Broadcast on 29/11/98 : 02:00 - 04:00

You seem to be popping up on TV a lot more these days. You’ve appeared in averts, been on the Big Breakfast and are resident on the Ian Wright show. Is this because you are being offered more TV stuff or you have just decided to take opportunities that have always been there?

A bit of both I think. I’ve always had a problem with TV if it out of context with what I am. I’m not the next Chris Evans, that’s not what I do and I’m not comfortable doing it. That’s why I was never a Top Of The Pops presenter, I would never have been able to pick the music. Just standing there linking two acts together didn’t interest me. I think a combination of the mix albums doing really well and the radio show going through the roof over the last eighteen months has meant that more opportunities have been given to me that I would be comfortable with. Take for example the Ian Wright show, I’m a life long Gooner and I can play whatever records I choose. I’ve also done the Muzik awards for the past couple of years because that is what I am about, linking aspects of the industry. I’ve also done a programme for Mixmag called Clublife. All these things have received massive publicity over the last few months which has led to the assumption that I have all of a sudden become a media star when in reality I’m not on TV that much.

Do you think that the vast amount of publicity you have got from just a few TV appearances is because the people out there want you to be the media star that you seem to have been reluctant to be?

I think that has come across by accident. I’m not desperate to do it and I think that is a healthy attitude. If you go out seeking fame and fortune then it’s a rocky old road. I come from a pretty safe corner where I have the show to do each week, if I can go out and do a few TV things and it improves the whole vibe then so be it. But if someone offers me Celebrity Squares tomorrow then I’m not going to do it.

This year the Essential Mix has followed Carl Cox around the world, broke more new DJ’s and gone from strength to strength. When the show first started did you imagine it would be as successful as it is?

I think the Essential Mix is going really well. Sometimes I wish it was on at seven in the evening and not two in the morning but research dictates that it is a very healthy time for it to go out when people are coming home from clubs in cars or taxis or even sat in hotel rooms. I always knew it would be so popular. There was a massive gap at Radio 1 and when you look at the fact that the BBC are supposed to promote non-commercial programming then I think the Essential Mix fulfils the brief unbelievably well. We are bringing the world’s best DJ’s out on a weekly basis to a big audience via the network and nobody around the world is doing that. That is absolutely unique to Radio 1. The fact that Daft Punk did it two or three years ago, DJ Dan from San Francisco, Pippi from Ibiza, all did it years ago and we were the first onto these people, is great, I’m proud of it.

An awful lot of work, time, energy and pride go into the making of the mixes by the people involved and they are all real collectors’ items, they are great moments.

What is your personal favourite Essential Mix?

I think Oakey’s one, Paul Oakenfold’s from last year or the year before, the one that he won an award for. Carl Cox from Ibiza when he played with a forty mile an hour wind blowing across his turntables. David Holmes’ one. Ashley Beadle’s reggae one. It’s a great opportunity for people to do something different for what they are generally known for. I also like some of the straight up club sets from the likes of Scott Bond.

Over the last twelve months we’ve had massive albums from the likes of Goldie, Fatboy Slim and UNKLE. Turntables are outselling guitars and the likes of Faithless and Prodigy are proving that it can be done live. Added to this, Q magazine has been handing out awards left, right and centre to dance acts. Do you think it is true to say that dance music is the new rock ‘n’ roll?

In a way, yes. It has become a massively dominant force in people’s lives. I often get annoyed when people talk longingly and lovingly about the punk era and how important it was when I think dance culture is just as important. A young audience don’t know what punk rock is, dance music is what they grew up to, it is ingrained in their lives in a totally different way to those who were fifteen or sixteen in nineteen seventy-nine or nineteen eighty when most of the music around was rock.

There is this myth that music moves in eleven year revolutions, if that is the case what do you think is lurking in nineteen ninety-nine?

I think that dance music is constantly fluctuating, it’s always going to be there it is just going to come at you in a different way. I feel next year is a year of quality and consolidation where bigger isn’t always better. Some of the most innovative and exciting new music coming from the scene needs to be nurtured in a different way, it’s not always going to work in five thousand people sized rooms. I’m personally going to be concentrating on smaller things next year. I’m going to be doing smaller clubs and things like that. I’ll still be doing the Essential Mixes and Ibiza and things like that, it’s just that with the millennium just around the corner I think we are all going to need a year off. I’ve nothing against what some of these larger clubs are doing but my main concern is that at the end of the day the people who have paid their thirty, forty or fifty pounds better have a bloody good time when they are in there. I think the size and scale of these nights are getting bigger and bigger and they are all clambering for an ever bigger press release and an ever bigger angle. It’s fun as a media story that Norman Cook and Paul Oakenfold are flying around in a private jet but at the end of the day the paying person has got to have a fantastic time.

How do you feel about being ISDN’ed to another club?

I think it is exciting because it is new. If it is done with tender loving care and the room is set up right then I think it can be good. We did it last year in Manchester and it worked incredibly well, and that was without pictures. As long as the sound is great and the people on the floor are loving it, that is what counts.

This year will be remembered as the year when all the clubs shut down. Promoters in the UK have been having a hard time and that is probably because the kids can’t afford to go out because they are saving for six months of the year just to go to Ibiza. Given this, do you think Ibiza is a good thing?

I think it ebbs and flows. There are great clubs like Pacha and there are some ropy old nights as well. My gut feeling is that it is a good thing but you have to have quality to survive.

What did you think of Radio 1 in Ibiza?

I think the specialist stuff worked incredibly well. I think that about eighty percent of the daytime stuff worked too, y’know, the Zoë Ball stuff was excellent. I think that it was a good experience that we all will learn from. I learn something from every gig I do.

Because you are in such a powerful position do find that when you go out to Ibiza you spend all your time dodging people who want their record plugged?

It does change things a bit but that is not restricted just to Ibiza. If I go out and hang out with people from the dance industry I do tend to get my ear pecked all night.

You are seen as Mr Cool. What makes Pete Tong angry?

Dishonesty. Jealousy. Bad vibes. I hate bad vibes. Envy. There is always someone somewhere thinking that there is a higher plot and that I am manipulating life but I’m used to it. It goes with the territory. I’m important in that I can help a record on but I never go to bed at night thinking I am Neptune under the sea. I report on a scene that is ever changing and ever moving and I just try to reflect that. If what I do helps a record to become a hit then fine but trust me, Stardust was always a great record before I played it. It might have taken a bit longer if I hadn’t hammered it but it would have always got there in the end.

Is there any artist, DJ, club or aspect of the dance industry that you think does not get the credit it deserves?

In a funny sort of way I think the Ministry doesn’t get the credit it deserves even though they are thought of as the IBM of clubbing. They ran a really good night in Ibiza this year and probably had it off in a slightly shocking way. People have preconceived ideas about Ministry and who they are and what they do but they ran the best club in Ibiza this year and I don’t think they got the press they deserved. Pacha rocked and that’s where everyone wanted to go and that is where I had the best night this year.

Finally, can you clear up the biggest dispute in dance music today? Is that your voice on the Gillette advert?

No, I think it’s the guy on Chris Moyles' show.