Meet My My Artist Dan Proxy, aka The Stage Manager
How did you first catch a love for DJing and clubbing?
I was born in North London but grew up in Milton Keynes, which was home to The Sanctuary, a legendary warehouse venue that hosted large scale raves in the early 90’s - Dreamscape, Helter Skelter, Slammin’ Vinyl and Godskitchen. I was slightly too young to attend the early raves, but I had a mate who had an older brother, and he’d bought the tape packs, the recordings from the raves.
That was how it all started for me - Randall, Slipmatt, and Carl Cox cassettes.
Clubbing and club music followed on from the rave scene and I was influenced by the first Cream and Ministry of Sound compilations, which led me into going to Ibiza the summer after I finished school in 1996. The big tunes of that summer were Tori Amos - Professional Widow, Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness, and Faithless - Insomnia.
I came back inspired, begged my parents to buy me some turntables and a mixer, but then I couldn’t afford to buy many records. So I picked up my first job in the industry - flyering for Godskitchen, at a club called The Vault in Northampton.
The promoter only paid me £5 a week, but it was all about getting free entry for me and a friend into the club as we were only 17, so that was the first UK club that I started going to regularly, and then I was hooked
Tell us more about your work as a former manager at London clubs Fabric, The Cause and Village Underground
Oooh, now that would be telling!
I am actually planning to write a book based on all of my experiences from behind the scenes. I am privileged to have held such a unique and insightful set of positions and responsibilities throughout this industry.
Let’s just say it was very very very intense, and it’s definitely not as glamorous as it sounds!
The clubs were all very different. I went from Fabric to The Cause in it’s infancy, with both being at completely opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of licensing and what you can get away with.
Fabric was the best possible industry training and I am proud to still be a part of their family.
But we are talking about a club with 20 years (then) of operational procedures and processes compared to a brand new club (as it was at the time), where we were still making it all up as we went along…so very different experiences
I’m very fond of Village Underground, after Fabric and The Cause, I found it super easy operationally to step down to an 800 cap venue, and my favourite part was being able to interact with all the punters on a personal level - something that you simply can’t do when you are processing thousands of people every weekend. Plus the live music during the week is brilliantly programmed.
What are some of your most cherished clubbing memories and moments?
Breakfast @ Egg was an institution back in the day when Kings Cross was the epicentre of clubbing. We’d go to places like The Cross the night before and then roll on to Egg for the ultimate afterparty, where you would join everyone else who just didn’t want to stop partying - we would just go hard all weekend every weekend. They were some of the most silliest and most spiciest scenes I can recall.
Any of the brilliant nights at The End. That was such a special club.
Mr. C’s Superfreq parties at Centrepoint in Tottenham Court Road watching a new day dawn from the 33rd floor of a central London skyscraper.
Being one of only a handful of heads at the very first Fuse @ 93 Feet East in 2008, as well as being there for the first ever Fuse party in Ibiza.
Watching Jeff Mills perform an eerie dawn breaking set on a temporary floating stage on a lake in an old disused prison quarry in Estonia.
Being brought to tears by Calibre playing such an emotional sunset set on the beach at Sunandbass in Sardinia.
Working with Katy B @ Village Underground was a pinch myself moment.
DJ’ing to over 1000 people on the campsite on the night before an EXIT Festival in Serbia. And of course the magic that happened with me stepping in and playing at Rhythm Corner for We Out Here 2023, warming up for my heroes Kruder & Dorfmeister - a young me dreamed of having that opportunity!
To be honest, its all accumulative, and every year it gets better because of all the beautiful souls that I get to connect with - special shouts out to all my Freero, Houghton, WOH and Dimension crews.
You've been part of the Houghton Festival crew since day one. It's now one of the most esteemed dates for music lovers, what has been the secret to its success?
It’s artist led, as opposed to being held for commercial reasons.
Artist led festivals are the way forwards. People have been to enough festivals now, to be able to tell the difference between when something special is done for the people attending, and when something is being done purely for profit.
It also helps that it’s a proper 24 hour programme and that there is no phone signal throughout the festival site - which forces everyone to return to the original ethos of living in the moment and being offline and representing fully.
Craig Richards is the not so secret reason for the success of Houghton. His unwavering commitment, vision and attention to detail shines throughout. It’s a real treat and privilege to be a part of Houghton’s heritage.
You also work at the We Out There festival, how did you get involved here?
That came about organically, which is nice. They needed an experienced stage manager to deal with some slightly more technical production elements, which really whetted my appetite.
I’d worked with a couple of the team on events in London so when they asked me I jumped on it in 2022 - the last year that it was held at the old SGP site.
When WOH moved to the current site in Dorset, I had already cemented my position as Rhythm Corner’s Stage Manager
You've officially launched your DJing career and live in Sri Lanka for part of the year, how will this develop your style and love for getting people onto the dance floor?
Being based in Sri Lanka allows me the freedom to explore my art, away from the financial pressures of making ends meet by being based in London.
I would liken it to the period where the The Beatles were based in Hamburg - we get to play every night, hone our craft, try different things and it’s even more challenging - this is not a target niche audience, so that forces you to find common ground, digging deeper and deeper, testing and finding that universal appeal that ticks EVERY SINGLE BOX no matter who the listener is.
Plus I’ll be bringing the sunshine music and vibes back with me every time!
What can we expect to see from you going forward?
I’m launching my own weekly parties here on the south coast in Sri Lanka, as well as playing regularly for a few promoters here. I’m going to be putting out a lot more content online and sharing some of my record collection and musical knowledge.
I’ve been booked for an official Stage Manager set at We Out Here 2025, brought back by popular demand.
The plan is to be in Europe for at least 3 months in the summer, so hopefully lots of gigs and plenty of partying, reconnecting with the culture.
What are the top tracks you always keep to hand - that always get people dancing and fired up?
Oh god, there is so much music and it’s cyclical and ever changing.
I have a few exclusive and underground tracks that use samples from Double 99 - Ripgroove, which was one of the first records I ever bought in 1997.
Rubin by Oliver Huntemann & Stephan Bodzin - is a track that just refuses to go away
More recently it’s pretty much anything by PJ Bridger, Smokey Bubblin’ B or Soul Mass Transit Authority - they’re great crossover party tune producers.
You have to dig through all their output to find their best output, their gems. That’s what I do - I dig deeper and present perhaps the artists lesser known or earlier work.
To me that’s the role of the DJ, to do the necessary homework, to be critical, and to find the cream of the crop.
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