Over the past three months 36 DJ's have been battling it out with fierce competition in The Gallery DJ Competition 2006 for the chance to win:

An exclusive DJ set @ The Gallery, Turnmills alongside Tall Paul & Judge Jules no less



Over the past three months i have been priveledged to attend quite a few of the heats and the standard of entry was absolutely first class each DJ bringing along his or her own style.

As the weeks went by things really hotted up and all the DJ's proceeding to go through to the following rounds kept having to raise their play.

The excitement and pressure of this competition gathered dramatic pace over the last couple of weeks with the semi finals, making each heat more exciting week by week and with it the loyal supporters to the individual DJ's grew and grew..... until we reached last nights finals!!!

THE GALLERY DJ COMPETITION 2006 FINALISTS:

Digital Punks
Sarah Holder
Richard Winchester
DJ Toby
John Bentley
Rory McCart


With the LAST 6 remaining DJ's competing for that all important Gallery Title: Winner 2006 and the prize of a life time to play a set along some of the biggest names in the business and in the world famous Turnmills main room T1 DJ box....the competion got underway right from the start.............

First up Digital Punks who really played a superb opening set and created the atmophere which can only be described as electric it was fantastic to witness all their crowd upfront cheering them on and this carried on throughtout the evening.



As the DJ's one by one changed over SO did the supporters up front, with everyone participating together, the crowd last night were the best and everyone joined in until the place was just completely bouncing along with the tunes....

Sarah Holder played a very tight set and her track selection worked so well.....



On came Richard Winchester who i had had the pleasure of meeting in his first heat - and his FIRST EVER PLAYOUT!!!! I have total respect as he smashed it through to the semi's and then the finals coping so well with the pressure given that he had no real previous experience playing to a crowd....unfortunately right near the end of his set he hit a slight technical problem BUT showed total professionalism and worked quickly to get his closing right!



DJ Toby - who has had some superb playouts throughout, again came up with a totally up lifting set and his crowd really got behind him the atmosphere risng even more....



Up next John Bentley who throughout again has been faultless bringing with him some brilliant technical wizardry with three decks and incorporating some very clever loops within his sets....and bringing another great crowd of supporters alike...



Finally Rory McCart another very popular contender throughout, who played out a fitting set with some nice dirty electro sounds to bring the competition to an awesome end....




The whole place was buzzing last night with all this new raw talent at The Gallery and i have no doubt that all of the finalists will very shortly be cropping up on flyers over the next coming months as they leave from here with their confidence boosted and with them all realising that this is only just the beginning of their future careers......like so many others before them in previous years.

So well done to everyone involved over the past few months and many thanks must go to The Gallery and Sub Bass for holding this event and inspiring fresh talent in the UK.

ONTO THE RESULTS..............

In Third place.........SARAH HOLDER

In Second place......DIGITAL PUNKS


AND in FIRST place this years winner of:

THE GALLERY DJ COMPETITION 2006 FINALS in association with SUB BASS DJ ACADEMY



**************DJ JOHN BENTLEY**************




Congratulations John a deserved winner and we all wish you the very best in your forthcoming main room set at The Gallery Turnmills JAN 07




Roll on 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;0)))))))

Bentley, you're a legend! Massive congrats mate. I knew you'd smash it!!! :@) Such a technical ability behiind those dexx, and every time you play out you capture the crowd and take them on a ride with you!
Massive hand to all the finalists too. Getting in to the final in a comp like this is an achievment in it's own right! All the best in everything you do behind the wheels of steel ;)

well played everybody and big congrats to John! I hope you truly appreciate the splendour of spinning in T1 at a Gallery night cos I know I'd love to :)

hey john, well pleased for ya mate....onward and upward!

well done john!! well deserved! see you soon mate...................

well done john!!! I'm sorry i've not had the pleasure of seeing you play out, but your demos are just superb mate! hope to see you soon!

Congrats to John, looking forward to seeing him play in the cyclone and Prehab room at Hidden on 18th Nov!

Well fookin done mate!! That crossing finger mallarky must have worked!!! Bet you and Jaxs and well chuffed!! Good work. Look forward to seeing you play in Jan!!! That's wicked news!!! Have a top weekend and make the most of your achievment!! See you at the end of the month. PLUS A BIG well done to the finalists! Its a shame there's only 1 winner but as Phil said, sure you all did a grand job & awesome to get into the finals! xx

Awse mate, what can I say? Big up the Bentos. :o)

Hi John!
Congratulation!
Wish you all the best for your future and have fun on your first set at T1!

Cristian

OMFG !! Nice one JOhn !

How many comps is that now ;)

and the Gallery too ! Fully deserved mate couldn't happen to a nicer guy. See ya soon !

well done John, not even seen you play and had bets on you winning!!! Heard alot of good things!!!

well done john, fair play to ya n its no real suprise mate. hope to c u on a big lineup sumtime soon mate cos ur wicked!

Fantastic write up of the nite and a very deserved winner indeed, very fluent and vibrant set from mr bentley......... Good luck to everyone that was involved and will hopefully catch up with you soon

Peace
Digital Punks

well done jb

Well guys, what can i say..what a response!!! Thanks to all for commenting on the thread and for the support throughout. Some great comments from you Brighton guys too...dont think that went un-noticed!.

It was hard work but was happy with my performance on the night.

Didn't envy the judges at all. It couldn't have been easy for them as the standard was high as would be expected for a comp run by The Gallery and Subbass.

If any of you would like to keep up to date with what is in store over the coming months then PM me your email address and I will add you to my mailing list (site under construction) Feel free to visit http://www.johnbentleydj.com/player/ if you would like to hear more of my mixes.

Thanks again to everyone. Roll on January!

jB

Congratulations sweetheart! You WON!!!
Bently - still remember us when your sharing the decks with Tall Paul....WELL DONE BENTLY!!!!XXX

u deserve it mate, the hard work has paid off 4 u so reap the rewards but never forget that u need to keep the head that got u there n never to leave ur mates behind when u rocket to the top lol

Nice one John!! Spoke to you Saturday night and congratulated you... so chuffed you won!!! Great work!!!

Hoopz ;o)

Thanks Hoopz. nice catching up on Sat after your Nottingham playout. You are all over the place these days!!

Let's have that beer(s) over the next week or so.