Chester-born Radio 1 DJ Kutski to play at Creamfields

Jul 23 2009 by Ben Coulbeck, Chester Chronicle

Riding his bike, doing a paper round and catching a bus to work are still fresh memories for John Walker.

But now, known across the country as Kutski and playing to millions of BBC Radio 1 listeners every Friday night, the 27-year-old from Chester is living the dream.

With an ever-growing reputation for energy-charged, crowd-pleasing performances and showing a technical ability far beyond his older, more experienced peers, Kutski (John to his friends) is a DJ in high demand.

The former Kingsway High School pupil from Newton is travelling the world, taking his ear-deafening brand of hard dance music to clubbers in Ibiza, Holland, America, Australia, Singapore and Canada.

As a resident of England’s national radio station for the younger generation and being friends with superstar DJs that defined a generation of dance music followers, he could be forgiven for forgetting what life used to be like as a teenager growing up in Chester.

But that is far from the truth. “You have got to remember that I’ve just got a really good job. It’s the normal everyday things that keep you grounded and that is really important,” he said.

“It’s really surreal. I remember listening to tapes on the bus to school thinking I wonder if I would ever be able to meet these people and now I am actually mixing in the same circles as them.

“You have to pinch yourself sometimes that these DJs and musicians that I am talking about really mundane things to are people that I used to idolise!

“When I was about 12 or 13 I worked on a paper round and saved up some money to buy a second-hand set of decks. I couldn’t mix on them so I just tried to wiggle the record about and recreate the noises I could hear in the music I was listening to.

“I am now getting to see the world and meet some amazing people. It’s pretty cool.”

And it doesn’t end there for Kutski. He is now putting himself at the cutting edge of DJing by acting as a consultant for a New Zealand firm aiming to launch an innovative and unique way of mixing tracks live on a set of decks, using tunes from a laptop computer.

“I’ve always been into the technical side of DJing,” he admitted. “I am a bit of a geek really!”

Since winning his first DJ competition at Elevate in Bangor, North Wales, as a teenager, Kutski’s steady rise to prominence has led him to perform alongside the likes of dance music heroes Judge Jules, Lisa Lashes and Billy Bunter.

Kutski has already played UK summer festivals Global Gatherings, Colours and Plant Love North and South, but now he has been handed a headline slot in the Goodgreef Extra Hard tent at the most prestigious dance music festival in the country – Creamfields.

Just 18 miles from Chester down the M56 at Daresbury, 60,000 ravers are expected to descend on rural Cheshire next month for a two-day event that boasts live acts such as Tiesto, Dizzee Rascal, Basement Jaxx, Calvin Harris and Mylo.

For Kutski, such a gig is nothing new. Last year he played Radio 1’s Big Weekend and had the unenviable task of following Bonkers rapper Dizzee Rascal on the bill.

“I was due to start playing the outdoor arena and there was literally nobody there. Everyone was inside watching Dizzee Rascal. He finished about five minutes before the start of my set and suddenly lots of people piled out of the arena,” he said.

“The sun was shining so I decided to play some really old school summer dance tunes and built it up slowly. It was just one of those dreams gigs. For every anthem, everyone had their hands in the air. I was really nervous about playing such a big gig but it has to be one of the best gigs of my life.”