May Day Bank Holiday Sunday 5th May at The Viper Rooms is looking super exciting with our 3 Headlining DJs in the Main Room – Rob Roar, Lisa Loud and of course – CJ Mackintosh!

CJ has always been one of my DJ heros, he’s just got such a slick style that will rock that House Room! Get your tickets here and now – especially whilst they’re on Earlybird Prices – that won’t be forever so click here without delay!

Want to know more about CJ? Then read on…. I’m in total awe of the sheer volume of remixes he’s worked on with the likes of Janet Jackson, De La Soul, Simple Minds and The Jungle Brothers, the list is long – check it out on discogs.com and then scroll down beyond the picture, read on and enjoy.

See you in May,

Love Abi xxx

Born in Paris but raised in London, CJ Mackintosh’s DJ career began at the age of 15 when he and his 17-year-old brother set up their own sound system and began playing house parties in South London, mixing up disco, jazz, funk, soul and early hip hop.

He blagged his first professional gig at Flim Flam, an underground but influential night in south-east London run by Coldcuts Jonathon More. Quote CJ “There was a guy scratching, and I knew I could do better, so I hassled Jonathon for about a month until he offered me a half-hour slot, so I got Einstein, a rapper/MC, and we started doing sets there and eventually I started getting paid. Money wasn’t the object, though it was just doing what I wanted to do.”

In 1987, he made a name for himself by winning the UK title in the DMC Mix Championship. Suddenly he was in demand as a remixer, Dave Dorrell, another DJ prominent on the London club scene, asked him to join Nasty Rox Inc one of the first bands to mix rock and dance, with a DJ playing alongside the live instruments. Lauded by the style press, they toured extensively and recorded an album with Trevor Horn. “I learned a lot, it was a good experience, being with the band for two years.”

But ironically, it was a one-off dance single made with Dorrell and members in indie bands AR Kane and Colourbox that was to have the real impact. An adrenaline rush of samples and beats that defied categorization, Pump Up The Volume by M/A/R/R/S topped the UK charts in September 87, charting in the US the following year. At a time when Britains national pop station Radio One barely recognized dance music, this success was a vital confidence booster for clubland. Along with Bomb The Bass, it opened doors for all the DJs to say, I can do that.

Since then, CJ has continued his prolific mix career, working on tracks by C&C Music Factory, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, De La Soul, Inner City, PiL, Coldcut and countless others, have a look at CJ’s list of credits here on discogs.com I’m sure you’ll agree it’s quite something!


CJ has released several mix albums, and his Love Happy project charted in 1995 with Message of Love.

He has traveled extensively as a DJ, and this experience and his ability to span musical genres made him an obvious choice for a residency at the Ministry of Sound in the mid-90s. He was a mainstay at the club until 1997.

As a DJ, CJ prefers to stay low-key, to let the crowd focus on the music rather than his personality. After more than two decades on the cutting-edge, he still has the same passion that fired him from the start. I can understand why people used to cry in clubs in the early days. When you hear the right record, at the right time, in the right place, theres no feeling like it.