Dugs in Barking and Dagenham is 31-40 and is a DJ.
Uncle Dugs is one of the biggest advocates for the UK music genres of Jungle and Acid House. It was the music that inspired him to be a DJ over 20 years ago and is dedicated to keeping the genres alive. Before DJing became a full time job, Uncle Dugs was working as a plumber and postman during the day, then DJing on pirate radio stations at night. But all of this work and the lack of sleep took its toll on him and he burnt out. It wasn’t until he met his girlfriend, Sarah, who helped him realise that he could not carry on doing all these jobs and had to choose one. Despite his fears of not making a lot of income at first, he chose his love for Djing and hasn’t looked back since.
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Film Maker: Daniel Onyia
Questions & Answers
- What's your first memory of London? Going to Greenwich park one summer as a 5 or 6 year old kid, I vaguely remember rolling down the big hill on a skateboard with my late Uncle Colin.. Probably talking around 1980/81
- What do you miss when you're away from London? I miss the ease of getting from a-b,, London is an incredibly easy place to navigate once you know how the buses and trains works,, it's second to none.. I travel abroad quite a bit and I have yet to find somewhere as easy to move around from point to point..
- What's your favourite neighbourhood? I think because of my love for notting hill carnival I would have to go with portobello road,, my sister actually lives nearby so it's got a double nice meaning for me.
- What's your favourite building? Tower of London.. it's always been my favourite building from when I was young, the history it holds is amazing, good and bad it's seen so much through the years.
- What's your ideal day out in London? A walk down the south bank with my missus drinking in a few of the pubs we pass then crossing the river to head into the west end, maybe a meal at a nice restaurant followed by a show or more drinks in and around Leicester square..
- What's your ideal night out in London? There's is so much going on in London it's hard to pick one but because I work in the clubbing business I wouldn't usually choose to go clubbing when I'm out for the night.. As I said above I'd start at the south bank and as day turns to night take in as much of the local food / drink and culture as possible.
- What's your most hated building? I don't actually hate any buildings but I guess the new buildings that are springing up everywhere blocking up views of old London are the ones that I dislike more than any others.. I used to be able to drive along past the tower of London coming from the embankment and see my favourite building from different places but since the new glass buildings went up all round that side of it it's made it almost impossible to see until you're right outside it on tower hill. I know progression is progression and needs to happen but it's spoiling the views of some of the most beautiful buildings in the world..
- What's the best view in London? Because of my pirate radio background I have ended up on top of quite a few tower blocks in and around London, my favourite view would be from one of the taller blocks in east London looking west right across the city, on a clear warm sunny day there is nothing better than standing on top of a block like the ones in cable street at limehouse looking towards the city down the winding river Thames..
- What's your favourite open space? For such a crowded city London has some beautiful open spaces, my favourite of them all is probably hyde park with the river serpentine running through it.. It's funny cos when you walk through it you can actually forget you are even in such a mad busy capital city..
- What's the most interesting shop? Any 2nd hand record shop :-)
- What's your favourite place to hang out? Brick lane especially in summer,, always a million things going on and always a great place to hang out and eat / drink..
- What's been your most memorable night out in London? I'm lucky that my whole world pretty much revolves around nights out and 50% of them are in London so it's really hard for me to pinpoint one but I'm gonna go for one that's not work related.. I went on my first date with my girlfriend Sarah at London zoo,, we then ended up in Camden for the night eating, drinking and laughing till silly o clock in the morning,, I chose this particular night because that moment was the start of the best time of my life..
- How would you like to spend your ideal day off in London? Even though I have done it a million times I still love getting the tube into the west end and wandering round oxford street / regents street / Carnaby st (especially last Xmas) etc just getting in the mix with all the hustle bustle of the west end, Leicester sq, Piccadilly etc it's all just as exciting to me now as it ever was as a kid or a teenager when I first started going in to London on my own..
- Where would you take someone visiting from out of town? Over to kings road / portobello road or maybe to shoreditch / brick lane because I think you get a bit more of the authentic London feel if you do actually step outside of the west end, obviously you can get a lot more authentic if you go into some of the local estates and stuff but realistically that's not where you are gonna take someone who's visiting.. We all live in these areas so it's home to us but I'm not sure i'd wanna take visitors to some of these places to show off our beautiful city..
- What's the worst journey you've had to make in London? Take your pick, in rush hour this is one time I'm not London's greatest fan, London transport is extremely busy but still the best way to travel really.. I have sat in my car in traffic for hundreds of hours in my life and it's very very frustrating..!
- What's your personal London landmark? Tower bridge I think,, I travel over it (and under it when we have our boat parties) so many times a week without really taking to much notice of it but now and again I stop and look at it and really take in how amazing a structure this bridge is.. People travel from all over the world to look at this and as Londoners we sometimes forget this and take it for granted.
- Who's your favourite fictional Londoner? Del Boy from only fools and horses, one of the greatest tv characters of all time.. Pekhams finest :-)
- What's your favourite London film, book or documentary? I'm not the greatest film buff to be honest but when I think of London related films the first to pop into my mind are James Bond and Austin powers.. As for a documentary I'd have to go for 'A London Something Dis' which was a 1994 documentary about the new emerging jungle music sound that came out of London in this era.. This was the first time the music I loved so much had been given airtime on tv and it was amazing to see the people I looked up to / bought there music / paid to rave to were on my TV screen talking about jungle music.. I still watch it now from time to time and it still makes me smile as much as it did when I first watched it >> https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tJj0lyr5R6o
- If you could travel to any time period in London, past or future, where would you go? I'm not sure I would want to see London in the future because the way they are building new properties I don't think I could handle seeing how much they will have changed it in years to come.. I think I'd probably choose to either go back to 1988 and watch the birth of acid house all over again but with the knowledge of now so I would document every single thing as it happened,, if not '88 I'd choose to go back to Victorian times and specifically hang around in east London just to see how it would have been living in and around the characters (Oliver Twist : Faganesque types) we have read about through the years.. Can I be invisible to or is that asking to much.?
- For you, who is the ultimate Londoner? The ultimate Londoner is every single Londoner that lives there life doing the right thing and making this great town what it is. You don't need to be rich or famous to be great you just need to be good hearted.. I love this city and I love the fact that it's the envy of the world because it is soaked in rich history.. Long live London Town..!!