DJ Sharkey

DJ Sharkey DJing at Vibealite 9th birthday on Friday 4th October 2002 at The Emporium, Leicester.

Sharkey (born Jonathan Kneath^[1] on July 25th, 1974 in Plymouth) is a British record producer, disc jockey, and rapper. Sharkey co-created a style of hardcore techno known as freeform or freeform hardcore.

Career

Sharkey initially became known as an MC at hardcore rave events in Great Britain in 1993. In 1995, he moved into music production, teaming up with DJ Hixxy to release the track "Toytown", which proved one of the biggest signature tunes of the UK's happy hardcore scene in the 1990s. This led both Sharkey and Hixxy to being signed by the UK's leading dance music label, React Music, and the pair released "Bonkers", the first in a series of albums which has become the best-selling hardcore compilation series of all time. "Revolutions", a release on React, reached 53 in the UK charts, and Sharkey consequently released the album "Hard Life" in 1998.

Sharkey also produced mixes for Bonkers 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17. Volumes 4 and 5 achieved silver sales status in the UK with Bonkers 3 reaching gold status.^[2]

He established a relationship with the up-and-coming DJ Kevin Energy in 1998, and the pair were, with several other DJs, instrumental in the creation of the Freeform genre of hardcore (a term which was coined by Sharkey himself). This moved the sound away from cheesier sounds of happy hardcore to a faster, more layered, technically more complex sound. A major keystone of the freeform movement is The Nu Energy Collective, of which Sharkey and Kevin Energy are the best-known faces, and the freeform sound played a lead role in the renaissance of the hardcore sound in the early 2000s.

As well as that, Sharkey also makes time for various projects, most notably, putting a number of unknown but talented musicians through a self devised music technology course some 18 months in length. Periodically, Sharkey announces he is looking for a new studio trainee and then picks the most promising from the applications he receives. The winning applicant is then comprehensively schooled. During that time, his students receive one on one training on every aspect of music technology needed to succeed in the field of Hard Dance music production and engineering.

Sharkey has performed in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, and Japan.

2001 he made his first appearance on the eurodance compilation Dancemania series, at Speed 6, along with Hixxy.^[1]

DJ Sharkey was invited to mix on BBC Radio 1 in 2003, performing John Peel's Essential Mix (Peel was a noted admirer of hardcore). He also hosted a hardcore special alongside Hixxy some years later, where he admitted to farting in Chris Moyles chair live on air.

In January 2011 Sharkey announced his retirement from Hardcore and Freeform. He will be making one last tour, taking him to various countries around the world and will then retire near September 2011. He is currently training to become a Teacher so he can pass his knowledge and skills onto people to make music in the future.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Discogs, Sharkey
2. ^ HappyHardcore.com, Bonkers 3 goes gold (100,000 copies)

External links

• Releases
• DJ Sharkey at Discogs

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Name	Sharkey, Dj
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Date of birth	1975
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