Sasha's Dad

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siman91

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Dec 28, 2002
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Brisvegas
About 15 years ago approx Mr Cohen aka Sasha Dad was a substitute teacher at my youngest brothers school. During the course of the lessons he would yap on about his son who was travelling the world and playing at loads of clubs.

During one of the lessons, the penny dropped with my brother....

....Mr Cohen.....son is a DJ travelling the world.....Sasha aka Alex Cohen....

He went home grabbed a load of records and cd's which Sasha had produced (DMC 09/91 pt3 Jimi Polo Better Days Rmx, Renaissance cd's etc etc) and got Mr Cohen to take them home and have them all signed........which he did;)

My brother said he was a realy nice guy.

S
 
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seandelier

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Dec 8, 2006
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About 15 years ago approx Mr Cohen aka Sasha Dad was a substitute teacher at my youngest brothers school. During the course of the lessons he would yap on about his son who was travelling the world and playing at loads of clubs.

During one of the lessons, the penny dropped with my brother....

....Mr Cohen.....son is a DJ travelling the world.....Sasha aka Alex Cohen....

He went home grabbed a load of records and cd's which Sasha had produced (DMC 09/91 pt3 Jimi Polo Better Days Rmx, Renaissance cd's etc etc) and got Mr Cohen to take them home and have them all signed........which he did;)

My brother said he was a realy nice guy.

S

Helps if you get the name right in your anecdotes.
 

siman91

Member
Dec 28, 2002
996
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Brisvegas
Im getting old and confused...yes Coe not Cohen

As a side subject, Sasha is one of those DJ's people get way too anal about, I remember back in 1993 when he and John Digweed (or did I get that wrong too Seandelier) were playing at Hildenborough Tudor Manor local to me and I got talking to some a group of guys who had driven from Manchester....200+ miles!!

S
 

Ed

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Aug 1, 2002
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It's because he crafted really good sets, with really good records and the crowds loved him. He deserved the following he got in the early 90's and the legend has stuck.
 

U31

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Dec 18, 2007
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Kiss me brown eye
It's because he crafted really good sets, with really good records and the crowds loved him. He deserved the following he got in the early 90's and the legend has stuck.

I dont agree, granted the great sets, choonage and mixing skills, but the entourage thing was fucking embarrassing, plenty of other dj's as good as him arnt so affected
 

Ed

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I dont agree, granted the great sets, choonage and mixing skills, but the entourage thing was fucking embarrassing, plenty of other dj's as good as him arnt so affected

I'm not completely sure what you mean by 'entourage factor' to be honest. I think it was the feel good factor driving his popularity. In those days if you knew a dj guarranteed a good night with good tunes, you would keep an eye on where they were playing. Lads used to come from Nottingham and Newcastle to Legends in Warrington. That's a good long way, without the Sasha factor, the dj's at Legends weren't megastars by any means.

From memory this carried on until the mid 90's at least, although it shifted slightly from being DJ focused to club focused. I can remember buses being organised from Birmingham to the Hac and Cream in Liverpool. Clubbing was a lifestyle, it was what people built their weekends around. It's a very different era now in my opinion (although I'm looking back at it with the eyes of a 37 year old, I was 19 in 1992 and the weekends were what I lived for). Travelling miles to see a dj or go to a club wasn't considered desperate or sad back then, loads of people were doing it, and not just for Sasha. It wasn't a new thing either. Loads of Glaswegians used to come down to Wigan for the Northern Soul all nighters.

Apart from that 'Son of God' mixmag edition, the real Sasha cultishness to me started with internet forums and record buyers pouring over old mixes and working out the tracklistings and then a market being created in the vinyl. Again, I don't think it's particularly sad, he made a lot of people happy. It's no surprise people wanted the records that did that.

Having said all that, I've never, in almost 20 years of going out, seen Sasha play live!
 

U31

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Dec 18, 2007
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Kiss me brown eye
Definitely valid points, but i for one never followed DJ's, i followed a night or style if you get my drift.
I like welly & vertigo, but not to the point of hero worship, and they just happened to play at the clubs where i liked the style of music and the "feel" of the place.. a case in point.. welly played Bowlers but i thought the place was total wank and soulless, i can count on my hands the number of nights i went.

So what i'm probably getting at, the concept of hero worship and following a DJ round the country en masse is an alien concept to me, and i'll never fully understand it, but i will acknowledge the existence of many many fans who do/ did.
 

Ed

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Definitely agree with you on the 'feel' of a club, it's very important to me as me. Branstons in Hockley where I did the bulk of my clubbing just felt good, I've no idea what the capacity was but I'd guess over two floors about 500 people max. Low ceilings, bouncy dancefloor. If the headliner was shite (Can't remember any real stinkers though!), you could go to the other room and it's be going off as well. Legends (and The World) in Warrington were the same. Absolutely love Plastic People in London now, it's perfect, fantastic sound system. Awful toilets mind!

I've never been able to like huge big spaces MOS, Cream, although the place where Danny does his nights in London, Village underground is great even though it'll take 1000-1200 but there's still room to have a dance and there was something great about the Que club and the Astoria in London.

I agree with you that DJ hero worship is a bit odd, look at Tiesto on Youtube. But there were definitely ones I liked and would travel for when I was younger.
 

Gav

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The thing was sasha is that the mystique around him for want of a better word has transcended the music in my opinion.

I saw him at that warehouse thing in east london a few years back, I thought the music was toss, completely boring with no stand out stuff, but weirdly I buzzed off the fact that it was him playing the music more than the music itself.

For some people the guy can do no wrong, he's like a metaphor for oldskool greatness in the scene and people get off on being part of that.

He could have played back to back Now compilations that night and all the south africans in there would have still wet their pants.

As much as I appreciate what he's done, and I wouldn't dispute his importance, I wouldn't go out of my way to see him anymore, his sound generally leaves me cold these days.
 

seandelier

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He was a great DJ who played great sets and was smooth as silk. We used to travel all over the UK to different clubs but if he was playing anywhere it made it even better. Some of his Cream sets were magical.

However, I would not go out of my way to see him now even though I like listening to his stuff at home. I would follow Danny Tenaglia to any club anywhere though. Also have never seen Steve Lawler ever have a bad set. Its not hero worship following a DJ around IMO it is just knowing what you like and going for it.