True House Stories® Youtube & Spotify Video Podcast
TRUE HOUSE STORIES W/ ASHLEY BEEDLE
Ashley Beedle interviewed by Lenny Fontana for True House Stories® # 037
Part 1
The story starts with Ashley Beedle sharing his humble beginnings. He takes us down memory lane on how he visited his first Discotheque back in the 1970s. His first drum machine and listening to artist Gil Scott Heron as a teacher and his beginning of his DJ career in dance music with the Reggae influence.
Part 2
In this second part Ashley takes us behind the scenes of meeting Norman Jay at The Notting Hill Carnival and starting to be booked at his first solo DJ gigs. He explains how “New Jersey Deep” was created and the feeling of hearing his records played at Sound Factory in New York City with DJ Frankie Knuckles thanking him for making such a great record.
He also has his first chart super hit with Talking Heads lead vocalist David Byrne with the song called “Lazy” and being invited to perform on Top of the Pops.
Ashley Beedle YouTube Video Part 1
Ashley Beedle YouTube Video Part 2
Biography Ashley Beedle
Referenced in Daft Punk’s song as one of the ‘Teachers’, Ashley Beedle first began DJing during the 1980s and made a name for himself during the heyday of Acid House. In the early 1990s, he teamed up with Rob Mello and John Howard to form the first incarnation of the Black Science Orchestra, signed to the legendary dance label, Junior Boys Own.
After releasing the seminal club classic ‘Where Were You?’, championed by house legend Frankie Knuckles, BSO’s production unit morphed and evolved with Uschi Classen and Marc Woodford and tracks like ‘Strong’ and ‘Philadelphia’ were released as well as the 1994 debut album ‘Walter’s Room’ and deep house classic ‘New Jersey Deep’. From there, his production skills went from strength to strength.
While working with the Black Science Orchestra, Ashley started another project known as The Ballistic Brothers with Dave Hill, Uschi Classen, Rocky & Diesel spawning the ‘Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afros’ Pt 1 & 2 EP plus ‘Blacker’ (a favourite of Prince’s) and the 1995 LP, ‘London Hooligan Soul’. In 1997, the Ballistic Brothers released their second album, ‘Rude System’ while at the same time, Ashley was working on a multitude of projects including Black Jazz Chronicles, Roots Revolutions and Rising Sunz with Uschi Classen and Phil Asher.
Running parallel with the Ballistic Brothers, Ashley was a founding member of the group X-Press 2, with fellow DJs Rocky and Diesel performing on 6 decks and 3 CDJ players. They scored global dance chart action through the 90’s and 00’s with tracks such as ‘Muzik Xpress’, ‘Say What’ and ‘London Xpress’ and charted at #2 in the UK Top 40 with their global hit ‘Lazy’, their collaboration with Talking Heads’ David Byrne which earnt Ashley an Ivor Novello award. X-Press 2 also released two albums, ‘Muzikisum’ and ‘Makeshift Feelgood’.
From the late 90’s onwards, Ashley continued to remix and produce, releasing the milestone ‘Grass Roots’ compilation in 1999 and between 2001 – 2003, Bent’s ‘Always’ + ‘Magic Love’ and The Streets ‘Weak Become Heroes’ all received the Beedle remix treatment. Ashley’s remix of Elton John’s ‘Are You Ready For Love’ catapulted the song to No.1 in the UK Singles Chart.
In 2005, Ashley Beedle remixed Bob Marley‘s “Get Up, Stand Up“ with Damian “Junior Gong” Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock” to create the mash-up ‘Stand Up Jamrock (Ashley Beedle Remix)’ which the Marley family loved so much they ended up including it on the Bob Marley compilation album ‘Africa Unite: The Singles Collection’. The track went on to chart at #1 on the Jamaican National Charts.
Since 2015, Ashley has been working as part of the ‘North Street’ remix/production collective with North Street West owner and musical genius, Darren Morris and Ramrock Records/F*CLR boss, Jo Wallace as well as solo remixes. In 2017, Ashley’s remixes of Stan Serkin’s ‘Save Me’ and Glenn Davis’ ‘Body & Soul’ reminded the international dance music community that he is a force majeure in the world of remixing and production and his remix of Mama’s ‘Unmask Me’ was voted the No.2 best single of 2017 by DJ History + became the late, great Andrew Weatherall’s theme tune.
Despite everything that 2020 has tried to throw at him, Ashley has already finished a plethora of projects including a Bent remix, two Groove Armada remixes (release date mid 2021), Smooth + Turrell remixes, Lady Blackbird remix and the Glenn Davis ‘Special’ remix.
As well as hosting his incredibly popular ‘Heavy Disco Spectacular’ radio show on Worldwide FM, Ashley has been working on his solo “Defying Foes” LP, plus “The House of Ashley”, an EP aimed squarely at the (virtual) dancefloors, the Afrikanz on Marz concept album and the reunion of the legendary Black Science Orchestra. X-Press 2’s anthem ‘Lazy’ ft David Byrne is featured in the Spike Lee directed movie ‘American Utopia’.
So, watch this space…. 2024 is going to be FIYAH!!