I AM A DJ

It's true.

My given names are David Juyub; which makes me DJ Lee. Simple as that.

And.....

For almost 20 years I put smiles on peoples' faces in a different way - by playing music.

The Lee household was always musical. Mom and Dad could play; the children all learnt to play; music was always playing @ home and in the car. None of us would be afraid to sing (except for 10 horrible seconds of stage-fright when I was 8), or dance.

From listening to all types of music in the early years, I moved on to collecting music when I was 10. Like today, none of this music was bought; songs were recorded directly off the radio! I just had to have as many songs as possible; making up "special" compilations of the latest hits on cassette.

When my sisters had friends over for parties, I would be in the corner, controlling two cassette players and playing song after song for their listening and dancing pleasure. I would even take cassettes with me to friends houses, in the hope they would have a player ready for me to entertain with.

My first casual job at 15, what did I spend my hard-earned money on? Music, of course. 1985 - the compact disc was taking off in a big way. Only the very best music would be bought on CD - because this technology was so special! Everything else - vinyl; especially those extended play 12" singles. All of this would be recorded onto "mix-tapes", for parties, the classroom, bus trips, anywhere.

The seeds were sown.

At 17 years of age, I entered my first night club. The place doesn't exist anymore, but it wouldn't matter where it was - the experience would have been the same. The thing that rocked my world was the dude playing music in the corner. When I stood next to the DJ box, I noticed the two crates of vinyl records he was selecting his tracks from. To me, it seemed like ALL THE MUSIC IN THE WORLD. I had to have it.

After clubbing hard for a couple of years, for my 19th birthday, I asked my parents if they would buy me turntables. You see, I needed a reason to be buying so much frickin' music - I had to be a DJ. Or at least have the gear.

My parents, who had given me so much, gave me the turntables. So the mix-tapes actually became real mixed-tapes. The next step was private parties, because it seemed like a waste - all this music, and only my close friends and myself listening to it. I had to put it out there.

Money - I don't think so. @ $100 for a party; that paid for about 7 songs. This was definitely some kind of love.

In 1993, I approached a club promoter, handed him a mix-tape, and said I'd like to DJ in his club. That club was Riva - under the Sheraton on the Park, Sydney - and that became my first DJ residency.

History has taken me DJing all over Sydney in the best night clubs and bars; up to Queensland, down to Canberra; ending up @ the Mean Fiddler in Rouse Hill, Sydney in 2009. This video was taken on my last night there. It has been a wild, non-stop ride!

So there's the proof.

DJ Lee IS a DJ, and always will be.