Meet the Le Freak DJ’s: Tom Mason

At The Night Owl, we like to shake things up and spin best music of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and beyond. Our monthly event Le Freak is no different. We play the best in disco, funk, soul and boogie to get your shaking it on the dance floor. However, it’s our incredible resident and guest DJ’s that make Le Freak the showstopper that it is.

Resident DJ Tom Mason has a passion for music of all genres. He grew up on folk and rock music (with a bit of Abba thrown into the mix too) before discovering soul and disco from his own exploration. “I was in to the Beastie Boys and Snoop Dogg as a teenager and then stuff like Fatboy Slim and Armand Van Helden which are all based around classic soul and disco samples.” He added: “The album that really changed my life was ‘The Best of Blaxploitation’ CD from Our Price when I was about 17.

“I was in to playing guitar and just bought my first ‘wah-wah’ pedal and wanted a copy of Theme from Shaft, that put me on to records like The Bottle, Across 110^th Street, I Got So Much Trouble In My Mind, Superfly and amazing ballads like Esther Phillips ‘Home Is Where The Hatred Is’ and basically made me the soul and funk lover and record nerd I am today.”

https://youtu.be/nFvRvSxsW-I

Tom has been DJ’ing for around 20 years, starting by playing house records at Bobby Browns in the 90’s, before moving on to DJ 60’s nights at Snobs nightclub and of course DJ’ing at both The Night Owl’s Le Freak at Shambala Festival.

“By the second or third Le Freak where people were queueing around the block to get in! I Love everything about Le Freak… it’s just the right size and the crowd are always up for it and clued up on a wide variety of music. The place reminds me of when I first started going out dancing to soul music in Leeds, and The Night Owl has a great family vibe full of good bunch of people.”

If you happen to see Tom spinning on the decks, expect to hear a diverse range of disco tracks, gearing the atmosphere up before dropping in the new discoveries and “big soul and disco screamers!”

Tom added: “I love crate digging and finding a (new to me) record, I always try to work in those new discoveries and I hope people get into them as much as I do!”

Tom’s record of choice:

One of these new loves includes Tranquillo by Carly Simon, although who knows what Tom has dug out the crate for the next Le Freak!

The next Le Freak will be on Friday, January 26th, tickets are available here.