DJ Jon Da Silva (or Dasilva) Encounters TheWhippinpost

Completely by chance, I got to meet with the legendary "era-defining" international DJ of house music, Jon Da Silva (Actually, it's Dasilva but you'll most likely see it written on flyers as Da Silva).

Now, some of you might be oblivious to his name 'cos he has been a bit quiet in recent years; and if you don't know your dance music history, you may even be completely clueless, so let me save your embarrassment...

The Haçienda - A music epoch

Jon began DJ'ing back in 1986. He quickly developed a unique style of manhandling any tune that roughed his slipmat, and so it wasn't long before he was granted residency at the legendary Haçienda Club in Manchester (or Madchester as it became dubbed), UK.

The Haçienda gave birth to Acid House and was arguably the first UK club to play House Music. From here-on, the UK music, entertainment, and cultural fabric of yoof was moistened by a new sweat-soaked love-generation of the 80's, dancing helplessly to a new e-induced tribal beat, and reduced to a spoken vocabulary consisting of three questions; the answers to which were:

1. Mike
2. Madchester
3. E

The Sun - a major UK national tabloid newspaper - crowned The Haçienda as the 'most important venue since the Cavern' (If you have to ask what relevance The Cavern holds, then delete your music apps now - I don't care where you're from).

The club (and Jon), have both been immortalised in Michael Winner's film, '24 Hour Party People'.

Producer, songwriter and record label

As with many international DJ's of repute, he's also an accomplished Producer and Songwriter in his own Right (discography), shortly to be demonstrated once again with his soon-to-be-released, "Bowie in The Bronx" (Listen to the remix on his music page via the link to his site, below). He also has a band, TVMR and is currently starting his own label (yeah, he's slightly mad I think, too!).

Jon Dasilva - exporting beats to the world

He has - and continues to be - invited to play extensively around the world, and in recent years has been tampering with the rapidly growing dance music supply-chain in places such as Russia and the Far East.

So yeah, Jon Dasilva pretty much has his fingerprints all over the phenomenon we now generically call dance music; the thumbprints of which still smear the music landscapes of the world today.

With introductions now out of the way, I'll next endeavour to write as much of his words-of-wisdom as I can remember (I know, I was ill-equipped; no notes, nor recording was made - but then, I wasn't expecting the encounter!).

Some of the topics covered:

• Is there money in DJ'ing?
• MySpace promotion - Does it work?
• Free MP3 downloads and the music business - harmful or helpful? Can offering them work for you?
• If Dasilva had to start again, what would he do?

Plus whatever else I can dredge-up from my hardening brain.

Jon Dasilva's website