Tony De Vit

Anthony de Vit was born to Raymond de Vit and June Silcock in Kidderminster, England.[1] Through his father's family he was directly related to Charles Anatole de Vit, a wealthy French immigrant who migrated to the UK in the 1840s. Kidderminster has also been the family's home since the mid-1930s.

Tony de Vit began DJing at the age of 17, as a wedding DJ in 1976 playing at local pubs in his home town of Kidderminster, followed in his early 20s, by his first residency at the 'Nightingale' in Birmingham on a Monday night where he played pop and Hi-NRG. He would often have to sweep floors and empty ashtrays after the club had closed.[15] In a relatively short space of time de Vit, through his talent and the diversity of his music, helped establish the 'Nightingale' as a respected club. During the early 1980s, he worked at Wolverhampton's Beacon Radio, playing club tracks during a regular late-night slot on the 1922 show hosted by Mike Baker of Smooth FM).

It was around 1988 that London's famous gay superclub, 'Heaven' was looking for an alternative DJ and Tony landed the spot there playing twice a month on Saturday nights he would play the main floor 'Heaven' was regarded as the top gay club in the UK at this time. De Vit's set at 'Heaven' rapidly established a reputation for itself and in 1990 another soon-to-be-influential club named Trade emerge onto the scene, promoted by Laurence Malice & Tim Stabler, Tony was a regular visitor to 'Trade', where he began to bombard the promoters of 'Trade' with tapes of his sets. Eventually, they relented and allowed de Vit to stand in one night for Smokin' Jo. After a great set, De Vit landed his own residency at Trade. Later in his career he would perform a 12-hour DJ set on 2 occasions at Trade; some consider these his defining moments as a DJ.[16]

In 1992, the illegal Raves in the UK moved into the clubs in a bid to legalise the scene. One of the key figures of the house music scene at this time was a Birmingham promoter called Simon Raine, who took an interest in Tony's career he put Tony on the bill alongside Fabio and Grooverider at 'The Institute' and encouraged him to make 'in roads' into other house parties as Tony had predominately played in the gay club scene. Raine had launched the successful 'Gatecrasher' club nights taking this advice he played at the 'Chuff Chuff' events sharing the bill with Sasha.

In the same year, Tony teamed up with Simon Parkes to create the V2 recording Studio based in The Custard Factory, Gibb St, Birmingham (Unit 417) with a view to co-write new material for Tony to play within his sets.

It was at this time that he recorded and released his first record 'Feel the Love (Don't Go Away)' which was well received on the club scene. His second release was a track called 'Higher & Higher' (with disco diva Norma Lewis ), which became the future benchmark for de Vit & Parkes V2 concept, but it was de Vit's/Parkes track 'Burning Up' that took everybody by surprise going straight in at No. 24 on the UK Top 40 charts.

In 1995, Radio 1 contacted him for his first 'Essential MIx'. At the same time record companies recognised his ability and talent and Tony featured on no less than twelve of the top compilation dance mix Albums during this year including, Fantazia 'House Collection Volume 2' and the 'Remixers' album, Sound Dimension's 'Retrospective of House' Volumes 2 & 4, Boxed's Global Underground series 'Live in Tel Aviv', 'Live in Tokyo' and the memorable 'Live in Handsworth Wood'(joke!), 'Kiss mix 97', the very sought-after 'Trade' Volumes 1 & 3, and the international release, 'Trade Global Grooves'.

With the launch of Jumpwax Records in 1996, Hard house music in the UK became more mainstream with tracks like 'Are You All Ready' and 'I Don't Care' beginning to receive major radio play and strong sales figures upon release. Following the demise of Jumpwax Records in 1996 came the launch of his own label TDV Records, which saw him release, 'Bring The Beat Back' and 'Get Loose' co-written with Simon Parkes. Tony went on to play at all the major dance clubs/events in the UK at this time, including, Legacy @ The Manor in Ringwood, Slinky @ the Opera House in Bournemouth, Cream, Gatecrasher, Godskitchen, and Creamfields. He garnered a string of awards and nominations during the year, including Mixmag's '2nd Best DJ of the Year 1996', M8 magazine's 'Best DJ of the Year 1996' and was selected by Music Week as 'Top Remixer of 1996'. His remix of Louise's 'Naked' earned Music Week's vote as the 'Ground breaking Remix of 1996'.

In 1997, he was offered a show on 'Kiss 100' which grew popularity grew by the year he was ranked number 5 in DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ's in the World. In the early part of 1998, he recorded the anthem 'The Dawn' with Paul Janes and Andy Buckley, which was part of the six track 'Trade EP'. Tony went on to comment that '...he was very proud of it...' considering (for the first time) he was working with a new & different engineer. Paul Janes went on to remix 'The Dawn' as a personal tribute to Tony's work and special understanding to his music genre, the track is considered to be his best work.[17] On May 2 1998 he performed a set in the Trade tent at the very first Creamfields festival in Winchester.

De Vit had contracted HIV. On 2 July 1998, at the age of 40, he died of bronchial failure.[1] After De Vit's death, a conflict kept his records off the shelves for many years, but finally a compilation album of his songs and remixes was released called Are You All Ready? on Tidy Trax records.[18]

A number of artists have cited Tony De Vit as an influence, such as Fergie,[19] Andy Farley,[20] Dave Pearce,[21] Paul F1 King,[22] Steven J,[23] and Lisa Lashes.[24]

Releases[25]

• Notes: This section includes the body of Tony De Vit's work other than his own releases during his career.

• Tony De Vit discography at Discogs
• Tony De Vit discography at MusicBrainz