Eops - DJ/Producer/Games Designer

I have been obsessed by music in all its forms since I was given my first LP at the age of three.

It was the 'Pinocchio' soundtrack and I seemed to gravitate towards that 'Hi-diddle-dee-dee-an actors life for me' song by the disreputable 'Honest John the fox'. I really liked the way he led Pinocchio astray with tales of the stage, music and a life without any responsibility - 'Jiminy Cricket' and the 'Blue Fairy' could both kiss my ass as far as I was concerned even then. It wasn't just the music though, it was the cover, the gatefold sleeve, the little booklet filled with illustrations and to honest it was the first thing that I was ever conscious of owning.

Many years later I'm am still enchanted by vinyl (CD's and MP3's are the sort of sensible space saving devices that Jiminy Cricket and the Blue Fairy would have recommended but like I said - I'm with Honest John). My front room is a wall of sound 10 feet high in places and theres not a day goes by without me fussing over these precious objects in one way or another. Whatever mood I'm in, whatever tragedy befalls me, however many idiots try to break my spirit I always know at the end of the day I can find myself again somewhere amongst those dusty 45's.

I was lucky enough to get a job in 'Record Savings' a local new and second hand record store when I was 16. It was just as CD's were becoming big and countless 40 something office workers who had long since forgotten what it was like to really care about music used to come in and swap all manner of music from the 60's and 70's for a 'Dire Straights' or 'Fleetwood Mac' CD (that was just about all you could get in those days).

My timing could not have been better, I was surrounded by music from every genre and people were literally giving these precious biscuits away for penny's. In the shop I discovered Jazz, Psychedelia, Blues, Funk, Soul - everything, all sold in a fit of peak by aged magpies bewitched by those shiny silver discs that offered 'unrivaled sound quality matched with unbreakable durability' (and what a PR lie that all was!).

The shop taught me that every genre has something good to offer because deep down every form of music starts with someone making a sound that really means something to them. For every Garth Brookes theres a Johnny Cash, for every Jamie Cullum theres a Miles Davis - you just got to look and most importantly listen. I played in a few bands and one 'Subtrance' did really well, we cut a single and produced a number of EPs and a live LP on cassette. Most importantly though we toured the country often playing without a support band giving me the opportunity to DJ before and after each gig. It all tied into to the free rave scene of the early 90's and felt like the most exciting time in history (for me anyways).

When problems hit and the fourth or fifth summer of love began to nosedive into successive winters of comedown misery the band broke up. I moved into running clubs, DJing, MCing and trying to produce Electronic music. I ended up playing thousands of gigs here there and everywhere, spent a year in Manchester on a music technology course where I released another single with two of my friends called 'Fist Funk' by Black Ops Science Dept on the Raw Fish label.

Eventually found myself in Oxford where I threw myself into DJing. I ran a number of nights and did various guest spots before becoming a resident at the Source - Oxfords biggest and best drum and bass night. I played freestyle beats downstairs in the Isotonic room and we even got voted 5th best club in the country by 'Musik' magazine one year.

My Father died in 99 and it was the catalyst for me moving to the South Coast and getting 'a proper job' (well actually thats a lie as I work as a 'Computer Games Designer' which is about as far away from a proper job as you can imagine).

I couldn't stop playing out though and I soon had a new posse around me under the guise of 'Coin Op'. We ran Coin-Op for 4 years in and around Portsmouth with the odd foray into London.

In that time we released a 12' called 'Heartless Bitch' under the moniker 'Speedqueen' (not the best name really, despite the success of the single people were curiously adverse to replying to mails from 'Speedqueen' I imagine many a spam filter ate our mail shots before any human eye had seen them!).

I now live in London and DJ whenever and wherever I get the chance, I have built up a nice little studio and I am working on my production skills - flying solo for the first time. I spend every day trawling through Soho's finest record shops and every night arranging, compiling and planning my next musical expedition.

My name is Eamon and I'm a Vinyl Junkie - these are my sounds.