Mr Scuff

How do you go about reviewing a DJ? All they do is play records. All the music on offer is pre-recorded; the worst that can happen is someone can forget to press play when the previous record stops. Not much scope for deliberation – everyone just gets on with drinking and dancing.

This could be said true for the majority of average DJ’s, but then again – as the cliché goes – Mr Scruff’s not your average DJ. In fact, he’s so decidedly above average that he can draw enough attention to warrant full UK tours of large venues usually reserved for loud rock bands. All he does is play records!

But whilst he succinctly spins at his centre stage mixing-desk, it’s the twisted Mr Scuff visual experience taking place on the two giant screens surrounding him that elevate the usually dank Rock City into a spinning hive of carnival-like revelry. Soon it seems people are so absorbed in excitement that they’re dancing on the ceiling… although that could have been because of the drink.

Lily-padding between house, jazz, reggae and crazy dub keeps dancers on their toes, and when he decides it’s that time of the night actually throw in a couple of his own tracks, the audience goes wild. In a cheeky twist he chooses to play the Quantic Soul Orchestra’s cover of ‘Get A Move On’ rather than his original, and the infectious bass stabs of ‘Ug’ seem to infiltrate almost every other song he plays.

Playing well beyond the advertised 2am shut-off time, the faithful who stick around until the end are treated to the DJ-equivalent of an encore, in which he simply plays all his most ridiculous, humourous tracks that would have cleared the dance floor had they been thrown in earlier in the evening. ‘Shanty Town’ commands the loudest cheers, but then again the booing is almost as loud when it transpires that he’s not, no matter how hard the crowd chant for it, going to play the seminal Scruff masterpiece – ‘Fish’.

As thrilled people stumble out of the venue, hailing taxis home, exchanging numbers with newfound lovers or lusting over the rancid burgers at the burger stand, Mr Scruff packs his kit up into the Scruff-wagon to take his aural circus back onto the road and to the next unsuspecting town on his agenda. And you thought he just played records…

FUTURE GIGS