The 11th of January 2017 saw a new dawning for DJs in Scotland. The very first Scottish DJ Show was held at the Normandy Hotel in Glasgow. Never before had an event like this been arranged north of the border and it was so well supported by exhibitors and attendees that the organisers felt overwhelmed. But where did the idea come from?

Ian from the Glasgow Sound Centre was thinking about having one of his ‘Black Sales Days’ where he invites a few reps from manufacturers to come along to his shop and local DJs head over to grab a bargain. Then he thought to ask the local AMPDJ team if he could bring it to the January meeting instead of his shop. This was discussed by the team who decided to take the idea and run with it.

An agreement was made to cancel the January AMPDJ meeting and to instead host a new Scottish DJ Show. The idea was to bring a mini BPM to Glasgow for all the local DJs that can’t afford the trip down south. AMPDJ HQ were advised and Sandy and Paul booked flights to Glasgow straight away, offering to help in any way they could.

Thanks to Stephen Sunnocks we managed to secure the Normandy Hotel, which has plenty of free parking, a massive hall with a big stage, and everything on one level. So, Ian at the Glasgow Sound Centre set about inviting as many manufacturers as he could find, while myself, David Mitchell, and Tony Rimkus were responsible for making the show happen. On the day, of course, we’d need more help, so partners and other local DJs were recruited. In fact, in the end, we received so many offers of help that some had to be told, “thank you, but we have enough helpers now”.

The team now had a date, a venue, and a list of committed helpers. It was time to get the ‘behind the scenes’ work done and thanks must go to all who provided assistance. We only had two months to pull the show together and, with everyone involved being full-time DJs, we could almost write off December. Ian at the GSC spent so much time arranging reps to support the show that he fell behind with his repairs, while everyone regularly found themselves working on this until the early hours of the morning.

We decided that there was no time to sell tickets, so it was agreed to make it a pay-on-the-door event. This meant that the team had no idea how many would come. But, as a guide, the local AMPDJ bi-monthly meetings average 40-50 attendees, so we were hoping for around 120-150.

The big day soon arrived and everything was ready when the doors were due to open at 5:00pm and everyone involved in running the event were astounded to see the hall half full by 6:30pm! Attendees were treated to a great line up of exhibitors, including dB Technologies, Sherman Audio, FBT Audio, Studiomaster, Prolight Concepts, Laserworld, Paladin DJ Booths, American DJ, Subsafe, Promo Only, and GO 2 Events.