It’s the summer of 2001, and a small oriental teenager peeks over from inside the DJ booth… he’s just one of over 100 hopefuls to enter the summer’s most anticipated DJ competition hosted by Midlands club Fluffy. He’s got thirty minutes to clock up as many points as possible and impress the onlooking panel of judges. Three rounds later, and after rallying through 8 vinyls and 7 CDs in a final half hour melee of cutting, mixing, and looping, which includes splicing a Fatboy Slim B-side on the wrong rpm with boshing hard house and driving trance, layered upon with acapellas, he’s just blitzed the judges barely dropping a point out of the 160 maximum. Scoring a 10 out of 10 for originality with the crowd, he’s unknowingly introduced a style of mixing to the hard house scene that many will imitate for years to come and landed himself a Boxing Day set at UK clubbing institution Sundissential in the process.
Spring 2002, and it’s not long before Shan’s potential is noticed in wider quarters. Already by now a resident at Leeds’ midweek night Base and monthly underground party Parlez-Vous?, fast rising Manchester-based club Goodgreef make him a resident alongside Adam Sheridan and Eddie Halliwell. It’s a combination that sees them both achieve recognition before the year is out. Goodgreef scoop Mixmag’s ‘Britain’s Best Club’ award, beating off competition from the current crop of UK superclubs, whilst Shan tops a 4clubbers.net reader’s poll as ‘Best Up & Coming DJ’.
2003 and Mixmag are quick off the mark and have featured Shan as their ‘Tipped For The Top’, titling him a ‘…mini DJ with huge talent!’. By April he’s hammering peak-time crowds in excess of 8000 at the NEC arena for Godskitchen and the Tidy Weekender.
Come summertime and Shan is being whizzed around the back-streets of Istanbul, he’s due to be interviewed live on a Turkish clubbing channel whilst on tour with Nukleuz and the driver is cutting it fine, he’s also lost. Fortunately, one desperate phone call later and a manic U-turn they arrive, are hastily given headsets and thrown in front of the cameras. After a couple of visits to Ibiza to play at Judge Jules’ ‘Judgement Sunday’ nights, the summer ends much in the same fashion as it started – Shan’s in front of the camera again, this time being quizzed by The Cuban Brothers for MTV on his Creamfields debut.
Meanwhile back in the UK, Shan’s reputation continues to grow and debuts for Slinky, Passion, Inside Out, Garlands, Escape, Ministry Of Sound to name a few all shortly follow. He returns to the NEC in Birmingham, this time for Gatecrasher, and mixes Goodgreef: The Debut Album from which he embarks on a UK tour. 4clubbers.net readers vote Shan as ‘Best Up & Coming DJ’ for the 2nd year in a row.
2004 starts off with a shower head wrapped around Shan’s neck and a beautiful blonde draped over him with champagne glass in hand. It’s an artificial scene of New Year’s Eve havoc and the setting for Mixmag’s ‘Future Heroes’ photo shoot, a collective of the UK’s most promising talent who are being featured in a 12-page spread to kick off the year with all things new and exciting. He also returns to Creamfields, and makes his Godskitchen Global Gathering debut, sharing the bill with artists he drew upon for inspiration only a few years earlier such as Carl Cox, Sasha, and Hybrid amongst others. A return to the studio sees him mix the 2nd Goodgreef album supporting an intelligent mixture of techno and tech-trance on the Resident Mix.
August Bank Holiday 2005, and a month after having returned to Godskitchen Global Gathering for a 2nd year, Shan is running through a field somewhere in the countryside of County Antrim, record bag in tow. He’s just finished his debut at Northern Ireland’s Planet Love festival and is to share a people carrier with a fast-talking Scottish MC to Belfast airport. He’s flying back to England to warm-up for John 00 Fleming at Goodgreef later that night. It’s this versatility and variation that Shan enjoys about his residency, “I enjoy being able to experiment with different styles sometimes and use those tracks I like but don’t usually get to play. It’s a nice challenge having to turn your hand to warming up for different DJs, I think it takes a lot of self-discipline.” Only a couple months later and he’s relishing the task of warming up for Marco Bailey. It’s this open-minded approach and keen ear for well-produced music that opens the door for Shan to take up A&R responsibilities for friend and Radio 1 resident, Eddie Halliwell, midway through 2005.
Shan ended the year as runner-up to Radio 1’s Trophy Twins in Mixmag’s ‘Future Heroes of the Year’ category, an achievement that proves Shan has an exciting future ahead of him.
