DJ Big Daddy Russell
In brief
Extremely experienced DJ and promoter who had a top 10 hit in the 90s as well as running a ‘Super Club’ night for 8 years that won Best Club Night in the UK. DJ’d every weekend for 20 years from the 80’s all over the world. Plays either House sets or Eclectic UK Style Soulful Vibrations where he mixes all his loves together in one magical cauldron: Soulful & Disco House, Funk & Soul, Reggae, Hip Hop, RnB, Rare Groove, Jazz, Latin , Afrobeat’s & World Music.
For bookings WhatsApp +44 7973123836
DJ Big Daddy Russell’s Story
Russell Davison aka DJ Big Daddy Russell started DJ’ing under the name Russell D in 1984 aged 18 in a Reggae Club called the Havana in Derby (UK) on The Castro Sound System. He then played on various Reggae Sound Systems including Foundation Outer National. With Reggae Music as his first love he moved into promoting lots of Reggae events and Funk & Soul events in the mid 80’s and always DJ’ing at them too.
It was through the Funk & Soul scene he was immersed in as a DJ & Promoter that House Music first broke in 1986 which lead him into being a House Music (aka EDM) DJ & Promoter. He is credited as putting the first exclusive House Music Club Night on in the UK called House Nation (every Saturday) at a club called 20th Century in Derby. He put various other high profile House Music nights on after this always spinning the tunes alongside huge DJ’s like Carl Cox and Sasha as well as putting on underground Warehouse Parties.
Way before the fusion of Dance Music with Indie (bands like The Stone Roses), Russell along side an Indie DJ played a Thursday night spot at the legendary Blue Note Club in Derby consisting of half an hour of Hip-Hop followed by half an hour of Indie, this unlikely but insightful combination turned into one of the best nights the area had seen with queues around the corner for years, and came just before the huge take off of the dance/indie scene.
In 1992, at the beginning of the explosion of UK House Music Club Scene, Russell started what would become a world famous Club Night called ‘Progress’ in Derby. This is when he teamed up with Pete and DJ’d under the names ‘Pete & Russell’. From the start of Progress Russell always played the last set, defining this legendary clubs second to none party atmosphere. The Progress red house logo was drawn in a child like fashion by Russell and became synonymous with the whole House Music Club Scene and a seriously collectible flyer, as did the cut out cartoon pig flyer for ‘Hot to Trot’.
In the first year of Progress BBC Radio 1’s super star DJ Pete Tong regularly named the club the best in the county on his hugely popular national Friday night show The Essential Selection, he loved the club’s atmosphere that much he became a resident for the first year playing most months. The club was graced with every super start DJ of the time and got the whole of the UK dance music’s press attention. Progress was named Best Club in the UK for months on end in DJ Magazine and remained a Top Ten Club of theirs for years.
At Progress Russell pioneered the fusion of live musicians to play along with the electronic dance music, The Progress Band, which consisted of a conga player, electric guitar and saxophonist became absolutely legendary!
In 1993 Russell started another night called ‘Hot to Trot’ in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, which was a monthly all nighter in a big venue, this instantly became a legendary night and for over 2 years sold out in advance each time to the 1000 plus crowd. This night was named by Boy George as his favorite night in the UK, he became a resident along side Greame Park, Allister Whitehead and of course Pete & Russell. After serving its time in Mansfield, Hot to Trot was ran in clubs all over the country, including the fabulous Cross Nightclub in King’s Cross, London.
In the mid-90s with the growing success of UK Club scene Progress became one of a few ‘Super Clubs’, running every Saturday and attracting 1000+ crowd each week. The success of the night lead to Progress going on tour constantly all over the UK playing in pretty much every major city and town over the years, each time with Pete & Russell on the decks. As well as being on tour, Russell promoted nights under various names in different cities around the country, including London, Manchester, Leicester, Preston, Sheffield, Chesterfield and Stoke-on-Trent.
Progress often found itself collaborating with other big names in the industry for example, putting on a huge dedicated Club Arena in the massively popular Dreamscape Rave for 20,000 people and teaming up with Gatecrasher to put on big nights.
The demand for the UK club culture internationally led Progress to go on World Tour constantly running nights in Ibiza & Hong Kong etc and being booked to play in California, Las Vegas, Russia, Shanghai, Ireland, France etc etc. The highlight for Russell was DJ’ing at the world-renowned and infamous Manumission in Ibiza, which is famed for being the biggest club night in the world, he had most of the 8000 strong crowd clapping along with him!
All of the superstar DJs of the day played regularly at Progress. For example, Boy George did over 50 shows, Roger Sanchez & Paul Oakenfold graced the decks and regular appearances over its nine year history were given by Pete Tong, Danny Rampling, Jeremy Healy, Judge Jules, Graeme Park, Allister Whitehead, Farley Jackmaster Funk, Tony de Vit, John of The Pleased Women, Mark Moor, Smokin Jo, Lisa Loud, Brandon Block, Alex P, basically all the big-name DJs of the time.
Off the back of the success in the club business Russell set up a recording studio, a record label, a DJ agency, a clothing label and numerous other businesses related to the culture. The DJ’s who were exclusively managed by Progress included the House Legend, Farley ‘Jackmaster’ Funk and one of the originators of house Marshall Jefferson as well as Lisa Loud and numerous other high-profile UK DJs.
In 1998, Progress won Best Club of the Year at the prestigious British Entertainment & Disco Awards, beating huge clubs like Ministry of Sound, Cream, Gatecrasher and God’s Kitchen. He was presented the award by the famous TV chat show host Jonathan Ross.
In 1999, Russell was part of the band ‘Progress presents The Boy Wunda’ who scored a number 7 hit in the UK chart (it was tipped for the Christmas Number 1) with the single ‘Everybody’ featuring a sample from Madonna’s Popa Don’t Preach (an award could have been given for how permission for this was got!)
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP--4ELAVug
Number 7 in the charts:
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/35326/progress-pts-the-boy-wunda/
Top of The Pops
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSR8JV5VHw
With a combined success and profile of the club night and Russell’s natural ability in front of the camera and microphones he found himself being invited onto all sorts of TV & Radio shows including ITV’s infamous debating show ‘Central Weekend’. Russell featured heavily in the film about the UK Clubscene called One More and in the accompanying book a whole chapter was dedicated to Progress:
About Progress for about 10 mins:
https://youtu.be/fII37797xQ4?si=WFIGPVY6UWheN-_y
Progress ran for over eight years and went off pretty much every Saturday night! It started in a 400 capacity venue built to attract crowds of 2000. Those who were there in attendance these nights will never be forgotten. For the duration Progress was considered one of the top 10 nights in the whole of the UK for the whole time and therefore, due to the huge impact the UK clubbing scene had on the world, can be considered one of the key influencers of what became a massive international industry.
In the year 2000, Russell left the Super Club House scene behind and got into the bar business where he was always the resident DJ changing from House Music sets to his current style which is described as Eclectic UK Style Soulful Vibrations where he mixes all his loves together in one magical cauldron: Soulful & Disco House, Funk & Soul, Reggae, RnB, Hip Hop, Rare Groove, Jazz, Latin , Afrobeat’s & World Music. He took residences in backrooms of clubs, where he preferred the vibe, one of which being the legendary Honey Club in Brighton, at this time he was he was DJing under the name of Pimp Daddy Russell.
In December 2000 Russell opened a 400 capacity Late Night Style Bar called Susumi (Japanese for Progress) in Derby. Russell designed a bar, based on the best aspects of bars he’d been visiting all around the world on Progress Tours. This was the first of its kind in the area and won a National Award for its design from Theme Magazine (which was the biggest bar magazine in the UK at the time). Russell was one of the residents DJs and the music policy with all his own eclectic soulful style.
In 2007 Russell pretty much hung up his headphones and went on a Natural Health Cancer journey with his late wife Wendy. He completely stopped partying and drinking to choose an extremely healthy lifestyle which he continues to live. His passion and purpose now is helping people with natural health on their cancer & other health journeys, he doesn’t charge for this it’s his service to others.
For the last 10 years, Russell has been travelling non-stop living in many countries. He finally settled in Barbados in November 2020 and has recently decided to start DJing again! His passion for music has always been with him, for those who know him they know he is always listening to music and gathering new sounds.
Russell’s intention for DJing at this stage in his life is not financially motivated, but defined by the laws of fun! Whilst he may consider commercial gigs, he is more interested in providing his insatiable vibes for events with some form of higher purpose and is open to suggestions. He is happy to play for a small group at a pool party for example or to 10,000 people at a big Rave. He is highly skilled and extremely experienced throughout that whole continuum from huge to tiny parties.
Russell’s eclectic music selection that spans over four decades of being on the decks is 2nd to none. The energy, fun and love he brings with him is legendary, from DJ’ing pretty much every weekend from the1984 to 2007, his experience is vast and his passion for sharing ‘the love’ is insatiable!
DJ Big Daddy Russell describes his sets as ‘Eclectic UK Style Soulful Vibrations’ playing Soulful & Disco House, Funk & Soul, Reggae, Hip Hop, RnB, Rare Groove, Jazz, Latin , Afrobeat’s & World Music. He is also happy to play an exclusive House set or an exclusive Reggae set.
DJ Big Daddy Russell’s favorite DJs in the House Music scene (all of whom he has played alongside of) are:
Roger Sanchez
Graham Park
Allister Whitehead