45 Live Lowdown #17 - Shepdog
10th August 2017
45 Live Lowdown #17
Shepdog
Main man at Nice Up! Records, and contender for Twitter comedian of the year!
1. Where are you based?
London
2. Why 45s?
I play 12”s and LP tracks too, but 7’s have no fat on the bones - no meandering solos or lengthy noodles, always straight to the flavour! Their brevity tends to keep you on your toes a bit more too, throwing curveballs selection-wise and makes for more interesting selections or programming sometimes, although can be problematic for toilet breaks, etc!
3. Your inspiration/mentor/hero?
I first wanted to be a DJ after seeing Jam Master Jay on TV as a kid, but the person who inspired me most is a guy from Hull called Porky. He used to run a record shop where I bought my first dance music 12”s and later ran a label called Pork Recordings, kind of putting Hull on the map in the 90s, musically speaking. He’s one of those unsung hero kind of dudes who has a great ear for music regardless of style or genre and opened my mind up to playing eclectic sets at a time when most DJs stuck to one genre.
4. Your most elusive 45, what is it and how long have you been looking?
I’ve never been able to get a copy of Jeff Britton & The Spitfires 'Rub Out' for a decent price...
5. Best ever dig?
I’d spotted a 45 of James Brown’s 'Blues & Pants' on someone’s Instagram picture (might have been Breakbeat Lou), but couldn’t for the life of me track one down - it’s still not listed on Discogs and is quite hard to search for on Ebay as it throws up lots of pairs of brown or blue pants. Anyway, it took me about 3 or 4 years of looking but finally nailed a mint picture sleeve copy for peanuts. Well worth the wait!
6. All originals pressings?
Nah, I don’t really get that mentality. Music is the mission, not the format. I guess if you’re a serious collector or completist it kinda makes sense (in our weird world) but as a DJ I couldn’t really care less - as long as its a good pressing.
7. Do you hoard or buy and sell?
Bit of both. I tend to hoard loads of stuff for a while and then get bored of it and sell it.
8. How many 45s have you got and how do you catalogue/store them?
No idea - probably 2 or 3 thousand 45s. No catalogue system apart from the reggae and dancehall, which I keep separate. They’re stored in crates and boxes all over the place!
9. Cover up or share the love?
Depends who’s asking! Always more than happy to share the love, but you’ve got to earn it. ;)
10. What’re your top 3 LPs tracks that you wish had been pressed onto 7”?
Live at the BBQ 'Main Source'...
Found A Child 'Ballin’ Jack'...
Lua Nova (Pra Balencar) 'Bebeto'...
11. Biggest disaster whilst DJing?
Had just got set up to do one of our Digga Please? nights - 5 hours of 45s, so had 2 boxes lined up next to each other in the DJ booth. A rather excited and very drunk punter barges her way into the DJ booth and proceeds to knock not one, but 2 pints over the boxes completely filling them both and ruining a load of sleeves and my night/week/year in the process. I spent the whole night trying to hang them out and dry them off in between playing songs - complete stress! Some of the sleeves didn’t survive - totally trashed. The worst thing is she waltzed off like nothing had happened. Still boils my piss.
