13/05/2024
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Alright! Stacey Hale slipped me this photo of us together from the 1980s. Taken at a club called “Cheeks” in Detroit. Along with DJ John Collins, I had a residency there. This was a time when a DJ would play for 5-6 hours and really had to know how to pace an audience so, we had to have more than just the hits. We needed to be walking libraries of music!
Looking from what i was wearing, it must have been earlier in the night before the night really got started.
I think she was in college at the time. Photos like this was rather rare because the only people that carried around cameras were local photographers that were hired by the club. These photographers would go around the city, from club to club taking photos which had to be taken later to a local camera shop to be developed into a physical paper photograph. So, this must of been generated from either a scan or from the 35 mm film.
I first seen Stacey play at a venue called the Leland House when I was in High School. Sometime around 1979 or 80. She, along with a few other DJs around the city were quite responsible for the direct influence on many DJs we know from Detroit today. It was quite routine to visit a DJ in the DJ booth and just watch and listen the whole evening. This photo must have been taken around 1982 or 83 and was also around the time when younger DJs like myself were being taught and mentored.
Before dance music really exploded in Europe, American DJs were (socially) much closer together, almost like a family. There was a mutual respect that came with the art form of playing music to the local public. For instance, it was important to know what the DJ played before you so that audience doesn’t hear that same thing too soon. Or, how long ago did they slow it down to allow people to get drinks or take a break from dancing. We competed with one another, but shaking hands or hugging one another when we made these transition was like passing the baton.
We all used to work together and we knew it.
Just slightly different audiences but it hasn’t changed.
- Jeff Mills
