Overview:
Brian has been DJing in Melbourne now for over 3 years. To him, there is no dance without the music. Brian's passion lies in the hard swingin' big bands from Harlem and Kansas City of the 1930's.

He sees himself as one of the DJs in Melbourne who is providing the scene with the greatest Jazz artists who ever lived. From this love of music he has been the key DJ involved in some of the only specialised swing music events in Australia: 'The Savoy Ballroom house band night'; the 'Swingin' with Count Basie night; 'Dancing at the Australian War Memorial' - Swing music of WWII) and 'Vote for the King of Swing' night (Count Basie vs. Benny Goodman vs. Chick Webb).

He has been an active member of www.swingdjs.com (world swing DJs discussion board) since June 2003 which has allowed him to gain experience with some of the worlds best. In March 2003, Brian founded the yahoo email group SwingDJsAustralia, whose goals include promoting the standard and awareness of swing DJing in Australia.

He knows how important it is to play for the dancers, and has learned to mix the music up and read the floor, to allow the dancers have the excitement of their old favourites mixed in with some lesser known recordings to add that freshness to the dance.

Some other highlights of Brian's DJing were coordinating the music for the Australian Jitterbug Competition 2005 (Australia's largest swing competition), and being the Guest DJ on Yehoodi Internet Radio in January 2005.

Music Collection:
Brian's swing collection is now over well over 400 CDs spanning from 1920's recordings to date. His specialisation is the original Swing Era in America - the 1930's and 40's - of which over 3/4 of his collection is drawn. This collection includes all the available Chick Webb studio and radio recordings, as wall as a very extensive set of recordings from other prominent as well as lesser known artists. He is currently spending a lot of his time seeking out modern recordings of bands playing in the 20's and early 30's jazz styles in order to make this type of music more audible to dancers.

A student for Life:
One of the fantastic things about DJing and having knowledge about dancers and the music is that it is a constant learning process. Brian lives by this and treats DJing - the study of music and music history - as an everyday commitment. He believes that you will never know everything, but more knowledge is the key to improvement.
Brian strongly believes there is no point in doing something, if it's not an improvement on the previous time.

Contact Details:
Telephone: 0405 400 651
Email address: brenehan@ireland.com

Words by Brian Renehan