Paul Oakenfold
During the late 80s Oakenfold introduced thousands to House music via a series of club nights that he ran (Future at the Sound Shaft, then Spectrum and Land of Oz at Heaven). Next he helped push the new dance crossover into the charts along with Steve Osbourne by producing hits for the Happy Mondays, thus forming the dance label Perfecto. This opened many doors for the duo that led to major record labels seeking their expertise to work with their biggest selling acts, including U2, Simply Red, New Order, The Cure, Massive Attack, M People, Arrested Development, The Shamen, The Stone Roses and Snoop Dogg.
By the mid-90s dance music had hit the UK mainstream and Paul headed up the new breed of superstar DJ. In 1993 he opened for U2 on the Zoo TV world tour. Meanwhile, his Perfecto label had expanded - its offshoot Perfecto Fluoro becoming home for the trippier Goa trance sound. Oakenfold then released a string of mix CDs including his classic New York set for Global Underground. He also wrote the Big Brother UK Theme with Andy Gray as Element 4.
On the club front Oakenfold left Liverpool's Cream in 1999 and Virgin marked the occasion by issuing Resident: Two Years of Oakenfold at Cream. He then embarked on a massive US tour and released A Voyage into Trance in 2001.
Since the turn of the century he has become increasingly involved with film scores and soundtracks such as Get Carter in 2000, Planet of The Apes in 2001, Blade 2 and Austin Powers: Goldmember in 2002, The Matrix Reloaded in 2003, and Pirates of The Caribbean in 2007 - the same year in which his Greatest Hits and Remixes Vol. 1 was released.
His last studio album was A Lively Mind in 2006 featuring contributions from Pharrell Williams and Grandmaster Flash. The Single Faster Kill Pussycat featured vocals from American actress Brittany Murphy and charted at no.7 in the UK and no.4 in the US.
Andrew John
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Artist
Paul Oakenfold
City
London
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