About Myself - Dave Bradley

I have worked at quite a few thousand functions over the years, through which I like to think that I have gained valuable experience and knowledge. Having a DJ there with the foresight and experience to know whether things will work and how to make them work best can be in-valuable.
Having a DJ that you can feel confident in is essential. Your particular requirements can be varied. You may require a DJ that is inconspicuous or low-key, on the other hand you may want the complete opposite, a DJ that is the life and soul of the party. I can do either. Knowing when to shine and when to real myself in.
I have been very lucky to be involved with, and cover some very special events (that for privacy reasons I cannot divulge). The fact that I have been asked to perform at them is testament in itself to my commitment and overall love of the job. Most DJs like myself will tell you that it is less of a job, and more of a vocation. I feel that we as DJs are fortunate and privileged to do a job that we really love.

My love of music started at a very young age, initially back in the early seventies when I also learnt to play the piano was also part of a local choir. As I grew up and after seeing the film Grease for the first time, found that I was being drawn more and more into the 1950's & 60's American Rock N Roll. Before to long I started going to Rock N Roll nights at different pubs and clubs in the Bolton area. I regulary went to see some of the Rock N Roll bands of the seventies like Crazy Cavern, Matchbox, The Jets, The Stary Cats and Roman Holiday. All this before I left school.

One day one of my fellow club goers told me he had a double deck record player and told me he liked the original 1950's drape coat that I had and wanted to do a swap with me. Not really knowing what a double deck record player was, I became intrigued. Being a bit of an aspiring technology buff I though I've got to at least  have a look , so I did. There it was this huge box contained not just one record player but two and the whole thing had loads of buttons and switches on it - I was sold! So we did the deal and I took it home with me to play with. By then I had a pretty big record collection albeit mainly golden oldies, so this combined with my new toy set me off bedroom DJing. After a few weeks playing my mother had mentioned to our local church youth club that I was  now a "DJ" and would you believe it got the regular gig every Friday night playing at Kearsley Mount Youth Club. After a while word got around that I was pretty good and the local crown bowling club were wiling to give me a proper paid gig. Whilst still working at the youth club I took on this other job, a job that I did for about two months before I got head hunted by a team of DJs from Farnworth that persuaded me to come and work at their local pub "The Queens". A bit of a rough and ready pub, but still a very popular one. Everyone used to go in there before going over to "Blightys" night club so it got really busy. It was full of young teenage girls and I was a young good-looking teenage lad, but a brash young confident teenage lad in charge of the decks, even more impressive - I was happy as a pig in muck. One of the other DJs that was working at the pub at the time, Kevin Lee told me about an agent he knew called Fred. Fred was a Jewish guy who lived in a really grotty house in Boothstown but seamed  to have a few good connections so I started to do some mobile work for him - weddings and birthday etc. Over the course of a few years I went through a number of other agents as I got to find out the reality of working through some of the North West's less reputable agents, discovering their underhand and downright illegal working practices.  I was during this time I became friends with a fellow DJ who lived just round the corner from my mothers house. His name was Paul Atkinson and he was always singing the praises of this black DJ from Swinton called Tony Thomas and the agency he had started. After a run-in with an agent from Blackpool over commission payments I decided to give this Tony Thomas guy a try. His agency was called Unit One and when I met up with him he had offices in Solrell Bank House near Irlams Of The Hight in Salford. He came across completely differently to any other agent I had worked through, he was charging one set low rate of commission regardless of the actual fee which got me hooked instantly. He was a very softly spoken man that didn't have any airs or graces and wasn't at all pretentious or overbearing. In our first meeting together he said I don't care what you do, just do it well and to the best of your ability and you will get work. Ever since that first meeting I have never looked back and tried to live up to his very simple but very clever words. Tony Thomas tragically and unexpectedly passed away in 1997 and to this day I am still working through his company Unit One Entertainment. Unit One is now owned and run by former UK Club DJ of the Year Steve Sale and celebrated character DJ Jonny Spangles.