DB's No School Like the Old Skool: Paul Oakenfold

DJ DB has been a fixture in dance music through every renaissance the style has experienced. His archive of DJ mixes and flyers from the 90s rave era are a time capsule of electronic music's first worldwide explosion, and in NO SCHOOL LIKE THE OLD SKOOL he shares some of these treasures. Get out your notepads…

Over the years, I've met Paul "Oakey" Oakenfold a few times, albeit very briefly. When I first started DJing in London, his Perfecto label was one of the pit stops my partner Tommy D and I would make on our rounds to blag promo 12"s. (I always loved how they listed the BPMs on the sleeve.) Our paths crossed again when I got hired by Profile Records in New York, and Oakey was doing A&R for their UK office.

I'm guessing most Americans who know of Oakey think of him as a mega Progressive House/Trance star that's had some funny haircuts but there is so much more to his incredible history. For instance, I discovered while working on this post that he was Run-D.M.C. and the Beastie Boys' agent/management in the 80s. Who would've guessed?

Peep his Discogs link--his studio resumé is absolutely bonkers. He, Steve Osborne and my hero Andrew Weatherall absolutely killed it with their Happy Mondays mix of "Hallelujah," which I've opened many a set with.

Another one of my fave remixes was his spin on Massive Attack's "Safe From Harm" in '91.

I have a crazy theory about how Oakey was (at least partially) responsible for what's now called E-D-fucking-M. Let me explain how I came to such a nutty claim. In 1987, he and three of his best mates, Danny Rampling, Johnny Walker and Nicky Holloway, traveled to Ibiza for the first time. There, they, like many before them, had something akin to a spiritual awakening.

The combination of Amnesia's beautiful setting--a club on a farm miles from anywhere--a couple of pills, and a little-known expat Argentinean DJ called Alfredo had such a monumental effect on these four friends that they made it their mission to bring this cult of music and clubbing back home to convert first their friends, and eventually the rest of the UK.

Rampling started Shoom, possibly the most influential London club night ever. Walker worked tirelessly to champion house and acid house through DJing and working with a promo company. Holloway started The Trip events at a big theater and then opened the Mars Bar across the street.. As for Oakey, he started one of the UK's biggest acid house nights, Spectrum, and pioneered the mega-festival scene in America with his Cyberfest 2000 event in California, where 80,000 ravers showed up to worship the Chemical Brothers and Carl Cox. (Read more about their incredible adventure here).

My first exposure & joy of hearing him DJ was at Heaven in 1987, Future on Friday night and Spectrum (which was billed as pure acid house) on Mondays. You could show up on a weeknight to the 'Theater of Madness' to find 1,500 other people within its walls.

Flyer from Spectrum 

One thing I loved about him back then was how he'd find these totally weird tracks and play them till they became the anthems of the night. This was one of my faves.

It's very hard to describe all this now, but in a matter of months, acid house spread throughout the UK like a wildfire. It was as culturally significant and visually arresting as punk rock had been ten to twelve years earlier. Obviously, this all happened without the internet, through word of mouth. But some things never change: the scene was also flamed by all the totally insane tabloid press.

I'll leave you with this club mix, which was recorded live in 1992 at the legendary Decadence party at Bakers nightclub in Birmingham, UK. It doesn't get any more O.G. than that.

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Paul Oakenfold's website

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