I hope you've got time to read this!.......

Having been brought up on a 'diet' of Stan Getz, Ronnie Laws, Grover Washington Jr, Eddie Henderson and the like, (all borrowed from his older brother) Chris stumbled on Greg Edwards Capital Radio show 'Soul Spectrum' in his early teens. This led him into what has become a passion for 'Dance' music and has seen him witness, although not always realising it, Disco, Soul, Go-Go, Garage and House - in all its flavours! "I got myself a Saturday job, just so I could buy a couple of import 12's each week" he recalls.
Chris has stayed faithful to the genres of music he listened to all those years ago, real instrumentation, especially Rhodes, Saxophone and live Bass, and almost anything with a disco flavour about it.
That's not to say Chris hasn't embraced some of the other genres that have appeared over the years. Go-Go featured in the mid 1980's - Redds & The Boys and Go-Go Lorenzo being amongst his favourites, followed by a quick excursion into Acid House, but overall, Chris is only really comfortable with the 4/4 kick and all that is House.

His DJ'ing activities came out of a need to play the tunes he bought. "I was passionate about each track I bought, to the point where I wanted to play them to the world and say 'listen to this, how good is this track', but in 1980 the opportunities weren't there" he recalls.
Chris played his first 'gig' at a friends 17th birthday party, using his own Pioneer HiFi deck and a reel-to-reel tape deck. "I didn't have a mixer, so I recorded the best tracks off Gregs show and noted where the tape counter was for the start/end points. Then all I had to do was play a 12" and as it came to the end, I flicked the separate L & R channel switches between Source and Tape. This 'blended' the tracks together in a trainwrecking sort of way, but it worked. After that night, I knew there was no going back - I was hooked" he remembers.
A pair of Technics 1200's soon followed and a year or so later he secured his first residency at a small bar in Bishops Stortford called Rascals. He stayed resident there through 3 change of owners and 2 names changes to the bar over a period of 6 years. For a short while he shared the residency with Dave Gregory of 80-90's Essex Radio 'fame'. During this period Chris secured gigs at venues such as 'Dukes' in Chelmsford and regular guest slots at the now 'H2O' in his local town.
In 1993 Chris decided to take a break from all DJ'ing. He recalls "I know I was tired of playing out every Friday & Saturday, remember being disillutioned with the music that was about at the time and I'm sure there would have been a girl involved in there somewhere, but I'd just had enough. It was time to stop - I needed some weekends to myself". Although not playing out, Chris continued to keep tabs on what was going on and continued to buy music, although mainly on CD.

Jump forward to 1998 and Chris found himself invited to a birthday celebration in London... "It was one of Nicoles (his girlfriend) workmates birthdays and there were 25 of us invited out. He was gay and wanted to go to G.A.Y at the Astoria. I had my reservations as I'm straight, but thought what the hell - it'll be interesting if nothing else!"
Although Chris admits to not spending much time 'wandering' around the Astoria, he was struck by the 'presence' of the DJ that night. He recalls "It wasn't what tracks he was playing, it was the atmosphere of all those people having a great time and it was entirely down to the DJ. It made me remember what it felt like to play out and that was it, I knew I had to get back into DJ'ing".
Chris once again started buying vinyl and soon re-established contact with Dave Silby at CitySounds, who he'd been buying from since 1989. A short while later Chris secured a residency at a local 300 capacity Bar called JR's and held this until 2002. In the meantime he secured guest slots at the now defunked 'Agent Orange' held at Cynthias in Tooley St, SE1. The JR's residency ended in 2002 due to a change in music policy by the management. "They asked if I would vary my set to include 'chart' music to try and cater for everyone. It struck me how little the manager knew about music and how it could affect his business. I agreed to try and accomodate their request, but the next week I found I couldn't even bring myself to put their CD's into the player. I left at the end of the night with no regrets."
Later that year, August to be precise, Chris was asked if he could supply music for a new Bar in Bishop's Stortford - Housexy @ the Ark was born. The music policy is strictly Soulful, Jazzy and Deep House, US Garage and a few from back in the day. Within weeks a regular crowd were coming along to every night and the night has built from there - 'an Oasis of quality music in a chartophile town' as one regular recently described the night. Recent guests have included Dave Lynam (HouseFm), Tom Hennebry (City Sounds) and Si Eves (Fruity, Pukka Up) with many more to come.
Soon after, Chris met Paul Farris at his then residency, 'Hustle' at Bluebird in Chelsea. Paul kindly asked Chris to play as his guest and it would be fair to say much has come from that initial date. A repeat guest appearance, along with Chris's 'partner in crime' Dave Lynam (aka 'The Hustle Team') at the Hustle New Years party has led to gigs at CityLoud@Turnmills, Pukka Up in Paris, Bed Bar, and Ministry of Sound and Chris has now found himself making all the arrangements for the Groove Junkies visit to London in August 2003, for the HouseFM 1st birthday party.

In January 2003, Chris and Paul approached Ministry of Sound about a regular 'Forum Night' for the DJ's who regularly contributed to Pauls forum. Chris told me "The idea was to try and offer the forum DJ's the chance to play at a decent club. Many of them play in local bars and I remember how difficult it was to try and get a set in a club. If we could offer that opportunity, then we had to try and do it".
After some negotiation with Ministry the 'Housexy / Paul-Farris.com Forum Night' was born. The first one was held in the Baby Box on 19th April, followed by 14th June and Defected records approached us about running it alongside their 'Defected in the House' nights - starting on the 2nd August. This night continues to fill the Baby Box and at each event 3 DJ's from the forum, from all over the country (& Europe!) get to play a guest slot.
Chris has maintained his local residency in Bishop's Stortford at the Ark and has other dates coming up soon - check the News/Events page for dates/venues.
Chris's final word? "I count myself lucky, not only do I love the music I play, but I have been given the opportunity to play it to, and with, some of the best people anyone could ever wish to meet. That's a rare privilege."