[dj] Tony De Vit plac[e]

Tony De Vit (born Kidderminster, England on September 12, 1957 - died July 2, 1998 in Birmingham, England) was an influential club disc jockey(DJ).

De Vit started as a wedding DJ in 1976, before becoming resident DJ at Birmingham's premier gay venue, Nightingale, where he played pop and Hi-NRG. Tony also played at the legendary Birmingham club Tin Tins during this time. Tony De Vit's life changed forever after visiting the infamous Trade at Turnmills in London. Never before had the Midland DJ witnessed such overpowering, supercharged hedonism.

"It changed my idea of clubbing. It was the sheer energy," De Vit later said.

De Vit left Nightingale for Birmingham super club Chuff Chuff where he pursued his love for Hard House, initially being paid £35 per gig within weeks he was headlining above house DJ Sasha.

In 1993 Tony De Vit received his longed-for residency at Trade. Technically untouchable and forward thinking, De Vit's DJ sets became stuff of legend. Struck by his talent in the same year rave/dance legends Fantazia asked Tony to mix 1 of the discs on the 2nd album of the Fantazia House Collection series, which went on to be a massive UK hit selling over 100,000 copies. Fantazia later in 1995 asked Tony to compile an album all of his own, The Remixers: Tony De Vit, was a successful underground album, consisting only of tracks remixed by De Vit & Simon Parkes.

By the mid-90s, De Vit was so in demand that he could have confined his diary to superclubs but instead insisted on playing tiny venues in Inverness and Cheltenham. In straight clubs he tended to play for 90 minutes. At Trade on Whitsun Bank Holiday in 1995, De Vit performed for twelve hours. He also had two releases in the Global Underground series: GU 005: Tokyo and GU 001: Tel Aviv.

De Vit was HIV-positive, and his health deteriorated. On July 2 1998 he died due to bronchial pneumonia and bone-marrow failure.

After De Vit's death a messy wrangle kept his records off the shelves for many years, but finally a compilation of his best tunes and remixes was released called Are You All Ready? on Tidy Trax records.

De Vit's legacy lives on in DJ stars such as Eddie Halliwell and frantics Guffy to De Vit's hand picked protege Fergie and Trade resident Smokin' Jo.

https://www.tonydevit.co.uk/

R.I.P. Anthony