Allister Whitehead
Allister Whitehead's DJing career started way back in 1987 at the tender age of 17, when he began playing venues in his hometown of Nottingham. His first residency was at Nottingham's own Koolkat where he could often be seen playing next to the ubiquitous Graeme Park on Saturday nights.
It was his tight sets during this period that saw his reputation as a talented up-and-coming DJ spread. He moved on to become resident at the seminal Nottingham club Venus (also one of Sasha's career making clubs), with his big break coming when Mike Pickering of M People asked Allister to cover his slot at the Hacienda while he was on tour with the group. On the strength of this set Allister was offered a residency, which he accepted, soon moving on to achieve cult status at Golden, which was voted club of the year in 1993. This set the stage for a residency at Cream, where Allister found his largest following yet. Subsequent gigs at clubs including Ministry of Sound and Gatecrasher further raised his profile, well-and-truly establishing him on the UK scene.
Having proved his worth as a premier league DJ, Allister set up his own club, Zero G, in Nottingham. Regular crowds of 1500 packed into the venue each Saturday night, resulting in demand for Allister's services soaring around the world.
He was truly established as a household name with the release on Fantazia of ‘The House Collection Volume 3' which was the biggest selling DJing compilation ever seen at the time, achieving Gold status. Since then Allister has achieved three more Gold and two more Silver albums through the release of compilations on the Fantazia and Ministry of Sound imprints. Nowadays Allister is one of the ‘Big Four' DJ's on the UK house scene alongside Danny Rampling, Graeme Park and CJ Mackintosh. He can be seen at the UK's most respected clubs such as Bed in Sheffield, Code in Birmingham, Faith in Hull, Cream and Ministry of Sound, which regularly boast the country's largest attendance figures. He is one of the few DJ's to fill these clubs on his own, and extensive touring abroad, including appearance in the US, Asia and Australia, have further spread his sound to the masses.
Having achieved commercial success in his production and remixing career through working with artists like Martha Walsh, Natalie Imbruglia and Robbie Williams, Allister set up his own label Sporting. Its first release, Blackheadz' 'Saturday Night', sold out and had to be repressed. Sporting's second release, which Allister released himself under the pseudonym Jame Gumb, sold out within days. His remix on WEA records of Rainstar's 'Breakdown' was placed at number 3 in the Hype chart, while his remix of IRS versus John Paul Young's 'I Love You Baby' is widely considered to be Allister's finest work.
More recently, Allister's release on Toolroom Records - ‘Allister Whitehead presents the Sam Poole Orchestra - Let the Music Use You', received huge play at 2005's Miami Winter Music Conference, with Pete Tong, Deep Dish and Seb Fontaine being amongst its most vocal supporters. Allister has also been appearing on Brian Cheetham's monthly ‘Moving House' radio show on the Ministry of Sound digital network.
Currently hard at work on several remix projects as well as original production work, 2008 promises to showcase more of Allister's hard-hitting, dynamic sound.