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Ten years of tidy — an interview with tidy’s webmistress Kelly Dayus-Cook Reported by MostwantedJonathan / Submitted 31-08-05 20:15 If you’re a visitor to tidy.com then you’ll be more than familiar with our final subject in the Ten Years of Tidy interview series. Her name is embodied on 45% of pages at the award winning website, and it’s a name we all can’t forget. Kelly Dayus-Cook is tidy’s very own Lois Lane, she is the editor of tidy.com and all round operations chick! She’s responsible for drafting the all important line-ups at every tidy event, a massive task itself. Kelly Dayus-Cook sits in front of a bank of computers that resembles a set from American drama ‘24’. She monitors all activity on the tidy chat-boards and is a well known face amongst the tidy massive. We dragged her away from her screens for this interview, as we get to know tidy’s one and only webmistress. Like so many other people in this industry, you landed your job at tidy by ‘accident’! What a great accident to have, tell us more? I did land it by complete accident and a very lucky one at that! I was working for a bank at the time and was beginning to be thoroughly pissed off with the monotony of number crunching, so I sent my CV to a recruitment agency looking for a job with them as a recruitment consultant. They, by mistake, sent my CV to the Music Factory thinking I was going for a job with them, possibly as I was working for Gatecrasher part time, and they called me for an interview. At first I wasn't going to even bother going along as I had no idea what the Music Factory was but I thought nothing ventured nothing gained! So I turned up, just really going for the interviewing experience, I got taken round and shown all the departments after the interview and as I walked across the car park I saw a car with the number plate “Tidy T” which raised an eyebrow! Then as I walked into another building I was greeted by Andy Pickles, who I’d seen playing the weekend before! At this point I thought the whole interview was a wind up, especially after seeing Lee Haslam, I was about to call my friends and accuse them of setting me up! But it wasn't a wind up and they offered me the job there and then! I can say I drove home with a pretty big smile on my face that day! You’re a southern lass born and bred, tell us about the journey that took you to Rotherham? I was actually born in the north and moved south when my parents took over a pub in Hampshire. It was in a small town where everyone knows your name, your business and are general busy bodies! It is a town for retirement, not a town for an aspiring clubber. My love for drum n bass and then hardcore, or happy hardcore as it was, took me to places such as “the not quite legal” party at “The Manor” in Ringwood, Dreamscape, Origin, Helter Skelter (yes I did the white glove/glow stick combo, it was cool then, honest!) and eventually on to Cocoshebeen at Slinky’s. One night I couldn’t be bothered fighting my way through the back room to go to the toilets so I ventured into the main room, I'd never listened to trance before but I walked through the door that night and never looked back, gone were my hoodies and baggy ‘Spiffy’ jeans, now it was tight trousers, crop tops and hands in the air! I was totally hooked within a matter of weeks, Slinky, Passion, Cream, I was a clubber with itchy feet and it wasn’t until I found Gatecrasher that I became a regular punter at any one place. Come 1998, I’d heard so many things about their line ups, Gatecrasher and the scene around Sheffield that I had to sample it for myself! Although going out in London and the Midlands I’d seen the occasional ‘CyberKid’ but nothing could have prepared me for what I witnessed walking through the Republic’s doors, it was wall to wall day glow. Clubbers have always been renowned for being friendly but the Crasherkids where the most welcoming I’d come across and convinced me to make Gatecrasher my home for the next 4 years! I moved to Sheffield, sick of 12 hour round trip train journeys every weekend, found a totally new outlook, made loads of new friends and got totally addicted to the whole way of life! I missed Mother’s day, family birthdays and other usually unmissable events as I couldn’t bare not being at a Tiesto b2b with Scott Bond or a PVD 6 hour set... sad, but true! (Mum if you're reading this, I'm sorry those business ‘trips’ were porkies) So, that’s basically what brought me to South Yorkshire, my love of trance and day glow. You’ve been at tidy for 5 years +, how has it changed since earlier times? We’ve got bigger and better and definitely more focussed. We’ve always had plans and made sure we’ve done everything to the best of our ability, but in the last 2 years I’d say we’ve totally stepped up a gear, partially because of the current market making us have no choice but mainly because the team we have now is the best it’s ever been. We all work so well together (this sounds cheesy but it’s true!) constantly bouncing ideas off each other, backing each other up and making sure that everything we do is a success. We’ve changed the way we work, everyone’s had some kind of shift in their responsibilities and we’ve had new members of staff come on board. Probably the most notable change is in our events, when I first joined the Weekender seed had just been sown, we’d done a few Tidyssentials but nothing to the magnitude that we’ve done now. It was slightly intimidating to work the big events but now it’s a challenge we all thrive on, taking every opportunity as a chance to excel! How much work goes into keeping tidy.com on the air? A hell of a lot! Before taking on the massive task of tidy.com’s editor I’d had experience in writing articles but none whatsoever in running a website, so it’s been a huge learning curve for me! Luckily I’ve had some very good teachers. Martin Smith, who’s the Director of multimedia, has the patience of a saint and has had to learn to talk to me in simple terms as his technical terms might as well have been in Latin for all it meant to me. He’s coached me through and never gets pissed off at my many questions and “ehs?” To begin with I did all the content myself, all the stories and reviews, but quickly realised that I was biting off more than I could chew! Recently I've been involving a few of the message board regulars, LondonDom writes reviews and a few interviews for me and I’ve just offered a spot as a news reporter to a lass called Angela that currently writes for her Uni paper. I still like to write some stuff as it’s one of my passions, if I had the time I would write more but then the time comes round where I have to write a whole newspaper for a Weekender and I quickly remember how much effort it takes!! Working with people like yourself also makes it easier to keep tidy.com up to date, writing all those press releases myself would be nigh on impossible. I’m always in talks with Martin, Amo and the other members of the team on updating the look, feel and way tidy.com is used, often taking on board what our users say on the message board to make sure it is the best it can be. We’ve recently started a newsletter called Tidy Friday which goes out every week to keep our community bang up to date on everything that's going on, if anyone wants to start receiving this they just need to sign up to www.tidy.com and click to receive updates! Further to that, can you tell us about a typical day in the life of Kelly Dayus-Cook? Well unlike Robyn I’m not a morning person! I have to get up at 6.30 and have at least half an hour tea drinking and news watching time before I feel even partially human. And usually I need another brew as soon as I get into the office to give me that extra kick start! Every morning I’m greeted by huge amounts of emails in my inbox so the first part of my day is assigned to answering all those, then it’s on to the message board to check out what’s been happening on there over the evening and answering any questions I didn’t the day before and approving avatars etc. My role is so varied no day is the same, at the moment I’ve been concentrating on making sure all the artists are sorted for Creamfields, working on our 10th Birthday and TW8 programming, organising our line up for our return to London and also the Tidy Storm that’s coming up in November! Other things I'm working on at the moment include tidydigital.com, I’ve started helping Lee getting new labels on board so google has become my best friend over the last few weeks in finding many labels and approaching them about joining our digital generation. The response has been great so over the next few months you’ll be seeing many new labels added to our download site, it really will cover every genre possible... I’m approaching a few folk labels next week. Kidding! When events come around I help Robyn by writing the text for the flyers/brochures, The Wild West West theme was a favourite of mine, although TW7 text came more naturally to me... When the tidy addict came about, it was a much talked about ‘gimmick’ and one that’s grown into something rather damn large. Who is responsible for keeping the thousands of members in line. Myself and the addictive team, I tend to keep the tidy.com message board users in check as best I can and Darren and the addictive team monitor the tidyaddict site. The rate that tidy addict has grown has reflected in tidy.com’s registered users, I’ve seen loads more people spring up on our message board since we launched addict so it’s been a great success. This leads us to our next point. You are renowned for being a ‘hard case’, yet today you seem too placid, is the hard front an act, or are you really a ‘don’t f@ck with me’ kind of girl? Haha! Brilliant! It has been said many times that I can be a bit of a “sour faced cow” (in the words of my boss) but I’m not always like that and sometimes I probably play up to it a little just for the laugh! Working in a male dominated industry occasionally calls for a girl to be a little bit more of a ‘hard case’ than in normal day to day life. But I have always been a bit of a “don't fuck with me kind of girl” but as my close friends know, Im soft as shit underneath it all. With regards to the message board community’s opinion on my “hard” exterior, I’d like to think I’m firm but fair on there, I’ve collared a few of them but also been there for quite a few when they’ve wanted advice, help or questions answering, but of course my harsher side is noticed more! As much as they like to bait me sometimes, I love them all... Programming the line-ups at each event starts with you, how does this process begin and how did you become so clued up on all the styles tidy currently caters for? It can be a bit of a mammoth task, especially for an event like a Weekender, it begins with me getting a few ideas down and then meeting with Russell and various members of the team to take on board their opinions and asking who they’ve seen out and about recently, who’s been filling the dance floors etc. I am out in clubs pretty much every weekend myself as I drive Tara Reynolds and if we are at an event that has more than one room I like to trundle off and see who’s doing what. I get sent loads of demos from agencies as well so my journeys to and from work are often spent listening to all of those! Spending time scanning message boards, reading press and keeping an eye on releases is also a big part of it, I’m lucky to have a wide range of tastes so I actually really enjoy going to different club nights and trying to keep up with all of the genres, I’m off to a speed garage night soon! It quickly turns into more of a hobby than work! So I’ve become clued up purely through my love of all types of music. Of course with every line up I have to take into consideration what I think the tidy faithful are wanting which is possibly the easiest bit as they are so famously vocal! What can be tricky and sometimes a little scary is bringing in someone new, but luckily there hasn’t been any major belly flops just yet! When it comes to actually working out the set times you just have to visualise how you want the night to go and fit each style of DJ around that. I’m a firm traditionalist when it comes to building up a night, the warm up DJ is as important if not more important than whoever gets the peak time slot because that DJ will set the pace of that room for the duration. We’re slightly spoilt when it comes to good warm up jocks, people like GRH, Daley and Shaun M are perfect and I can totally trust them to not run away with the BPMs! Once the line-ups are finalised, what happens from there on in. Are you also responsible for itineraries, payments, travel, hotels? I have a good team that help me with the next bit. I sort out all the itineraries, dealing with the agencies, DJs and playing set time tennis, but then I have Sue Green to help me with the hotels, airport pick ups and logistics as it’s just a nightmare to do on your own and she’s the queen of timetables! We then have an accounts team who I work alongside make sure people are paid, invoices are received and there’s a record of everything. With such an apparent work load, how do you manage to wind down after work, or are you one of these people who can’t stay offline? I’m a workaholic accused, tried and found guilty! I find it very hard to turn off after leaving work and my journey home is usually spent thinking of things I can do when I get back. I don’t get loads of time in the day to look over the other websites so I often spend some time doing that, reading about what’s going on and keeping my finger on the pulse! MSN is my friend and my enemy; I can talk to everyone that I need to on there but in the same light I can never log on and no one notices! I do like to wind down with a nice bottle of wine and a good book in the evening! My few free weekends are usually spent catching up with friends, taking trips to some different clubs and going out for posh nosh! What would you say are the high points of working for tidy, and what have you personally learnt and achieved since being there? Blimey, I have learnt an incredible amount and had so many highs. I came into tidy thinking I knew about the clubbing way of life and the music industry but I quickly found out I knew sweet F.A. Working with the people I do is a massive advantage, everyone has had different experiences and I can learn so much from all of them on a day to day basis. Lee was one of the first people I learnt a lot from when I was selling vinyl into the record stores, he was very supportive in helping me get to grips with tidy, Russell’s been a massive fountain of knowledge and has steered me into working to the best of my ability. The main thing I have learnt from working here is there’s nothing that can’t be achieved if you’ve got a good team behind you. Highs include achieving what I have in such a short space of time and having trust and responsibility brought into my role, being given the room to expand my knowledge and ability, at every one of our events feeling a huge amount of pride when I see everyone having a great time and every day I drive to work is a high for me, I’ve done the shite jobs that you only do to pay the bills and fund the weekends, I never thought I would be lucky enough to get up on a Monday morning and be looking forward to going to work. I am fully aware at how jammy I’ve been and I have every intention of continuing to make the most of it. The 10th birthday is almost upon us, how prepared are you all at tidy HQ for this decade of dance? Massively prepared! So much work has gone into this shindig it’s going to be AWESOME! I think I might even cry as the boys start their intro haha! All the DJs are clued up on where to be and when, everyone of them are looking forward to it and there’s a tangible buzz around the whole event. We usually get a lot of requests for guest lists from industry bods for our events but this time every man and his furry boots want to attend so it’s guaranteed to be a blinder! The VIP tickets sold out quicker than any of the other events we’ve held at Magna and the standard ones are selling just as fast, even though the capacity is bigger this time don’t leave it until the last minute to buy your ticket! They are still available at www.tidy.com/magna There’s plenty of tricks the jocks we’ve booked have up their sleeves for this one, Lab4’s live experience will be one not to be missed as they’ve been practising specially for the last 8 months! It will be a Lab 4 set you won’t be forgetting in a hurry, The Boys will of course be putting on a spectacular show, in fact everyone I’ve been speaking to is planning to put in that little bit extra for this one, I’m going to be running from room to room all night I think! Finally Kelly, you’ve told me you’re off on holidays in a few days time, was this booked prior to knowing you had a 10th birthday to work on, or has Russell been completely generous in allowing you the time off? I am off on holiday wooohooo!! A much needed one too! Russell's been very generous and my puppy dog, eye lid fluttering technique came into play as well. I’m making sure everything is up to date before I jet off to the sun and I get back two days before the birthday so no doubt those will be a very manic two days, but I don’t care because I’ll have a tan! So I shall be swanning round Magna in summery clothes showing off my golden glow no matter what the weather’s like! So see you all on the dance floor! All photos Kelly’s own. Share this :: : : : Follow HarderFaster :: 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. Comments: From: Psym@n on 1st Sep 2005 09:13.58 tidys message board is a utter disgrace , nothing more than arrogant young twats argueing about anything and everything From: karl davis on 1st Sep 2005 10:40.49 well done sexy great interview now we no why tidy do so well :-) kd From: MostwantedJonathan on 1st Sep 2005 12:50.07 In all fairness Psym@an, this is hardly the place to be slating the tidy message board. You're remarks are far from flattering and are probably better suited inside a forum. If you care to read other features on Harderfaster you'll find most people use the comment box to leave positive and or constructive messages. From: Dj Damien Davies on 1st Sep 2005 19:53.10 Good interview, tidy board is run well so keep up the good work!!! From: littlemissgenki on 1st Sep 2005 23:09.00 Congrats to Kelly & the rest of tidy on their 10th bday! Psym@n, there's plenty of other avenues for such negative feedback and let's face it, without arrogant twats instigating arguments most message boards would be pretty boring... From: Psym@n on 2nd Sep 2005 12:16.08 my opinion people if you dont like it dont read it ! From: Trevor McLachlan on 2nd Sep 2005 14:15.08 Psym@n, this is hardly the place to airing your views on the Tidy message board!!! This is an interview about a very hard working and respected member of the Tidy team ... Great interview Well done Kelly you are a star, congrats on everything you have achieved at Tidy. I'll be going Lycra shopping this weekend From: little gem on 4th Sep 2005 22:52.46 Nice one Kelly!! Gem xx (WiLDCHiLD) From: hayley_blackwell on 5th Sep 2005 08:49.05 Wicked Interview...will be keeping it tidy for another 10 years! From: Daley_ on 6th Sep 2005 15:47.19 Kelly is a legend, one of the nicest and hardest working sour faced cows you will ever meet. From: Kellz on 6th Sep 2005 18:41.11 Thanks for the ovely comments guys, Daley you're too cute! Just got back from holiday today and will be back into the swing of things tomorrow getting ready for Magna and hope to see you there!! Big wet sloppy kiss to all x Trevor - I want to see shiny Lycra! From: Tigz on 9th Sep 2005 11:52.58 You've done a bad thing Kelly, you've just boosted Dom's Ego to unheard of new hieghts. From: DJGRH on 10th Sep 2005 12:38.41 Kelly, you're an absolute star! The work you put in is absolutely second to none. Thanks for the comments above too - and thanks for all the continued bookings xx From: DJGRH on 10th Sep 2005 12:38.58 Kelly, you're an absolute star! The work you put in is absolutely second to none. Thanks for the comments above too - and thanks for all the continued bookings xx From: Intervention-UK on 10th Sep 2005 13:41.21 keep up the good work guys and kelly keep it tidy From: kernzy and klemenza on 14th Sep 2005 17:29.04 cool interview. Top bird :o) !

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