The Cult of DJ Harvey

DJ Harvey, a 49-year-old bearded man who was born in Cambridge. You may indeed scratch your noggin at the hysteria that surrounds him. Look at his fans, a roll call of DJs, industry and cult followers. He commits ‘DJ crimes’ like constantly dropping EQs in and out to the point of distraction, sometimes playing 'cheese' and predominantly old disco records. Is this what all the fuss is about!?

Of course it's not that simple. Although simplicity is the key to much of his success. Just great records played on the best system in an outstanding space. Almost sounds easy, doesn't it? In a world that often seems to be raising up endless monotony and grey music-free beats, DJ Harvey plays songs and melody. He fits in with a wider renaissance of disco. He programmes dynamic, dramatic sets carefully amid a murky scene where flat linear mixing has become standard. Maybe he is the colourful melodic antidote to the drab underground? The acceptable face of fun in a po-faced world? Perhaps he's not the messiah, just a very naughty boy.

Wikipedia can tell you his life story, but suffice to say Harvey was a well-liked London DJ who through various circumstances left the UK for some 10 solid years. This is a very important part of understanding the cult. A large part of his appeal is the fact it comes from abroad. London loves long lost sons, especially those pre-approved by succeeding far away in distant lands. By staying out of reach and unattainable for so long, tales of parties in San Francisco and Hawaii discussed on forums like ghost stories around a digital campfire, his mystique has grown. I should assert that the absence wasn't contrived or managed at all. It was US immigration policy that kept him away. An exile in a foreign land. He isn't just an outstanding DJ, he's an outstanding DJ whose interesting story fits a narrative arc as old as time.

There are many DJs that are as good. I think Harvey himself would be the first to admit it. He's not perfect and it does go wrong. Like it always does for all DJs at some point (less-than-brilliant appearances at Love Box festival and Manchester for example). But I put it to you and any possible deep pocketed promoters reading that things have only gone awry when he is out of control of the situation. Harvey controls everything, you see. A standard is required. Usually in the area of the sound system.

If anything, the hysteria surrounding Harvey says more about the importance of a quality crowd than any sub-messianic DJ bollocks. There is a VERY large element of hype. Hype in the purest sense that everyone is so buzzed up they construct the vibe and fan it to fever pitch. You can slot anything good into that vibe and it becomes much bigger, 'great' even. It's always been more about the crowd than the DJ. And quite right too.

The hype of a Harvey gig is the opposite of the the stand-still-and-watch-and-film-it-on-your-phone crowd. The hype demands involvement. The atmosphere is always fizzing with electricity at all the Harvey gigs I have attended. This has always been the essence of house since it started as disco: the party is the star. DJ and crowd are just elements of a whole. It's unfair to hang criticism or indeed the credit entirely on Harvey's shoulders for the success of his renaissance. Our most esteemed and professional party people have adopted him, and they have elevated him up to his plinth of plenty.

And he has absolutely risen to the demand of the hype which lets face it is pretty rare. It is very easy to go to see a big EDM star and be disappointed. I don't know any who say that of Harvey. I'm saying this as a well known grim-faced Victorian northern sourpuss, so understand all this comes grudgingly from the heart, like being force-milked by some dastardly chrome fingered sucker machine.

Fans do say he has the ability to make some very crazy records work that many others would just not pull off. I say he doesn't really 'make things work' the crowd allow him to. There is a distinction. You take the same set, literally the same, and get someone else to play it and it might well fall completely flat. I've always said that about the sets I've heard from Larry Levan. Anyone else who did those things would be bottled off. A DJ needs a certain amount of chutzpah and bags of charisma to reach that level, but in the end, the crowd let it happen. Frankly they should do it more often.

Ultimately not many DJs actually have 'DJ' in front of their names as a formal title and it actually be justified. So look past the hype, the queues, and the house music arrivistes appropriating him to prove their credentials (Rolling Stone recently named him #10 in their toe-curling '25 DJs who rule the Earth'). DJ Harvey is definitely one who has earned it.

DJ Harvey plays Ministry of Sound this Saturday