My Year In Hard Dance

Hard Dance Top Trumps

Gigs Played: 21

Tracks Released: 5

Countries Visited: 3

Biggest Crowd Played To: 60,000

Longest Set: 2 Hours

Compilations Mixed: 0 (sadly!)

Click below for my top ten!

Olly Perris

What's been your biggest achievement of the year?

Becoming Hard Dance Editor for Mixmag, as well as playing to over 60,000 nutters at the legendary QBase festival in Germany. I was lucky enough to play right after Marcel Woods, who dropped 'Advanced' as his last record - talk about brown trouser central! It was one of the biggest stages I've ever played and the memories of the gig will stay with me for the rest of my life.

What moments will you never forget?

Dropping the first record after Marcel Woods at QBase (which was my remix of Amber D's 'Always' which thankfully seemed to go down really well!).

Who's been your favourite newcomer of the year?

JFrantik. We signed his 'Interstella' track to Addiction Digital and it became one of the best-selling releases in the label's history. Since then he's been working on some more brilliant solo material which he's waiting to unleash! Another Australian, Yoshi, has also been making some brilliant stuff. Look out for these two in '09!

Who's been the artist of the year for you?

Technikal has been his usual consistent self this year and there has been some great things coming from Ben Stevens, Paul Glazby and of course the legend that is Dom Sweeten. On the trancier tip, Simon Patterson knocked out one of the tunes of the year ('Smack') and you can always count on Gleave and Genix to deliver the goods.

What's been your favourite label of the year?

Of course I'd have to say Addiction Digital (RIP!). But also Tidy and Riot! are as consistent as they've ever been and have put out some amazing tracks & albums this year, particularly Tidy's awesome 'Inspirations' album.

What do you think has been the best track of the year?

JFrantik & Matt Williams' 'Interstella' (Addiction) is a bonafide dancefloor winner, but special mention must also go to Genix's remix of Peter Gelderblom's 'Waiting 4' on Spinnin' (basically a rework of Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'By The Way'). Both have been absolutely massive for me this year.

What's been your favourite event of the year?

QBase in Germany... ah bugger, I mentioned it again! Tidy Weekender 15 was also a good'un, especially The Tidy Boys' set on the Friday night - probably the best of their career.

What's the funniest thing that's happened to you?

At said QBase gig (this will be the last time I mention it, I promise!), myself and an unnamed DJ accomplice were wandering around in the early hours of the morning trying to scavenge as much free alcohol as we possibly could, in unashamedly pikey fashion. We found a bottle of vodka backstage at one of the arenas - however in our slightly worse-for-wear state, it got smashed all over the floor, right in front of one of the event organisers. Turns out it was part of a rider for another (more important) DJ and they weren't best pleased about it! Needless to say, we legged it.

What do you have planned for the next year?

To get back into the studio and work on some more original material. Although I've been engineering a lot lately, it has been nearly two years since I released a solo original track so I'd love to get some more stuff out there! But ultimately I just want to enjoy what I do even more (if that's possible!)and stay part of the best music scene in the entire world!!

Hard Dance Awards