Pete Tong

It's fair to say that Pete Tong's life is intertwined with the history of acid house and electronic music itself. His career mirrors the story of dance music over the last 25 years. A true renaissance man, Pete has never been about one thing and now more than ever he embodies the many facets of dance music culture, from radio shows and album releases to clubs nights and festival arenas,...

It's fair to say that Pete Tong's life is intertwined with the history of acid house and electronic music itself. His career mirrors the story of dance music over the last 25 years. A true renaissance man, Pete has never been about one thing and now more than ever he embodies the many facets of dance music culture, from radio shows and album releases to clubs nights and festival arenas, prolific is probably an understatement.

All Gone Pete Tong was launched by Pete initially as a Club night at Pacha Ibiza in 2011. Now in 2013, it's burgeoned into a worldwide party brand, radio show (daily in USA, and weekly around the world), and a mix compilation series with album guests including Groove Armada, Felix Da Housecat, Booka Shade, Reboot and Skream to date.

Just when the world though Pete had all dance bases covered, Pete announced in April 2013 that he's bringing daytime clubbing back to Ibiza with "Le Grand Bazaar" at Ushuaia Ibiza and confirmed initial guests including Fatboy Slim, Carl Cox and Hot Natured...

Pete commented..."I'm looking forward to making Fridays completely unique, bringing daytime clubbing back to the island with an incredible lineup of underground and global names, and also to dreaming up more crazy and inspiring events with Ushuaia this summer and beyond..."

Of course Pete is still synonymous with Friday nights and his world famous BBC Radio 1 show, the birthplace and starting point for so many great careers in Dance music... Pete's lauded Essential New Tune and his World World exclusives bring accolade and exposure unrivaled by any other broadcast. It was fitting that amongst the furor and excitement of Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories" Album campaign, it was Pete who got the world exclusive first interview and Pete's 2million plus listeners who heard it first.

So it's clear Pete's right at the top of his game, and add to all this his constant touring, production work, remixes, music supervision, film scoring, hosting the Essential Mix show... he's without question the busiest man in dance music.

At the heart of all of this, is Pete's ability to push and nurture new talent. From Guti and Benoit to Maya Jane Coles and Disclosure - there are few successful electronic artists that didn't benefit from the Pete Tong Push ™. "That's a big remit of my radio shows," smiles Pete. "But I don't turn water into wine - all I ever saw myself doing was fanning the flames of something that I thought was inevitable. I'd like to think that by backing the special ones that I can help it happen for these artists... a little bit quicker"

It's been a long, tumultuous ride for Pete. "I left school at the end of the 1970s and always wanted to be a DJ," he starts, "To make a name for yourself back then you had to have the coolest and rarest records - if you managed to get hold of the hottest tune in the record shop, it could be months before any other DJ managed to track down a copy; your status and ability to call a tune in the underground record stores was very important, it's hard to conceive that today with the instant access available online"

In 2012 All Gone Pete Tong really started to push boundaries and take the brand around the world including a sold out UK tour, an underground warehouse party in the heart of East London, and a brief stop off for an exclusive show in Moscow, All Gone made it's Miami debut. Then followed an arena at the Pacha Festival in Amsterdam, before All Gone touched down once again at Pacha and continued to mix things up and keep it fresh, with everyone from Jamie Jones to Alesso, Seth Troxler to Sebastian Ingrosso all making special appearances along side Pete.

Last year also saw All Gone host an arena at SW4 Festival in London, and the Autumn already sees Pete taking the party around the UK including visits to Bristol's Motion, Leeds' Warhouse and Manchester for Warehouse Project, not to mention a 10 date USA tour.
This year and, following 2 sold out All Gone shows in Miami once more, All Gone arenas are confirmed at Creamfields, SW4, Bestival and Jersey Live festival Pete's summer looks set to be as impressive as ever.

Pete's own music output is starting to become more frequent and free flowing - working alongside the likes of Paul Rogers, Dave Spoon and Steve Mac, Pete's fast-becoming a production powerhouse. "Sometimes I have to explain why I didn't do more of it before," says Pete, who has been in the studio with Rogers almost every day this year - it's an important part of his career now. "Running a record company from 1983 - 2000, I didn't have time to make music before and I come from an era where DJs didn't always make music - which would be very unusual today. Back in the day, trying to make a record was more difficult and expensive".

Recent remixes include; Gorillaz 'Stylo', Phoenix, Underworld and U2 with Paul Rogers, and Robyn, Madonna, Cheryl Cole, James Blunt and Razorlight with Dave Spoon, and recent singles "Shake The Dice" on Toolroom and Dawn featuring Azari frontman SYF on Defected are testimony to Pete's continued commitment to the studio.

Pete is also finding more time to combine his twin loves of music and film. Historically, he was the soundtrack supervisor for Human Traffic, Event Horizon, Shopping, The Beach and 24 Hour Party People and executive producer (with a cameo role) in the seminal It's All Gone Pete Tong. Recent work includes the music and score for Beyond The Rave for Hammer Films and supervision and score for the award winning Harry Brown which starred Sir Michael Caine. More projects are currently in the pipeline.

Which just leaves one last question: did he ever see such longevity being possible back in the early 80s? Pete ponders the question for a moment. "If we're fortunate of one thing, it's that we were in the right place at the right time. Without wanting to sound crass, in our own way in our own world, it was a bit like being in The Clash or The Sex Pistols around the time of punk. We all loved music before acid house, but when the rave explosion started, we were in the right place at the right time - and we made the right moves." He's still making them now.