Gareth Brooks wakes up Manchester every weekend on the XFM Manchester Breakfast show, but what does he do during the week? Well he’s a superstar club DJ of course. We caught up with him to find out about his club nights and find out how he got to XFM.

First of all, thanks for finding time to fit us in we know you have been a very busy man of late. You’ve just started a few new club nights over the last couple of weeks, what can you tell us about these?

Its something new that I’ve looked at doing with Danny McNamara from Embrace at his place MoHo Live, we’re trying to take over the monopoly that 5TH Ave have got Monday nights.  Trying to do something a little bit different, and offering the students something a little bit different. Concentrating on quality music. Been playing at 5TH Avenue now for the last 2 years and its gone quite cheesy on Monday Nights, So we’re concentrating on decent music and offering students cheap entry fee and cheap booze. Plus giving away a lot of stuff like champagne and that sort of stuff.

Then there’s Joshua Brooks on Thursday nights, again its something new that I’ve started, again concentrating on quality music, cheap to get in and just something new for me. I’ve been playing at Tiger Tiger for the last three years and that an awful place to play. Its so expensive to get in and its a big sort of townie venue isn’t it?  The Printworks isn’t the best play to DJ but it paid really well so I kind of sold myself out a little bit over the years. Now I’m trying to redeem myself. Prove to people there’s more to myself than playing just ‘Mr Brightside’ and The Fratellis all night like I did at Tiger Tiger. So yeah that’s a couple of new nights I’ve started.

Starting a new thing on Tuesdays as well at Sound Control, a new venue on New Wakefield Street. Again that’s something I wanted to do to prove there’s more to me than Killers and the stuff I play on XFM.

How did this Manic at Moho come about? Did Danny approach you or did you approach him?

Danny approached me, he wanted to get me away from 5th Ave. He wanted to take away the monopoly that 5th Ave have got but its very difficult because of where 5th Avenue is situated and students don’t really know where Moho Live is. Unless you know where it is you can walk past it thinking its an old garage or something. So Danny came to me and said he wanted to do something a bit different. Its been okay. We’ve had a couple hundred people in first few weeks, gonna take a bit of time to build it.

As well as being quite busy on the clubbing circuit, you also played RockNess over the summer. What was that like?

RockNess I think is one of best festivals in the UK, there’s only 20-25,000 there and its set on the bank of Loch Ness with mountains either side of the lock. The main stage looks over the Loch and its just incredible. You know if you’ve got a bit of money to go away for the weekend its about 5 Or 6 Hours drive away from Manchester. I flew up and it was only about £40. I think its one of the best little festivals in the UK.

Did you meet anyone super famous that made you feel a bit star struck?

Ha ha everyone. I still get star struck, because I kinda got in to the radio industry and XFM quite late in life i never like wanted to always be a DJ or Presenter. So I still get really star struck when I meet people. Not so much these days, but yeah 2 or 3 years ago when I first started working at XFM at Leicester Square in London; I was working with the likes of Ricky Gervais, Zoe Ball and Jimmy Carr so i was getting star struck all the time. Am not as bad now but still get a little star struck yeah.

Do you have any strange rituals before going on stage?

Usually a couple of drinks ha ha and that’s about it, Too calm my nerves. Not so much when am DJing but when am introducing big bands like when I stepped out at the Apollo for the first time in Manchester and the Hammersmith Apollo as well. I had to have a few vodkas just to calm the nerves ha ha ha.

Besides yourself of course, who would you say the greatest Dj in the world is?

God. I could be here all day. Club DJ – I really like what Zane Lowe does, I’ve seen him DJ a few times now. I’m in to like Drum and Base, Dupstep and things like that so depends what I’m into. I quite like Sasha as well, showing my age here. Like Grooverider too. Those sort of DJ’s for the clubs. I really like what Fake Bloods doing at the moment as well, but I like what Caspa and Rusko does as well. Scream as well. It depends what am listening to because I like my Hip-Hop as well. So I don’t really know. There’s so many decent Club DJ’s at the moment.

Radio Presenters, Again I really like what Zane does. Jonathan Ross on Radio 2 again showing my age a bit. To be honest because of what I do I don’t really listen to radio that much. There’s to many presenters of radio that wind me up. Like when you listen to Radio 1 you think how the fucking hell excuse my french did you get on Radio 1. I don’t really listen to radio too much. John Kennedy at XFM I’m a big fan of what he does, Jon Hilcock at NME Radio. He started on XFM just after me so we’re quite close. So yeah there’s too many to mention really.

Who would you say is your biggest musical influence?

Growing up I listened to a lot of like Public Enemy and Hip-Hop, I dint really get in to Indie until i joined XFM like 6 and a half years ago, I was really in to my Hip-Hop and Dance music. I’d probably have to say Public Enemy and Del La Soul, those sorts of groups.

Are there any DJ’s or Bands at the moment that your particularly digging or playing a lot in the clubs?.

The XX, I’m loving them at the moment, Fakeblood. Playing quite a lot of Dubstep as well in the clubs, I just like to mix it up a lot with different styles of music.

If you hadn’t become a DJ/Presenter what would you have liked to become?

Jesus, I don’t know. I used to be in the RAF and I kinda fell in to presenting whilst I was in Cyprus. The British forces have got their own TV And Radio network called BFBS, so I was listening to them everyday thinking I can do a better job than this lot. There’s me working my arse off in the RAF making about £700 a month which was next to nothing really thinking these guys are on tax free money having the time of their life’s. I can do a better job than that. Of course eventually I found out when I got in to the studio with one of the guys I found out that its a lot harder than you would think. But I’ve just sort of rolled along with life, even now I cant believe what I’m doing to be perfectly honest with you. So if I dint get in to DJing what would I wanna do…I dunno because I’ve been a club DJ and also had decks in my bedroom since I was about 18-19. So I always wanted to be like a club DJ. I’m kinda doing what I wanted to do. Dream job and all that you know.

Obviously we cant do an interview without mentioning XFM, You’ve been on the station since the start, How does it feel to be one of the longest serving DJ’s alongside the legend that is Clint Boon?

ha ha ha, I’ve been at X longer than Clint has. I was in London for three years before I came to Manchester, It was fantastic coming up to be part of XFM Manchester. I was here in August 2004 when we did the pilots. Both myself and Marsha did the pilots from Century up at Salford Quays. We were staying in the Malmaison and when I went back down to London I said to my boss” If we win the license for XFM Manchester I want the job” Because you’ve got to apply for the license, and we were up against quite a few like Kerrang. It was really fiercely contested but we won the license. I remember Karl Pilkington ringing me saying “Looks like you’ve got a job in Manchester” and I was like “Don’t take the piss Karl please you know how much I want it. He was like “Nope we won it” and I was “Fucking hell amazing”. We found out we won it in June 2005, and moving up here in February 2006 was a dream, being a city fan and my dads from Moss side so that sort of stuff you know. So moving back to Manchester and being part of XFM Manchester was a dream.

You’ve just mentioned that you started out at XFM London before coming back to Manchester, What did you miss about the city whilst you were away?

Going to the City games. That was a big one for me. Going to Eastlands every week. Even thought Manchester is a big place, its still got that small town community. Everyone knows everyone. Say I’m at home and someone could be in town at the Northern Quarter and ring me saying “Come out were doing this” and I can be across town in ten minutes. You cant do that in London. You’ve really gotta plan your evenings. To get from one part of the town to the other its gonna take you a couple of hours and you’ll go “You know what I’ll see you Wednesday or summat” Just that sort of community feel we’ve got in Manchester.

Even like your Celebs. Your big stars. The likes of Clint, Johnny Mar, Andy Rourke, Danny Mcnamara and Guy Garvey. You wouldn’t dream of drinking with these kind of people in London but in Manchester its just the norm.

As most people will already know and as you mentioned, You’re a big Manchester City Fan and recently launched the new kit with the help of a certain Kid British. Did you feel honored to be asked to present the new strip to the worlds media by the club you love?

Oh God yeah. It was amazing. Just amazing. I couldn’t believe that they asked me to do it to be honest with you. I’ve done a couple of other things for them as well. I was so honored. The night before we did the kit launch Umbro had invited a few people around to see the new kit at their new HQ in the Northern Quarter. Noel Gallagher was one, Badly Drawn Boy was there, Mike Pickering and me. I found myself there looking round the room thinking “What the bloody hell am I doing here?”. But that was incredible.

An out of this world experience?

Yeah. You had Sky, All the papers, ITV, BBC there and then there’s me on stage introducing the new Umbro City Kit. Unbelievable.

There’s 20,000 or so students coming to Manchester this year, have you got any tips or advice for anyone who wants to make it big as a DJ?

Jesus, Don’t bother get a proper job ha ha ha. Any Advice, If you wanna get in to like radio then if theres a student radio get involved with that. Ask about work experience at any radio station. If you cant get your foot in the door at XFM try Galaxy, Try Key103, Try Real Radio and Try BBC Radio Manchester. Just get your foot in anywhere. Once you have your foot in the door make the most of that time, and take advice from as many people as you can like producers and even receptionists. Theres a lady that works down at Real Radio, she’s been in radio for like twenty odd years. She’s got so many stories and she’s met so many people. Treat everyone as you would expect to be treated, because I have realized you meet people in radio that are one minute making coffee then the next minute they’re higher up. Just treat everyone as you would expect to be treated. So yeah just get experience, get work experience. Be prepared to work for nothing for quite along time, because as I know being a presenter there’s thousands of people behind me wanting to do what I do. So just be prepared to work for next to nothing and be on top of your game.

and Finally, If you could go back in time, would you do anything different?

Hahaha erm…No not really. I’m quite happy with everything that I’ve done. You are the person you are from the experiences you’ve had you know. Wether they be major fuck ups in life, as long as you learn from those fuck ups and move on with things. I don’t think I would to be honest with you. I’m quite happy with the way things have panned out but like I say its not been planned out at all. I have kinda fallen my way through life and here I am.

More about Gareth.

You can check Gareth Brooks out on XFM Manchester at the weekends serving up breakfast from 7am – 11am on 97.7 Fm, DAB Digital Radio and on XFM.co.uk

Gareth’s Club Nights

Fuel at The Factory on Wednesday Nights from 10.30pm – 3am

Manic At Moho Live – 10 – 3pm (UPDATE – This Clubnight has now ended)
Sound Control – Tuesdays 10pm til 3pm
INDIE INC at Joshua Brooks on Thursday Nights from 10pm – 3am (UPDATE – This Clubnight has now ended)