ROB SHEVLIN

Rob was originally a long haired ‘grunger’ and was only saved from this lifestyle by the birth of Rave and namely a cassette he got handed entitled, ‘Happiness and Darkness’ mixed by Sy and Unknown. He became hooked and started using fake ID’s to get into the early raves like Fusion, World Dance etc. around 1991 aged only 14.

At 6th Form college Rob discovered a new talent for promoting; he’s not the sort of person to do something by half so he joined the Student Union as entertainment director, he hired a boat on The Thames and transformed the end of year party into something the college had never seen before. The pre-party saw him mixing with a single tape player, a record deck, a cd player and a handful of vinyl (college equipment was limited and everyone has to start somewhere!)

Rob’s promoting continued in Southampton and for his 21st birthday he hired a small ferry just off Southampton docks and brought in the best lighting he could find and a décor company that now kits out Homelands, Jon ‘OO’ Fleming can testify it went right off. He became involved with several more events in Southampton over the years and raised over £14000 for charities.

Summer 1999 and Rob was offered a job for Renaissance, not flyering the beaches of Ibiza, but running his own team and a weekly night in mainland Spain. Rob managed 20 staff whilst playing the bars and clubs in the area. It also meant a great deal to him as he felt it was a chance to move further into the centre of the music industry meeting dj’s that had inspired him like Deep Dish, Roger Sanchez and Danelli Davoli as well as learning the trade from residents, managers and the European way of promoting; not bad for a 21 year old.

Around September 1999 it was internet-boom time and Rob was headhunted for a job at the well-established online clubbing magazine Clubber.co.uk. Rob is now a shareholder as well as holding the position of Marketing and Business Development Director. In the last few years Rob has been involved in the expansion of the email and text message advertising boom, promotions for Buzz Airlines of clubbing holidays in Europe, the infamous Rednotbed tour and many more projects. He’s completed online PR campaigns for Vodaphone, Addidas, BT Genie, Freeserve and nearly all the top promoters like Ministry, Cream, Sundissential, Passion, Scream and more.

His djing is as exciting as he is, as a person. He is keen to watch and learn all the time from others and even in the clubs you can be sure he’s listening just that little more carefully to each mix. Rob strongly believes attitude is much of what djing is about. It’s not just putting on one record after another but it’s important to show personality, communicate and work with the crowd. He can do this by reading their reactions and working with his music, he’s not the sort of DJ to get tucked quietly behind the decks for a couple of hours, even after his sets he’s normally straight back into the crowd. He’s as much an entertainer as a DJ, working with the people, not over the top, but subtler, communicating with them, feeding off their reactions and driving them on with his performance and his music. September 2002 and Rob now runs a weekly night in Southampton called Please Yourself where he can let go a bit and play a funk-driven house set.
Rob’s style of Djing can vary depending on the venue and crowd, if it’s funky bar style then Rob can adapt like any half decent DJ should but he’s probably most at home when the beats are tribal and there’s a sexy female vocal alongside. Fully aware that originality counts for much in Djing he doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of established DJ’s, but rather wants to carve his own style; however he does draw influences from the king of Space, Steve Lawler and the presence of Erick Morrillo can also be seen when Rob plays out to the right kind of crowd. Of course, there are gigs where DJ’s can’t play whatever they want to and its that eye for detail and experience that Rob thinks separates the fad DJ’s from those that will evolve with time. His slightly fussy nature means that Rob avoids anything that sounds a bit cheesy, perhaps the vocals are too much or there’s those long ‘sythy’ stabs, trance had its day and you will not hear anything like that in his music. It’s in his nature to look to the future and Rob has been setting up a studio and working on remix projects, re-edits and cheeky bootlegs with a string of other studio projects already piling up. Style-wise Rob will be producing under two guises; ‘Tigerstyle’ a tribal beats with a sexy vocal workout, whilst ‘Robbie Tomassi’ is for those slightly funkier projects.

Despite being busy on various tasks Rob is constantly searching for new ideas and projects to get involved in. It’s his enthusiasm and personality that make him an exciting prospect for the future. When asked what his own plans are, he thinks he’s still young and has only achieved the tip of his iceberg. But, music-wise he’s sure he’s going deep, dark and very sexy.

Email: rob@clubbergroup.com