Simon Caldwell — A Sydney legend
Simon Caldwell has a well deserved reputation as being one of Sydney’s best DJs. He has been playing records since the early 90s, to a mixed crowd of beer drinkers, booty shakers, radio listeners and party freaks, and has avoided the trap of being tied down to one particular style of music — a trap that many other DJs find themselves falling into. Simon Caldwell has kept himself free to be able to make the use of his huge record collection — showing off his hugely eclectic taste and his love of many styles from deep house, soul, funk, jazz, electro funk, hip hop, booty shaking techno, beats, or anything else which sparks his interest.
Simon began playing records in 1991. Born and raised in Sydney, his DJ career began when he inherited the Funk Inc show on 2-MBS FM from Paul Carroll, where he played a mix of jazz, soul, house, hip hop, funk — and whatever else he felt like for over five years. Not before long, he earnt residencies at club nights such as the now legendary All Funked Up at The Bentley Bar, Cuba and Funk Ink which gave him the chance to show off his eclectic taste in music, once again playing everything from instrumental hip hop, deep house and future beats (before they came up with the name Trip Hop) mixed with Afro beats and 70s funk. It wasn’t long before he was holding down residencies at Superclub Home and Chinese Laundry as well as playing regular gigs at Melbourne’s Honkytonks, and over the years Simon Caldwell has shared stages with an impressive array of internationals, including Daft Punk, Dave Clarke, Derrick Carter, Derrick May, Q-Bert, DJ Godfather, Richie Hawtin, Thievery Corporation, James Lavelle, Ectomorph, Public Enemy and James Brown (RIP).
While Simon can tear up any dancefloor from small club to stadium with ease, his heart remains true to the underground scene. He presented the radio show All Funked Up on 2SER for over 13 years, and now presents Monday Sunsets on FBI — you can tune in every Monday between 6 and 8pm. He is also one of 2 promoters who runs one of Sydney’s freshest, friendliest and longest-running underground parties: Mad Racket. Simon Caldwell has also released two mixed CDs: Dj Excursions Volume 5 with Ken Cloud in 1998 and Mixed Business, with Mako in 2003.
In 1998 he went further afield, playing in Berlin’s legendary club Tresor, amongst other clubs in Barcelona, the Czech Republic and Hong Kong.
Simon Caldwell continues to push new ideas and influences as a DJ while also being able to drawing on his long history and experience of his ever expanding record collection. It doesn’t matter if he happens to be playing techno bass, deep house, soul, hip hop — to trip hop, jackin’ Chicago house, ambient, Detroit electro funk or jazz — the man is truly a master of all styles. You can expect to hear music both new and old, huge hits and obscube tracks but one things it for sure — in Simon Caldwell’s capable hands, the mixing will be smooth – and music is timeless.
Update March 24 2010: We have just posted a Simon Caldwell mix for download, recorded live at our opening night in Sydney for Cold Crushin’ Mixes. Check it out!
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