To celebrate 2008, and the fact it's the January Sales, Frenzy is giving you two headliners for absolutely free... Everything must go... cheap like a budgie! That's right, it will be free to get into Dusk Till Dawn until 1am. The first of the headliners to tell you about is local Bournemouth hard house hero Mr Jon Langford, aka the Knuckleheadz, Mr Bishi, Flashheadz, K-Series and many more. Here's some more about him.
Jon Langford has been involved in the hard house/hard dance scene since 1996 when he and Warren Clarke first formed the Knuckleheadz. He continues to be a large influence on the scene with his K-Series releases, as well as co-founder of artists Flashheadz, Neon Lights, Mr Bishi, Volts Wagen & Masif DJs.
Jon Langford DJ'ing at the legendary Manor Nightclub in the 1990s
Jon & Warren’s first ever studio session together produced “House Rocca” which was immediately signed to north London’s legendary hardhouse label Tripoli Trax and went on to sell over 7000 copies, became Tony De Vit’s Tune of 1997 and was licensed to several Dance Compilation Albums. Further releases on Tripoli included “Upfront” “Raise Your Hands”(which was played for FIVE consecutive weeks on Judge Jules show) and “I Believe” which continued their style of funky, rolling basslines, crunchy percussion and huge breakdowns with punchy stab sounds!
From this very early success came a string of remixes from such labels and artists as Kylie, Manifesto, BK, Nukleuz, Positiva, Tidy Trax, Justin Bourne, Honey Pot and BMG. One of their finest remixes came when they re-worked a track by Pianoheadz called “Its Over” which became Judge Jules Tried & Tested Tune and was the first ever tune played at the first ever Homelands Radio 1 event!
Jon Langford chilling out under the Wessex Way... as you do
Whilst this was all happening Jon joined forces with Steve Hill to start Mr Bishi. Bouncy hard house was the order of the day and their string of hard dance anthems on Y2K proved this. “Throw Your (Hands In The Air)”, “Can You Feel It” and “That’s It” all hit the spot and received heavy plays from all the leading DJs as well as featuring on some high profile Dance Compilations. Again remixes came in thick and fast from such artists Ian M, BK, Kylie, Ingo, Kumara, Vincent De Moor & Perfect Phase.
It was quite clear that Jon was certainly one of the main producers of the hard dance scene and was very quickly earning the respect of his peers. Despite Warren going on to pastures new Jon was determined to keep Knuckleheadz name alive and so took it on as his own. At this time Jon & Steve also formed VW to release hard house remixes of classic dance tunes. VW004 – ToyBoy (a re-work of Basstoy’s “Runnin” track) created such a buzz that it was finally released as a single in its own right. VW005 – “Olives & Feta” and VW006 – “No Sleep” both sold vast quantities and are still played today as classic “bounce” tracks”.
Alongside these other ventures Jon set up Knuckleheadz Records to have an outlet for his own tracks and to let up and coming artists to establish themselves on the scene. Jon worked with such names as Prime Mover, Justin Bourne, Bulletproof, Base Graffiti and Defective Audio to create some of the classiest underground hard dance around.
Jon Langford - Wizard of the Sonic
Continuing on his success Jon forged yet another vast groove in the hard dance scene with Steve Hill in their Neon Lights guise, on the newly reformed Volts Wagen Recordings label. Far ahead of its time, vocal hard trance was their view of the future and they were going to bring to clubbers NOW! “Love You More” only sold 500 copies in its first 2 months of sale, but the guys pushed on with their second and third releases only for demand to grow so much that “Love You More” was re-pressed two more times! Classic tracks such as “Not Over Yet”, “Bullet In The Gun” and “Shine” received the Neon Lights treatment and got support from Dave Pearce and Judge Jules on Radio 1, as well as Lee Haslam, Tidy Boys, Lisa Lashes, Anne Savage and many others.
Bringing us bang up to date Jon is the producer behind the legendary K-Series (taken from the K in Knuckleheadz) which started off from humble beginnings with his remix of Moby “Go” (K1) which Rob Tissera was hammering for months prior to release. K2 (Binary Finary’s “1998”) was again supported by Radio 1 and the Tidy Trax DJs (Lee Haslam & Tidy Boys) as well as appearing on the Tidy Boys Summer Annual and K7 (Rank 1’s “Airwave”) stayed in Dave Pearce’s chart for 6 consecutive weeks and received numerous Radio 1 plays and licensing requests from Dance Compilations.
Jon Langford's studio where all the beats are laid down
Currently Jon is working with Paul Chambers on their new Flashheadz partnership, which will continue on from the success of their “Wizards Of The Sonic/Promised Land” release on Tidy Trax. As well as cementing the relationship with Steve Hill for their Neon lights and Mr Bishi projects.
As a DJ Jon has been lucky enough to play at most of the well-known Dance events country wide: Hard House Academy, Frantic, Escape In The Park, Insomniacz, Sundissentia and Slinky. He has toured Australia on no less than 8 occassions and has also played in Holland, USA, Canada, Japan, New Zealand & Singapore.
For full details on Frenzy's Free Party please check the event listing.