Bank Holiday Sunday 3rd May sees the welcome return of the show-stopping AWsum tour to London. Following the sell-out event at Ministry of Sound last year AWsum hits the legendary Club Hidden in Vauxhall for a very special one-off party. We caught up with one of the stars of the show, the princess of Hard House, Miss Cally Gage, to tell us more about her 3 sets at the event, her plans for 2009 and much more.

AWsum Remixed at Hidden on 3rd May showcases everyone’s favourite Hard Dance DJ playing exclusive sets that people will probably not get to hear ever again. You are playing Tech-Trance in the Main Room, what sort of stuff will we be hearing played in your set?

Actually I have no idea - only joking, honestly!

Tech-Trance is a genre of music I love listening to, but haven’t had the chance to really delve into it as deeply as I’d like and this is the perfect opportunity for me to do just that. I’m still getting tracks together for the set, so don’t want to give too much away just yet – but the sort of producers in Tech-Trance that I love are Kamui, Bryan Kearney & John O’Callaghan, so watch out for plenty of their productions in my set.

You are also playing your first ever Hardcore set b2b with the UK’s Number 1 Hardcore DJ, Gammer, in the AWsum Core room. How is the preparation coming along for the set and are you planning on doing more Hardcore sets in the future?

The preparation is coming along nicely thank you – Gammer is one of the most talented producers I know and every tune he makes is an anthem, so expect a lot of his own tunes to be played during our set.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve been lucky enough to play at a number of hardcore events and each time it makes me fall in love with this genre of music even more! I love everything about it and what it stands for – everybody should have a bit of hardcore in their life. I do tend to play hard house sets at the hardcore nights though, as it’s a kind of warm up for them, but I would love to play more hardcore sets in the future. That would be fab, so watch this space.

There are lots of other amazing sets to catch on 3rd May, who else are you most looking forward to see play?

This whole event is going to be massive and I’m so excited about it – as I’m going to be at Hidden for most of the night, I think I might have to chop myself in 2 to catch everybody I want to see.

Sets that I definitely don’t want to miss are:
Klubfiller’s (Hard House Classics ’00 - ’03 set)
MDA & Spherical (Timeless set)
Helen G (Extra Hard set)
Andy Whitby vs Rodi Style (Filth Classics set)
Nathalie
DJ Stormtrooper

…and that’s just a few of them!!

What is your all time favourite remix ever?

My favourite tune of all time has to be Tony De Vit’s – I Don’t Care. I absolutely love this tune and get goosebumps every time I hear it. As a birthday present a few years ago, a friend of mine brought me the Research & Development mix on vinyl and I still think it’s one of the best remixes I’ve heard – it’s quite rare as well, so I’m super pleased to have my own copy.

Another remix that I absolutely love has to be Andy Whitby’s remix of Faith – it has everything you need in a tune and absolutely smashes every dancefloor. Actually I might have to dig that out again soon, it is definitely a classic.

If you could remix any track from any genre what would it be and why?

Wow, that’s a difficult one – there’s so many to choose from!

Maybe I’d do something cheesy and give it a hard house edge – something like Wigfields Saturday Night maybe? What do you all reckon?

Over the years there have been so many different remixes from every genre possible, so it would be quite difficult to choose something that hasn’t already been done – I’m sure if I dug deep enough I’d find something though, actually that’s quite a good idea for a future track!

You must have had some funny requests while DJing at clubs, what’s the most obscure tune you have ever been requested to play?

You get so many people asking you to play all sorts of different songs – it does make you wonder if they actually know where they are half the time, lol!!

The strangest thing I’ve been asked to play was from a guy in a suit, in a random hard house club in the depths of Wales, asking me to play Chesney Hawkes – The One & Only!! Fingers crossed he was joking – although he did look quite upset when I said that I didn’t have it, lol!!

What was the first ever album you bought?

The first album I ever brought was Ministry of Sound the Annual, I also went out and brought The Annual II straight afterwards I like it that much – I still listen to them both now, there are some quality tracks on there you know.

On the AWsum tour you have been all over the country, what have been your highlights?

I think the highlight for me was the first party of the AWsum Tour at Pam’s House, Norwich back in March. As it was the first one, I was quite nervous about it all, but when I walked into the room it was rammed and they were all going absolutely bonkers – it just shows how big the brand has become in such a short space of time. I’m so proud to be a part of such an exciting brand and can’t wait to see what the future holds for AWsum.

The AWsum label has been a huge success and releases from the label have been smashing it in the clubs lately, can you tell us what forthcoming tracks you have coming out on the label?

The AWsum label has been churning out massive releases each and every time right from when it started, I really feel that it is giving the other big labels a run for their money at the moment.

My goal this year was to go into the studio more and that is something that I definitely feel that I’ve achieved already. The latest 2 original tracks that I’ve finished will be coming out on AWsum, but I really don’t know when that will be - sorry! Just make sure to keep your eyes and ears peeled for Cally Gage meets MDA & Spherical – Feel It and Cally Gage & Gammer – Make Ya Freak. I’ve been caning these in my sets recently, so until you can get your hands on a copy, you’ll just have to come along and watch me play instead.

I hear you have been busy on the production side of things and working with lots of different artists, can you tell us more?

This year I am going to try and get into the studio as much as possible, I feel that it’s time for me to start getting into production more and I know that it will help to spread the Cally Gage name further than just within the UK.

I have already been lucky enough to go into the studio with the legendary BK, Klubfiller, Tom Parr, MDA & Spherical, Gammer and Jon BW. These are all producers that I really learnt a lot from and I feel that we came up with some amazing tracks, each with a different feel about them.

I’m working on dates to go back into the studio with Klubfiller, MDA & Spherical as well as Gammer – but we’re all busy people and trying to get a date fixed in the diary, might take a while yet. I’m also 100% going back in the studio with BK sometime soon and might even have some exciting news to tell you all about this soon, so watch this space. Unfortunately I can’t tell you anymore than that, but I will as soon as I have any more information.

BK & Cally Gage – “Get With This”

Cally Gage & Tom Parr – “A Little Love, A Little Life”

As the Summer is fast approaching people are looking forward to the big festivals and events abroad, where can we catch you in the Summer of 2009?

My diary is already starting to fill up for the summer, so I’m super excited to see where I’ll be going this year. Last year I was really lucky and went to Ibiza 3 times over the summer, so fingers crossed I’ll be on the White Isle again at some point this year.

My summer definitely starts with me playing for HTID in the Sun over at Lloret Del Mar in Spain – I’m going to be playing 3 sets this year, 1 of them being a hardcore set too. If last year is anything to go by, we are definatley in for a treat – it was an incredible week.

Whatever I get up to, I’m sure I’ll see most of you out and about at some point – bring on the sun!!

Thanks for your time Cally and we look forward to your 3 very different sets at AWsum Remixed on 3rd May - Get your £10 Tickets here now!

AWsum Remixed
Cally Gage Website
Cally Gage Official Facebook Page
Cally Gage Official My Space
Cally Gage Official DSI Group