk by
putting on an event of this kind. He feels that there are for and
against arguments about segregation but personally he would love to
see the scene brought together more. I was under the impression that
the scene was about unity, so where is this precious unity now with
the segregation?
Currently working with a vast number of record labels and the music
he’s compiling reflects his adoration of Happy music and his hunger
for originality. This is particularly true in the case of his newly
formed label G.B.T. ie Great Britain Techno. In my opinion G.B.T. of
Happy and Hard music as we know it. It uses a lot of acidy sounds
and had a general harder edge to it, this is especially true with
the G.B.T. track ‘Born Mutha Fucka’ it’s acidy and hard but not so
hard that it frightens off the crowd. It’s a definite stomper!
Stage One, Just Another Label, Stompin Choonz and Happy Jack are all
Billy’s own labels. So he’s a pretty busy buy, not so busy though
that he forsakes his family. That is his girlfriend Sonia and son
Jack, as when Billy isn’t DJ’ing or in the studio he’s spending time
with his family. He may pop out for a game of snooker, Billy says,
“Snooker is a good game”, he has obviously named his Happy Jack
label after his own son, so this alone shows he is a family man
which I found out for myself. In the near future Billy’s going to be
involved with a new label. Being of an experimental nature but still
on the Happy side. It will be concentrating on real vocals, Billy
hates too many obvious samples. It will also have a harder but
bouncier edge to it and will probably have an acidy feel. Sounds
intriguing to me! The title of this new label will aptly be a
futuristic nature possibly Tomorrow World or Future Harmony. Either
would be a good option for such futuristic music, so keep your eyes
peeled for this new label.
Billy’s advice for up and comings, is to be prepared. Be prepared
for all the let-downs and kicks in the teeth. In this ‘dog eats dog’
career of DJ’ing there are going to be plenty of kicks dealt to you.
Even the boys at the top get knock backs, and Billy says he still
gets plenty. He says it is so disheartening when your left off a
flyer or not paid, or put off when you telephone a promoter. So it
is essential to love the music and believe in it, if you want to
love the music and believe in it, you want to get on, determination
is the name of the game!
He has utmost respect for Slipmatt “goes without saying Dougals
right he is the God!” also, Sy, Ramos and Supreme. His favourite
artists are Hixxy and Slipmatt and a guy called D-Zyne who is an
engineer and artist who works with Hardcore artists such as JDS,
Fury, Rob Vanden, Supreme, Hixxy and Sharkey, the list goes on. D-Zyne
got a bit thumbs up from Billy. They have really got the same goals
– in Billy’s words, “To push Hard and Happy dance music beyond the
present boundaries to areas that no other dance culture could begin
to understand”.
He has too many favourite tracks to mention, but vividly remembers
when being sent Ramos and Supremes ‘Sunshine’ came out it really
stood to me, I know that the scene would change for the better. I
was on a mission from there on in”.
On the subject of drugs and alcohol he isn’t opinionated and says
“It’s down the individual”. He strongly believes that drug education
is essential. He stresses that, “drugs are no game or competition”.
He has great admiration for the Youth Awareness Programme and would
like his labels to carry their logos. “Alcohol is a drug like any
other and like other drug awareness is a must”.
Billy Bunter can currently be found at Dance Paradise, Diehard,
G-Spot, Hyperbolic, Fusion, Helter Skelter and many more. However
after a hard days night DJ’ing like a dog, all Billy wants to do is
get home to the family and sleep. “What no gossip!” Well maybe he’d
breakfast first, he loves food fullstop! He has a chauffeur to get
him to the venues and says that on his travels they just talk about
POOH! Nevertheless it seems well education (ca! ca!) to me.
This DJ seeks out perfection and originality both with this mixing
and when making tracks. The perfection is so important, as once,
when things didn’t go completely according to plan as Labrynth, he
kicked his record box so hard that his toes started to bleed. He
restrained himself from crying in front of a crowd of around 2,000.
Music is an emotional outlet for him, as it is with many of us. He
says “Music arouses all different emotions!” He won’t be taken
advantage of, so take heed!
He’s a DJ that is more than approachable, is down to earth, and is
certainly no big head, and above all a very talented young man.
Mission Accomplished!
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