A lot of things have happened since a young Andy Carthy started answering to the name Mr Scruff -making a name for himself under the shadow Manchester’s snooty club scene of the mid 90s. A DJ who joined the musical dots others didn’t even know existed, he utilised hip-hop skills- not to impress but to maintain a flow for the dancers. A series of smashing EPs which initially seemed quirky but turned out to have a durable musical value, proved that our hero was more than just a DJ. Titles like 'Large Pies', the gloriously cranky 'Chicken in a Box' and 'Camels Foot' (housed in sleeves featuring Mr Scruff’s charming scribbles of potato-shaped chaps getting down as best they could), made it clear that though his music was unquestionably cracking, we were not dealing with some pretentious po-faced trance DJ.
Two LPs, a self-titled first in May 97, and 'Keep It Unreal' - released to universal acclaim in July '99 - cemented his status as maverick with the crankiest tunes on the playground. Even Madonna name checked Mr Scruff, claiming Keep It Unreal had been a regular spin on her hometown hi- fi. Big up yerself, Madge.
In the past few years, the Keep It Unreal night, which began in Manchester, has become a nationwide brand with Mr Scruff hosting his own club in cities across the country - allowing him free reign to jumble jazz, house, hip hop, ska, ragga, reggae, dub, blues, soul and rock and roll. At such hoedowns Mr Scruff makes a difference by making his own rules and adhering to Frank Zappa’s durable epithet - that 'if music be the food of love, nobody wants to eat cabbage all night'. He will play for as long as seven hours (if he needs the toilet he will put on a Fela Kuti record) and in that time he will be several DJs rolled into one.
http://www.mrscruff.com
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