Les Hemstock is the only UK DJ and Producer to collaborate with trance god Paul Van Dyk, the results of which created the Top 20 hit 'Nothing But You'
Alongside his partner Chris Jennings, they are the most revered and successful trance producers in Britain. Their productions are played by the worlds top DJ's including Tiesto, Armin, PVD, Ferry, Ornadel, Gielen - the list is truly endless!
After joining forces a few years ago, Hemstock & Jennings had a string of massive anthems as Sagitaire, Merge and Hemstock & Jennings, lining the UKs record shops, resulting in them being one of the most in demand remix and production teams in the UK. Les has remixed for the likes of Ian Van Dahl, Warp Brothers and Joshua Ryan and his winning collaboration with PAUL VAN DYK is certainly a major highlight. Their record Nothing But You sold tens of thousands worldwide charting in every Top 20 national chart.
As an international DJ, Les has entertained crowds all around the world. Whether it be playing in front of 60,000 clubbers at the huge Dance Valley festival in Holland, rocking the BBC Radio one soundstage in Ibiza or touring Asia with Gatecrasher. In England Les regularly appears at all the major trance clubs including Gatecrasher, Slinky, Goodgreef, Promise, and Escape.
2004 saw Hemstock & Jennings hit the worlds clubs with yet more huge trance hits including Reverance signed to Mondo Records and Magenta which has featured on Gatecrashers compilation and Paul Van Dyks Mixmag covermount compilation CD. Not only did Judge Jules and ArminVan Buuren make Reverance their radio shows tune of the week and Tried and Tested accolade, but world number one DJ Tiesto used it to open his live gigs!
2005 saw the release of "The Passion" on Mondo records and Hemstock and Jennings make another global advance by signing to fellow trance producer and top DJj Armin Van Buuren's label for future H&J releases, beginning with their widely supported "Babylon" tune.
With DJ dates around globe, and a production schedule as long as his career, 2005 is going to be yet another very busy year for Les Hemstock. You have to see Les DJ live to understand what his magic is all about - catch him at some of the biggest and best International events!
Recent gigs include
Gatecrasher Tours
BBC Radio One - Ibiza & London
Dance Valley, Holland
Planet Love Festival - Ireland
Stargate Event - Vancouver
Escape - Swansea
Promise - Newcastle
Slinky - Bournemouth
Gatecrasher - Sheffield
Goodgreef - Yarm
Frisky - Northampton
Hotdog - Notts
Golden - Stoke
Impulz Festival - Holland
Koolwaters - Taunton
Stargate - Canada
Slinky - Bristol
Dance Academy - Plymouth
Room at the Top - Scotland
Planet Love Festival - Ireland
Wakestock Festival, Wales
JIVE BUNNY
The story of Les pop success begins during his 3 years residency at a hotel club in the sleepy town of Sandefjord in Norway. He had been living in Norway for almost 1 year when he began creating disco mixes for Djs at the local radio studio. This involved editing various parts of recording tape together to create one long running mix.
He was sending these mixes to a UK company called Music Factory run by John Pickles and his son Andy. They would press them to vinyl and sell them to DJs all over the world. Eventually Les would get to know these guys during his frequent visits home to the UK and would call in at their studio and personalise their dealings to that of an eventual close friendship with both Andy and his father.
As Les was playing a variety of swing and rock and roll records to the Hotel punters in Norway it seemed only wise to make a mix of that style that he could get good use out of. He purchased an old Glen Miller medley record for 50 pence from a used record shop in London and based his swing mix around the drum beats from that record which was recorded on tape and edited over and again to create a backing track of percussion to base his final mix upon.
Les recorded Swing the Mood [so called because of the use of Glen Millers In the Mood tune as main lead] in a collective 7 hour session at the radio studio on a material cost of around 3 of old audio tape over night.
On his next trip to England he took the mix with me to the Pickles and they bought it for 100. The mix was pressed, distributed to the various territories and the reaction over the next 18 months was phenomenal just the reaction the company had been waiting for to enable them to have a commercial release with a fairly calculated success possibility.
This mix became the million selling Jive Bunny and the Master Mixers
As you would expect Les life turned upside down he was travelling all over the place being treated like a pop star and paid lots of money for DJ performances that he had never enjoyed the likes of before.
He purchased a nice house on a beach front in Sandefjord and had quite an enjoyable lifestyle over the following 2 years until the performance money and the relationship dried up leaving him in the terrible situation of being a house owner in the worlds second most expensive country with virtually no income.
He was expecting some money from record sales by now to help support his new production career but as he trusted the Pickles he didnt tie them to a contract, and because of this he never received any further monies from the Jive Bunny project. (3 #1's in the UK, a #2 Album, #11 in the USA, #1 in Germany, Italy, Spain etc, worldwide #1's and a huge album]
Les got legal advice but lawyers only advised without a contract he wouldnt win the case even though he has BPI awards for sales of over 900,000 albums!
His name is on the 3 singles and album a full credit but no royalty.
Now Les and Chris are steadily working their way to further musical success with their new productions and only hope and pray that God gives them the strength and perseverance to succeed in what can obviously be quite a ruthless industry.
Paul Van Dyk & Hemstock & Jennings 'Nothing But You'
PRODUCTION
Dance Productions from 1993 onward regular contributor to Mix company exclusives; DMC [Disco Mix Club] and Music Factory producing over 100 mixes.
1/ GOLD N DELICIOUS - ASCENSION - SERIOUS 1998
2/ SAGITAIRE - SHOUT - NU-LIFE/BMG 1999
3/ GOLD N DELICIOUS - ANGEL CHORUS - VIRGIN/VC 1999
4/ CREATION - SHADOW MIND - SUBTERRANIA 1999
5/ TONIK - MONEY - EVE/NOVA 2000
6/ ESP - TRAVELLER - NEO 2000
7/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - MIRAGE (Of Hope) - PHAZE/5AM 2001
8/ FUSION FEAT MATT HARDWICK - RESISTANCE - JOOF 2001
9/ H2J - EAST & CENTRAL - PHAZE/EXTRAVAGANZA 2001
10/ FUSION FEAT MATT HARDWICK - SPECTRUM - JOOF 2002
11/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS FEAT JOHN OO FLEMING - NAZAREAN - NEBULA 2002
12/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS FEAT JOHN OO FLEMING -ARIZONA - NEBULA 2002
13/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - CRIMSON SOIL - PHAZE 2002
14/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - NORTHERN LIGHTS - PHAZE 2002
15/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - RENDEZVOUS - PHAZE 2003
16/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - ZULU - PHAZE 2003
17/ PAUL VAN DYK FEAT HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - NOTHING BUT YOU - VANDIT 2003
18/ MAGENTA - TWISTED SPIRIT - 23rd PRECINCT
19/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS VS ADAM WHITE - REVERANCE - MONDO
20/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS PRESENTS H2J - SANTIAGO - DANCE AREA
21/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - THE PASSION - MONDO
22/ HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - BABYLON ARMIND
PHAZE
PHAZE RELEASES
Phaze 001 H&J 'Mirage'
Phaze 002 H2J 'East & Central'
Phaze 003 H&J 'Crimson Soil'
Phaze 004 H&J 'Arctic' [Re-titled Nothing But You + PVD]
Phaze 005 H&J 'Northern Lights'
Phaze 006 H&J 'Zulu'
Phaze 007 H&J 'Crimson Soil 2004 Re-make'
Phaze 008 H&J 'The Passion'
REMIXES
1/ BLAG - KIDS GO FREE - THE SWAT MIX - POWER
2/ MELLOWTRAX - OUTTASPACE - SAGITAIRE REMIX - MINISTRY OF SOUND
3/ UPPER LEVEL - MISS YOU - SAGITAIRE MIX - PERCEPTIVE
4/ DARIO G - SAY WHATS.. - LES HEMSTOCK MIX - MANIFESTO
5/ JOSHUA RYAN - PISTOL WHIP - LES HEMSTOCK MIX - BMG
6/ IAN VAN DAHL - WILL I - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - BMG
7/ CORTINA/BK - ERECTION - LES HEMSTOCK MIX - NUKLEUZ
8/ WARP BROS - BLAST THE SPEAKERS - SAGITAIRE MIX - BMG
9/ IAN VAN DAHL- REASON - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - NULIFE/BMG
10/ SAGITAIRE- SHOUT- HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS - NULIFE/BMG
11/ OCEAN FORCE - EUPHORIC DREAM - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - ELEVATION
12/ DIGITAL BLONDE - MOOGA - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - TELSTAR
13/ MULA - NO SPACE - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - MULTIPLY
14/ RADOS - UNIVERSAL SOUL - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - TELSTAR
15/ X-BAND Feat; EMMA B - WHAT U NEED - SAGITAIRE MIX - WARNERS
16/ MERGE - ARMAGEDDON - HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS MIX - CODE BLUE
17/ NEO & FARINA - MONDIAL - HOTDECKS
18/ WATERGATE - HEART OF ASIA - POSITIVA
19/ MOOGWAI - NEON - PLATIPUS
20/ KANSAI - REMEMBER - PLATIPUS
21/ OPTIMISE - ANOTHER DAY - LIME BLUE MUSIC
22/ ICONE - SORROW
23/ SILENCER - DROWN IN ME - SONY
24/ ZIRENZ- TEARS OF AN ANGEL
25/ CAROLE POPE- TRANSCEND - PLAY RECORDS
26/ SILENT ELECTRA - POLARITY - UNITED RECORDS
LES HEMSTOCK pre HEMSTOCK & JENNINGS
PRODUCTION
1/ JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - SWING THE MOOD - MFD
2/ JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - THAT'S WHAT I LIKE - MFD
3/ JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - LETS PARTY [PRE-PRODUCTION] - MFD
4/ JIVE BUNNY AND THE MASTERMIXERS - SWING SISTERS SWING [ALBUM MIX]
5/ KOOL KAT - SWIN IT I DALOM - SLAGERFABRIKKEN
6/ KOOL KAT - SWIN IT I DALOM THE ALBUM - SLAGERFABRIKKEN
7/ DJ LES AND THE KOOL KAT - SUGAR SUGAR - OTT
8/ UXB - GIVE IT ALL YOU'VE GOT - VIRGIN/NORWAY
REMIXES
1/ KATA - LITTLE BY LITTLE MEGAMIX - FINLAND
2/ SPUTNIK - MEGAMIX - NORWAY
Bookings & Info: +44(0)1246 210832 / 07904 388675, Bookings@tek-djs.com
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