Keb Darge
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Keb Darge is a Scottish DJ of the genres of Northern Soul and Deep Funk music, and is possibly the best-known DJ of such genres.
He began his career in local disco dance competitions (dancing in the "northern soul style") in the North of Scotland, and made an appearance in the nationally televised 1979 UK disco dance finals. He was also a dancer for the Wigan Casino, whilst collecting Northern Soul records. Soon after, he was DJing in Wigan at a club next to the casino, and around Scotland as well with his record collection throughout the 1970s.
At the age of 22, Darge moved to London, and attempted to live a regular life, having put his DJing days behind him. But music promoters from then approached him again, asking him to come back to DJing. He obliged, and gave the Northern Soul phenomenon exposure in London through his performances, bringing in people from northern England to move to London who were previously associated with Wigan's Northern Soul scene before it dissolved.
After a while, Keb sold off most of his northern soul records due to a divorce in 1987, and handed the torch of his Northern Soul DJing to Mark Dobson (aka "Butch"). But he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he picked up in the United States on his many jaunts to find northern soul records there and in the UK. This "junk music" would be the beginning of what Keb would later call "Deep Funk", having underestimated the potential of these leftover records.
In 1989, during the heyday of acid house in the UK, Keb decided to play these funk records, and managed for a short while to get a night to perform regularly at "The Wagclub", a club specializing in acid jazz. After his night there ended around 1992-93, he met fellow funk record collector Mark Cotgrove, aka Snowboy, at Club Ormones in London where the first funk-only night in the city was held, called "Deep Funk". The night was named by Keb (he would later go on to use the name to describe the sound of the funk records he would play), but arranged by the club owners.
After this, Keb and Snowboy wanted to further expand on the "deep funk" sound, and decided to start their own all-funk night in on old restaurant, but this failed to catch on after a few months due to the burgeoning popularity of house music in the UK at the time, forcing Keb and Snowboy to close up shop there.
But shortly afterward, they heard about a venue called Madame Jo-Jo's, a strip club located in the Soho district of London. They managed to arrange with the club a night for them to perform weekly. The club accommodated them, and Keb & Snowboy's funk nights there became an instant success (and still are the leading club nights for funk in London today). Madame Jo-Jo's closed down their strip nights, becoming a full-time music club, partly due to Keb's success there.
Today, Keb still holds a funk night at the club every Friday, called "Legendary Deep Funk". He also tours around the world DJing, and also runs a record label, Kay-Dee, with fellow funk aficionado & producer Kenny Dope.
He has released several albums of compiled classic deep funk tracks, most notably the Funk Spectrum and Keb Darge's Deep Funk compilations released on BBE Records. Keb Darge is a leading authority on deep funk & soul music of the 60s and 70s, and has achieved practically legendary status among his peers.
Besides DJing and helping to produce the modern-day funk group The New Mastersounds, Keb is also quite experienced in martial arts, having been a former Tae Kwon Do champion.
