eddie piller

About me:

its a broad musical journey through all my favourite genre's and even if I say so myself, it's a winner

I'm also one of the regular dj's at THE MAGIC BUS nights held every six weeks at THE COCK TAVERN in Smithfield - the most recent have featured Savile Row tailor William Hunt and designer Wayne Hemingway - next one coming in August!

EDDIE PILLER – a short biography

Eddie Piller has had a long and distinguished career in music.(yeah, right...blah blah blah - i din't write this actually)

Radio presenter, club DJ, night club entrepreneur, journalist, record producer and label owner are just some of the things he has turned his hand to over the last 25 years.

Starting out as a label manager at the legendary Stiff records in the early 1980s, by ’85 he had started his own label and unearthed a young James Taylor Quartet. The label’s first release spent 15 weeks in the top 10 of the indie charts and became a firm favourite of late night legend John Peel. Inspired by this success in 1988 he established the iconic Acid Jazz records (alongside Radio One dj Gilles Peterson).

The label hit the heights with bands like Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, Galliano, JTQ, Terry Callier, Gregory Isaacs, Mother Earth and Corduroy, many of whom were produced by Piller in his Denmark Street studios.

His dj career grew alongside that of his label. By the end of the decade he’d held down residencies at The WAG club, The T & C (now The Forum), The Camden Palace (KoKo’s), The Ministry Of Sound and countless other venues. By the mid 1990s he’d toured the globe with his record box on a number of occasions and has appeared at some of the world’s most famous clubs.

Musically, his set draws on classic black music; soul, jazz, funk, samba, afrobeat and old school hip hop. This eclectic output has particular appeal for festival goers (last year he played at Glastonbury, the Isle Of Wight festival, the Prestatyn soul weekender, Bestival, The Purple Weekend in Spain and the Baltic soul weekender in Germany) as well as awards ceremonies (regular slots at The Q and Mojo music awards as well as the Empire film awards and at BFI Raindance film awards). He is equally at home playing at Pacha in Ibiza or a sweaty funk club in Soho.

Other career highlights include The Blue Note Club. Piller bought a derelict space and in ’94 created The Blue Note which revolutionised London club culture. A non-house music policy saw the club provide a home for the likes of Goldie, Bjork, Ian Brown, Talvin Singh, Coldcut and countless others. The club ran for only five years but is credited with kick-starting the whole Hoxton scene. It also won the ‘club of the millennium’ award from Time Out magazine.

As a radio presenter Eddie Piller started his career with a show on Jazz FM before moving to BBC Radio London and for the last two years, BBC 6 music, where he hosted the BBC Funk & Soul show amongst others. He has made numerous TV appearances as a pundit (most recently for the BBC’s Soul Britannia and Pop On Trial) but has also written an eight part television series for ITV (on youth culture), which was shown in 2005 and a documentary called Mods! for BBC Radio 4 which was broadcast in February of 2008.

Piller has compiled over 100 albums for a variety of labels including Blue Note, Salsoul, Polydor, Sanctuary and of course, Acid Jazz.

oh, my biog...

musically I play northern soul, funk, jazz, latin, rhythmn and blues, crossover soul, two step, roots and culture reggae, dub, folk, psyche, ska, gospel, rare groove, breaks, and early hip hop. A right old mixture.

During the week I work with a number of record labels, chief amongst them Acid Jazz, the east london indie as well as Roots (a jamaican rerelease label, like Trojan but nicer!) and The People Tree, which is an accoustic label.

If anyone would like to get me to come and play, then just get in touch - recent gigs have included Belfast, Granada, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, Milan, Torino, Wawsaw - go on, you know you want to!