G Kut

G Kut’s ground-breaking work with the world’s first Technics DJ Academy in Manchester, led him to design the world’s first DJ qualification (now the industry standard), incorporating mixing, scratching, production and business skills. Not merely content with resting on his laurels, he is also busy writing a book on DJ technique. As he explains, “Although I come from a hip hop background, I play everything - funk, latin, 60s soul, northern, electro, surf, deep soul, easy, reggae/ragga, hip hop, kids records, house, scratch music, soundtracks, harpsichord and even choral…just anything good that I like.

G Kut is far from your average scratch DJ. Currently testing and researching a new piece of software with the supernatural ability to manipulate any data - audio, video, html, flash (any digitized information) - with a view to making an "interactive scratch performance", where the audience inputs the media which he will then scratch and sequence into what they see, hear and feel. Mastery of technical wizardry has not confined him to the studio totally, however, as can be verified by the extensive list of his past and current residences which include Sub Tub (Manchester), All That Jazz (Manchester), Magnet (Liverpool) and Jiggery Pokery (Liverpool). Along the way G Kut has played beside many of the world’s premier DJs, including Jeru The Damaja, Cash Money, Snowboy, Fergie, Mr Thing, Prime Cuts, Tony Vegas and Stereo MC's. A strong reputation has taken him to various locations such as Club Cult (Moscow), Beachbombing (Barcelona), Sonar (Barcelona), BUSC(France), Elto (Austria), God’s Kitchen (Birmingham), Earl’s Court(Playstation Events scratch demonstration) and The Matrix/Front Page(Belfast).

Xander

Xander is an established DJ on the Manchester circuit with several party and event promotion credits to his name and combines his love of music with his promotional work at the city’s well-respected Flux Magazine. Alongside Decks For Schools, he has also been involved with recent DJ workshops in Newton Heath, Salford and Burnley, The Lifeline Project’s Outlook programme in East Manchester, The Livewire Project at The Cornerhouse and Rochdale Council’s Youth Service programme. Xander offers his skills in DJing, scratch-mixing, music programming and general profession practises and also has qualifications in Music Technology and Media Production, plus he has full CRB disclosure and recent Child Protection Foundation training.

Roscoe

Karl Roscoe has been djing for 9 1/2 years, and hes into pretty much everything. Highlights include drum & bass residences at Substance (1997-2000) and SubTub (2000-2004), playing in France, Spain and Switzerland and a mix for 1Xtra in 2002. He currently presents an eclectic show on Manchesters Unity Radio. He has never had any ambition outside of simply loving music and sharing this passion with others.

Tonn Piper

MC Tonn Piper is the North’s premier MC and receives huge respect in his home town of Manchester, just as much as any other artist. In the last 3 years he has been elevated to premier league status, with a multitude of bookings throughout Britain, Europe and a tour in the States. Having secured his position at the Spellbound events in Manchester and Edinburgh, he went on to appear at events such as Dumb Dumb, Step Back, Metropolis, Guidance and Sub Tub. From his unique lyrical tongue twisting style, he was able to headline at all the major events in Sheffield (dnbarena, NY Sushi, Coalition), Leeds (Event Horizon, One Nation), Bristol (Inform, One Nation), Edinburgh (Behave, Mischief, Manga) and Newcastle (Turbulence).

Being able to compete at such a level opened many doors for Tonn and took him to events all over Europe such as King Spin in Geneva, Freshly Cut in Paris, Beachbombing in Barcelona and not forgetting his appearance at Konkrete Jungle in New York. With such a list of appearances Tonn has hosted events on several tours organised by Valve, Dogz on Acid, 1 XTRA, Knowledge and ATM magazines, Ram records, V records, True Playaz, Prototype and Dread.

With ongoing work within the youth music sphere in particular Decks 4
Schools, experience with live Pas, appearances on the Knowledge magazine cover CD and also live performances on 1 XTRA, Channel U and ITV, Tonn is now performing with the live Hip-Hop group Broke ‘n’ English, live Pas with Hip-Hop maestro Doctor B whilst also building the status of his band, Daywalkers.