“...........If its heads, then we’ve got one of the most exciting and fastest rising female DJ’s on the scene, who can work over a dance floor like no other; takes her set right from the filthy stuff, to the pure euphoric sound; and is the princess of hard dance who gave the scene a kiss right when it really needed it. If its tails, well then that’s a different story……”

When Cally Gage found out that she’d made it into the top five of contestants in the Tidy Summer camp DJ competition 2004 there was one problem: she’d sold her ticket and couldn’t enter it without one. After trying to blag it on the gate, Russell Pate (the MD of Tidy) said he would toss a coin and if she called it right, he would let her in.

Fortunately for all of us, it was heads and Cally went on to win the competition (it being her first time of playing out) Then there was no stopping the blonde bombshell as she got gigs up and down the country, playing regularly for the likes of Storm, Slammin Vinyl and Wildchild.

Becoming one of Fanatic’s residents, playing a key role in their tour, then mixing the Frantic 06 classics and future classics CD took her on to another level. Trips in to the studio with Nu-Energy’s K-Complex and Ben Bennett beckoned. There she co-produced two great tracks ‘Broken’ and ‘Life’ Her ability to read the crowd, fast, driving, euphoric and versatile sets saw Cally Gage become a headliner in her own right. All this saw Cally get crowned as best new comer in the Hard Dance awards earlier this year.

Last summer saw the princess of Hard House make her festival debut at Global Gathering and this year she is going to be taking the crowd on a journey once again at Global Gathering on Contagious Club wear’s sound stage.

Contagious will certainly be giving the festival its sexy feel and adding a bit of glamour as they are the largest UK supplier of club wear. Their sexy dancers have been strutting their stuff at high profile Contagious events right across the land. Now come the weekend at the end of July at the worlds biggest dance weekender, you’ll sure find plenty of clubbers sticking out from the crowd, dressed in those high quality, sexy and sensual Contagious club wear outfits! To find out how Cally is going to get them stomping, we thought we’d catch up with her………

Cally, last year Global Gathering broke a world record by having 75,000 people in attendance over the whole weekend. This year the early bird tickets all sold out as early as February! So it looks like it’s going to be just as big. How excited are you about headlining on the Contagious sound stage?

I am sooooooooooooooo excited, you just wouldn't believe how much! Last year was the first time I had even been to Global Gathering and to play on both days was amazing. I had such a brilliant time playing for the Contagious guys, so I have been looking forward to this years festival since I first got told I was playing and that was quite a while ago! Then to find out that I was headlining for them on the Friday and with all the crazy things that they've got planned as well - I am absolutely chuffed to bits and can't wait to get on those decks.

You are going to be playing alongside great names like Lisa Pin-Up, The Nu-Energy collective and Nick Sentience. How do you feel about the highly talented artists that Contagious have got?

Contagious always pull out the stops for their parties, both with the DJ's and the whole show that goes with it as well - they never do things by halves! Their line ups are always huge, so to be a part of it again and to be headlining for them - well it's such an honour, especially at such a huge event.

You’ve played at Contagious events before and their innovative brand of clothing has now become very well known in the dance music world. Have you found them a pleasure to work with so far?

Claire and Gordon are 2 of the nicest people that you'll ever meet and they are always such a pleasure to work with. They work so bloody hard with the clothing, parties and the brand, that you'd never think that they'd always be quite so happy! They always have huge smiles on their faces as they absolutely love what they do, which I think comes through in all the events that they put on. I have been really lucky in the fact that they've supported me for quite a while now and I'm really proud to say that I've got people like them behind me all the way.

At Global, you are going to be playing to a real cross section of people, including some that don’t normally go clubbing. Do you reckon that you can get a few new people latched on to the Hard Dance sound there?

You've hit the nail right on the head there, hehe! There are so many different genres of dance music at Global Gathering that it means there are so many different people with different tastes as well - which is great. It's even better that the Contagious Stage is outside as well, as people are always walking past - I just hope that they end up stopping and staying to listen to the whole of my set! I had quite a few PM's and messages following my gigs at Global last year, saying that it was the first time they had heard me play, but that they'll definitely be coming along to see me again - that's what it's all about and it was wicked to get that kind of feedback.

Considering that you are going to be playing on an outdoor sound stage how is your set going to vary to that of playing inside a club, late at night?

Well it will probably vary quite a bit, but not because it's outside - more so because of the different type of crowd that will be there to watch me play. I imagine that quite a big percentage of people at Global Gathering won't be avid hard house fans, so probably won't know the majority of tunes that I'd normally play. Because of this, I'll probably play quite a few remixes of big tracks that they would know and will definitely be throwing in a few classics for everyone as well.

You're also going to be playing to a very large crowd (possibly running into thousands), that means that there is going to be a massive amount of momentum in the crowd. How are you going to make the most of that?

Well I'm hoping that there won't be too much momentum and people will stick around - imagine that? Everyone who tries to walk past actually gets stuck by the crowd and by the tracks that I'm playing, so they just actually stay put instead - wow, that would be an amazing sight from the stage!!!!!

The downside of that is that the crowd is going to be more difficult to read, because the mass is so large and you’re going to be a bit further away than you normally would. How are you going to get around that?

I'm not really sure, haha! My crowd reading skills are really going to be pushed to the limit at Global Gathering, but I'm sure I'll be okay - we'll just have to wait and see I suppose.

When you are just about to mix the next tune in, is deciding what to play next a conscious decision, or has it now become more intuitive?

As they say, practice makes perfect and that really is true - well practice makes you better I suppose! When I first started playing, I was concentrating more on getting the mix right, rather than what I was going to play next! Now when I'm playing, I probably think about 2/3 tracks ahead of myself, just to make sure the set really flows and actually goes somewhere. It all comes a lot more naturally now, thank God!

When you started out DJing, you were playing a lot of “filth” as you were influenced by Paul Glazby. But now your sets contain a whole spectrum of music and they veer towards the more euphoric side. How important is musical versatility to you?

It's hugely important to me and I think to most other people as well, especially the promoters & clubbers too. When I first started playing out, I played quite a lot of early sets as I wasn't well known at all - because of this, the style that I was playing was quite different to what I was used to, but I feel that it really helped get me those special gigs and launch my career really. Don't get me wrong, I love all types of hard house, but my main love is the tough yet uplifting & euphoric style of hard house - but if I played like I normally do now so early on in the night, it would just ruin the flow of everything and I don't think that many people would be that happy with me either, lol! Because I like to play all styles of hard house though, even a bit of filth every now & then, I feel that this had helped me not get pigeon-holed within the scene and also means that I'm happy playing pretty much anytime of the night. It also means that I can take the clubbers on a journey through the hour that they see me playing, because I like to progress my sets as much as possible - well as best I can in an hour anyway!

In your earlier days you used to be a dancer and even wanted to make a career out of it. But what really inspired you to make music your career of choice?

Haha, how did you find out about that?

I have always been into music, since I started dancing at the age of 4 - but I'm not really sure at what point or even if I did make the choice as such to make a career out of music, it just kind of happened that way! I used to dance all the time up until I was about 21, but I couldn't really keep up then, due to all the clubbing I was doing at the weekend! Making a career out of dancing is really difficult and so competitive - I think I tried every route possible, until I realised that it just wasn't going to happen! As I have always been involved with music in some way or another since I was small - it was probably inevitable that my career would be within the music industry at some point.

Even when you were a well known DJ, you still had a full time job outside of the industry, so when you were blasting the roof off at places like The Brixton Academy and Alexandra Palace, did it seem quite surreal going in to work on a Monday morning and flogging advertising?

It was boring to be honest! I didn't really tell my bosses what I got up to at the weekend as they would probably think that it would interfere with my day job and be the reason why I was always so tired on a Monday, hehe! Going out at the weekend doing what I love and playing to hundreds of people was what I looked forward to all week, then I'd be brought down with a bang come Monday morning. I'm lucky enough now though not to be working in the week, so I can actually get excited about the weekends without feeling guilty anymore, yay!

You are going to go back in the studio very soon with Greg Brookman and you are going to be involved in Frantic's new album in September. What great stuff can we expect from both those projects?

Loads, hehe! Me and Greg came up with 2 fab tracks last time we were in the studio together (one of them will be on the album), so we are going in again in a couple of weeks to see what we can come up with, me and Technikal are also booked into the studio at the beginning of September. The album is also coming out in September and it's going to be wicked - it's called 'Hard Dance Revolution' and has 3 cd's with it, that have been mixed by 9 DJ's, which is a first I think.

There's quite a lot going on at the moment actually, but I'm not going to tell you what to expect I'm afraid - you'll just have to be patient and wait a little while!

And finally, come Global Gathering on the Contagious sound stage, what tunes of yours are really going to make your second time there even more memorable than the first?

I've been thinking about this set for absolutely ages, so have had quite a few tunes going around in my head for a while. Claire has also told me about some of the surprises they have in store for my set - so with all of this put together, I'm hoping that it's going to be pretty memorable anyway.

I'm afraid that is all I'm going to give away though - you'll just have to make sure you're at the Contagious Sound Stage at 10pm on Friday 27th July to see for yourself, I can't bloody wait!

Remember to catch the Princess of Hard Dance – Cally Gage whipping the crowd up in to frenzy on the Contagious club wear sound stage at Global Gathering 27th/28th July!!

Check out Cally’s My space CLICK HERE!

To book Cally contact Chloe at UDJ’s: chloe@udjs.net

©Greg Lynn 2007
Feature by Greg Lynn