A Vinyl Thing

Speak softly and carry a big stick. Or, if you're bonafide turntable legend Mr Thing, carry a fat stack of wax and a resumé beginning in the mid-'90s and ending pages later peppered with collaborations and international jet-setting. The former Scratch Pervert and DJ Premier collaborator might be a self-confessed 'champion nerd' and 'a pretty quiet guy', but when he lets his fingers do the walking and records do the talking, people listen. “I've never really done a NYE set outside the UK before,” says the DMC winner from his UK base, “so I'm looking forward to getting stuck into working a set out. As for tunes, I honestly don't know yet as I've got quite a few different gigs to prepare for. The week before I leave I'll have a better idea of what's going in there! I get booked to do funk sets and hip hop sets, and some older R&B sets as well, but ideally I like to get there early and see the crowd and work it out from there. Generally, I like to mix it up!”

If you're planning on keeping an eye out for him in the early crowd, look for the guy at the back of the room noting down breaks and samples with the zeal of a trainspotter at St Pancras station. Mr Thing's 5000 Twitter followers will know the fanaticism with which he raids the crates and record stores around his South East England stomping ground, and you get the impression his best stories or, rather, those he treasures most, are about rare 45s and hard to find breaks, and not debauched all-nighters – though we're sure there have been plenty of those as well. His love of all things rare and vinyl led to the well-received Kings Of Hip Hop release with NY legend DJ Premier. “[The album was a] no brainer for me. Premier has been one of my favourite DJs and producers since I heard the Words I Manifest remix way, way, way back. We did our mixes separately, so I didn't get to go to the studio with him or anything like that but, randomly, I did actually get to meet him a few days after the album was confirmed, which was great. He's a really cool guy.”

Despite his international connections, Mr Thing is still very much a stalwart of the UK scene, which he thinks is going from strength to strength. “I'm still doing bits and pieces with Essa,” – going by Yungun for their album, Grown Man Business – “and I'm working on a whole LP with Micall Parkinsun. We've recorded three or four tracks already and got another five or six waiting to be recorded. We don't know what it's going to be called, or even who's putting it out yet; we're just working on the music side of it, which is the enjoyable part.” He goes on to say, “Artists like Mystro and Jehst are still dropping great material, and there's a whole bunch of younger artists like Ramson Badbones doing really good stuff as well. In fact, there are so many artists it's pretty tough to keep up with!” Rightly counting himself in the more established section of the UK canon, in typical self-deprecating style he waxes lyrical on the necessity of “the balance of the older, more established artists putting out music who can also bring the newer artists through as well – and also the newer guys to keep us older guys on our toes!” Wise words from a DJ with a nice line in keeping people on their feet.

Mr Thing will be playing the following dates:

Monday 31 December - Salt On The Beach, North Fremantle WA