Mr. C

Mr. West
Birth name Richard West
Also known as East LA Tek, Sycophant Slags, Indigo Kidz
Born (1966-01-02) 2 January 1966
Mile End, London
Origin Holloway, London, England
Genres House, electronica, dub
Occupation(s) Singer, rapper, record producer, DJ, actor
Years active 1987–present
Labels Superfreq, Get Physical Music, Poker Flat, Adjunct Audio, Wagon Repair Records
Associated acts The Shamen

Richard West (born 2 January 1966 in London) is an English DJ, musician, actor and rapper, who has used the monikers Mr. C, Sycophant Slags and Indigo Kidz. He is best known as the frontman for The Shamen during their most commercially successful era. West is also a house music DJ and was co-owner/co-founder of London's The End nightclub with Layo from Layo and Bushwacka!. He is considered a leading proponent of tech house, a fusion of house and techno music and has been credited with coming up with the genre. In 1995 his DJing talents came to the attention of UK rave promoter/record company Fantazia who asked him to mix their new album Fantazia DJ Collection 3 – Back to the Old Skool. He also mixed CDs Psycotrance vol 1,[1] X-Mix 6 on Studio K7, Sunterrain 100% Unreleased on his End recordings imprint and most recently Superfreq Express on his Superfreq label.

Music career

Richard West aka Mr. C was born in London in 1966. He started MCing in the London clubs aged only 16 & soon earned a reputation as a fast-talking, vivacious rapper working with LWR radio's Ron Tom, Jasper the Vinyl Junkie & Jazzy M. Mr.C then hooked up with Colin Faver & Evil Eddie Richards to become resident rapper at Camden Palace going on to MC for Colin Faver on the then illegal Kiss FM. Mr.C went into the studio to record his first house track with Eddie Richards as Myster-E, which was released in August 1987. This inspired Mr.C to become a DJ to learn more about his beloved House & Techno music so in late 1987 Richard took to the decks. Mr.C has since organised, promoted and been resident DJ at: Fantasy (1988), Base (Dungeons 1989), Release (1991), Harmony (1992), Drop (1993), Cyclone (1994), Vapourspace (1994 & 1995), Flavour (The End 1995 & 1996), Subterrain (The End 1995–2002), Superfreq (Worldwide 2002–present) & Super Disco Freq (LA 2010–present).

In December 1995 Mr.C opened the legendary night club The End in London with Partner Layo Paskin & then AKA bar three years later, which celebrated its 13th anniversary in December 2008 & was lauded as one of the best night clubs in the world, which completely changed the face of clubbing in London & beyond. Sadly The End & AKA closed its doors for good on 24 January 2009.

Mr.C is founder and owner of Plink Plonk records, co-founder of End Recordings & co-founder & owner of the Superfreq label. Mr.C has recorded under the names Myster-E, Unity 2, Nu Jacks, Bass Bureau, The Shamen, Mantrac, Somnambulist, Animus Amour, Killer Loop, Mr.C & Tom Parris, Mr.C & 16B & the Sycophant Slags. Mr.C is best known as frontman of The Shamen with whom he notched up a string of top 10 hits including "Move Any Mountain" & the UK number 1 hit "Ebeneezer Goode". The Shamen also won a highly coveted Ivor Novello award for Songwriters of the year UK in 1992. Richard is currently recording solo as Mr.C & is also doing collaborations as the Sycophant Slags with Francis Harris aka Adultnapper, as the Indigo Kidz with Affie Yusuf, with [a]pendics.shuffle & with Omid 16b, and has recent releases on Poker Flat, Wagon Repair Records, Get Physical Music and Adjunct Audio. Mr.C's EP, "Something Strange Part's 1 & 2" with [a]pendics.shuffle has caused a real storm in the second half of 2012, as did his recent remix for Fractious on NB records. Mr.C has been extremely busy doing remixes for Mikael Stavöstrand & David Scuba, Francis Harris, Xo Chic, Joint Custody & Affie Yusuf & also has his solo EP "I'm gonna Give You Some" & his new "Smell The Coffee" album, as well as collaborations with Affie Yusuf, Omid 16b & [a]pendics.shuffle released in 2013.[2]

Mr.C runs & promotes Superfreq events, which celebrates being 15 years old in March 2017 & ran monthly at Mr.C's club The End until it closed down in January 2009. Superfreq now functions bi-monthly in London including a bi-annual residency at the legendary nightclub Fabric & spends the rest of the time hopping around London’s popup warehouse venues & various clubs including London’s newest hottest venue The Steelyard after an extremely successful event with Richie Hawtin in December 2015. Superfreq does regular events in Los Angeles as well as bi-monthly events in Calais France & annual events in Brooklyn, Chicago, Detroit, San Francisco, Miami, Dallas, Denver & Washington DC in the United States & also Vancouver, Playa Del Carmen, Mexico DF, Moscow, Ibiza, Bogota, Montañita & other one off / annual events the world over & has recently competed an Asia tour hitting Manila, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Beijing & Shenzhen. Superfreq has accomplished 7 successful seasons in Ibiza, 3 at Club Underground, 2 at the legendary DC10, 1 season at Blu, 3 events at Aura & hosts annual events at BPM Festival in Playa Del Carmen. Mr.C has just finished his brand new album entitled Incidents, which is due for releases on vinyl & CD on his Superfreq imprint on 10 April 2017 with singles from the album due on 6 March, 24 May & the end of June all containing big name cutting edge remixes. Mr.C has his “Stand Up” track taken from the Incidents album out now on the Save Fabric compilation album. His new Soulfuric track has just been released on Alola & has his new Liquid Acid track has just been released on DJ Pierre’s “Acid 88” album on Afro Acid. He also has a remix of Dinnarie & Bissen on Good For You records being released in January & a remix of Banco De Gaia coming out in February, which will all lead up to his album release nicely.

Superfreq Record Label

Superfreq released eight EPs from various artists and one mix CD by Mr.C, but had then been a dormant record label since 2006. Superfreq relaunched in February 2013 & has since released prolifically with 40 digital EPs & 2 albums. With a new vinyl distribution deal with Juno, Superfreq has an intense release schedule for 2017.

Influences

He states his influences as; Ska, Funk, Dub, Disco, House, Electro and Techno,

Guest appearances

In 1999 he was interviewed by Melinda Messenger and he performed the song, "Universal Nation" with the Shamen.

On 23 January 2014 he was interviewed by Sacha on Ideal Clubworld Radio.

Personal life

Mr C (Richard West) is married to Mexican actress and model Xochitl [3]

References

  1. Discogs
  2. Yoder, Sean-Michael apendics.shuffle & Mr.C "Something Strange" review , Ibiza-Voice.com, Retrieved 12 May 2014.
  3. https://www.djguide.nl/djinfo.p?djid=802&language=en DJ Guide, Retrieved 9 June 2017
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