Shepdog is a regular on the London club and DJ circuit as well as at festivals and clubs across the globe and has promoted parties and DJed alongside many of the greats for the better part of 20 years. A jack of all trades, he can be found mixing everything from reggae, soul, hip hop, house, drum and bass, dubstep and funk. The founder of Nice Up, Shepdog has built a record label, popular blog and event night around the Nice Up brand and on top of this he is also an in demand A&R consultant for countless other labels. With a motto of “Righteous Party Vibes” he will no doubt get The Big Chill House pumped next Friday at Big Chill Presents NICE UP! the session. We managed to squeeze ourselves into his tightly packed schedule for a quick chat about his thoughts on Ragga Twins, Bestival and what to expect on Friday.

You’ve been doing the NICE UP! thing for a while now, how did that start out?

Yeah, quite a while! Familiar story really – tt started out as a bit of a hobby – I just wanted to put on a night that I could play at and invite my mates down to and it became really popular. The label grew out of that as I was managing a few labels at a distributors at the time and fancied having a go myself.

 You’re playing with early rave and jungle pioneers The Ragga Twins on the night. Have you played with them before, and do you like what they do?

Never actually played with them before, but been a massive fan since I started buying dance music – I remember one of my best friends bringing “Spliffhead” round to my house when I was like 13 and I was blown away. Soon after they performed on Dance Energy (old school TV programme presented by Normski) and I was hooked. I bought pretty much everything on Shut Up & Dance (their record label) immediately, which influenced me massively as a teenager. Much later I got more into reggae & dancehall and found out they also recorded on Unity, one of my favourite UK reggae labels from the 80s – so yeah, you could say I like what they do!

You’ve put on a similar night at The Big Chill House before-  I’m guessing you like it as a venue? Is there always a good vibe?

Too right! Our last night there was absolutely nuts – Rodney P & Skitz smashed up the place, then Serial Killaz took it to another level! I’ve never seen a mosh-pit on the dancefloor before at the venue…hopefully we can bring that vibe again on the 10^th Feb.

Is there always a particular tune that you always rely on to get the dancefloor moving?

“The Nice Up” by Rodney P is an obvious one, but “Blood & Fire” by The Nextmen always kicks off too. Other than that, anything by Benny Page or Serial Killaz usually does the trick.

You’ve played quite a few festivals over the past few years, including sets at Bestival and Glastonbury. Do you have a personal favourite? Do you tend to play different stuff at festivals for the bigger crowds?

I actually beat my PB for festivals played at last year, which nearly broke me! Bestival is always great fun, especially last year when I warmed up the main stage for Kelis & The Cuban Brothers and played to about 30,000 people. I had to play quite different stuff for that, but slipped in a few of my own remixes, etc too. Glastonbury was also great last year, as was The Big Chill.  I tend to stick to the big tunes at festivals rather than playing new stuff – keep the masses happy and you can’t go wrong! Drum & bass always goes down well too.

Your mantra of “Righteous Party Vibes” seems to have worked for you. When you started out were you always a party, fun oriented DJ or did you start out playing a particular style of music before branching out into more styles?

I’ve always been into playing all sorts of stuff, but scenes were much more disparate and specialist when I started out, so you had to fit your set to the kind of night you were playing. I started out playing house & garage so it was still all about creating that happy vibe, but I guess I was a lot more of a purist back then, although I still bought hip hop and other stuff. Playing hip hop and funk gigs allowed me to have a more eclectic playlist and when Big Beat blew up in the late 90s you could really play anything – drum & bass next to funk, hip hop next to house, etc…so I guess that’s where I found my feet style-wise.

What should the punters expect on the night? Will you be playing any special material?

Big bass,, hip hop, drum & bass and a bit of dubstep – all with a reggae flavour. I’m really looking forward to seeing Monkey Mafia – I’ve signed a single from them (out on 13^th Feb!) so it’s kind of a launch night for that too. Turntable Dubbers are brilliant – they tore up our Xmas party a few years back and we have a very special surprise guest lined up to do a few tunes too – we’re not saying anymore right now! I’ve got a stack of forthcoming material from the label so will be testing a lot of it out on the night – can’t wait!

What have you got planned for 2012 for DJ Shepdog and the NICE UP! party brand?

As I say, there’s loads of stuff lined up for the label – releases from Turntable Dubbers, Mr Benn, Wrongtom, Dirty Dubsters, Richie Phoe and many more so it will be a busy year for us musically. We’ve also got a very special hook up with Fashion Records (legendary UK dancehall label), which is looking really interesting. I’ve already got a few festival bookings sorted, and looking to get a few more in the diary, as well as some big one off events of our own.

I’m touring with Lotek’s live band later in the year and I’ve promised myself I’ll get in the studio and make more music of my own this year– not sure if that’s a great idea, but we’ll see!

Check out these tracks for a taste of what’s to come this Friday!

DJ Shepdog/ Nice Up Recordings – Skanking in the Way of Control

Rodney P – The Nice Up

The Nextmen Ft. Dynamite MC = Blood & Fire

Join us in our sumptuous study and secret kitchen for a 1970′s dinner party comprising 3 courses of classic 70′s dishes with a modern twist plus a delicious 70′s cocktail on arrival! Take a look at the menu here.

This is the first of our new Big Chill supper club evenings, the tickets are limited so  hurry if you’d like to come.

To compliment the evening Mike Shawe will provide 1970′s soundtrack all played on original vinyl

£25 pp | Limited places | Get your tickets from the venue or email us here

Thursday 23rd February

7pm

The Ragga Twins (Deman Rockers and Flinty Badman) have been cited as one of the most influential acts to appear out of the rave scene, and are referred to as the link between UK Dancehall Reggae, Jungle and Hip Hop. We caught up with The Ragga Twins, who will be playing a live old school set at the Big Chill House next Friday for Big Chill Presents NICE UP! the session. Here’s what they had to say…

So it seems you guys have been doing this a long time. What drives you to keep performing and making music?

The love of music gives us the drive & motivation to keep making music & the fans keeps us wanting to perform

You’ve been described as “one of the most influential acts to appear out of the rave scene.” How do you react to that, and how was that time for you?

It’s nice to be known as influential, cause it mean you’ve done something right,we are humble to the fact & them times are very special to us

Have you ever had a big fall out over your long career together?

Nah we’ve never had a big fall out, we’ve had little differences which when happens dissolves. We do argue hard sometimes but we never sleep on it

Your sounds vary from early jungle to breakbeat, drum and bass and, latterly, even taking in UK Funky. Would you say that you’ve always thought it important to keep developing your sound with the times, or do you just make what you want to at the time?

I think we are one of the most versatile artists when it comes to genre of music. I think it just went that way because we inspired all types of producers and a lot of them wanna work with us and they all do different music & we fit any style. You also have to keep current.

How do you feel about playing at NICE UP! At the Big Chill House? Have you been to the venue before?

Really looking forward to playing at the Big Chill House! We’ve never been there before and always like a new venue to showcase .

Many junglists and drum and bass artists have turned their creative hands to dubstep in recent years. Is that something that has ever interested you? How do you feel about that current craze in popular music?

We have done a couple dubstep tracks & we’ve also been sampled in some tracks. It’s all good because the more genre’s of music that evolve from Jungle/Dnb mean there will always be a new set of ravers, producers & promoters keeping our music alive & giving us work.

Do you guys have clearly defined roles when making music that you tend to stick to, or do you always work together?

When making music it always different. Sometimes we hook up & write before we go studio, then sometimes we like to go studio & write under pressure or vibes out in the studio

Is there any tactic that you use to get the crowd going, or do you find that your energetic, fun music does the talking?

We don’t have a tactic, we just do our thing. I feel the music we have done is so classic that it is timeless, so even to someone who ain’t heard it before it sounds fresh & I do think the energy & vibes we produce is second to none, you just can’t keep still when where about

What can we expect next from the Ragga Twins?

At the moment we are recording 2 albums,one is the Ragga Twins album and the other one is RTC (Ragga Twins Crew) album. Other artists involved are Cogee, Mtek, Pedro Slimer, but while doin that we are featuring on different singles here & there. We did a single with NICE UP! last year and the latest release is SUPERBAD with Aquasky which we done a video for .We will always be performing whether it be a PA or a DJ/MC set.

Check out ‘Superbad’ Ragga Twins’ latest release with Aquasky here

Name: Jack Bishop

Relation to the Big Chill Bar: Number 3

Loves: Tequila

Hates: Vodka diet coke and sunglasses indoors

On my i-pod: Archie Bell and the Drells - Don’t let love get you down

Best moment of last year: Every Sunday

Most embarrassing moment: Coming to work in my pants because I

thought it was a dream!

Pint or cocktail? Stout with chaser

Name: Dawid ‘ACID’ Dyszkiewicz

Relation to the Big Chill House: the most insane being here

Loves: cookies.

Hates: everything else

On my i-pod: Yeah yeah yeahs – Y Control

Best moment of last year: Joining the Big Chill House crew

Most embarrassing moment: Getting pink sport trousers as a

Christmas present from my flatmates!

Pint or cocktail? Cocktail- Zombie 66 to be precise

“It is with a considerable amount of regret that I have decided not to go ahead with The Big Chill in 2012.

I looked long and hard late last year at moving the date so it didn’t clash with the Olympics but the mix of the festival fans desire to keep the date and an inability to find an alternative date that works I plumped for maintaining the existing weekend. Sadly, the artist availability and confirmations we were achieving led me to conclude that I couldn’t risk going ahead with the event as an outdoor event this year. Efforts are being made to look to bring a smaller event indoors this year with the anticipation of Big Chill being back outdoors in 2013.”

Melvin Benn, Managing Director Festival Republic.

Listen up! We want your best / funniest / most entertaining photos from the Big Chill Bar for our new Dos and Don’ts section (if you’re a fan of Vice Magazine, you’ll know what we mean!) Our favourite photos from each week will get published on the Big Chill Bar Facebook page, and go into our Dos and Don’ts Hall of Fame.

To submit your photos, simply upload them onto Flickr and tag Big Chill Bar,* then we’ll pick the ones we feel should be shown to the rest of the world. Remember, the weirder and whackier the better! Now get snapping!

*NB To tag us you have to ‘add a person’ rather than ‘add a tag’

For examples of Vice Magazine’s ‘Dos and Donts’ click here

29 year old Fiona entered a competition by National Express to win VIP access to six major UK festivals for her and three mates, plus luxury camping gear and £1000 spending money each.

The “You know you wanna” competition ran across the whole of the UK to help promote National Express’ Young Persons Coachcard. Fiona was selected randomly from thousands of entries received to win exclusive entry to events including Reading, Latitude, Sonisphere and Leeds

Stunned Fiona was informed earlier this week of the news and is still taking in her ‘money can’t buy’ prize, she said: “Music is a huge part of my life. I work in a bar and spend my spare time enjoying the live music scene in Manchester – so a VIP summer of festivals definitely hit the right note for me.

“I use National Express to travel around the country to different gigs, so when I spotted the competition on their website I thought ‘why not?’ I’ve never won anything before, so this was completely unexpected. I can’t wait for the summer.”

National Express’ Young Person Coach Card costs £10 and offers up to 30% off coach travel for 12 months. It’s available to anyone aged 16 to 26 or in full time education.

Fiona added: “Unsurprisingly I’ve had a few friends volunteer to come along! I’m going to have a look at the line ups of the different festivals and try and include as many of my close friends and family as possible. The bands I’m really hoping to see are Muse and Friendly Fires.”

Andrew Cleaves, Managing Director of National Express coach, said: “We’re so pleased for Fiona and hope she has a summer not to be forgotten. We’re looking forward to transporting her and three friends direct to the biggest and best live music events taking place this summer along with tens of thousands of others.”

National Express operates coach services to all major UK festivals from destinations across Britain. They work closely with festival organisers to ensure fans are dropped as close to the campsites as possible to avoid lengthy queues. Fiona is planning to keep a blog of her VIP festival experience.

For more information about festival services with National Express or the Young Person Coachcard please visit: www.nationalexpress.com

Here are a few highlights…

Saturday 21st January

Bedmo Disco with El Diablo’s Social Club

Bedmo Disco welcome a special guest all the way from Manchester with his feet planted firmly on the psychedelic disco dancefloor. Neil Diablo plays Cosmic, Disco, Balearic, Italo and House, but other musical stops are made along the way. It’s all about dancing all night and meaning it!

check out their excellent blog here…

Saturday 28th January

Western Soul with Peter D (Smith & Mighty)

A DJ outfit with an open minded music policy from Soul and Disco to Chicago House and Balearic. Western Soul are joined by Peter D from old school Bristol bass pioneers Smith & Mighty.

here is a great documentary about the ‘Bristol Sound’ featuring Peter D -

every Thursday

Thursday Night Music Club

Every week has some of the best local up and coming talent from singer songwriters to full bands performing live in the bar. In January we have 2 of our Big Chill Festival 2011 competition finalists appearing, watch out for info on our 2012 competition very soon…

19th January – Annette Berlin

26th January – Benny Sensus

See you soon

This Friday sees a block-party of Tropical Bass for Afro ravers, Latin funksters and Balkan b-boys at the next in our Live Sessions, Big Chill Live Presents FFTANG! FFTANG! We talk to monthly party-throwers FFTANG! FFTANG!’s Huskiii and Marsali Grant, who’ll be performing on the night to find out more about the history of Tropical Bass and where they see it going in 2012.

Could you tell us a bit about Tropical Bass as a genre?

Marsali: Tropical bass is about taking the rhythmic and melodic elements of traditional world music and injecting them with energy for the dancefloor in the form beats, bass and samples. The result of this is a myriad of far-reaching sub-genres ranging from Latin American folk fused with old school hip hop to brass-heavy DnB remixes of Bulgarian marching bands.

Huskiii: There’s been several attempts to name the rising trend in global club music (Nu Whirled, Global Ghettotech, World 2.0 etc) but Tropical Bass is the one gaining the most traction and the one we’re putting our money on. It sounds the least contrived and although we play a fair bit of Balkan music which isn’t in the Tropics, it comes closest to nailing our sound.

What made you get into Tropical Bass?

H: Hearing Uproot Andy’s remix of ODB’s Shimmy Shimmy for the first time floored me. That combination of latin, party hip-hop and bass music was everything that I liked to play out condensed into one record. That opened me up to this whole new world that was starting to happen with Bersa Discos across the pond, and was the main impetus in setting up the club night.

M: I moved into Tropical Bass via a long-standing fascination with traditional world music, in particular the tribal African cross-rhythms that lie far outside the formulaic western approach to beat making. With the emergence of Topical Bass it became possible to bring these sounds into the nightclub and share them with a wider audience. The sheer breadth of the genre means that playing a Tropical Bass set involves continent-hopping between tracks, and so exposing club goers to a tapestry of different cultures in a way that few other genres can.

Which artists have influenced your music?

H: Sonido Del Principe, Toy Selectah, Quantic, DJ /Rupture have all left their mark but Uproot Andy has achieved that holy grail of having a definable sound without being pigeon holed to a single genre or continent.

M: Uproot Andy’s remixes are a staple in my sets. I admire his ability to preserve all the traditional folk elements of an original, whilst adding enough vitality with his characteristic basslines to get the dancefloor moving. His remix of Petrona Martinez’ “La Vida Vale La Pena” is a perfect example of that. El Hijo De La Cumbia is also producing some tidy remixes on the latin tip.

Who are the “big dogs” in this genre?

M: ZZK, Bersa Discos, Man Recordings & Mad Decent have all been prolific in their output of quality tunes this year, whilst Geko Jones and the rest of the crew at Dutty Artz are doing a great job of pushing the Tropical Bass scene Stateside.

H: They’re definitely the main players. Generation Bass was also a taste-maker in the early days.

Could you recommend any potential new talent?

M: Thornato (Thor Partridge) is an NYC producer, and co-founder of the collective Cumba Mela. He caught my eye this year by remixing Petrona Martinez. His sounds are eclectic in origin, with samples of everything from Township music to African prayer chants, but all are backed my an infectious dancehall beat.

H: El Dusty (also known as DJ Dus) recently signed to Man Recordings has graduated from doing a nice line in cumbia remixes to full-on club bangers. The insanely prolific 13th Tribe, an ex pat Scot living in Chile, puts out some ridiculously good stuff – it’s only a matter of time until he blows up. Isa GT is getting more recognition by the day and Miami’s Kinky Electric Noise do a nice line in electro champeta. Oh and Marsali, once she gets her studio set up haha.

How do you see Tropical Bass progressing in 2012?

H: Whether it continues under the banner Tropical Bass or gets usurped by a new title, the scene is only going to get stronger.

M: I’m looking forward to further exploration of some of the inconceivable micro-genres that have been created within the past year – Warachastep? Brazilian Ravegaton? I also think we’ll see increased crossover of Tropical Bass tracks into the mainstream, particularly via the medium of Moombahton.

H: It’s already started to appear on high street club flyers, sitting awkwardly next to Funky House and R&B, although I don’t think we’re in any danger of hearing it on Master Chef…yet.

**For more tropical craziness, check out this comical video of tropical birds getting their rave on for Big Chill Live Presents FFTANG! FFTANG!**