Danny's Most Wanted Story

Behind the lasers, the booming beats from the speakers and the throngs of clubbers who go out each and every weekend are many a dance music lover who need to eat, breathe and sleep dance music. The mass explosion of dance music in recent times has given such people the chance to do the dance music thing all day every day and most of them wouldn't change it for anything. From Perth, a young boy full of passion and gusto headed over to the UK with a little journalistic expertise under his belt. After a struggle here and there Danny Holness has landed a job with UK DJ management and pr group 'Most Wanted.' I spent some time picking Danny's brain about the hows, whos and whats of working with superstar djs and the dance scene in general.

How did you land this sweet job-
Since the beginning of 2000, I have worked as a PR Officer for Redheads Nightclub in Perth, but like many of us I didn't just love clubbing… I lived it. When Redheads shut in May 2000 I started writing for Zebra and X-press magazines in a freelance capacity, reviewing events and CDs I was then given the opportunity to interview DJs and pop stars. My first were with John'00'Fleming, DJ Hyper and Sophie Ellis Bextor. I also worked towards a Certificate III and IV in Music Industry Skills at TAFE, these courses were pretty crap, but they looked good on my CV. I also ran Perth Tribe Website from April to October before the 'tribe' group went bust. In December 2001 I left Perth with the aim of scoring a job in the UK. Upon arrival I emailed all of my contacts (I kept every email address I ever gained) with my CV and an ambitious letter. Predictably, most of the people who had pledged me help during my interviews, never got back to me, but there were two notable exceptions; Jonty at Skrufff.com and John'00'Fleming. John recommended me to Most Wanted - the agency that handled his bookings. Most Wanted had started a PR agency a few months earlier and needed another person to join the Rugby Office. I was so inspired, but I didn't get the job. Determined and pissed off, I made sure that I kept in regular contact with Most Wanted hassling them for a chance. After two weeks I got a call, the person who was picked before me for the position at Most Wanted PR had quit because she longed for her friends back in London - so I got the job after all!

What exactly does your day involve-
As a PR Account Executive I'm communicating all the time, I'm either emailing or on the phone and I'm not always that popular. A big part of the job is writing press releases for records or albums and sending them out to Journalist in the hope of a review or a feature article especially the big magazines like Jockey Slut, DJ and Mixmag. You need to be used to rejection, luckily I used to do prank calls, so I'm used to it. It's all about getting as much positive publicity for our clients as we possibly can. My job isn't as glamourous as most people perceive. 99% Of the time you're working hard behind a desk away from what little sunshine England has to offer, it's just that the other 1% of the time you're getting into events like THE Gatecrasher Summer Sound System for a £10/$26 donation to charity and hanging out with DJs, promoters and press.

Who do you currently work with-
[This is Most Wanted PR]
'tidy trax' are the force in hard house, they have three record labels, an online shop, record shops and run numerous hard house events including 'tidy London' and the 'tidy Weekenders'. They work with and not against the likes of Frantic, Nukleuz, and Gatecrasher. www.tidy.com
Automatic Records - A widely respectively house label and home to Tim 'Electric Tease' Healey, who was one of the successes of this years Miami Winter Music Conference. www.automaticrecords.com
Transient Records - Formerly the world's most successful psytrance label, Transient are currently releasing pr Tags

• most wanted