The 1998 “Muzik” DJ of the Year, Tall Paul, began his DJing career in 1987 at the tender age of 16, playing for office parties at his dad’s nightclub Turnmills. At the same time Paul started to run his own pirate radio station called Touchdown FM and had already managed to blag a spot on the capital’s legendary pirate Sunrise FM. Paul also used his persuasive powers to get a one hour slot at Turnmills’ Saturday all-nighter Trade and in 1990 his obvious talent gained him his first residency, and as gay clubs have always been at the forefront of innovation in dance music, Paul quickly became recognised for playing what one might alternatively call hard-edged-house anthems. Not long after his residency at Trade, Paul was offered a residency at the Zap Club in Brighton and there met up with Shelley Boswell which lead to regular slots at the Gardening Clubs’ “Club For Life”. Paul has since gone on to DJ all over the UK, currently holding a residency at Turnmills’ Friday nighter The Gallery and plays regularly for Godskitchen, Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Cream and Golden to name but a few. His popularity has seen him DJ worldwide travelling to Canada, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Hong Kong, South Africa and all over Europe. Paul is also in the process oftaking the United States by storm, and has dedicated two weeks out of each month’s DJing schedule to concentrate his efforts in this particular territory. In 1992 Paul put out his first vinyl offering - the white label ‘Love Rush’, a Trade anthem. He then hooked up with Hooj Choons’ Red Jerry who with reference to his 6’6” frame christened him with the title “Tall Paul” and came up with the dance classic “Rock Da House,” (later to be re-released in 1997 on VC Recordings, reaching No. 11 in the national charts.) Paul then went on to produce numerous top 40 hits including the club anthems Escrima “Deeper” and “Train of Thought”, and his highest entry to date, Camisra “Let Me Show You”, entered new at No. 5 All this has lead to a series of remix projects for artists such as New Order, Stone Roses, Erasure, Human League, Marc Almond, Wild Child, Hyperlogic, Cappella, Duran Duran, Nalin & Kane, Blondie, Bizarre Inc, Dina Carroll… the list goes on. Paul’s production talents are recognized in the “DJ Magazine Top Producers Poll,” where Paul features year after year. Camisra’s success has taken Paul’s career even further… Paul now runs his own record label, Duty Free Recordings which incorporates an in-house Studio based at Turnmills. The label has released tracks by JS16, Robbie Rivera, Radical Playaz, DJ Lottie, Durango-95, Dave Aude and Fergie. Paul has continued his own production success with tracks “Be There” and “Freebase”, which continue’s to confirm his reputation as being one of the key players in the UK dance scene. Paul has also been featured on a number of compilations including Virgin’s “The Gallery Modern Masters Vol#1”, “Club Nation 1998” and “Cream Anthems”, and Fantazia’s “House Collection”. In 1999 Paul signed an album deal with the Ministry of Sound, so far Paul has complied and mixed “Dance Nation 6”, “The Ibiza Annual 2”, “Millennium Annual” , “Dance Nation 7” and “Headliners” . More recent projects have included “The Annual” and “The Clubber’s Guide to 2001”. The Winter Music Conference in Miami 2001 witnessed the launch party of Paul’s latest compilation “Club Nation America”, and was released as a North America only release in April 2001. In addition to his continued singles producing, he released his Moonshine Music debut, “Mixed Live,” which was recorded at the re-launch of the Los Angeles Superclub, Giant. He’s also releasing an artist album in North America in April, 2002, entitled ‘Back and Forth’ and is back out on the road keeping the fans happy. Not content with raising the roofs of clubland, running his own label, producing club hits and mix albums and artist efforts, Paul also presents his very own Saturday night radio show “The Mix Down Session” (9-11pm) on London’s premiere dance station Kiss FM. The show was re-launched and goes out nationally via the emap network. His has been selected as the House judge in Diesel’s U-Music 2002 and hosts his own weekly Saturday night ‘Tall Paul Smirnoff Experience Radio Show,’ on London’s Kiss 100. Paul has also been featured in the mix on various shows including Radio 1’s Danny Ramplings’ “Love Groove Dance Party” and the Essential Mix. |
