Andy Stevens

I started DJ’ing whilst at Kingston university, playing in the student Union Bar every Friday night and then invited as a guest DJ at the student night at the local Ritzy nightclub – looking back now it wasn’t the best DJ-ing you’d ever see but it was at that time that made me realise it was definitely the profession I wanted to pursue.

Initially after University I went to work in London and got myself a job as a cocktail bartender thinking it was just as a “short term thing” and after a couple of years of working behind various bars, I was offered a role as the Deputy Manager at London’s iconic Buzz Bar and Gas Club.

It was here I started focusing on my career goal of being a DJ, as a “warm-up” initially to most of the West End’s top DJs but I soon got enough of the bug to decide to give up my “dayjob”, turn professional and concentrate on it full time, basically I knew that my “day job” was going to be best achieved at night!

An offer to work a summer season in Corfu was received in May 1994 and it seemed too good an opportunity to turn down as it offered 7 nights of club and bar experience that would really help me perfect my craft through until October. Continuous winter and summer contracts away would follow for the next 3 years and after 1998, I was back in London full time working at iconic venues such as The Hippodrome, Equinox and Time & Envy playing to large crowds of locals & international tourists, working alongside world-renowned performers and recording artists when they appeared as PAs.

With several years of DJ-ing 5-7 nights a week under my belt and often getting asked if I knew of any singers, toastmasters, magicians, bands, tribute acts, musicians, etc, I decided to set up an Entertainment and Events Agency that would supply DJs and all these other live acts to a variety of venues and clients across the South of England and Wales for 10 very busy years.

Whilst supplying some of these venues, I was also often asked to manage some of their key events during the days and for a further four years, that was the path I concentrated on, delivering over 250 weddings, birthday parties and conferences .