What's On
energy
Full name
Dan Bridgland
Genres played:
Old skool.hardcore (pre 96)
Nu skool.
breakbeat
hardcore
Amen
jungle
Acid house
Trance
Why did you choose your DJ name ?
When I got accepted to play on a Sheffield pirate station in late 1994 I did not have a DJ name. Looking for a name that would stand out, but was fun and not too serious, I looked at a video tape I had of "Bagpuss". I chose that & it stuck.When I fell asleep in a few raves in the 2010s the name seemed even more suitable as Bagpuss would be woken up at the start of every episode and would yawn widely.
DJ Biography / overview / Bit about yourself and how you got into Djing and where you have played:
I have had two stints DJing. The first was between 1994 (when I first got decks - only beltdrive Soundlabs) and around 2004 when I got married. During that first stint I never did much more than a little bit of pirate radio in Sheffield in the mid 90s, a few house parties & one warehouse rave.After my children had grown a little but I decided to come back to DJing. At first I only had a controller but soon got Technics and started to rebuild my vinyl collection after selling most of it in around 2005. I started on an internet radio station and finally got to play at a few parties in clubs. Eventually I managed a station with its owners and we put on 5 events with big names in the oldskool & jungle/DNB scenes. We did a couple of pool parties at Unity in the Sun 2019 in Corfu.I moved to Eruption Radio in 2019 and played every Wednesday evening for around 3 years before taking a short break from radio, joining Energy in summer 2023.My highlights in DJing have been playing at DJ Zinc's residency month of January 2022 at XOYO in London, playing in Corfu at Unity in the Sun, and various other events supporting big name DJs around the South of England.
What or who are your influences to play what you play?
I always really admired DJ Swan E, who never stuck to obvious anthems but would change between hardcore & jungle in his sets. I've never tried to imitate any other DJs though, preferring to be myself. I try to play tunes that I think listeners and ravers will love instead of playing what I like. Anthem bashing is not something I do and playing less well known tunes but which are still banging is what I like to do.
What other intrests or hobbies do you have apart from Energy1058?
Playing golf,
watching American Football (I was a referee for amateur games in the UK from 2005-2012),
making rave music (I have had a few tunes released digitally).
I also really enjoy sci-fi & fantasy films, TV shows & books.