Pete Tong

Pete Tong

Peter "Pete" Tong (born July 30, 1960) is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for his own performances at nightclubs across the globe. Tong has also worked as a record producer.

The phrase "It's all gone a bit Pete Tong", where the name is used as cockney rhyming slang for "wrong", was reputedly first coined by Mark Radcliffe. However, on his show of 28 November 2005, Mark Radcliffe credited his erstwhile sidekick Marc "Lard" Riley with inventing the term. It's All Gone Pete Tong is also the title of a 2004 film which portrays a DJ's experiences as he realizes he is becoming deaf. Tong appears briefly in the film as himself.

Pete Tong was born in Hartley, Kent in July 1960 and was educated at King's School, Rochester, Kent.

Initially after leaving school he set up a mobile disco based in a transit van, but he soon started his own club in Baker Street called Family Function. He also booked bands for an alternative night, the first of which was the then unknown Culture Club.

In 1979 he became a staff writer for Blues & Soul Magazine . After a year he was promoted to features editor, a position he would hold until 1983. He left Blues & Soul to join London Records as an A&R manager.

Through his connections in London Records Tong was exposed to the newly emerging house music sound from Chicago. In 1986 Tong organised a compilation album, The House Sound of Chicago, Vol. 1, the first British release to gather and expose this genre.

Tong's first appearance on radio was in the late 1970s on Radio Invicta 92.4fm, Europe's first soul station. He joined a rotation of nightclub djs including Steve Walsh, Chris Hill, Chris Brown and others to present monthly guest shows. Later he appeared on local radio station BBC Radio Medway in the 'Soul Mafia' and doing occasional mixes for Radio London. In 1981 he made his first appearance on Radio 1 hosting a 15 minute feature on Peter Powell's show, playing the new tracks and covering the latest gossip and news from the dance world.

When Invicta Radio started up in Kent in 1984, Tong joined them to host a regular soul show, where assisted by local Kent journalist Eddie Gordon of the Kent Messenger he built up a big county profile. Tong stayed at Invicta until 1987. He was then hired by Capital Radio in 1988 at the suggestion of DJ Jeff Young to present a weekly dance programme. DJ Jeff Young having initially been offered the slot by Capital went to BBC Radio 1 to broadcast a weekly Friday night show called The Big Beat.

In 1991 Tong returned to national radio after his manager Eddie Gordon talked the then departing DJ Jeff Young into suggesting him to BBC Radio 1 as the ideal replacement for the "hot" Friday night slot. Tong began his long stint as the host of the Essential Selection.

The Essential Selection was a BBC Radio 1 show that aired on Friday nights from 6-9pm between 1991 and 2006. In 2006 the show lost the name of Essential Selection and is now referred to as simply "Pete Tong", and now airs from 7-9pm. The programme showcases the latest dance & electronic music,and informs listeners what club nights are on around the United Kingdom that weekend. It is endorsed by Radio 1 as the official start to the weekend, and attracts one of the highest audiences for a dance radio show in the UK. Since his main programme was shortened in 2006, Pete Tong has also hosted a show on Thursday nights from 9-10pm called Pete Tong's In New Music We Trust. Since 1993, he has been associated with Radio 1's Essential Mix, which airs between 3-5am on Saturday morning. He is the station's second longest serving presenter (after Annie Nightingale).

Tong is one of the world's most recognised DJs. He drew people from all over the world to the famous Pure Pacha nights held at the Pacha nightclub in Ibiza. Tong was Pure Pacha resident from 2003 to 2007.

In 2008 Tong left Pacha and signed up for Eden in Sant Antoni de Portmany, to host his own night "Wonderland". 2008 Tong played at the central station "Deák Ferenc Square" of the Budapest Metro (Hungary) specially equipped for only one night. The audience (ca. 2000) was recruited with a free online registration.

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It's All Gone Pete Tong

It's All Gone Pete Tong is a 2004 Canadian fictional independent mockumentary about Frankie Wilde (Paul Kaye), a DJ who goes completely deaf. The title is a reference to a rhyming slang phrase used in Britain in the 2000s, referring to the BBC Radio 1 DJ Pete Tong, standing for "it's all gone wrong". Like the similar mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, the film takes measures to appear non-fictional, but Frankie Wilde himself is a fictional character.

The film was released on April 15, 2005. The DVD was released on September 20, 2005. In 2005, it won two awards at the US Comedy Arts Festival for Best Feature and Best Actor (Paul Kaye) and swept the Gen Art Film Festival awards (Grand Jury and Audience). It was filmed on location in Ibiza and shot entirely in HD.

Several famous DJs appear in the film as "talking heads", giving the film a false sense of authenticity. Carl Cox, Tiësto, Sarah Main, Barry Ashworth, Paul van Dyk, Lol Hammond, Pacha and Pete Tong appear in the film. Ibiza locations used in the movie include Pacha, Amnesia, Privilege and DC10 as well as the historic Pike's Hotel.

At the beginning of the film, Frankie Wilde is a wildly successful DJ on the party island of Ibiza. He has a recording contract, performs at high-profile nightclubs, and lives in a luxurious villa with his trophy wife, Sonya, and their son. In talking head sequences, contemporary DJs laud Frankie's turntable skills during this period. It is also evident that Frankie has cocaine and alcohol addictions (in hallucinations, his drug addiction is represented by a giant, menacing badger). His career is increasingly guided by egotistical, insensitive super-agent Max Haggar.

Frankie's loss of hearing is first apparent when he hears a high-pitched whine instead of a Arsenal football match on TV. At this time, Frankie is making his next album with his "two Austrian mates" Alfonse and Horst, who seem more suited for a metal band. Frankie continues working on his album and playing gigs at clubs, but his hearing degrades rapidly. As a result, progress on his album stagnates. However, Frankie refuses to acknowledge his problem until a gig in Amnesia, when he cannot hear the second channel in his headphones and must crossfade one song into the next without being able to beatmatch them. The result sounds terrible, and the crowd boos him. Overcome with fear and frustration, he throws the Technics turntable and the mixer onto the dance floor, and is forcibly removed from the club.

The next day, Max confronts Frankie about the performance. Frankie agrees to see a doctor, who tells him he's lost hearing in one ear and has 20% left in the other. He warns Frankie that unless he stops abusing drugs and listening to loud noises, he will soon be completely deaf. Even the use of his hearing aid would only further degrade his hearing.

Then, during a recording session, Frankie confesses the full nature of his hearing loss to Alfonse. He inserts his hearing aid to demonstrate, and is overwhelmed by the sudden sound exposure. Before he can react, Horst smashes a guitar into an amplifier whose volume Frankie has maximized. The noise is excruciating, and the feedback knocks Frankie unconscious. The damage leaves him permanently deaf.

Without his hearing, Frankie cannot complete his album. He loses his recording contract, and Max abandons him. Soon after, Sonya leaves him. The talking head sequences describe this period as his darkest hour, in which he shuts himself into his home, which he has "soundproofed" with pillows in a desperate bid to recover his hearing. His drug use intensifies, and he appears to be heavily depressed. In one scene, he repeatedly throws his body against the walls. In other, he wraps roman candles around his head, an attempt at suicide, but dives into the pool before they ignite.

After this dark period, Frankie calls a deaf organization and meets Penelope, an instructor for the deaf who coaches him in lip-reading. They become close, and eventually intimate. He confides his unhappiness at losing music, and she helps him perceive sound through visual and tactile methods instead.

Frankie then manages to devise a system for mixing songs, in which he watches soundwaves on a screen while resting his feet on the pulsating speakers. Using this system, he heads to the studio and manages to produce a song (Hear No Evil) entirely by himself. He delivers it to Max, who is wildly pleased - particularly by the potential of using Frankie's disability to increase record sales. He has Frankie take part in advertising and promotional deals which are increasingly offensive and insensitive to deaf people, which Penelope silently disapproves of. He also treats Penelope like he did Sonya; as Frankie's sexual object, not recognizing her substantial role in Frankie's life. In general, Max tends to patronizingly characterize the deaf as pained, helpless victims desperate for a deaf role model.

Max convinces Frankie to play live at Pacha as a career comeback. He thinks it is an opportunity for Frankie to prove himself to others, despite Frankie's insistence that he has nothing to prove to his critics. The gig goes exceedingly well, and many claim it showcases even greater talent than his early work. After the show, Frankie and Penelope disappear from Max, the media, and the music scene altogether. In a talking heads sequence, characters speculate on where he is now (if alive).

As the film ends, we see Frankie disguised as a homeless man, who is then met by Penelope and a child (presumably their own). They affectionately walk together down a street unrecognized. Additionally, we see Frankie teaching a group of deaf children how to perceive sound like he does.

The U.S. version of the DVD includes 5.1 Dolby Digital, Subtitles, and includes several extras that were part of the online/Web marketing campaign: Frankie Wilde: The Rise, Frankie Wilde: The Fall, and Frankie Wilde: The Redemption.

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London Records

London Records is a record label headquartered in the United Kingdom, originally marketing records in the United States, Canada and Latin America from 1947 through 1979, then becoming a semi-independent label.

London arose from the split in ownership between the British branch of Decca Records and that same company's USA branch; the American London label released British Decca records in the USA, since it could not use the "Decca" name there. They were noted for their classical albums made in then state-of-the-art stereophonic sound. Such artists as Georg Solti, Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti made many, if not all, of their recordings for the company.

The London name was also used by British Decca in the UK market to release American labels which British Decca licensed, such as Imperial, Chess, Dot, Atlantic, Specialty and Sun, as well as the first few UK releases from Motown. In the sixties more licensing deals were made with Big Top, Monument, Parrot, Philles and Hi. (An unusual feature was the letter code in the numbering system: see Catalog numbering systems for single records.) On Radio Luxembourg, the label was known as "London American".

In America , the label was best known as the American imprint of the pre-1971 recordings of The Rolling Stones (now owned by ABKCO ) . The label also originally issued some early LPs and singles by Texas based band ZZ Top (that catalog went to Warner Brothers in the 1980s).

In the late seventies London signed deals with the legendary Bomp! Records and with Big Sound in Connecticut. This changed the label in the eyes of many from a backwater into something a little more "edgy" compared to the pedestrian contemporary releases from parent company Decca.

After British Decca was acquired by PolyGram in 1979, London followed a more independent course with subsidiary labels as Slash, Pete Tong's Essential Records and FFRR.

Universal Music Group (the owner of American Decca) acquired PolyGram in 1998; however, by this time, London Records had become a semi-independent label within the PolyGram group operated by Roger Ames. When Ames moved to the Warner Music Group, he "took" the label with him, and so London's recent back catalogue was acquired by Warner, which also acquired the London name and trademark from Decca (which still owns pre-PolyGram back catalogue). The name is still used, mainly for UK-based artists, and for ex-Factory Records artists. Notable artists published by the current incarnation of London, London Records 90, include New Order, Happy Mondays, A and Shakespear's Sister.

After PolyGram took over British Decca, classical music albums recorded by British Decca continued to be released on the London label in the U.S., with a logo similar to the Decca classical label logo, until American Decca owner Universal Music bought British Decca owner PolyGram in 1998, after which they were all reissued on the original British Decca label in the U.S.

The London pop music catalogue owned by Universal Music is managed by Polydor Records.

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Essential Mix

The Essential Mix is a weekly radio show broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and features all styles of electronic dance music. Originally the brainchild of Eddie Gordon, the producer of the show from the very first broadcast in 1993 to 2001. After receiving weekly mix shows from DJs Tony Humphries and Frankie Knuckles on 2 hour cassettes from New York's Hot 97 and KISS 100 respectively in the early 90s Eddie felt that a BBC Radio 1 weekly show with DJs of different styles of music would offer more variety and the chance for the ever burgeoning UK dance music scene to flourish. He further encouraged the DJs he scheduled to flex their musical knowledge muscles by pushing the fact that the DJs were not strictly playing to a dance floor but to people listening in their homes all over the world. Hence the need for a straight out "4 to the floor" mix for 2 hours was not essential. DJ Paul Oakenfold particularly benefited from this direction with the now famous Goa Mix which was not only voted the best Essential Mix ever but also won a Silver Award in the Specialist Music Programme category at the 1997 Sony Radio Awards. The previous year, 1996, the Essential Mix Show picked up the award of Radio Show Of The Year from Muzik Magazine. Later on it was David Holmes who created another 2 legendary hours in the history of the Essential Mix: His set on June 15th 1997 – a surprising journey from Nancy Wilson to Jimi Hendrix – redefined the DJ as a collector of musical history.

The show has been hosted since its conception in 1993 by DJ Pete Tong who was also the first performer, broadcast on 30 October 1993. Every Friday late night/Saturday morning a two hour programme is broadcast, usually between the hours of 3am and 5am UK-time (the programme was previously broadcast between Saturday late night/Sunday morning 1am and 3am, and before that, between 2am and 4am and originally midnight and 2am). The standard format of the show is an uninterrupted guest mix of two hours provided by an invited DJ, group or producer, introduced by Tong. The mix is usually studio recorded in advance. Another Eddie Gordon initiative was to take the show on the road with live broadcasts from clubs or festivals, particularly during the Summer months (Northern Hemisphere) and at the New Year's Eve end of the calendar months. The live broadcasts started from within the UK and soon broadened out as live from Ibiza, North America, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Hawaii and other destinations in Europe including Rome in Italy. The BBC Radio 1 - One World Millennium celebration starting with DJ Carl Cox from Bondi Beach in Sydney Australia (more Eddie Gordon origination) before heading to Cape Town South Africa with DJ Danny Rampling prior to broadcasting DJ Dave Pearce from Glasgow, Scotland, DJ Pete Tong from Liverpool, UK then DJ Junior Vasquez from New York, USA before closing with DJ Carl Cox who had flown backwards across the dateline to complete a DJ World first with two Millennium gigs by broadcasting from Honolulu, Hawaii.

The forerunner to this mammoth New Year's Eve Essential Mix was the three cities broadcast on the New Year's Eve of 1997 into 1998 with simultaneous broadcasts from three clubs directly to each dance floor with DJ Pete Tong at the Ministry Of Sound, London, UK, DJ Todd Terry at the Nynex Arena in Manchester, UK and finishing with DJ Eddie Baez at the Tunnel venue in Manhattan, New York, USA.

The broadcasts from Ibiza have taken place every summer since the first Essential Mix live broadcast from Amnesia. The first ever Essential Mix from Ibiza came in the summer of 1995 Ibiza as a pre-recorded broadcast of Nicky Holloway playing live at Ku on 2 July 1995.

The Essential Mix quickly established a strong reputation within the dance music community and has gained prestige both in the UK and internationally. Although Eddie Gordon originally had his work cut out attracting big names to the program due to their busy DJ schedules but armed with determination and a broad knowledge of the big name DJ's dance music styles plus the hugely successful live Essential Mix the list of performers now essentially reads as a "who's who of dance music". The shows success can perhaps be partly attributed to Radio 1's unique ability to offer DJs the chance to play a relatively long set on radio uninterrupted by advertisements, something which cannot be matched by the BBC's commercial rivals (the BBC is funded through TV Licensing). The absence of any kind of interruption in music has led to the show being touted as a "two hour musical journey" rather than as simply an assortment of records. The show has been used as a platform for artists to showcase their talents, and for some is seen as a major boost to their careers.

Like all of Radio 1's dance music output, the Essential Mix is seen as significant in its contribution to the popularization of dance music in the UK. The programme has chartered the development of the dance music genre from 1993 to the present day and shows no sign of losing its influence.

The advent of the internet brought the programme to an international audience for the first time (the Radio 1 website launched in 1996). In 2002 the BBC launched their 'listen again' online radio service and the Essential Mix (along with the Essential Selection) became consistently the most popular specialist music show of the whole BBC Radio network amongst internet users. According to BBC server logs, the show receives around 50,000 online requests per week (though this can be much higher, with the 2003 Ibiza show attracting 96,682 requests), which compares to the shows 'live' audience of 80,000. Whilst demand for a podcast of the show is high, the BBC has resisted in making the show available in this way due to copyright issues. The development of peer-to-peer internet technologies spawned a new trend in which fans of the show made recordings of mixes available to users of services such as BitTorrent and eMule. Although technically illegal, as of yet the BBC has not taken any action against such activity.

At the end of each year, a shortlist of the most popular Essential Mixes from that year is drawn up by the BBC. Listeners are invited to vote for their favourite shortlisted mix in a poll on the Essential Mix web site around two weeks before the final show of the year. The mix with the majority of the votes is given the title of "Essential Mix of the Year" and is replayed in the final show of the year. The exception for the proper nomination of the essential mix of the year award was in 2007 - when voting and competitions were suspended on Radio 1 until further notice. So for that year, the essential mix of the year (High Contrast) was chosen by Pete Tong and the Radio 1 Essential mix team.

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Essential Records (London)

Essential Records is a subsidiary of London Records and is an offshoot of Pete Tong's Essential Selection programme on Radio 1.

The US label, run by London-Sire Records from 2000-2001, released dance music compilations from well known DJs and artists including Paul Oakenfold, Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox, John Digweed, Boy George, DJ Skribble, DJ Icey, and Peter Rauhofer.

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Michael McCann (composer)

Michael McCann (also known as Behavior) is a composer, sound-designer and record producer based in Montreal, Canada. He is most recently known for composing the soundtrack to Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent for the Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube and Wii, and advertising music for the upcoming Tom Clancy's EndWar.

Michael is a 2 time Genie Award nominee (Best Overall Sound Editing and Best Overall Sound) for It's All Gone Pete Tong, and has received nominations from the AIAS (2007), G.A.N.G. (2007) and the 2006 IGN award for "Best Original Score" for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Double Agent, and 2008 'Best TV Theme' nomination from the Hollywood Music Awards for Regenesis.

Past and upcoming projects also include being lead Sound Designer, Music Editor and Sound Editor for the films of Michael Dowse including It's All Gone Pete Tong and FUBAR and Dowse's upcoming 2009 TV series The Foundation. He is also the main theme composer for the dramatic series ReGenesis, and was behind the music for Old Navy's spring 2006 international television ads, and Rotary International's world peace ads (2006). Michael has also composed for the Canadian Space Agency, including profiles of the 2008 Mars Phoenix mission. Past work has also included licensing and composing music for various MTV and VH1 series', and sound-design / music production work on numerous other films, albums and ads.

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