Exceptional DJ, award winning promoter, media personality, producer, label owner, online music website manager… Can anybody do this much work in the dance music scene and some how fit in time to eat and sleep? Is this guy for Real? He sure is, he’s Ed Real, one of the biggest and busiest names in Hard Dance!
Recently I was lucky enough to have a chat with this legend and all round nice guy. Just speaking to him for just a few minutes and I could sense something special about him, and that’s passion! He loves what he does, and he loves music. He was literally buzzing to tell me about everything he’s been involved in (and that’s a lot in only 15 minutes!) I can tell you he’s got more energy than 10 cans of Red Bull! Mad!
Born in Oxford, England and known to his mum as Eddy or Edward when he’s been bad (according to Ed), he found dance music the same way as many before him, by attending the massive Hardcore raves of days gone by. It’s was artists the likes of Prodigy, Top Buzz, Slipmatt etc, that caught his attention and imagination and inspired him to become involved himself.
In 1994 at the age of only 18, with the aid of a group of mates, they set about running illegal underground raves, just for fun, under the name ‘Reality Soundsystem’. Quite a humble start really, yet this was where he was to attain his ‘Real’ tag as in ‘Reality’ and prove the perfect grounding for his entry into, what he didn’t realise at the time, something that was to become very huge indeed. From here he hasn’t looked back on his out of control juggernaught of a career. Firstly by becoming A & R for Nukleuz and in his 6 years there, he took them to be the biggest selling 12” label in the UK. Not a bad achievement hey?
Well that would be enough for most, but for ‘Super Ed’ that isn’t. He’s an impeccable DJ too, playing a diverse selection of Hard House, Hard Style, Techno & Hard Trance, or as Ed puts it just ‘High Octane Dance Music’, and it hasn’t taken long for this ability to be recognised by others. Some of the biggest clubs / events in the UK, let alone the world came nocking on his door and still do. From Gods Kitchen, Frantic, Gatecrasher, Glastonbury and Creamfields, to massive raves in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tokyo. He’s done it all.
But there is one event that remains fully burnt into his brain above all others, and one I hope to visit one day myself. That’s Dance Valley in Holland. Ed recalls, ‘Absolutely amazing, mind blowing even, that’s the best way I can describe it, 80000 people at the event and 15000 going off at the Hard Dance Stage alone! Helicopters dropping rose petals on the crowd, massive lasers & lights, totally beyond belief… Quite staggering!’
And Ed knows what it’s all about to be a promoter, using his immense experience and industry knowledge to build his own club night Riot! from budding after hours Sunday club to being named Number One club in the UK by Mixmag. Held once a month London’s prestigious club The End – Riot! has played host to some of the biggest names in Extreme Dance such as Andy Farley, BK, Lisa Lashes, Yoji Biomehanika and Anne Savage.
But wait, just like a bad infomercial, there’s more!!! Following on from the success of his club night, and with the knowledge and experience he’s gleaned from his years at Nukleuz, he’s set up his own label Riot! Recordings and an online MP3 store, http://www.trackitdown.net, the idea behind the MP3 store is to help get new music, to the masses, especially the DJ’s and to allow new producers to get a chance at having their music heard and listened to by a global audience. With vinyl sales now in severe decline due to the internet and MP3 trade, this is definitely a positive step forward to help keep things fresh and alive, and hopefully this will be the result, only time will tell. But already there is proof, with Australia’s very own Volatile Recordings, making a strong showing with over 15 releases online and artists now getting recognition overseas! Nice work boys, putting Australia on the map! And we have Ed to thank.
Between all this he’s managed to set up his new baby Riot! Records. Does he ever rest? I don’t think so… He must have clones, or be an alien being, or something equally as strange, he’s a freak! Run for the hills!!! Arrrgh! Ok paranoid attack now in check, I shouldn’t have abused my brain as a teen. So what’s this label all about? Well it’s an outlet for brand new tunes from himself, partner in crime and talented producer BK, and others that fall into that outstanding category like James Lawson. To put it simply this label is all about high quality, futuristic music, especially for a highly charged dance floor. If you want to hear what they have to offer, pay a visit to http://www.riotinlondon.com. Next tune off the blocks for them is a remix of ‘Bizarre Inc’s – Playing With Knives’ by BK, definitely one to keep your eye on in my opinion.
Ed left us with a final few words and a warning to Australia and New Zealand – ‘I’m really looking forward to this tour, I’m armed with a heap of the latest tunes ready to tear things apart and Destroy the Dancefloors everywhere I go!’
You can catch him on his forthcoming dates for Two Tribes across Australia:
Sat Mar 5th – Sydney, Two Tribes
Sun Mar 6th – Perth, Two Tribes (BUY TICKETS)
Sat Mar 12th – Adelaide, Two Tribes
Sun Mar 13th – Melbourne, Two Tribes (BUY TICKETS)
And if you get chance and want to know more, or just want to hear some great music check out http://www.riotinlondon.com or http://www.trackitdown.net.
