Discovering the best new music, curated by Annie Mac

Tony Jay has been passionate about his music since the age of 14. After being mesmerised by the sounds of hip hop DJs scratching and beat matching over tracks he knew that he wanted to be part of it.

This passion for music eventually led him to what was then a new sound called "RAVE" and after sneaking off to events at an age where he should have been in doing his homework he would spend hours watching how all the top name DJs mixed their tracks. After years of watching he eventually got enough money together to buy some turntables of his own and after a lot of hard practice, and a little bit of fortune, managed to get a few gigs and was soon playing Happy Hardcore and Drum & Bass under the name of DJ Dilemma.

Over a short period of time Tony found himself playing at venues all over the country for promoters such as Helter Skelter, Dreamscape, Pandemonium, Diehard, Kinetic and Cocoon to name just a few. This is where Tony Mastered his trade and was regularly playing on the same line up as DJ's and artists such as Sy, Slipmatt, Seduction, Mickey Finn, Top Buzz, The Rat pack, Grooverider, Force and Styles, Ellis Dee, Dougal and Hixxy plus many more.

After spending many years DJing on the hardcore scene, Tony eventually decided that it was time to hang up his hardcore headphones and made the move into the Trance and Hard House sound. After the Millennium he started co-promoting an event called Immortal, in conjunction with Pentacle Promotions at Club XL in Birmingham. Here Tony was hosting and DJing alongside artists like Andy Farley, Lisa Lashes, The Tidy Boys, BK, Nick Sentience, Paul Glazby, Paul Kershaw and Rob Tissera.

After much demand for his services Tony decided it was time to start putting his talents to good use and started playing Funky House. This is where things really took off as within a few months of making the change he had secured residencies for Discretion at The Hush, Ultimate Freedom at The Steering Wheel, Oral Underground at The Ministry Bar, Blue at Subway City, Arca bar, Sobar and also hosted weekly radio show on Mix FM.

These days Tony is quoted as saying "I play good quality House Music in any shape or form. After playing for so many years and building up quite a record collection, there are so many styles in my bag that it is difficult to categorise myself into any specific genre."  So whenever you hear him play you are always guaranteed to get something different.

After so many years DJing, you will always hear some good old classic tracks in his sets ranging from early Trance through to Old School Breakbeat. He is a versatile DJ that prides himself on being able to play what's needed at the right time.

He believes that reading the crowd is an essential part of DJing and doesn't just want to be known for playing all the newest tracks first. He wants every Clubber to leave remembering something about his set that took them back to their own early days of clubbing or giving the new generation of Clubbers a feel for where it all started as well as letting every one know which way it is heading.

Steph Devlin 1 is following