Norman Jay: All Systems Go.

Norman Jay plays Sounds On Sunday at Fridays Riverside this Sunday.

Forget anything you may have heard, the Queen is down with the world of dance music. She's hip to the hop, fluent with the flow and in with the in crowd. At least according to Norman Jay. Norman Jay, MBE, that is. Member of the Order of the British Empire - a title that he received from the Queen herself at the end of last year.

"She's surprisingly quite well informed," says Norman about the small chat they had about his DJing career. "She has to be. She's obviously got a lot of courtiers and aides who brief her."

Norman is the first DJ to ever be awarded such an honour, and for good reason. For over twenty years he has been pushing new sounds and providing the soundtrack for a countless number of good times around the world. Ever since he first burst onto the scene with his brother Joey and the Good Times Sound System, Norman has been at the musical forefront, pushing musical boundaries before they have reach the mainstream. For Norman this happened first with house music, and more recently with hip hop.

"For me, it's just a natural process," says Norman when questioned on the expansion of his musical tastes. "When you discover it, you'll know it. It's not as though I actively try to find the next big thing. I don't work like that. It's a natural evolutionary thing, rather than revolutionary."

"If you've got any kind of latent interest in anything, it naturally leads you to discover what else it out there. Music is a language, it's a learning process. The more language skills you acquire, the stronger that makes you. I have no intention of being a jack of all trades about all music, but I like to channel my energies and my passion into most of the styles that I love."

Norman is best known to local audiences as a staple of the Vibes On A Summer's Day touring festival. Norman is typically optimistic and upbeat about his blessed life to date, from the accolades he has received to the music he plays to the pleasure that he gets from playing them.

"Whenever I'm asked about my favourite gig I always say I haven't had it yet. Joking aside, the Australian tours are right, right up there. You guys have the weather and a real appreciation of music."

Something that sets Norman apart from most of other DJs is personal interaction with his fans that he not only enjoys but even encourages. His website (www.normanjay.com) freely gives out his personal email address to anybody that is interested, and although Norman admits that he is not the most computer literate person, he does enjoy reading emails that fans send to him.

"I get a lot of email from all over the world! As I'm about to head to Australia and New Zealand, the emails have started to trickle in. I'm not a net aficionado really, I'm PC and internet illiterate, but it's a fascinating tool to have a one-on-one interaction with people that are into what I do." So, have there been any indecent proposals over the internet? Norman laughs. "They get quietly deleted, and a few elicit a response! In the main, they are all very good, very enthusiastic and very welcoming and positive."

The awards and praise continue to roll in for Norman Jay. "I still find all the accolades a little bit disconcerting. I give very few interviews here in the UK, and that's by choice. The media here are far too intrusive. I'm quite shy, private family person and I keep it that way. In a strange and twisted way that actually works for me here. Because I am so much of an enigma here it makes them much more keener to come after me."

One of Norman's close friends, Jay Kay, affectionately nicknamed him the 'godfather,' a labelling that has stuck with him and seems very apt given his standing in the world of music. And it sometimes helps to have friends in high places, like the time Jay lent him one of his fleet of cars to drive to the Palace to meet the Queen.

"I'm a bit of an old school classic car buff and it was just a beautiful car. We went to the Palace and it turned out it was the biggest and best car there!”