David Holmes
FRI 28 AUG 2009
FRI 28 AUG 2009
The Voodoo Rooms in association with Renegade present…
+ Mr Please Please
David Holmes has eight brothers and sisters. And he’s the baby. Aaaah. Before deciding to become an internationally renowned DJ and revered producer, Dave was a chef and then a hairdresser (which explains why he’s always so immaculately coiffured).
Holmes began DJ’ing soul and R&B (of the Stax as opposed to Timbaland variety) in the early-Eighties.
Holmes first lodged in clubland’s craw as a promoter of Sugarsweet in his native Belfast. He describes running a club as “a piece of piss really”.
In 1993, the Disco Evangelists – Holmes and esteemed London jock/producer Ashley Beedle – released the Ennio Morricone-sampling “De Niro.” The tune became an anthem of the ‘epic house’ scene, and shifted over 30,000 copies. His mix of the Sabres Of Paradise’s “Smokebelch 2” was also an instant classic.
David signed to Go! Beat and unleashed his film-score influenced sound on debut album “This Film’s Crap Lets Slash The Seats.” The song “No Mans Land” was inspired by Jim Sheridan’s film “In The Name Of The Father.”
Lynda La Plante is a big fan of Holmer’s work, and used several of his tracks on the soundtrack to her TV series Supply And Demand. Holmes has also done soundtrack work in Hollywood, most notably for “Resurrection Man” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Out Of Sight.”
In 1996 he decamped to New York and toured the streets with his DAT, taping winos, hustlers, cops and skate kids. He then let these random dialogues and monologues shape the direction of the his second album, “Lets Get Killed.”
David worked on the jazz-punk instrumental “Blood Money”, on Primal Scream’s “Xtrmntr” album.
Holmes returned to the mean streets of NYC to record album number three, “Bow Down To The Exit Sign.”
His most recent LP “The Holy Pictures” (2008) is an album whose incubation has lasted almost the entire length of Holmes’ career, and has its roots planted firmly in his own personal history. “I had always wanted to make a record about my life in Belfast and all the things attached to that – family, friends, loss, love and starting a family of my own. All the stuff that shapes the person you become.”
DATE: Fri 28 Aug 2009
VENUE: The Voodoo Rooms, 19a West Register Street, Edinburgh EH2 2AA