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Ten years of tidy — meet the real Lee Haslam
Reported by MostwantedJonathan
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Submitted 10-08-05 22:04
The rise of Lee Haslam is quite unique. His position at tidy came about by extraordinary means. At 16 he wanted to be a nursery nurse and became the youngest Northern male to become qualified in that very field. Reoccurring tonsillitis saw Haslam taking one month off work to recover. In that time he bought some decks, practiced to death and got himself a part time job as a... wait for it... baker’s boy! Just hours before Lee jetted off to Ibiza, we pinned him down to get a little more info behind one of the people who’s been making tidy tick for the past 8 years.
From nursery nurse to General Manager at tidy — you just don’t hear about it, enlighten us?
It wasn’t planned that’s for sure! I am a strong believer of fate and that everything happens for a reason and there have been several events that have gone off in my life since I left school which led me down this path. Unlike most kids, when I left school I did have an idea of what I wanted to do and that was to teach. I went to college, qualified and was lucky enough to find a great job early on but after a few years I began to get itchy feet and that’s where the fate came in. One of my close mates Stuart Jones took me to a club called “Love to Be” in Sheffield and that was it... I was hooked, it totally blew me away as I had never listened to dance music before and the whole experience was something I will never forget. From that faithful day I went clubbing every weekend for near enough 6 months and that’s where the interest in DJing came in. Instead of dancing all night I would stand and watch DJs play!
It was around this time that I had to go to hospital for an operation to take out my tonsils. Not very showbiz I know but importantly this is where fate kicked in again. I had to take a month off work to recover from the operation so I invested in some decks and taught myself how to mix within a month, I just found it really easy, I don’t know why. I guess watching those DJs for so long had rubbed off on me.
I used to practice 4–5 hours a day and drive my parents up the wall but by June 1997 I was DJing to a good enough standard to play out. My girlfriend at the time, Tree, sent a tape in to a local club without me knowing, they loved it and gave me my first club gig at the Doncaster Warehouse and I was bricking it! Luckily the gig went really well and I was offered a residency which pretty much made my mind up that I wanted to give DJing a real crack of the whip, so the following week I resigned at the private school I was working at. By August 1997 I had secured my second residency in Doncaster at a nightclub called Eden which was formerly called Camelot’s, where Andy Pickles used to be resident back in the Jive Bunny days!
For the next year I worked really hard at DJing, I even had to get a few shit jobs in the meantime to keep me going financially. Working in the bakery at Safeway, rolling donuts in icing sugar was particularly a low point in my life, but in May 1998 I was introduced to a man that would change my life forever, Andy Pickles.
My good friend and co resident at Eden, Steve Longley, was friends with Andy and was an employee of the Music Factory, the company that owns Tidy. He had told Andy about me and invited him to the club one night without me knowing. You can imagine my face when I saw him stood in the DJ box... I shit myself, but it went really well... We ended up playing back to back all night and over the next few weeks became good friends. He would come out with me to my gigs and we would DJ together. In June 1998 Andy offered me a job at the Music Factory working for Mastermix where my role was mixing commercial megamixes for commercial release. Of course I snapped his hand off and over the next 6 months learnt the studios and mixed all day long so I was in my element. By early 1999 I was asked to come on board with tidy and ran the label’s club promotion dept and from there I worked my way up to Label Manager and now General Manager.
So what was your first day at tidy HQ like?
The most surreal experience ever… On my first day I met Lisa Lashes and Andy Farley who were both in the studio with Paul Janes and the tidy boys. They were writing their respective tracks for the Sundissential EP. I was shaking like a shitting dog which wasn’t helped by the constant teasing by Andy and Amadeus which still happens today! Needless to say I’m not shaking anymore. I guess when you see DJs and producers week in week out you become immune to it all. At the end of the day we are all just people and all mates together but it’s very easy to forget the other side and how the clubbers look up to you and respect you which is very humbling.
How involved are you with the way tidy’s sound has evolved over the past 6 years, and who alongside you makes the decisions about who and what to sign?
I would like to think that I have had quite a big input into tidy’s sound but at the end of the day it is Amo’s final decision. He and I work very well together on A & R, sometimes we agree, and sometimes we don’t, but I think that works in our favour.
Tidy has had to change and adapt with the times and if you look through tidy’s back catalogue you can see the changes in style it has gone through. Being the leading hard dance label in the UK comes with a lot of pressure and people watch what we do and what we release. We have to constantly be on the look out for new talent and new sounds, as it is these issues which are critically important if you want your label to have longevity.
Discovering and nurturing the talents of Paul Maddox, Guyver, Lee Pasch, Ingo and Colin Barratt were huge events for us as a label as it kept the ideas and new productions flowing. We are always mindful that for every person leaving the clubbing and dance scene in general another person discovers it. This new person has a totally different perception of music and that is what we have to have to cater for. We always have to be on the look out for the next big thing. By widening the labels musical barriers we have opened the label up to a wider audience which, in a shrinking market, is once again very important.
The introduction of the tidytwo label in 2002 was timed perfectly, as were the Resonate compilations. They came at a time when hard house was all bounced out and people were looking for something new. That said on the other hand it is also very easy for labels to get things wrong as well. The untidy label lost its way towards the end of its lifespan and then there is the Disco Damaged Album. Arguably one of the best albums we have released but we still have a pallet full of them in the warehouse. That’s the record business for you!
Having discovered clubbing, what clubs and in particular what DJS have influenced your style?
The main man for me was Tony De Vit. He was such a quality DJ and is still to this day my idol. I was lucky enough to stand in the DJ box with him @ Sundissential, Birmingham. It was my 21st birthday and I stood there with him for his entire set. It is an experience that I will never forget as long as I live. I have never to this day seen a man create such an atmosphere and control a crowd as well as he did and I learnt so much from him about controlling a crowd and building a set, a skill which some aspiring DJs should really look at learning. Club-wise Gatecrasher was my main influence. I was a crasher kid and proud to admit it. Gatecrasher was truly a magical place and it’s where I learnt the most about being a DJ and the skills you need to have, Scott Bond & Matt Hardwick being the main DJs I learnt from. Other than that, Sundissential at Pulse (now Zanzibar) in Birmingham or at Uropa in Leeds were also amazing clubbing experiences.
In what ways has being involved with tidy changed your life? For example, we know you drive a beamer these days, what car were you driving before you made your millions... yes girls, he’s loaded!
I don’t know where you got the millions from... I’m broke LOL.
My first car was a Vauxhall Nova and it was shit, kept breaking down all the time so I went to a fiesta instead… good move Haslam! Seriously though the life style I have is amazing, not many people can say they get paid for something they love doing but everyone here at tidy works very long hours and very very hard at everything we do. People have this perception that we are all loaded and have a glamorous lifestyle but we are not all Andy Pickles LOL. I have my own house and nice car but I have worked very hard to get them. I personally don’t have a lot of free time so having time for myself or for seeing friend’s isn’t always easy but that’s something you have to take on the chin if you are running a big record label and DJ every weekend. I consider myself extremely lucky indeed. I wake up in the morning actually looking forward to going to work, not to mention playing all the amazing gigs all over the world. I am very fortunate to do what I do but for everything that you get out of this job you also have to put it back in!
How does it make you feel personally when you read articles and features that are negative in tone towards tidy?
It hurts! As I have said everyone works there balls of at HQ so when someone has a pop at you it does get you down but you can’t please everyone. All we can do is bounce back and do the next thing even better than we did before and more often than not... we do! We pride ourselves on doing everything to the best of our ability, but sometimes that’s not enough for everyone. I feel a lot of people outside of our field do not understand our scene and our community and can dismiss us, but I think with the expansion of our events a lot more people are starting to take note.
Lee Haslam the DJ — what’s changed since you first started playing?
Well as I have mentioned earlier I am trying to carve myself a niche in the market by creating my own sound. There isn’t much of the material around that I am currently into so I’m trying to produce as much as I can which is very difficult with my current role and commitments. I have just finished two tracks with Guyver which are being released on tidy under our Euphony guise which I am really pleased with. These should be out towards the end of 2005 and are both 138bpm chunky trancers and a real indication of the way I want to go musically.
I also have my new solo single, which is a double A side release called ‘El Diablo Adentro’ and ‘Equilbrium’. These again are coming out on tidy but in September. ‘El Diablo Adentro’ is probably the last harder edge track that I will produce as I really want people to take my new direction seriously. I hopefully want to get a few productions signed to other labels to as well as tidy to help push my sound and prove to people I am not just a hard trance DJ. ‘Equilibrium’ is a superb track which I am really over the moon with. Again very trance based but stacked full of energy. The few DJs that have it are charting it really high so that pleases me a lot.
On the remix front I have recently finished one for Nuklear Puppy and this is being released in the coming weeks. I am also in the studio soon to do a remix for BMG and one for Inspired Recordings. The remix for BMG is very exciting but I can’t tell you what it is yet so you will have to wait and see.
You’ve become more involved with the tidy weekenders? How did this come about, and how do you manage to work all day and play all night? You can be honest with us here Lee.
I sleep when I can which to be fair is not a lot but that’s the same for everyone on the team. I got into the events because Russell my MD asked me to and to be honest I am really pleased he did. When we do an event of the weekender’s size it’s all hands on deck and it didn’t seem fair that I should be the one getting drunk in the bar with the other DJs when everyone else in the team were working their arses off. I am General Manager after all so when Russell asked me, I said of course. I have learnt so much more about the whole events scene from doing these events which can only stand me in good stead. A lot of people come up to me and say you shouldn’t be doing this but, yes I am a DJ, but I also have a responsibility with my full time job and when I explain they’re like, yeah... that’s really cool. I work as daytime management with Robyn and Kelly... we control all the day time activities between 8am and 8pm so if I have been DJing the night before I do get a bit of extra sleep time cause obviously the others have been in bed whilst I am playing but other than that I work the same shifts as them which is usually 12 hours. TW7 was a real killer though... working a 12 hour shift on the Friday, in the freezing cold on check in and then DJing last set in the main room at 5am but that’s life.
Can you single out one thing in particular you’ve achieved since working at tidy that’s made you dead proud of yourself
I think one of biggest personal ambitions was mixing my Essential Mix on Radio One last year. It’s something every DJ aspires to and when I did it I was so overcome by it all. Don’t get me wrong, I was absolutely shitting bricks because if you mess up you have 50 million listening to you! But luckily I nailed every mix and that will go down as my finest moment as a DJ. I have to thank Russell and everyone at tidy for giving me that opportunity as they are seldom given out.
On the tidy front I would have to say keeping the label going. I think everyone knows how tough it is in the music business at the minute and we have had some really tough times over the past few years so to have tidy as strong as it is now, is a massive achievement not only for me but to everyone involved!
Is there a special person in your life at the moment, and if not, what kind of person would you like? In fact if you are single, tell our readers how they can apply.
LOL... I have lots of special people in my life.. I have the most amazing family, friends and colleagues who have supported me through thick and thin. Losing my dad in January was a real blow to me and the last 12 months of my life personally have been really hard but they have all always been there for me and for that I am eternally grateful.
Any girls however wanting to apply for the post of Lee Haslam’s girlfriend can apply in writing and can include a picture by emailing me at lee@leehaslam.com Ha ha!
Finally, what next for Lee Haslam?
Well as I have mentioned it’s going to be a full onslaught into the production over the next six months. I want to work with a few different producers and engineers as well so watch this space. I have just launched my new website www.leehaslam.comwhich I’m really pleased with, so hopefully this will go along way to pushing my name and my new sound. I am already booked for the likes of The Gallery in London so this time next year I hope to be playing the other big trance nights across the country. I still plan to carry on with my hard trance sound and play at my regular gigs like tidy, Polysexual, Sundissential and Slinky. My aim is to get into the top 100 list for Christmas 2006 which is going to be really hard work but I like to set myself new goals every year and thus far I have managed to do them all so fingers crossed.
All photos courtesy of Most Wanted PR.
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Other Features By MostwantedJonathan:
Girl Power! Kate Hammond, Vicious Circle’s leading lady
Relocation relocation with Twisted's very own Hannah Willis
Tidy Weekender 9 Live preview with Lisa Pin-Up
DTPM - the birthday: interview with the legendary Malcolm Duffy
Nick Rowland — Innovate Preview
The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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