Vodka and tonic with DJ Tina Turntables
DJ Tina Turntables
DJ Tina Turntables is well-known to D.O.C, Cassette and Whammy Bar regulars and has played for rock heroes including The Black Keys, The BellRays, AK79 & The Dirtbombs. As legendary for her incredible dress sense and her dangerously hot sex appeal as for her sterling music taste, Tina T is notorious for using rock n soul tracks as a weapon of mass dance addiction.
Top three favourite artists
This is hard to answer... Off the top of my head... The Stooges, Big Mama Thornton, Phil Spector
Most memorable show you’ve played
The Dirtbombs (started with Ray Columbus who was awesome, Dirtbombs are one of my all time favourite bands, so I sang along to all the songs, I danced, I screamed... I had a ball, Bob Frisbee and I danced up a storm in the booth, I yelled at the audience that I wasn’t going to start playing again until they hollered for an encore, my now boyfriend asked me out on our first date, and Mick Collins dedicated a Curtis Mayfield song to me *swoon*, Amber & Henry like my set and asked me to do a regular slot at D.O.C... What more could a girl ask for?)
Most amazing DJ moment
A whole bunch of drunk people at D.O.C (& not just my mates) dancing, clapping & yelling out my name – well my pseudonym anyway...
Piece of advice to an up and coming DJ
Try and read the crowd and enjoy them, if you want people to dance –dance yourself and play what you want to dance to...
Have you ever had a song bomb on the dancefloor?
Errmhmmm yes the one that stands out as the WORST most humiliating of all time, is one story I have told and retold because I get an awesome name drop in there too (cough *wanker *cough). By means of a disclaimer I will set the scene... I had had one of those fucked up awful viruses that were around last year, but it was the first time I’d been asked to play Cassette 9 and I thought I was better enough to cope. I was doing ok, was kinda nervous and sweaty but wasn’t sure if it was the fever or not – I had started a bit of a crowd dancing to some sweet 60s Phil Spector girl bands and everything seemed to be going my way. Then Mr Crawley (knowing my deep unrequited love for the man) said “you know you are playing to Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge) right now don’t you?” I squealed like a 13 year old girl... my temperature skyrocketed and I lost my fucking mind. I decided that the Muppets theme tune was going to be the PERFECT thing to drop – hilarious...ermmm... So I did. People were confused. I got I few WHAT’s?! Then the worst thing was, I compounded the issue by panicking and deciding to turn it off – to which I THEN got booed because some people went with it and were loving it – the worst thing was that I changed it to a crappy MP3 a ‘friend” had given me of Kelis’s She’s Bossy which is a rocking track but what they’d given me was crap and it could barely be heard. Disaster.
That segues nicely into the next question – who is your top celebrity crush and what songs would you play for them for ultimate aural seduction?
Oh god! Hmmm this is a hard one – I don’t really have them any more & the few that I do have are just plain odd (as you have told me often). Number one is Larry David – I love the theme tune to Curb Your Enthusiasm – but yea, not particularly seductive.... I have no idea what I would play for Larry actually – maybe a bit of Dinah Washington/Screaming J Hawkins or maybe it would be a jazz moment – Thenious Monk kinda occasion - something a little bit more intellectual and all that? Apart from that, I have had the pleasure of meeting two of my music crushes and I did indeed play for them before they came on stage... One was Mick Collins – lead singer of the Dirtbombs/The Gories etc (just one of my favourite bands of all time – rough and soul groove with a great dirty punk sound) – a big hunk of burning love with a killer voice and some serious style... I had a great time playing a mixture of blues and soul and early punk – so I guess I would play some dirty old Stooges another (Detroit band – to tap into his roots), if I was going to try and seduce that particular man... Anything low down and makes your hips roll. The other one of my big music crushes is Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys – an incredibly charming, funny, smart and flirtatious man – I enjoyed playing some early lesser known blues and soul for this gig – but my favourite moment was playing the ACDC song “She’s Got Balls” and watching the audiences heads bob up and down to the beat... It’s a great dirty song to dance to and I love what Bon Scott is saying about his then wife – actually I find it strangely romantic “she's got taste my lady. Pace my lady. Makes my heart race. With her pretty face. She's got balls my lady. Likes to crawl my lady. Hands and knees all around the floor. No one has to tell her what a fella is for. She’s got balls...Baaaalllllssssss”
What song would you play if you were trying to make everyone go home at the end of the night?
Hehe this one is kinda one of those classic things – most bars have an album they put on... Mine is usually Joy Division “Shadowplay” now don’t get me wrong I LOVE Joy Division (and this song in particular) but this song is particularly melancholy – and makes you go to the solace of your bed – either alone or with the person you love... It’s a nice way to end a set and still keep your cred at the same time. If I wanted people to actually fuck off I’d play Creed –not that I have any... Or perhaps the Boredoms which I do have & love but are quite challenging for most people frankly.
And finally… Think of a question you’d like me to ask you…
Well Tina T – who gave you your first gig?
Now answer it.
And the answer would be (if memory serves me) Ms Kathryn van Beek. I started doing parties – control freak kinda thing mixed with an extreme music snob mixed with someone that LOVES to dance... Then I think I did some stuff with Netti Page (she was great at showing me the ropes and encouraging me) – but you were the first to ask me to do a gig by myself, I believe. Once I came up with the name – it was all on really... I did a few fumbled attempts – a few good ones, then Leila George asked me to do Discount for Love with Troy & John Baker – Baker liked my set and started asking me to do a few bigger shows and it snowballed from there.
Top three favourite artists
This is hard to answer... Off the top of my head... The Stooges, Big Mama Thornton, Phil Spector
Most memorable show you’ve played
The Dirtbombs (started with Ray Columbus who was awesome, Dirtbombs are one of my all time favourite bands, so I sang along to all the songs, I danced, I screamed... I had a ball, Bob Frisbee and I danced up a storm in the booth, I yelled at the audience that I wasn’t going to start playing again until they hollered for an encore, my now boyfriend asked me out on our first date, and Mick Collins dedicated a Curtis Mayfield song to me *swoon*, Amber & Henry like my set and asked me to do a regular slot at D.O.C... What more could a girl ask for?)
Most amazing DJ moment
A whole bunch of drunk people at D.O.C (& not just my mates) dancing, clapping & yelling out my name – well my pseudonym anyway...
Piece of advice to an up and coming DJ
Try and read the crowd and enjoy them, if you want people to dance –dance yourself and play what you want to dance to...
Have you ever had a song bomb on the dancefloor?
Errmhmmm yes the one that stands out as the WORST most humiliating of all time, is one story I have told and retold because I get an awesome name drop in there too (cough *wanker *cough). By means of a disclaimer I will set the scene... I had had one of those fucked up awful viruses that were around last year, but it was the first time I’d been asked to play Cassette 9 and I thought I was better enough to cope. I was doing ok, was kinda nervous and sweaty but wasn’t sure if it was the fever or not – I had started a bit of a crowd dancing to some sweet 60s Phil Spector girl bands and everything seemed to be going my way. Then Mr Crawley (knowing my deep unrequited love for the man) said “you know you are playing to Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge) right now don’t you?” I squealed like a 13 year old girl... my temperature skyrocketed and I lost my fucking mind. I decided that the Muppets theme tune was going to be the PERFECT thing to drop – hilarious...ermmm... So I did. People were confused. I got I few WHAT’s?! Then the worst thing was, I compounded the issue by panicking and deciding to turn it off – to which I THEN got booed because some people went with it and were loving it – the worst thing was that I changed it to a crappy MP3 a ‘friend” had given me of Kelis’s She’s Bossy which is a rocking track but what they’d given me was crap and it could barely be heard. Disaster.
That segues nicely into the next question – who is your top celebrity crush and what songs would you play for them for ultimate aural seduction?
Oh god! Hmmm this is a hard one – I don’t really have them any more & the few that I do have are just plain odd (as you have told me often). Number one is Larry David – I love the theme tune to Curb Your Enthusiasm – but yea, not particularly seductive.... I have no idea what I would play for Larry actually – maybe a bit of Dinah Washington/Screaming J Hawkins or maybe it would be a jazz moment – Thenious Monk kinda occasion - something a little bit more intellectual and all that? Apart from that, I have had the pleasure of meeting two of my music crushes and I did indeed play for them before they came on stage... One was Mick Collins – lead singer of the Dirtbombs/The Gories etc (just one of my favourite bands of all time – rough and soul groove with a great dirty punk sound) – a big hunk of burning love with a killer voice and some serious style... I had a great time playing a mixture of blues and soul and early punk – so I guess I would play some dirty old Stooges another (Detroit band – to tap into his roots), if I was going to try and seduce that particular man... Anything low down and makes your hips roll. The other one of my big music crushes is Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys – an incredibly charming, funny, smart and flirtatious man – I enjoyed playing some early lesser known blues and soul for this gig – but my favourite moment was playing the ACDC song “She’s Got Balls” and watching the audiences heads bob up and down to the beat... It’s a great dirty song to dance to and I love what Bon Scott is saying about his then wife – actually I find it strangely romantic “she's got taste my lady. Pace my lady. Makes my heart race. With her pretty face. She's got balls my lady. Likes to crawl my lady. Hands and knees all around the floor. No one has to tell her what a fella is for. She’s got balls...Baaaalllllssssss”
What song would you play if you were trying to make everyone go home at the end of the night?
Hehe this one is kinda one of those classic things – most bars have an album they put on... Mine is usually Joy Division “Shadowplay” now don’t get me wrong I LOVE Joy Division (and this song in particular) but this song is particularly melancholy – and makes you go to the solace of your bed – either alone or with the person you love... It’s a nice way to end a set and still keep your cred at the same time. If I wanted people to actually fuck off I’d play Creed –not that I have any... Or perhaps the Boredoms which I do have & love but are quite challenging for most people frankly.
And finally… Think of a question you’d like me to ask you…
Well Tina T – who gave you your first gig?
Now answer it.
And the answer would be (if memory serves me) Ms Kathryn van Beek. I started doing parties – control freak kinda thing mixed with an extreme music snob mixed with someone that LOVES to dance... Then I think I did some stuff with Netti Page (she was great at showing me the ropes and encouraging me) – but you were the first to ask me to do a gig by myself, I believe. Once I came up with the name – it was all on really... I did a few fumbled attempts – a few good ones, then Leila George asked me to do Discount for Love with Troy & John Baker – Baker liked my set and started asking me to do a few bigger shows and it snowballed from there.
