I became a DJ late 22 by default to be honest, as I will explain further down the page because the journey really started 11 years before with absorbing a wide selection of music and records from the 50's, 60's and 70's due to a passion for collecting them, when I was a young teenager, by the dozen from people who no longer wanted their 7" inch records lying around the house. I used to buy them with my school dinner money then go hungry all day until I could raid the fridge at home later, but I didn't mind, I was captivated by the sheer joy of being able to sit in my bedroom with a small portable Danset record player and listen to the songs with my friends Leslie Olive, Roger Laming and Clive Hope.

Those 7" records by hundreds of artists in all kinds of styles of music were to my curious imagination little windows into many different worlds of emotions. From the joy of new found love to the unrequited pain of a non-returned love to the unbridled passion for a desired love. The words in the songs painted pictures to me so I used to listen to them deeply and relate to the scenario personally. The first record I ever bought with my own money was "Ain't No Sunshine" by Michael Jackson on Tamla Motown Records, a label I would one day have the honour of working for in the UK.

From the age of 13 years I developed an instinctive way of relating to how people responded to music and particularly the emotions being sung. I can recall sitting in my bedroom listening to Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes "The Love I Lost" on the US Philadephia green label and being lost in the lyrics. 19 years later I made that record again with an artist called Sybil and it nearly went to No: 1 in the national pop chart, stopping at No: 3 and the announcer on Top Of The Pops mentioning my name on TV as "the man behind this weeks number three is Eddie Gordon." Life's full of surprises.

Music brings back those memories so crystal clear unlike anything else can. Maybe there's a route for people with memory loss illness like Alzheimers to be able to recollect their thoughts into some sort of order with the powerful memory's songs can pull back into your present consciousness - I believe very strongly in the healing power of music to put a smile on your face. I've seen it do that all my life and with my daughter now.

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Sleeze was a night run above a very commercial nightclub called Joanna's in Canterbury Street, Gillingham Kent from 1987 to 1989. We ran the Sleeze nights once a month on Friday with a packed attendance from the best of North Kents dance music following. No dress code, only invited access and DJ's Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Jeff Young, Dancing Danny D, Adrian Sykes, Pete Tong, Aadil, EG , Craig and Marcus plus guests in regular rotation. It was such an easy night from all sides. The people attending Sleeze came to dance to great new and old music spun by DJ's who wanted to play to them. We only had 1 doorman because there was never any moment that something was going to turn bad. Probably some my best nights in Kent happened here at Sleeze and it was down to the people on the dancefloor smiling and dancing with total appreciation for each other and the DJ of the night. We should have called it The Ease instead of Sleeze because it was so simple to run. The night was given the accolade of Kent's Best Night Club '88 by the county press and deservedly so I think. Thank you Sleezer's for some great memories.
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A pigs ear into a silk purse - they said it couldn't be done but we did that and more, we left gold, golden memories that will never be repeated in our home town Gravesend because the world has changed so much now and I'm talking pre-mobile phones or internet or Satellite TV. The spiritual home of The Slammer was The Red Lion in Crete Hall Road, Northfleet, Kent.

Built on an industrial estate surrounded by Paper, Cable and Cement Mills in an uncompromising area by the river. I used to cycle past The Red Lion from 1971 to '73 every night on my Evening News paper round and it was always closed, looking run down like a place forgotten. A dark old building occupied by sinister dwellers it seemed. I'd cycle past there real fast too on dark winter evenings not looking back for fear of the door opening and being grabbed by one of the old strippers still there from the lunchtime session. (A busy mind for a 13 year old).

In the 80's it became a Hells Angels hangout due to the rock bands playing there every weekend. Motorcycles outside and that intimidation mood of "don't you look at our bikes, our beer belly's, our beards, or our birds and their beer belly's". Well we did more than that we scared them off from coming inside the best nights ever to be run in Kent with our music policy - strictly underground house and hip and played loud. We banned the local riff raff and the town's notorious beer boys too. We took the place over opening up a second room downstairs into a Jazz/Rare Groove Room painting it black, screeding the floor whilst Terry Lee, the landlord built the bar with his Father.

Terry was no ordinary landlord he was also the proud owner of the Boss Sound System blasting out reggae dub plates from the Trojan and Studio labels. "Bingo" we cried and not because Terry had a little Staffordshire called Bingo (Winston's mummy!) but we had a landlord who loved sound as much as we loved it. I had just bought the legendary Froggy's DJ Decks which took two to of us carry them, nicknamed 'the coffin' because they were so heavy and soon they were up on stage with Terry's Boss Sound System. But it wasn't enough, the nutters we were, we decided that 'that' Sound System should go downstairs into the Jazz Soul room so the DJ's down there could blast their tunes too. Upstairs in the House room we had the LGD Sound System used at all the Soul weekenders, courtesy of Sean Martin and Steve - we meant business. When we dropped a new House or Hip Hop or Rare Groove tune the town was going to know about it..

"We" - well that was Paul Oakenfold, Nicky Holloway (the innovator), Pete Tong, CJ Mackintosh, Colin Hudd, Kev Hill, Johnny Walker, Jeff Young, Aadil, Dave Dorrell, Tim Westwood, Antz, Gilles Peterson, Norman Jay, Chris Bangs, Bob Jones, Maggot, Craig & Marcus and EG.

Tickets could only be bought if you had your Slammer membership but they came from Hertfordshire, from London, from Essex, from Sussex, Surrey, Middlesex and all over Kent. It worked on ALL levels musically, it worked in fashion, in attitude and in the press with the 1987 Kent Club of The Year award - not bad considering we only ran once a month. It was fantastic to run with video screens featuring all kinds of silent movie action, bespoke Banners adorning the walls and ceilings turning the room into a harem (the famous Slammer banners are now over 20 years old and with Terry Lee still smiling at the Red Lion in Northfleet).

I used to get so hyper on a Slammer day I didn't eat until it was gone 4am I was so excited. It was a personal dream to have all these beautiful people loving the great music of all kinds from the most cutting DJ's of the time. I'm perfectly serious when I say those gigs changed some people's lives, it turned them onto DJ's like Gilles Peterson and music that they will still cherish in their homes today. It changed my life too because an A&R guy called Adrian Sykes from MCA Records came down and said "if you can create this kind of momentum you should be promoting records for MCA too." March 1988 I was at MCA Records and within 4 months in New York remixing Bobby Brown's "Don't Be Cruel" hit. Thanks Ada - we are still great friends 21 years later.

My internal instinctive view of life 'room to express ourselves' drove me to move my night The Slammer from its spiritual home in Northfleet as a once a month gig to a purpose built weekly club in the High Street of Gravesend. My goodfriend, Howdi Binning owned The Soul Bowl (named by me) and wanted to sell it so I got him a buyer, renamed the venue as The Slammer, went to Court to get the venue a 2am Music and Dance Licence under my name as the Licensee at 28 years old. My personal mission was to leave my hometown with a local venue for the music fans to go to every weekend. It was a mission completed, not the glitz of Stringfellows you understand but musically it featured large in the lives of the town's dance music fans who would go religously to see the likes of Tim Westwood play HipHop or Fabio and GrooveRider playing Drum and Bass. It was to be a leaving present from me to the town that loved me, grooved and moved me.
My life has been a pattern of seeing potential, creating something from nothing with that vision then moving on, leaving the newly built stage for others to climb on and enjoy or take to another dimension.

I need to thank a few people here for their contribution in a now a local legend of a night, gig, moment in time. It means different things to many. So thank you Terry & family, Mandy, Big John, The Red Lion Bar staff, ALL the DJ's, Linda Forsyth, Wolfie, Tongy, Nicky Holloway for sharing, Damon for the Banners, Steve & Sean for the Sound, Chris 'Goughie' Gough (RIP I miss you mate I can still hear you laughing), The Pop Boys, Tim Redsall for the logo, Linda PDC for the artwork/flyers, Judge Dread (RIP mate), Image Clothes, Paul Kindred, Jason Green, Micky Thompson - the crew, the Slammerites and Gravesend Council Road Signs for somewhere to put our Slammer logo's to lead everybody right to the venue. Mind you on a Slammer day all you had to do was put your head out your car window and follow the sound - woo yeah turn up the bass :-)

Any photos or comments gladly received - eddie.gordon@yahoo.com
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