Happy 45 Day! 4/5/2020
Towards the end of 2019, back before the world had really heard of Coronavirus, one of our regular contributors, 25ThC, came up with the idea of 45 Day. A day where DJs around the world would celebrate the greatest musical format out there – the 7″ 45rpm vinyl record. The initial plan was for a series of live gigs across the globe. Well it didn’t quite work out that way…
Instead people entered lockdown. DJs’ gigs and income disappeared overnight and they had to adapt to the live streaming world that was thrust upon them. He sent out invites to vinyl DJ’s he knew, DJ’s he didn’t know but highly respected, and in groups like 45 Live and The Forty Five Kings. The response he got totally blew him away and he found a great sense of community, friendship and DJs wanting to get involved. This was coupled with a total lack of ego and just a pure love of music and the format.
When he first came up with the idea he set the aim of getting 45 DJ’s involved. He thought that if he could get 20 or so involved that would be a good effort for the first year and it could grow from there. It exceeded his expectations with so many great people getting involved and a wide range of mixes. At the time of writing there are 48 mixes (plus a 2 hour radio show) submitted. The mixes range from bedroom DJs, gigging DJ’s, high profile DJs, producers and label owners.
The icing on the cake is the 45 Live radio show recorded especially for 45 Day. Presented by the legendary Greg Belson it features an exclusive mix of the 45 Live catalogue by Moneyshot from the Allergies.
It may sound like a cliche but the mixes really are all killer and no filler. The format lends itself to quick mixing and having to be very selective about which tracks to include in your set. Especially when you only have 45 minutes to showcase your musical tastes and style. This makes DJing with 45s so much fun and this definitely comes across in all of the mixes.
There is some crazy scratching (much harder to do on 45s than 12″s), doubles being rocked, genre hopping, DJs representing their own 45s releases and some amazing selectors. The same track doesnt feature twice in the mixes which shows the breadth of music and genres being represented.
We hope you get the time to check out all the mixes from around the world. There is more than 38 hours of music for you to enjoy. The mixes encompass 80’s soul, afrobeat, big band, boogie, boom bap, brass band, Brazilian/bossa nova, breakbeats, cinematic, covers, dance, downtempo, dub, electro, funk, hip hop, house, Irish, jazz, jump blues, latin, mod, punk rock, rare groove, rave, re-edits, reggae, rock and roll, samba, soul and much more.
One final point to make. This is a man’s world as James Brown sings on one of the tracks in my 25ThC’s mix. All the submissions in 2020 have been from men. This may have something to do with the subject matter, but where’s the ladies at? It would be great to get some female DJ’s involved next year.
Here’s to 45 Day 2021 when hopefully we can once again party and dance next to each other to a soundtrack of great music on 45s.
Check out https://fortyfiveday.com/
