DJ PROMO :: A Tribal Influence.

END-OF-SCHOOL parties are usually noted for the destruction of friendships and common room furniture rather than the creation of world-class DJs. But 1986 bucked that trend and a new Deity of the Decks was born.

When some friends needed help staging a school leaving party for 2000 people, Matt Solo – who would later become DJ Promo – threw together a Party Survival Kit and grabbed the helm. One rebel-rousing party later, his destiny was determined.

Less than three years later, he was managing a group of British DJs and forging connections with clubs that still stand strong today. By the early ‘90s, he was running a London record store, staging his own events and helping others promote theirs.

In 1996, Matt quit the record store and started selling promos direct to the same DJs he’d served over the counter. At the same time, Crossbar invited him to launch a new night. Sidestepping their initial approach, he instead helped promote a company that made unusual mirrors and had been asked to exhibit in the Ministry of Sound. One foot now firmly in the Ministry’s door, he caved in to Crossbar and launched the infamous Aural Sex parties – and with them, his own DJ career.

In his first year behind the decks, DJ Promo played at some of the most famous clubs in London, including Ministry of Sound, The End, Heaven, Turnmills and Hanover Grand. So respected were his skills at the decks, he was called in to sound check Liverpool’s Cream and even London’s Fabric before opening night, making him the first person to DJ on the club’s legendary system.

It was time to turn his attention overseas and he was soon playing monthly in Europe and America and was then invited to play in Toronto, Canada. In 2001, he took to the turntables on the Greek island of Kos and then Ghent in Belgium.