Decks in the city: the DJ night bringing out the financial district’s secret shufflers
Time to trade in those tailored suits for Wavey Garms: "Decks in the City" is boosting the profile of the financial district's secret DJs.
The musical extravaganza, which showcases City workers with a secret passion for playing house music, is moving to the last Friday of every month (an upgrade from its former midweek slot), and the event's founder and former Tory MP Mohammed Ali Miraj tells The Capitalist baseline rinses are more popular than you'd think with bankers.
“When I launched the night over two years ago it was based on a hunch that I might not be the only person in the City who works hard during the day but loves to DJ at night”, he said.
Miraj, who also trained as a chartered accountant, got into house when he acted as auditor of the Ministry of Sound and Defected Records in the late 1990s.
City financiers, traders, trainee lawyers, financial PR specialists, entrepreneurs, operations experts and Compliance professionals have all graced the decks, but The Capitalist notes none are keen to publicly declare their love of mixing.
The new night launches at the end of the month, and Miraj has a line-up of bankers ready to take the reigns. To warm up the crowd, there's "Tempo Tantrum", a motley trio of folks from the banking and broking sectors, while the headline act later is DJ A, also known as RBS forex analyst Jason Aspell. Like most, Aspell got into the scene at university, and and has been collecting records ever since.
City folk are used to private dinners and awards ceremonies with carriages at 2am, but this banker bass night will only be getting started in the small hours: ING staffer Miraj takes to the turntables at 2am…