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Roger
Perry
Written by Simon Grigg.
I guess with Roger Perry it’s not a matter of knowing what to
say, it’s a matter of knowing where to start. If you cast an
eye
back over the history of electronic and rhythm based music in New
Zealand, and in particular, Auckland over the past twenty five odd
years, Roger has always been there. And not simply there: Roger has
been at the cutting edge; he’s been the pioneer and the risk
taker that has helped define so much of that history. He is, without
any question, one of the four or five most important people in the
scene or the industry or whatever you want to call it, over that time.
His contribution is immense and his vision helped to define the current
musical landscape of his country.
I first met Roger in 1985. I’d just returned from three years
in
London and was hired on my return (mainly because I had the best tunes)
to be resident DJ at the then key club in Auckland, Peter Urlich and
Mark Phillips’s now legendary Six Month Club. I was soon
aware of
a young guy who was always hanging around the DJ booth, or on the
dancefloor. Roger and I hit it off pretty much straight away and he and I became
firm friends as soon as we both started talking music. We could sit and
talk funk, soul and hip hop, as well as noisier guitar based stuff, for
hours. And we did. We sat over coffees at DKD café studying
whatever we’d managed to score off record companies for
hours,
with the sort of obsession to detail that simply confused everyone
else. We talked Sugarhill or obscure funk when no-one else seemed to
understand.
Roger had arrived in Auckland from Whakatane a couple of years earlier.
He came from a very distinguished East Coast family but had followed
his passion to the city, scoring a job shortly after arrival at a new
underage club, The Venue, owned and operated by Russell Crowe. He
learned an awful lot from Russell. Russell was first and foremost an
entertainer and he taught Roger the art of reading a crowd, and the
finer points of running a club, both skills Roger was later to hone
perfectly.
When I arrived back, Roger was resident at Club Mirage. The club was of
its time. It was the home of the rich (or at least hocked up to the
eyeballs) beautiful pre stock market crash things. It was a pretty straight club
and Roger had to play it fairly conservatively to that crowd. However
Sundays were another thing. On occasion the owners would turn it over
to Roger and it became the hottest place in town.
I was impressed by Roger. Firstly because I liked him a
lot…we
became almost family, almost brothers, and I spent a lot of time down
in Whakatane with his family; secondly because he taught me
things...how to mix records for a start…he was the only game
in
town at that stage and he was my tutor. He’d learnt,
partially,
off some the old hands around town, the guys who played the South
Auckland clubs, and partially taught himself the things those guys
didn’t know, and he passed it on; thirdly because he could
read a
crowd as no other DJ I’ve ever encountered before or after
could…he was absolutely instinctive; and finally because he
made
me laugh a lot…he has a wicked, quite evil at times, sense of
humour and that translated into the way he played. Our biggest records
were not always the obvious ones…he was not afraid to drop an
old
Smokey Robinson track or The Sex Pistols into a hip hop set for
example.
In the meantime we also compiled the first Def Jam compilation in the
world for CBS, and it got global release, albeit with our names
removed, for long forgotten political reasons.
In 1986 I left the employ of Peter and Mark and went out on my own with
Tom Sampson to open the Asylum in Mount Eden. Roger came with us and he
and I began a DJing partnership which lasted for the next few years.
It was a fortuitous time to open a big rough and noisy club. Revolution
was in the air. The, so called Golden Age of Hip Hop was breaking. And
that was just the beginning. Late in 1986 I handed Roger a record on a
label called DJ International, and he played it to the confused crowd.
House had arrived and shortly later techno followed, and we jumped in,
albeit mixing up our styles a lot.
In late 1986 Roger and I launched New Zealand’s first dance
radio
show. Asylum FM was on Saturday afternoons for two hours on bFm. And in
late 1987 it became Playground FM as we moved to the club of that name
in Nelson Street.
As the Playground ended in early 1989, we found ourselves with a
Thursday night residency at Berlin, in Wellesley Street playing a more
underground house, hip hop and techno set than we’d played at
The
Playground. We enjoyed it, and at the same time, pulled the
biggest crowds that club ever had.
In mid 1989 I headed off to the UK for a short spell. Whilst I was
away, Roger continued to break new ground. He headed off on tour with
The Headless Chickens, as both support and an integral part of their
show, being the first NZ DJ to tour with a rock band, especially a
Flying Nun act.
He also, in partnership with Grant Fell, was behind several of the
earliest and most successful dance parties. He’d earlier
played
at a couple of prototype parties in Nelson Street (remember, this was
revolutionary stuff at the time…no one had done it or
explored
the legality of doing so…), but the parties the Unity crew
put
on in 1989 and 1990 were essentially the first proper, organised, dance
parties, in the current sense, New Zealand had seen.
Roger moved with us to The Siren, his old haunt, Club Mirage, where he
was the resident DJ for twelve months before heading of to the UK for
some years.
On his return, fuelled by his love of funk and soul, he formed the
Stylee Crew with his friends Stinky Jim and DLT, which was instrumental
in opening New Zealand up to the dub flavoured downbeat which has
proved to be so influential in recent years.
His friendship with aspiring promoter Chris O’Donnohue, was a
crucial factor in the latter forming Lightspeed Productions.
Lightspeed, at Roger’s instigation, began, in 1997, importing
international DJs and began the era of the large dance party and,
arguably, the explosion in dance culture which so dominated Auckland in
the next few years.
In 1998 Roger took over the management of Calibre, which was at that
time a fairly quiet club in Auckland’s K Road. Under his
astute
guidance and intuitive musical direction, Calibre became, in 1998, the
epicentre of the city’s inner city club scene and the focal
point
for all the young musicians, DJs and a multitude of other creative
people. It was an explosive time for Auckland, and Roger was the
driving force.
He was also creating music. His original material, with The Kingsland
Housing Project, and Reactor Music was beginning to appear both in New
Zealand and on international record labels. Indeed several of the
tracks released to date have become NZ student and dance radio staples
as well as local club smashes. The track Calibre 98 not only celebrates
the club of that name but remains one of the very few true local dance
classics.
His 2001 mix album, BPM Mix 02, which I released on my label, was a
massive success and remains the biggest selling mixed house compilation
in New Zealand.
In recent years, Roger has continued to be in demand as a DJ, one of
the biggest names in the country, his radio shows have been highly
regarded. He has, to further his original music, completed an audio
engineering course.
I feel privileged to know Roger as well as I do. He is one of the very
few totally intuitive DJs I’ve ever heard. You can give Roger
a
record in mid set, and he, without listening to it, will perfectly
insert it into his set. He feels the music and has a genuine love for
what he does and a respect for the intrepidity of what he plays and
those who create music. That has allowed him to become a creator
himself and that passion is evident in his music.
Apart from that, he has been, and is, a driving force in the musical
culture of his country and it is fair to say that New Zealand would be
a very different, and lesser place without him. The respect he has from,
both his peers and the generations after him who owe him so much, is
both evident and no less than is his due.
Simon Grigg October 2006
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