Rock DJ Paul Miles was a leading Rock'n'Roll DJ in Melbourne, Australia.

He held a Saturday night DJ residency at Cherry bar in AC/DC Lane, Melbourne city from 2005 to 2010, following the opening two-year DJ residency at Back in the Day nightclub.

Rock DJ Paul Miles energized Melbourne rock bars, nightclubs, and live band venues for many years, pumping the upbeat rock classics that have been the soundtrack to so many fun times of our lives, as well as modern rock songs for creating great new memories.

His loyal following enjoyed his seven-hour sets laced with ‘sub-culture hero’ songs covering a large variety of rock'n'roll genres including glam, punk, rockabilly, metal, mod, and of course hard rock. This signature style saw rock club crowds partying all night long to a celebratory journey through the coolest rock’n'roll music ever made.

Punters have also been rocked by his DJ sets at favourite Melbourne live music venues like The Espy, Ding Dong, Prince of Wales, HiFi Bar & Ballroom, the Corner Hotel, and The Tote, where he’s also fired-up crowds while introducing bands to the stage as the night’s emcee.

Whether it’s new cuts from the freshest home-grown talent, or tracks from the biggest international rock icons from all over the world, Rock DJ Paul Miles always played a powerful, ever-changing selection of the absolute greatest rock hits and timeless album tracks that crowds loved.

DJ Paul Miles certainly knows his rock and the uplifting songs that keep the girls dancin' and the guys groovin' for a great night out.
 

What is a Rock DJ?

A rock DJ is a disc jockey that plays rock and pop music regularly at nightclubs. Most club DJs specialise in electronic dance music (known as ‘doof-doof’ by those who dislike it), using techniques such as beatmatching and scratching to manipulate and mash sound recordings. Unlike electronic club DJs, rock DJs rarely alter the original sound recording made by the artist, instead preferring to place the main focus on the actual song or artist.

Most of the music played by rock DJs is based on rock music, although many other types of genres are incorporated. Usually they will play well-known hits that are popular on the dance-floor, as well as lesser-known, more obscure records, mainly for the purpose of promoting a new song or artist. Rock DJs are sometimes called Indie DJs where independent music tends to be played in the majority.

The skill of the rock DJ lies in the creation of an innovative play-list during the course of the club night. This is done by finding commonalities and contrasts between the records or artists, such as genre, tempo, beat, background, origin of the record, mood & feeling, etc.

The overall goal of the rock club DJ is similar to that of the electronic club DJ: to promote good music and keep the dance-floor moving.

Source: Wikipedia.

10 Views I Hold

1. The majority of people go to rock clubs and bars to have a good time while hearing bands and songs they know and love – so I usually played tracks to please the majority in the venue. It wasn't unusual to hear squeals of delight as people recognised familiar opening riffs of their favourite rock tracks in my sets.

2. To be a great Rock DJ you can't just stand in a booth and play self-indulgent records. My obsession with rock music and deep musical memory enabled me to create an emotionally-powerful mix of songs spanning the entire history of rock. I'm a rock music aficionado who knows and understands how the different rock music styles make people react on the dance-floor.

3. Each to their own, but I preferred DJing to a rock crowd consuming alcohol, rather than a techno crowd consuming water – bar managers also loved it. :)

4. There’s plenty of intuition, experience and skill required to keep a rock or alternative dance-floor packed all night while keeping the music diverse and interesting. It’s a challenge judging what song to play next to keep rotating momentum. (Recognising the opening riff is all important to those on the floor; rockers can be very conservative on a dance-floor.)

5. I have a passion for sharing musical pleasure and love to introduce people to new music and bands. But a song that no-one knows can empty a rock dance-floor within a minute (as much as drinkers at the bar may enjoy it), so it all depends what is played either side of it. I tended to play the lesser-known tracks earlier in my sets as warm-up selections.

6. The songs are the real stars, so I didn’t mess with them too much at all – I happily left scratching records to others. As the night’s DJ, I hand-picked the juiciest works from hundreds of the world’s coolest and most talented musicians and distilled it into a uniquely concentrated performance that always hit the spot.

7. Too many Rock DJs just play random tracks without giving any thought to how those tracks fit together. I always tried to build the night steadily and play tracks that connected together or worked my bridging to take things in a particular direction musically – I found that kept the crowd partying, instead of bailing and going home.

8. It irks me when Dance DJs look down on Rock DJs who play songs by bands rather than the latest mixes of white labels. The music styles might be different, but the aims are essentially the same: to wow the dance-floor and keep them grooving all night long. Remember that not everyone likes house, trance, acid, drum 'n' bass, hip hop, etc.

9. Because I was a performer in a band, I approached my DJ sets in a very similar way. I was there to entertain and create an atmosphere. It was about feeling the audience, connecting with them, and communicating with them for anything between four and seven hours at a time. A mastery of crowd psychology is required to know what makes a crowd tick so they smile, laugh, dance and go nuts!

10. I loved to do things my way and have fun with my DJing. Fun in the booth meant I could best create and drive the energy through the venue and onto the dance-floor. Let the good times roll I say – Cheers!