45 Live Lowdown #21 - Dom Servini

45 Live Lowdown #21
Dom Servini

One of the hardest working men in the biz, head of Wah Wah 45s, prime shaker at The Southern Soul Festival in Montenegro, exceptional DJ, gooner, professional hugger and part time comedian. There's no one quite like Dom Servini...

1. Where are you based?
North London - somewhere between Little Istanbul and Big Arsenal.

2. Why 45s?
I used to prefer 33s but I got too old for them. Looking forward to bustin' out the 78s in my old age.

3. Your inspiration/mentor/hero?
Apart from Pete Isaac, I'd have to say Chris Goss from Hospital Records (also co-founder of my label, Wah Wah 45s). The man is a walking (and sometimes staggering) encyclopedia of the music business and is an expert at making you feel like you know nothing about it at all.

4. Your most elusive 45, what is it and how long have you been looking?
The Singing Nun. It's been stuck behind the radiator for nearly a decade now.

5. Best ever dig?
The Finsbury Park sandpit with my 18 month old son this summer.

6. All originals pressings?
Don't be silly.

7. Do you hoard or buy and sell?
Depends what you're talking about. If it's records, then I try and buy just the good ones, so I keep those. I am going through a spate of selling old compilations at the moment though. Know anyone who wants to buy a copy of NOW5?

8. How many 45s have you got and how do you catalogue/store them?
Somewhere between ten and two thousand. I honestly can't be bothered to count. My mate Jim Hairy Eye made some very lovely bespoke drawers for me. They keep everything ever so neat and organised the way my OCD mind likes it. They're mostly filed in sections alphabetically according to genre. My Bolivian folk section is massive.

9. Cover up or share the love?
I always keep my knickers on when DJing love. Apart from that time in Norway...

10. What're your top 3 LPs tracks that you wish had been pressed onto 7"?
All of those Fela Kuti tunes. I love to give people a challenge.

11. Biggest disaster whilst DJing?!
Too many to choose from. The time I covered for that old sod Pete Isaac at Jelly Jazz when I began my 4 hour set by dropping a whole pint in my record box has to be up there though.