Preview

We are family
Kids stuff with son 'n' dad DJs Junior Buzz and Mad Ash

As trades go, DJing is not a bad one to be born into. Plenty of late nights and practising your skills with dad. While London's disco mums stockpile Mothercare record bags and Karrimor deck cases and festivals overflow with skanking nippers in Pampers and matching earplugs, a wave of second generation DJs is already upon us.

Junior Buzz and Mad Ash are a father and son drum'n'bass team from south London. Mad Ash has the motormouth qualities of an MC and Junior Buzz has as much to say, but less opportunity.
'I started mixing about nine years ago and he followed suit when he was about eleven. I would be practising and he would be looking over my shoulder trying to copy. Junior first played out when he was 14, at a party for my pirate radio station, Heart FM. Heart became Face FM, then moved into a large basement on the Farringdon Road, going out as Interface - a pirate station on the Internet. We run it as a radio station. I am most interested in supplying the vibe. We play every type of music on Interface, even the Gabba shows are getting a response now.'

Junior Buzz runs Interface along with Ash. Now 17, he left school a year ago and has no intention of returning. 'Why settle for a dime bar when you can have the whole mixing desk? I wasn't really into school because I had my mind on the music. I tried to get into music lessons, but I don't really like instruments and they didn't have the equipment I needed'.

Finding a future in Farringdon, Ash and Junior are established in the upstairs room of Happiness Stan's, a wooden hut-like construction, formerly home to chess games and acoustic sets. Ash, who is turning out not to be mad, explains:'I'd been looking for this sort of club for years. It's a party and we're party DJs. I never played a dub plate in my life and never will. I believe in playing music that people know. That's the problem with the drum'n'bass scene. It's always about playing something new. I play right across the board, from mellow to jump up. I start the set off, building it with the mood of the crowd. Then when they're at their peak, Junior comes in with more jump up and steppas darker stuff. Drum'n'bass has always changed with the seasons, lighter in the summer, but this year it just stayed dark.'

Junior is the first to admit that many of the crowd at Happiness Stan's would not feel comfortable at the events he favours like Moondance. His mates tend to over power the upstairs room at Smithfields with fog horns, but it's the diversity of the club which gives Ash and Junior the scope to play as father and son. At home, this means shared resources and little space. 'All our records are mixed in together. We've never brought the same record once, the whole of our front room is full of records, my missus hates it. The only downside to working together is when you sort out your records for a set on the radio or at the club, and he comes along and nicks them.'

Junior is quick to point out that he's spent long hours looking for records, only to find Mad Ash playing them when he arrives at the club.
'One of my mates from school has started to DJ with us. The only thing is he went through a bit of a cheesy happy hardcore phase, but he is good. I think Ash and me will be playing together when he's about sixty. We had a really old man down Happiness Stan's once. He must have been over forty in a suit and a hat, havin' it.

'My current MC, MC OD, is the youngest I've ever had,' continues Junior.' He's the same age as me, 17, and he's getting really good. His mum is a singer and she taught him to sing. We wanted to get her on the mic with us, so we had a mother and son and father and son playing. She comes down the club, but never gets round to going on with OD because she likes a drink. Bridget Virden
MadAsh and JuniorBuzz play at Happiness Stan's at Smithfields on Saturdays. Interface FM is on www.pirate-radio.co.uk.