We’re on a bit of a retro trip this year. Running the godfather of DJ gear sites for 10 whole years will do that. And during my trip to Vestax I was thrown back a full 15 years to 1998 — a time before controllers, before DVS and before CDJ-1000s. This was a period when turntables were still king, CDs were taking off and MIDI was still very much in the realm of the studio.
Sound Division was a UK retailer who around 1998 put out something like 4 issues of the Sound Division DJ magazine. I’ve got one other to scan in, and will be posting as much of this kind of thing as I can lay my hands on. I’m not just looking for retailer material — manufacturer brochures are of particular interest too. I don’t need the originals, although building a library of such things would be nice for posterity. If you have anything that you think our readers would love to see, then please send scans to me — contact@djworx.com. Or if you have printed material to send my way, drop me a line and I’ll send you my land address.
Anyway, have a look through this brochure, and either reminisce about simpler times, or marvel at how the hell we old fossils even managed to lock beats together with such archaic gear. Much more of this to come, because I feel it’s important to show where we’ve come from to understand and appreciate where we are now. I used to come round here when it was all just fields… ;)
Sound Division DJ Magazine scans
What were we listening to in 1998?
According to DJ magazines Top tunes of 98