Five For The Funk: Tall Paul - The Gallery

Image: Tall Paul

The Gallery is one of the truly iconic British clubnights. Since it began back in 1995 at the now sadly departed Turnmills (watch more on that here), it's become legendary for house, trance and techno fans, with a huge birthday blowout planned for Saturday April 10th.

For many of those years a man who defined the club was one of the original superstar DJ elite Tall Paul, whose versatility saw him mixiung euprhoic trance alongside the harder and funkier side of house and techno, nailing what would become the signature sound of one of the nation's most influential clubs.

He returns for a rare DJ set at the Birthday alongside fellow Turnmills royalty Seb Fontaine for a misty eyed trip down memory lane, so ahead of the show we caught up with him to find out five records that have meant the most to him over the years at the club.

Tall Paul 'Rok Da House'

This was my first big tune to really break through. It didn't get a lot of radio support initially, but just kept on selling loads. It was made for the Hooj Choons label at their studio but Jerry, the label manager (read our interview with him here), didn't think it was right at the time so Effective Records signed it and put it out with great success.

Virgin records then signed the track off them and it got to number ten in the charts which I was chuffed with. Now we needed a video and quick.  We were all booked on a skiing trip and decided to get a few shots of us in Val D'Isere for a video. Faces in the video are Seb Fontaine, Craig Richards, Alex P and my brother Danny who ended up running The Gallery to this day.

Camisra 'Let Me Show You'

This tune was made in six hours. I had just finished a remix for Virgin records and had some spare time in the studio. I was due to play the Radio One - Live In Ibiza show that August from Amnesia with Pete Tong and Danny Rampling. I wanted an exclusive tune that I knew would take the roof off.

I had always loved the Sandy B remix but struggled to get it into my sets. I wanted a tougher version with that bassline sound as every one went crazy when it dropped. I played it that night in Ibiza and everyone went nuts.

The next day my phone was off the hook with people trying to find out what it was. As it was basically a remix I called it Camisra instead of Tall Paul. Still drop it every now and then and still it works.

Tall Paul 'Precious Heart'

This was an idea I had for a long time. I'd always found that INXS tune such a moving piece of music and had experimented trying to get the emotion of the vocal into a club environment.

I tried a few versions and I took my favourite mix to Australia for a three week tour. It went down really well there but it was also a massive Gallery tune when I got back to the UK. I was getting asked for it every week at Turnmills so that convinced us we should try and clear the sample and put it out. If it wasn't for the amazing support at The Gallery it probably would never have come out.

Tall Paul 'Be There'

Every now and then I liked to make a tune for the peak time of night, I did like to 'bang it' sometimes and this was one of those moments I had in the studio.

I was playing in Scotland the following weekend and was working on my album Back and Forth, so I wanted a tune to give a test run there as it's always good testing ground - I could watch the reaction and see how it worked. It became an instant anthem and I still get asked for it now.

Durango 95 '555'

If there was a tune that sums up The Gallery's early years it's this one. My brother Danny had a vision of a tune that should be played late on in the night.

He wanted to do it so we unleashed him in the studio with my producer Larry Lush and they came up with a tune that should only be played a 5.55am at The Gallery, hence the name. It's dark but still keeps a great energy that used to sweep through the club. It's a tune for the true Gallery clubbers, the ones that would still be there at the very end.

Catch Tall Paul in action at The Gallery's 20th Birthday on April 10th. Buy your tickets here.

Tickets are no longer available for this event