Beats & Pieces: The long goodbye

After thirteen years of keeping Hot Press readers up to date with the activities of Ireland's DJs and dance music producers, the time has come to hand this task over to somebody else.

Sitting in the departure lounge, Beats & Pieces pondered over the thirteen figures that have made the biggest impressions and contributions to clubland during that time.
David Holmes has to be admired for his progression from making cinematic dancefloor epics such as Disco Evangelists' 1993 anthem 'De Niro' to scoring award-winning Hollywood A-List soundtracks.
Holmes also released the best Irish album of 2008, The Holy Pictures, a remarkably personal and emotional work that hopefully is the dawn of a new and exciting era in the Belfast maverick's career.
John O'Callaghan has in recent years become Ireland's most successful DJ, constantly touring South America, the US, eastern Europe, Australasia and the UK, playing to crowds as large as 50,000 people, selling out clubs in cities such as Amsterdam and performing on the main stages of key festivals such as Trance Energy.
The Navan native would doubtless agree with my assertion that what's most exciting about all of this is that he's only moving into second gear and the world is his proverbial oyster. He is destined to enjoy as much success as Holmes in years ahead, albeit in a slightly different field. His new album, Never Fade Away, is in the premier league of production.
Cork DJs Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson (counted in this list as one) are renowned for their success in recent years as Fish Go Deep, but let their hugely influential impact on Irish club culture in the '90s not be forgotten.
Their record for holding down the longest ever weekly club residency in Ireland with Sweat at Sir Henry's – coincidentally the same duration as Beats & Pieces tenure at Hot Press – is unlikely to ever be broken.
Throughout that time it's fair to say they remained more popular in the city than any other DJs, an unrivalled achievement, while their legendary DJs weekenders united the Irish club scene with an intimacy and excitement that has never since been matched.
Larne lad Fergie's transformation from hard house teen pin-up to über-cool techno tour de force took guts, determination, passion and talent: it's a delight to see it has all paid off. Plaudits from the likes of Dave Clarke, Adam Beyer and Mauro Picotto don't come easy, you know.
Dublin inner city child Billy Scurry was dubbed 'the DJs' DJ' during his Temple of Sound era, and this scribe has yet to see any other Irish DJ command such universal respect from his peers. He's now also one of Dublin's best chefs to boot.
Hailing proudly from Ballybrack in south Dublin, Johnny Moy has been there, done that, worn all of the t-shirts and slept at your mate's party in them.
I can still vividly recall the evening at Schooner's in Dun Laoghaire in 1991 when Moy announced to me that he was buying a set of decks and he was going to be the biggest DJ in Dublin. Within a couple of years he was, in fact, the most successful DJ in the country.
In 1993, his peerless monthly club venture The Beat Club was the most talked about and envied party in the country. In 1994, Moy was at the helm of Temple of Sound and for at least two nights of almost every weekend it was the only show in town.
In 1995 Moy confidently predicted to me that he and the then booking manager for the Ormond Multimedia Centre, Paul Davis, would become the biggest dance promoters in Ireland before they had even put on their first gig at The Furnace.
And for the next half a dozen or so years the pair's Influx brand dominated the landscape in a way that I doubt even Moy had dared dream. He's now 18 years into his self-made career in music and still a player. Hats off, kids.
Bray wanderer Tim Hannigan is these days known as Mr Spring from RTÉ Radio 2FM, one of the most refreshingly unique individuals ever to don a set of headphones or make a record. His most recent album, Not For Sale, is in my opinion one of the most criminally overlooked dance music long players ever made.
South Dublin-based Gallic DJ Francois Pittion was arguably the most fun DJ in the '90s, and much like Fergie he managed a seemingly impossible transformation, from hard trance spinning resident DJ at the seminal UFO night to entirely credible cutting edge exponent of techno at the helm of the equally important Alien club.
John Reynolds opened his PoD nightclub to a chorus of derision from Ireland's clubbing fraternity in 1994, but he called me aside one day, admitted its shortcomings and whispered how it was but a stepping-stone for the bigger things that became what is still arguably the biggest clubbing empire in southern Ireland.
The Longford man currently owns the best big club in Dublin, one of its best small clubs and what many opine is the country's best festival. And he has done for quite a number of years.
Dubliner Trevor O'Shea started Bodytonic a few years ago as a loose collective of DJs sharing a penchant for deep house. He now runs festivals in eastern Europe, record labels, an internationally acclaimed website, a pub and a club that opens three nights a week and puts on the most adventurous line-ups anywhere in the 32 counties. O'Shea, incidentally, is only warming up.
Belfast based married couple Eddie Wray and Judith Farrell Rowan (another pairing counted here as one) have ruled the roost North of the border for eleven years with Planetlove festivals and its associated clubs and arena events. No mean feat.
When Jay Pidgeon left his North Dublin home for the bright lights of London in 2002, this column confidently predicted success due to the skills he had showed when resident DJ at the Temple Theatre earlier this decade. He now manages the diaries of international superstars Mauro Picotto and Marco V, and was largely responsible for Dutchman Sander van Doorn's rise to international prominence.
Kerry's biggest musical export Donal Dineen has introduced me to, and got me excited about, more wonderful new music than any other DJ on the radio in my life. The Today FM host is also one of the nicest men in the Irish music industry.
This Champions League is an entirely subjective list, and if you have any disagreements or comments, please submit them to the forum on hotpress.com or to myspace.com/markkavanaghdj
And finally, thanks to Niall and Mairin for having me, the most consistently late filer of copy in the history of this fantastic magazine… THE BEAT HAS NOW LEFT THE BUILDING!

From next issue on Claire Roche will be keeping you up to date with the dance scene at home and abroad.