Simon Blann

Biography

Simon’s Dj career was kick started when he won Portsmouth DJ of the year back in 2001. As part of his prize he won a year’s residency at Decadance, Portsmouth’s biggest club. It was here Simon was given the opportunity to play to 2000 people every week. As the club grew they started booking headline acts and now Simon was a well-respected full time resident, he was first in line for the supporting roles of Dj’s like Judge Jules, Dave Pearce, Fergie, Eddie Halliwell, Lisa Lashes, Anne Savage, Public Domain and many more. After 3 years at the club Simon decided to leave and start new projects and from here things really started to take off. During his time at Decadance, Simon had also acquired a residency at Portsmouth’s top bar. It was here that he discovered playing house was just enjoyable to him as the harder stuff he was playing at the big nights. His journey through the house scene took him to places like Brighton, Bournemouth and the Isle of White. Now covering the south coast and meeting new people each weekend Simon was recognizing the changes in the music scene and was able to see what could be on the horizon. In June 2004 Simon was asked by his close friend Chris if he would like to help him out with a local night that he had be planning, Simon agreed and the night was a raging success, this was the start of Simon’s co-promotion night PunchFunk. Simon was new to the promoting side of things but took to it like a duck to water. Over the next 8 months he promoted and played at 6 sell out events! Into 2005 the name Punchfunk had become a name to look out for synonymous with Simon’s promoting and dj-ing skills. The PunchFunk parties were now booking international underground DJ’s like Trevor Rockliffe, Phil Kieran, Valentnio Kanziyani, Justin Robertson and Slam. Pushing into 2006, a massive year for Simon and PunchFunk, in April he was flown to Lithuania to play at their summer festival opening. In May, Simon and his business partner Chris took the PunchFunk stage to the HIFI festival and again to the Global Gathering Festival in July. Simon had also broken into the London scene this year playing in clubs like The Ministry of Sound and Turnmills. Also in 2006 Simon had been pushing his production forward, with his first release, Fondue Party released at the start of September, the following September 2007 saw the release of Simon’s EP Halloween with 2 tracks that climbed in the download charts nicely with radio one airplay from Eddie Halliwell and support from across the house and techno scene tagged as a versatile EP with not genre permutations. 2007 was also the first of 3 years living and dj-ing in Ibiza. For an unpredictable island Simon hit the ground running, getting residencies at san Antonio’s top bar/ club ‘Hush’ followed up by a season contract with the Super club Eden and bookings for VIP events! Through-out 2008 and the 2009 the same pattern continued, a successful summer in Ibiza including gigs at Bora Bora with Oliver Lang and a residency at Es Paradise followed by a manic winter in England dj-ing and promoting his own nights! Djing alongside and booking the world’s finest DJ’s like Pete Tong, Zane Lowe, Mauro Picotto, Marco V, Annie Mac, Oliver Lang, Paul Woolford. 2010 saw the year of change with a big dedication to Radio and house music, new residencies included a couple of clubs on the gay scene like Gorgeous and Hampshire Boulevard. 93.7fm Express Fm had formed a solid base for Simon to practice and learn the new form of music presenting through radio. The show still runs as a weekly prime time show with celebrity guests and is going from strength to strength. 2011 so far has seen the increase in DJ bookings and residencies along with consistently well produced radio shows. The second part of the year is set up to continue this way with new offers on the horizon, new studio time for Simons next productions and the possibility of an European tour in 2012. The Future looks bright for this now highly reputable experienced DJ.