CARGO presents... DIRTY VEGAS DJ Set - May 28th @ AQUA

Kraig · #1 (**permalink**) May 04, 05

The teams at CARGO are proud to present...

WHEN: Saturday, May 28th, 2005
WHERE: AQUA - 1066 West Hastings
--- VERY LIMITED CAPACITY OF ONLY 350
--- This event will sell out.
-- Doors at 10PM

Playing an intimate 3-hour DJ set...

GRAMMY AWARD WINNING!!!

DIRTY VEGAS, REDD / www.dirtyvegas.com

Complete bio:
Paul Harris – Grammy winning artist with cutting edge band Dirty Vegas - started his working life aged sixteen as an Assistant Trader in the city – his love of music was already prevailing, but mixing the two worlds wasn’t easy. Leaving his beloved ‘discos’ at 4.00 am and still making it to work for 6.00 am was demanding but Paul had a very specific goal in mind - purchasing a set of decks – once this was achieved he was out of the city and straight into Special Branch at Busbys, Nicky Holloway’s Trip at the Astoria and Paul Oakenfold’s Monday’s at Heaven.

Paul’s first DJ break came aged 17 after constantly pestering the residents at Philip Salon’s Troy night – he was finally offered a set upstairs every Friday – playing what was then known as ‘Balearic Beats’ (roughly translated to anything he fancied – a set which Paul can still be heard spinning at highbrow fashion shows and private party’s!) Simultaneously a new club opened across the road called ‘The Milk Bar’ – so after finishing his Friday night set, Paul could be seen throwing some shapes on the dance floor to sets by Pete Tong and Dave Dorrell. The common denominator of music meant that Paul soon befriended Dave and Nicky Holloway and when Darren Emerson left his Monday night residency at The Milk Bar, Paul slotted in nicely - the Monday night gig continued for five years – finally concluding at the Velvet Underground.

The Monday nights were quickly becoming established as a London ‘Hang Out’ for promoters and producers – Paul soon found himself locking down residency’s at not only the Milk Bar in London but Pimp in Wolverhampton, Open @ The Ministry of Sound and Billion Dollar Babes @ Raw, he was also guesting at what can only be described as the ultimate nights in the heyday of clubbing – venus in Nottingham, the super glam Miss Moneypennys in Birmingham, Cream in Liverpool and Golden in Stoke.

Paul soon graduated out of the DJ booth and into the studio being asked to remix and produce – at the time this felt like more of a challenge, as club music was taking a harder edge away from the house music he loved. He formed ‘Colour System Inc’ with Fionn Lucas and following on from the success of their own releases – the offers started flooding in for remixes – over the four years they had mixed an eclectic mix of artists, including All Saints, Felix The House Cat, Giselle Jackson, Johnson and Abacus – Abacus became one of the most played records on Pete Tongs show…. All was looking good – but then in 1999, the music scene shifted again – and Paul returned to the booth spinning at London’s hottest parties hosted by close friends, and THE original party girls, Charlotte and Fran Cutler and Meg Matthews.

Paul reclaimed residencies at the hippest nights, Miss D’s Playboy @ Madam Jo Jo’s, the infamous Thursday nights at Kabaret and a number of premier / launch parties spinning for the likes of Kylie, Madonna, Mario Testino, Fendi and Juicy Couture (Paul can still count a number of these names as current clients). Then in 2000 a chance meeting with old friend Ben Harris and a chat at a party, led to ‘Hydrogen Rockers’ being formed – their first release ‘Musica’ was available on CDR and the underground buzz was massive, the track was picked up by Plastica in London and Yoshitoshi in the USA and once again Paul felt he had found a sound he liked.

As well as creating their own music Paul and Ben, once again, turned to remixing – with the boys having a seemingly golden touch, their supporters included Sasha, Digweed, Howells, Tong, Deep-Dish and Lawler – with dance floor fillers including ‘Sono – Keep Control’, ‘Lil Louis – Blackout’ and ‘J Magic – Love is Not a Game’. A second chance meeting saw Paul bump into anther old friend Steve Smith who presented him with a demo CD containing six tracks he’d been working on – one of which Paul and Ben developed a house version of, and was transformed into the modern day classic ‘Days Go By’ – so with an essential new tune under the belt – ‘Dirty Vegas’ was formed!

A major label deal was signed and a full band was put together – Paul not coming from a band perspective was literally thrown in at the deep end – but the debut album ‘Dirty Vegas’ was finished. Then something happened which literally changed the band’s life - the track ‘Days Go By’ was picked up for a national US advertising campaign (Mitsubishi) – the advert had a massive impact on the US market and the record became one of the most requested tracks on American radio, the album debuted on the US Billboard at number seven and went gold in the US and silver in the UK. A tour followed with Moby as did appearances on legendary TV shows ‘David Letterman’, ‘Jay Leno’ and ‘Carson Daley’, an MTV award nomination, three Dancestar awards (including record of the year) and of course the biggie – The Grammy for Best Dance Single (receiving three nominations in total). The boys were so convinced they weren’t going to win The Grammy – they were actually in the bar when their award was announced. The much converted award lead to two years of solid touring – playing at all the major festivals in both the UK and Europe. Then it was back in the studio to start on the follow up album ‘One’ – this was released in October 2004 and reached Top 50 in the charts.

It was during this time in the studio that Paul started to miss the feeling and atmosphere of making and playing house music, it was then that Paul made the massive decision, to take the plunge, and in February 2005 Paul left the band.

The year has started off extremely well with global offers flooding in, Paul’s actually busier than ever – with a stint back in the studio he has a number of remixes under his belt including ‘Nynex & Trents – Runaway (essential new tune), ‘Antony Acid – Sweat’ and ‘Bam Bam – Where’s Your Child’. Paul found that his peers are continuing to support him and his solo venture – with Steve Lawler, Pete Tong, Danny Howells, Deep Dish and Nic Fanciulli all fully on board. Paul’s first projects have been signed to SR2 Music – with ‘Waching Fallin Star’s’ already being tipped as a big summer track by Pete Tong – and the forthcoming ‘Guitar Song’ on Nic Fanciulli’s Saved Records also set to be dance floor smash.

With joint production and DJ gig’s lined up till well past July – it looks like 2005 is gonna be year to remember!!

Also with:
Jesse James (CARGO, Notori-us)

TICKETS:
-- available soon from www.ticketmaster.ca and www.clubzone.com

$30 advance
$35 week of
More at the door