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Rob Playford: stocky man, very short hair, chunky jewellery. He's a surprisingly chilled-out busy bee, even now that his drum and bass label, Moving Shadow is days away from kicking off its tenth birthday revelries. Kind of like, '… Bzzz… sigh… yeah whatever, bzzz.' Better make it quick, lest I revive him.
So what exactly are they celebrating? 'The fact that we're still here really,' says Rob. It's true that very few independent labels have hung around as long as Moving Shadow, especially given the multi-national cudgel of power wielded by giants like Sony, something Rob feels suitably smug about.
'They're just so bad at doing their jobs. Ours is a really nice tight machine and we get a lot of respect because of that.'
They've come a long way since Rob's days selling records out of his car boot back in 1990 . 'We've got quite a few fingers in quite a few pies nowadays,' he says.
Like Moving
Shadow's current involvement in every part of
the dance scene, from publishing to putting on parties.
Even now, with so many other styles of dance music
vying for the public's attention, Rob's confident
that his label has what it takes to carry on succeeding.
He puts this down to the fact that he loves what
he does: 'It's more of a hobby really,' he says.
What, a bit like DIY? Last time lifebyte checked, the average British pastime
didn't incorporate a celebratory world tour featuring
some of the biggest names in drum and bass. The
climax of the UK dates at London's
The End on 24 November should definitely
be one to get along to, with superstars like Grooverider,
Randall and DJ Craze already practising
in their bedrooms.
So after the tour, what's next for Moving Shadow?
'More of the same, I suppose.' That means more parties, more releases, including an album for E-Z Rollers next summer, and more David and Goliath stuff with the big labels.
'It's not all about making millions and millions out of punters buying Britney Spears CDs with their wages on Saturday morning,' he says. But doesn't he love her just like all the other boys? 'Course I do,' he says with a grin.
Rob Playford, then: cool label, normal bloke.
— Ceri David 03.10.00
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