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I was only born in 83, so i missed all of this.....but its fine reading guys. Cheers :)

A legendary name in British dance music, DJ Froggy’s pioneering use of mixing techniques transformed British club culture in the 1980s. His innovative approach helped to spawn the rave and acid house scenes and he was a seminal influence on a generation of younger DJs such as Pete Tong.

Steven Howlett was born in the East End of London in 1949. He left school at 15 to take an engineering apprenticeship and used his skills to build his own sound system. He became a professional disc jockey in 1971, adopting the name DJ Froggy, and, in addition to playing at clubs and discos, he was soon spinning discs as the warm-up act on tour with some of the biggest pop acts of the day, including Sweet, T. Rex and Slade.

In 1974 he teamed up with the BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Dave Lee Travis as a double act on the Radio One Road Show. They worked together until 1978 when Froggy moved on to become one of a group of DJs known as “the Soul Mafia”, playing soul, disco and funk.

A trip to New York in 1979, however, was radically to change his approach and ultimately to have a profound influence on the future course of British dance music. At a music convention organised by the trade magazine Billboard, he realised how technically far ahead American DJs were of their British counterparts and he determined to make a close study of their methods. His main tutor was the New York DJ Larry Levan, who took him to clubs such as Paradise Garage and Studio 54 clubs and showed him how to mix and crossfade the rhythms from two different records simultaneously.

At the time there was no equipment commercially available in Britain that had such a capability and so, on his return he adapted and modified his own equipment to become the first British DJ to use twin synchronised decks to mix the beats of two vinyl records over the top of each other, often overlayed with effects from a third turntable. The “Froggy Soundsystem” which he constructed was so huge that he purchased a lorry to transport it and took on two full-time employees to run and maintain the equipment.

His techniques were soon being widely copied and he became much in demand on Radio One, where he was given his own segment in Peter Powell’s show and was commissioned to produce radio edits of club hits such as The Real Thing’s You To Me Are Everything and Change’s Change of Heart. By the end of the 1980s as acid house and rave culture were reaching their height, he was presenting a regular Saturday night slot on Capital FM.

He continued to DJ until his death and had recently been working with his son and fellow DJ Mark Howlett. He is also survived by two daughters.

Steve Howlett (DJ Froggy), disc jockey, was born on November 8, 1949. He died on March 28, after a brain haemorrhage, aged 58

they missed and mixed up some stuff but hay they remembered him maybe there will be a soul momorial aniversary party

A vhs video of the Prestatyn 4 Soul/Acid House weekender 1989 with,of course,Froggy and his monster roadshow...the quality isnt great,but it was 22 years ago!

Simon Harris with part of the rig as it is now.