Keb Darge
Encyclopedia
Keb Darge is a Scottish
DJ of the genres of Northern Soul
and Rockabilly
music.
He began his career in local disco dance competitions (dancing in the "northern soul style") in the North of Scotland, and made an appearance in the nationally televised 1979 UK disco dance finals. He was also a dancer for the Wigan Casino
, whilst collecting Northern Soul records. Soon after, he was DJing in Wigan
at a club next to the casino, and around Scotland as well with his record collection throughout the 1970s.
At the age of 22, Darge moved to London
, ceasing to be a DJ. Music promoter
s from then approached him, asking him to come back to DJing. He obliged, and gave the Northern Soul phenomenon exposure in London through his performances, bringing in people from northern England to move to London who were previously associated with Wigan's Northern Soul scene before it dissolved.
After a while, Keb sold off most of his northern soul records due to a divorce in 1987, he remarried twice since but both marriages again ended in divorce, he is now happily married to a woman from the Philippines
. Meanwhile he worked in various jobs: butchers boy,window cleaner even delivering leaflets to make ends meet. But he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he picked up in the United States
on his many jaunts to find northern soul records there and in the UK. This "junk music" would be the beginning of what Keb would later call "Deep Funk", having underestimated the potential of these leftover records.
In 1989, during the heyday of acid house
in the UK, Keb decided to play these funk records, and managed for a short while to get a night to perform regularly at "The Wagclub", a club specializing in acid jazz
. After his night there ended around 1992-93, he met fellow funk record collector Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy
, at Club Ormones in London where the first funk-only night in the city was held, called "Deep Funk". The night was named by Keb (he would later go on to use the name to describe the sound of the funk records he would play), but arranged by the club owners.
After this, Keb and Snowboy wanted to further expand on the "deep funk" sound, and decided to start their own all-funk night in on old restaurant, but this failed to catch on after a few months due to the burgeoning popularity of house music
in the UK at the time, forcing Keb and Snowboy to close up shop there.
But shortly afterward, they heard about a venue called Madame Jo-Jo's, a strip club
located in the Soho
district of London
. They managed to arrange with the club a night for them to perform weekly. The club accommodated them, and Keb & Snowboy's funk nights there became an instant success (and still are the leading club nights for funk in London today). Madame Jo-Jo's closed down their strip nights, becoming a full-time music club, partly due to Keb's success there.
Until early 2010, Keb held a funk night at the club every Friday, called "Legendary Deep Funk". After Keb quit, Snowboy and Healer Selecta took over. Keb is still djing at the club on Saturdays together with Andy Smith playing Northern Soul, Jump Blues, early R&B and Rockabilly. He also tours around the world DJing, and also runs a record label, Kay-Dee, with fellow funk aficionado & producer Kenny Dope.
He has released several albums of compiled classic deep funk tracks, most notably the Funk Spectrum
and Keb Darge's Deep Funk compilations released on BBE Records
. Keb Darge is a leading authority on deep funk & soul music of the 60s and 70s, and has achieved practically legendary status among his peers.
Besides DJing and helping to produce the modern-day funk group The New Mastersounds
, Keb is also quite experienced in martial arts
, having been a former Tae Kwon Do world champion, he has a passion for militaria and is an avid collector of military miniatures.
In 1995 Keb had a cameo part in the cult surf film Blue Juice
starring Sean Pertwee
and Catherine Zeta Jones, where he can be seen dancing in the village hall. He spends most of his time now looking after his son Harvey James Darge and his newly wed wife Edita.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
DJ of the genres of Northern Soul
Northern soul
Northern soul is a music and dance movement that emerged from the British mod scene, initially in northern England in the late 1960s. Northern soul mainly consists of a particular style of black American soul music based on the heavy beat and fast tempo of the mid-1960s Tamla Motown sound...
and Rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
music.
He began his career in local disco dance competitions (dancing in the "northern soul style") in the North of Scotland, and made an appearance in the nationally televised 1979 UK disco dance finals. He was also a dancer for the Wigan Casino
Wigan Casino
The Wigan Casino was a nightclub in Wigan, Lancashire, England. Operating between 1973 and 1981, it was known as a primary venue for northern soul music. It carried forward the legacy created by clubs such as the Twisted Wheel in Manchester and the Golden Torch in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent...
, whilst collecting Northern Soul records. Soon after, he was DJing in Wigan
Wigan
Wigan is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It stands on the River Douglas, south-west of Bolton, north of Warrington and west-northwest of Manchester. Wigan is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its administrative centre. The town of Wigan had a total...
at a club next to the casino, and around Scotland as well with his record collection throughout the 1970s.
At the age of 22, Darge moved to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, ceasing to be a DJ. Music promoter
Promoter (entertainment)
An entertainment promoter i.e. music, wrestling, boxing etc is a person or company in the business of marketing and promoting live events such as concerts/gigs, boxing matches, sports entertainment , festivals, raves, and nightclubs.- Business model :Promoters are typically hired as independent...
s from then approached him, asking him to come back to DJing. He obliged, and gave the Northern Soul phenomenon exposure in London through his performances, bringing in people from northern England to move to London who were previously associated with Wigan's Northern Soul scene before it dissolved.
After a while, Keb sold off most of his northern soul records due to a divorce in 1987, he remarried twice since but both marriages again ended in divorce, he is now happily married to a woman from the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Meanwhile he worked in various jobs: butchers boy,window cleaner even delivering leaflets to make ends meet. But he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he picked up in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on his many jaunts to find northern soul records there and in the UK. This "junk music" would be the beginning of what Keb would later call "Deep Funk", having underestimated the potential of these leftover records.
In 1989, during the heyday of acid house
Acid house
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house's core electronic squelch sounds were developed around the mid-1980s, particularly by DJs from Chicago who experimented with...
in the UK, Keb decided to play these funk records, and managed for a short while to get a night to perform regularly at "The Wagclub", a club specializing in acid jazz
Acid jazz
Acid jazz is a musical genre that combines elements of jazz, funk and hip-hop, particularly looped beats. It developed in the UK over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance: jazz-funk musicians such as Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd and Grant Green are...
. After his night there ended around 1992-93, he met fellow funk record collector Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy
Snowboy
Snowboy is a UK-based Afro Cuban percussionist, bandleader, DJ, music critic, journalist and music promoter.Featured in the Who's Who of Latin American Music, Snowboy has released 11 albums and 17 singles in a career that spans over 15 years and has taken him and his authentic Afro-Cuban sound to...
, at Club Ormones in London where the first funk-only night in the city was held, called "Deep Funk". The night was named by Keb (he would later go on to use the name to describe the sound of the funk records he would play), but arranged by the club owners.
After this, Keb and Snowboy wanted to further expand on the "deep funk" sound, and decided to start their own all-funk night in on old restaurant, but this failed to catch on after a few months due to the burgeoning popularity of house music
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
in the UK at the time, forcing Keb and Snowboy to close up shop there.
But shortly afterward, they heard about a venue called Madame Jo-Jo's, a strip club
Strip club
A strip club is an adult entertainment venue in which striptease or other erotic or exotic dance is regularly performed. Strip clubs typically adopt a nightclub or bar style, but can also adopt a theatre or cabaret-style....
located in the Soho
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster and part of the West End of London. Long established as an entertainment district, for much of the 20th century Soho had a reputation for sex shops as well as night life and film industry. Since the early 1980s, the area has undergone considerable...
district of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. They managed to arrange with the club a night for them to perform weekly. The club accommodated them, and Keb & Snowboy's funk nights there became an instant success (and still are the leading club nights for funk in London today). Madame Jo-Jo's closed down their strip nights, becoming a full-time music club, partly due to Keb's success there.
Until early 2010, Keb held a funk night at the club every Friday, called "Legendary Deep Funk". After Keb quit, Snowboy and Healer Selecta took over. Keb is still djing at the club on Saturdays together with Andy Smith playing Northern Soul, Jump Blues, early R&B and Rockabilly. He also tours around the world DJing, and also runs a record label, Kay-Dee, with fellow funk aficionado & producer Kenny Dope.
He has released several albums of compiled classic deep funk tracks, most notably the Funk Spectrum
Funk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real People
Funk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real People is a compilation album of rare 1960s and 1970s funk music released on the record label BBE in 1999..-Track listing:Compiled by Josh Davis:# Part Time # Let's Do It Today# Roadrunners - Do It Again...
and Keb Darge's Deep Funk compilations released on BBE Records
Barely Breaking Even
Barely Breaking Even is a British record label started by two DJs, Peter Adarkwah and Ben Jolly. The name BBE comes from The Universal Robot Band's 1982 track `Barely Breaking Even'. It has two sublabels: Deep Funk, and Urban Theory...
. Keb Darge is a leading authority on deep funk & soul music of the 60s and 70s, and has achieved practically legendary status among his peers.
Besides DJing and helping to produce the modern-day funk group The New Mastersounds
The New Mastersounds
The New Mastersounds are a four-piece funk band based in Leeds, England.In the late 1990s, guitarist and producer Eddie Roberts was running a club night in Leeds called "The Cooker." When The Cooker moved into a new venue with a second floor in 1999, there was space and the opportunity to put a...
, Keb is also quite experienced in martial arts
Martial arts
Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....
, having been a former Tae Kwon Do world champion, he has a passion for militaria and is an avid collector of military miniatures.
In 1995 Keb had a cameo part in the cult surf film Blue Juice
Blue Juice
Blue Juice is a 1995 British film directed by Carl Prechezer and starring Sean Pertwee, Catherine Zeta Jones, Ewan McGregor and Steven Mackintosh. It follows JC as he attempts to reconcile his surfer lifestyle and loser friends with the pressure to grow up from his girlfriend...
starring Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee
Sean Pertwee is an English actor known for his television, film and voice-over work.-Career:In the early 80s, he auditioned for a place at the Surrey County Youth Theatre where he was cast as Captain Fitzpatrick in the play Tom Jones, based on the novel by Henry Fielding...
and Catherine Zeta Jones, where he can be seen dancing in the village hall. He spends most of his time now looking after his son Harvey James Darge and his newly wed wife Edita.
Discography
- Jazz Spectrum: Real Jazz For Real People - with Bob Jones, BBE Records (1999)
- Funk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real PeopleFunk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real PeopleFunk Spectrum: Real Funk For Real People is a compilation album of rare 1960s and 1970s funk music released on the record label BBE in 1999..-Track listing:Compiled by Josh Davis:# Part Time # Let's Do It Today# Roadrunners - Do It Again...
- with Josh Davis, BBE Records (1999)