ArtistInfo

Ricky Chopra

of Dance

Ricky is a true trendsetter, he has been at the forefront of DJ technology and was one of the first DJs to switch to Ableton. His sets are expertly curated and seamlessly sequenced, coupled with over 24 years professional experience and a record collection spanning over 80 years he truly is a rare breed. Spend enough time with Ricky Chopra, and you will hear him say “I was there!” To be honest, he really was. Ricky started his DJ career in a time before computers, MP3s, CDJs, and even before house music broke on these shores. In fact, he started buying music in the early 80s and started to DJ professionally in 1987. He started out as a Hip Hop DJ, cutting scratching, back-to-backing and smashing phat hip hop beats. His first breakthrough came when we blagged at slot on the now infamous London pirate radio station Peoples FM, run by a yardy gangster from Kingston Jamaica, so you know he had to bring the funk. The story goes, he was working with a guy who knew a guy that was importing techno records from Detroit, who sorted him out with some fresh tunes, this one night he decided to play a short techno set. After a few minutes the phone rang, it was a guy who said he was was promoting an illegal warehouse rave that night and would he play the 4am slot. Of course, he said yes, and it turned out to be one of the first illegal warehouse raves in the UK. Acid House had arrived in the UK and Ricky was on it like an LA hooker on Hugh. He soon started to play at more and more raves in-and-around London, playing alongside Nicky Holloway, Jumping Jack Frost and Danny Rampling. In fact, he was one of the first DJs playing a new UK variant of house that incorporate Hip Hop beats called Hardcore. He soon became a regular booking at clubs like the Milk Bar, Busby’s, The Astoria and The Buzz Club. (All flats today for the super rich). Under the pseudonym DJ Chops, Ricky started producing tunes. In 1992, he released a genre-defining track for Sony Music’s Faze Two label, it was a reggae-infused remix of Desmond Dekker ‘Israelites’ which reached No. 36 in the UK national charts and No.1 in Japan. Today ‘Me Israelites’ is considered to be one of the first Jungle Records, which eventually be known as Drum & Bass. Don’t ask me why but Ricky thought he had better get an education, so he left London and headed to Sheffield to get a degree. Well, the timing could not have been better, no sooner than he got there, he became the resident for at a new night called Gatecrasher, which soon became one of the first global superclubs. Ricky spent ten comfortable years in Sheffield DJing for Gatecrasher. You probably know Gatecrasher burned down in 2007 and Ricky started a night with his celebrity girlfriend called ‘Hang The DJ’. HTDJ was a place where they could explore their freaky experimental side; HTDJ nights became legendary for their insane visuals, burlesque performances and nuts mash-up sets. Within a year, HTDJ was recognised as a groundbreaking night, and Ricky was back on the road but playing the most random events like Burning Man and Full moon parties in Thailand. In 2010 Ricky decided to go it alone and he started the Spectrum City website (www.spectrumcity.co.uk), the central theme of the site is a subway map, and each station on the map features a mix that reflects the sound and vibe of the fictitious neighbourhood. Ricky has uploaded over 100 mixes to Spectrum City, which has slowly been gathering momentum. In 2015 iTunes, downloads reached 10,000 a month, and unique site visits were over 100,000 per month from over 50 countries. To bring you up to date, Ricky has teamed up with a few hipster DJs from East London to host a regular Spectrum City night. If you are lucky enough to be at one of these parties you will be saying to your kids ‘I was there!’

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