The Wook’s early musical influences were the Hip Hop tapes (yes cassette tapes!) exchanged and swapped between mates back in Secondary School around the ’88 era, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Mantronix, NWA & Stetsasonic to name a few. After his mum confiscated any of the aforementioned that happened to bear a parental advisory warning sticker he began to purchase music of his own, and where necessary kept the volume down so as to not attract any unwarranted attention! His eclectic tastes were apparent early on with purchases on 7" such as Alexander O’Neal, Bomb the Bass, Shades of Rhythm, Soul II Soul, Level 42, Redhead Kingpin etc etc
Moving into the early 90’s, he began to dig a bit deeper into the soul, jazz & funk bands that many of the Hip Hop acts had sampled, such as Lonnie Liston Smiths ‘Expansions’ (sampled on ‘Talkin’ all that jazz’) and he began to trawl through his parents vinyl collection - taking in the Motown sounds of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, and bands such as Earth Wind & Fire, The Ojays, Isley Brothers and Kool & The Gang. His friend Elliot Hone took him along to Dingwalls in Camden one Sunday afternoon and with that came an appreciation for music from artists such as Airto, Flora Purim, Pharoah Sanders, Incognito and Gil Scott Heron. At the same time the Hardcore & Old Skool sounds of Slipmatt, Manix, Acen & The Prodigy were just as prominent, and although into the sounds one of his major regrets was that he never went out to the Raves during what was a pivotal era in dance music.
Moving into the mid 90’s, the Acid Jazz & Talkin’ Loud labels were also a big influence, and he started to see live bands and acts such as The Brand New Heavies, Galliano, Mother Earth, Urban Species and Jamiroquai, and religiously attended ‘That’s How It Is!’ on Monday nights @ Bar Rumba (Shaftesbury Ave.), hearing the eclectic sounds of DJ’s Gilles Peterson, James Lavelle and Ben Wilcox, and live in-house band Palm Skin Productions and guests. Also the progression of Hardcore and Jungle into Drum & Bass was keenly followed with regular trips to ‘Movement’ @ Mass (Brixton) and ‘Metalheadz’ @ Blue Note (Hoxton) & Dingwalls (Camden).
It was around 1998 that The Wook first started DJing, playing initially in Croydon at The Black Sheep Bar, Po-Na-Na’s, The Cool Rooms and The Elephant Bar, alongside then DJ partner Real and friends local to the scene such as Matt Lisle, Martin Bundock (both Perverted Science), Jon Bishop and Dan and Duncan Edwards. He then ventured further into town with a year long residency @ The Hobgoblin (Brixton) putting on nights under the moniker of ‘Get Naked’. In 2002 the night was moved to Dust (Clerkenwell Road), where again along with DJ partner Real he held a two year monthly Saturday residency, bringing in established guest DJ’s such as Patrick Forge (Far Out / Kiss FM), Ben Wilcox (THIS! / Sirkus Records), Mr. Thing (Ex-Scratch Perverts), The Nextmen (Scenario Records) and the now world famous DJ Yoda. Other notable DJ’s that The Wook has played alongside include The Mixologists, The Executives (nine2five records, Finland), S.U.M.O. (Sweden) and Chris Goss (Hospital Records), and of course at our own events the man like Klute and the man like D-Bridge!
Around this time he also played at various other nights such as ‘Perverted Science’ @ 333 (Old Street), ‘East Side Vice’ @ Herbal (Shoreditch), ‘Deep South’ @ The Loop (Croydon) and ‘Smartie Partie’ @ The Glasshouse (Blackfriars), and one off spots at venues such as The Telegraph (Brixton), The Rosendale (West Dulwich), The White Horse (Brixton), Camden Road Bar (Camden), The Social (West End), The Blag Club (Notting Hill) and The Bomb! (Nottingham).
After a break of two years away from playing out, a chance encounter with DJ Honza (spinning a Tru Thoughts track!) in 2007 in Bar Story (Peckham), led to the Wook rediscovering his passion for music and he began DJing again. Recently he has played sets at The Rhythm Factory (Aldgate), Corsica Studios (Elephant & Castle), 2012 Bar (Brick Lane), Bar Equal (Honor Oak), The Railway Telegraph (Forest Hill), Charlotte (Mornington Cres.), Liquorish (East Dulwich), Mish Mash (Clapham), The Funky Munky (Camberwell), The Fly (New Oxford Street), The Redstar (Camberwell) and The Crypt (Camberwell).
When playing out The Wook prefers to drop an eclectic mix of Soul, Funk, Jazz, Hip Hop, Latin, Breaks, Deep, Soulful & Funky House, Broken Beat, Drum & Bass, Disco, Garage, Dub, Reggae, Afro-Beat, Electro, Rare & 80’s Groove. Basically the tunes that have got that vibe and the 'Good Groove' to move the dance floor!
S1, IBM & Wooks Present 'Mellow Mondays' Live on Different Drumz with studio cam every week from 8pm! Make sure to check them out!
If you would like to book Wooks for an event please e-mail :
