How an audiophile became the first reggae DJ of Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal. Born and raised in São João do Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon, Portugal, in 1966, passionate about music since a very early age. Self taught player of blues harmonica, djembé, guitar and drums, I started collecting records as early as 4yrs old and had the first DJ-ing experience at 16, selecting and playing Hard Rock at a friend'
s party, substituting the contracted DJ that had an accident, trying to emulate the veteran DJs that played at the nationally famous rock club "2001". That inaugural session brought positive feedback and recognition from the guests which stired my desire for DJ-ing. My first contact with Reggae happened at a neighbour's pool party, mid 70s. Being British they had a larger musical culture and had Reggae blasting on UK radios on a regular basis so the party had a variety of Reggae styles and although I didn't understand anything that harmony and sincopated beat grasped my attention to the point of asking for a artist list out of the DJ, upon which I based my first collection effort. The transition from DJ-ing Rock to DJ-ing Reggae happened in the late 80's simply because of the fact that I was one of the very few DJs, in Portugal, collecting Reggae music at the time and the only one in Cascais. Based in the Algarve region Papa Paulo is a massively active collector and he was the DJ of the first Reggae radio show in Portugal in the early 80's, on a local radio station, and he is an important inspiration for many, me being one since I first heard his show while on holidays at the Algarve. At that time anyone with as few as 50 Reggae records was the biggest local reggae collector since the country had come out of a censuring dictatorship and Reggae wasn't being promoted for several reasons. The connection with w**d being the most obvious but also the political content of the lyrics. The general public only had heard about Bob Marley and The Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Peter Tosh solo and UB40. Tunes like Boney M's 'Rivers of Babylon' or Eric Clapton's version of Bob Marley's 'I Shot The Sheriff' were interpreted as Reggae by the majority of the public and although The Eagles' 'Hotel California' had much more in common with Reggae it was perceived as Rock. Few more Reggae artists were known for lack of promotion so any unknown tune from an unknown artist was received by the avid public with cheers in a explosion of dance and laughter, which we commonly call good vibes. At the time Reggae was being brought into Portugal, by tourists, on recorded tapes more frequently than records. In 1991 I was DJ-ing Reggae and only Reggae. During a visit to London in 1988, I had the chance to enlarge my collection a bit and got the chance to witness a proper Reggae party with a famed local sound system which forever molded my playlists. Using my very own living room sound system and other borrowed equipment I was driven by the will to show the, public tunes that were unknown to them. A pleasure which I enjoyed more and more.
