Anne Savage on Hard House, Faking it and Racism in Burnley

Blonde, beautiful and recognised throughout the world, hard dance DJ Anne Savage could easily be mistaken for a girl who's come through the easy way, though 12 years after she started her DJ career, she remains workaholic in her approach. Currently touring America, she's also booked for a entire summer season in Ibiza and is continues to headline events and clubs throughout the rest of the world.

Comig up in the small town of Burnley (nowadays sadly best known for its racism) she's also a no nonsense, straight talking Northern girl with an infectious and friendly personality. Skrufff's Jonty Adderley caught up with her as she prepared to jet off to Canada, for a short series of Stateside dates.


Skrufff: Looking on the web, virtually everyone labels you a "hard house DJ", where do you stand on the term-

Anne Savage: "It's ridiculous because they're just terms made up by the press anyway, it's a certain type of music that I've been playing for years but in order to explain it to people it's currently called hard house. Though now it's called "hard dance" since the new term embraces a wider spectrum of music and not just the Trade, Tripoli Trax, Tidy Trax sound; I play a lot wider than that anyway. Hard trance, funky and a bit of techno, it's all just hard dance."

Skrufff: What's your perspective on these stories of Gatecrasher and the rest of Britain's superclubs being past their best-

Anne Savage: "All the clubs I play are rammed, I think the superclubs tried to get too clever with their music policies and alienated a lot of their clubbers who liked to go out and really 'ave it with the hard trance and hard dance. That's the type of music that still fills the clubs though, to be honest, I don't really pay much attention to what Gatecrasher do. Cream also went too cool with their music last year and they suffered and now they're booking hard dance DJs again."

Skrufff: You started DJing at Angels in Burnley, the northern English town currently known as a centre of racism, were you from there originally-

Anne Savage: "Yes, and it's quite embarrassing now that people find out I'm from Burnley, they think you're a racist. I'm actually from a small village near Burnley and back in the early 90s Angels was THE club to go to and was just full of love, happiness and everyone "pilled off their heads" (high). It was a wicked dance club and DJs like Carl (Cox) and Joey Beltram from New York used to play there. It was really cutting edge, one of the best clubs in the North and I was a regular down there, going down every week. I persuaded Paul (Taylor- now the chief of Retro) to take me on and I remain ever so grateful for the chance."

Skrufff: Do you remember much racism in Burnley back then-

Anne Savage: "Not really, though having said that there weren't many Asians or mixed race people in the club. Burnley's always been one of those small Northern towns in the middle of nowhere, but racism then certainly wasn't an issue and wasn't on anybody's minds. If anything, there might have been a few football hooligans but that's all. I still go back there sometimes, an uncle lives there as does my Mum."

Skrufff: How competent as a DJ were you the first time you DJed seriously-

Anne Savage: "I was always the one Djing at parties, I bought decks and even DJed non house music before house; a litle soul music and electro. I picked up mixing from hours and hours of practising in my bedroom like everybody else."

Skrufff: You appeared on the Channel 4 TV show Faking It with that Welsh cellist Sian who really excelled at learning to DJ professionally in 4 weeks, can anyone be a DJ if they put their mind to it-

Anne Savage: "Er, probably, to a certain extent, most people can learn to 4/4 mix, though I'd like to think there are certain qualities that you do need to DJ in a club (chuckling), hopefully. Anyone can to mix and as long as you love music, you can DJ."

Skrufff: Is Sian now DJing-

Anne Savage: "Yes, t Tags

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