DJ Mixes Records On Gramophones
“A disc jockey with a difference is taking the music world by storm – using two 1930s wind-up gramophones. Dave Guttridge, 48, is the UK’s only pre-vinyl disc jockey and uses two 70-year-old Picnic gramophones to pump out ‘old skool’ tunes – including old favorite The Teddy Bear’s Picnic – using Shellac 78 records. Known as DJ78, he owns 3,500 of the fragile records and blasts out everything from 1920’s rag time, jazz and blues, to Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Cliff Richard and Elvis. The brittle Shellac records, which are made from the shell of the Shellac beetle, went out of production in 1961 but have fascinated Dave for the last 20 years. They are nicknamed 78s because they spin on the gramophone at 78 revolutions per minute. They are becoming increasingly rare and can only be found in charity shops.” w/ photos
