#44: Ben Stowe, The DJ Tech Genius Who Just Loves to Teach

We've been featuring DJs, producers, artist managers and industry leaders in Tales From The Dancefloor, and in this 45th episode, our last for the first season of our podcast, we wanted to turn the tables and put our very own Phil Morse in the hot seat.You'll find out about how Phil got his start in music and DJing, his days promoting club nights in Manchester and why he moved on from all of it, and how he eventually put up the blog and site you're reading this on. So if you've been following Digital DJ Tips for a while now, or even if you're new to our community, there's lots of great stories here with lots of life and career lessons for your #DJlife. Enjoy this final season ender episode - it's Phil as you've never seen (or heard) him before :) 

Ben Stowe got his love of the geeky side of audio and visual gear from kicking around a TV shop as a kid. But his growing tech-savviness became his saviour when it literally allowed him to work his way out of his life in a homeless shelfer as a young adult.Now running a large company that he founded, which takes care of audio and visuals for some of the biggest DJs, live music shows and sports events in the USA, Ben has never forgotten where he came from. So he spends a lot of his time "paying it forward", teaching DJs how to correctly set up, maintain and use the technology in their rigs, so they sound better and can perform more professionally. In this, the penultimate episode of the first series of Tales From The Dancefloor, Ben shares his story.Ben's company: https://www.nlfxpro.com/

As well as being a wicked DJ, Brandon Block was seen as one of the biggest party animals of the 90s in the UK rave and club scene, living larger than life. Stories of excess were legendary, and an infamous appearance on the Brits (UK music awards) in 2000 reinforced his reputation.TV appearances including one on Celebrity Big Brother kept Brandon's name in the public eye, but in the background he'd had a personal pivot, working hard helping those who'd come off the rails through drug abuse or who were struggling with mental health issues. Nowadays he's still DJing, but also continuing his work as a life coach. In this honest, funny and optimistic episode, Brandon shares his journey...• Learn more about one of Brandon's projects here: https://www.happydaysforeveryone.com/

Tall Paul was one of the biggest UK DJs of the 1990s, made famous originally via his residencies at Turnmills in London. In fact, his Turnmills Friday night "The Gallery" is still running (nowadays at Ministry of Sound). He toured America and the world, has an Ibiza residency, and scored a couple of huge hits, not least Camisra's "Let Me Show You".Changing times, family, burnout and a loss of direction all took their toll on Paul in the 2000s, as his passion for music warped into business commitments, and he stepped back for several years. Recently however, spurred on by the revival of interest in 90s UK clubbing, he has returned to the studio and to gigging regularly. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares his the story of his ups and downs.Paul's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dj1tallpaul/

Like many a young DJ, Dominik Sobanski spend the obligatory ten years enjoying the music scene - promoting, DJing bars, hustling, living the DJ dream (in this case, in Huddersfield, in the north of England). Not many DJs can say they ended up booking Pete Tong and Calvin Harris though!But when it all fell apart, he narrowly avoided setting up a car wash, and instead pivoted into the mainstream entertainment agency space - where now, he has a company employing hundreds of DJs who play in bars and clubs the length and breadth of the UK, and as far afield as Ibiza and Croatia. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares how he did it.• Find out more about Dominik at the WDC Entertainment website and the WDC & Friends podcast.

As one half of the "LuvDup Twins", Mark van den Berg - originally from Cape Town, South Africa - made a name for himself in the Manchester (or "Madchester") scene in the 1990s as a DJ, producer, and club promoter - culminating in DJs in places as far flung as Russia and Hong Kong. Later he found himself pivoting into working on an early social media platform, before getting into the video DJ business, supplying music videos to DJs across Europe.While he still does that (nowadays with his own company, WeMix), he also found time to become a wedding DJ, forming one of the most successful DJ companies in the south of England, Mighty Fine Entertainment. It's not only a company that has won awards, but that has led to him being a wedding industry award judge himself. In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, Mark shares his ups and downs, and some great stories too!• Find out more about Mark over at Facebook Page.

For those who know, John 00 Fleming is one of the flag bearers for a certain kind of underground music that was once called "trance", but that in the past 20 years has had to relabel and regroup against the EDM onslaught. In great demand and touring the world still after 30 years of professional DJng, John also has a remarkable personal history of battles, including battling and beating lung cancer at just 19 years old.In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, John shares the ups and downs of a decades-long career, and talks in depth about what has to happen to the music he loves for it to live on, dropping the names and labels he thinks will fly the flag for trance into the next decades.• Find out more about John over at his site: http://www.john00fleming.com/.

Ean Golden is a name closely associated with the rise of digital DJing and controllerism, mainly through his championing the scene in San Francisco at the turn of the century, his input onto the design of some early iconic DJ hardware, and of course through being the founder and figurehead of DJ TechTools.In this honest and contemplative edition of Tales From The Dancefloor, Ean shares stories of his early life as a DJ, how he's ridden some of the highs and lows of a unique career, and how a near breakdown in Ibiza led to a period of soul-searching... and a new direction. Now living in New York, Ean explains why recently, he's decided to return to the spotlight at DJ TechTools, and what he plans to do next.

For many in the know, Innofader is held as an example of all that's right about boutique companies in the DJ industry. It's a company that exists solely to make crossfaders, either so DJs can replace those that came with their DJ mixers for better performance, or for forward-looking manufacturers to fit top their gear "out of the box".And those who really know will know that Patrick Danaher has been an integral part of the success of that company. His story is one of following your dreams, making hard decisions, and having the conviction to run with what you know is right - and he shares it this week on Tales from the Dancefloor.• Find out more about Patrick at his personal site and his Facebook page, and check out the Innofader site.

Grahame Farmer is behind the Data Transmission website, which at its height employed 19 people and has spawned an online radio show and record label. While the site is still going strong, in the last couple of years Grahame has had a personal "pivot" into something quite different: DJ success coaching.In this episode of Tales From The Dancefloor, he shares where the idea came from, how he built an audience for DJ coaching, and how he managed to coach 60 DJs a month spread all around the world. He also shares some tips for getting yourself noticed as a DJ, so listen in if you're trying to get your tracks or mixes to a wider audience...• Find out more about Grahame at the Data Transmission website: https://datatransmission.co