No School Like the Old Skool: Wish FM

DB Burkman, otherwise known as DJ DB, was one of the first British DJs to bring drum and bass across the pond, and has been a fixture in America's rave scene since the early 90s. In this column No Skool Like the Old Skool, he'll be sharing long-forgotten mixes, photos, flyers, and other treasures from his archive. Break out those notepads, as DB discusses the influence of longtime friend DJ WishFM, Wade Hampton.

Being on top of your game behind the scenes is as important as being the guy behind the decks on stage. Like myself, Wade Hampton, or DJ WishFM, is not simply DJ, but a serious player, making things happen in the cities where he's lived over the years. The difference being, he's stayed much more active in the "scene" than I have.

So far this summer, he's organized, DJ'd & promoted 16 events with mega promoter Disco Donnie. As DJ WishFM, he plays 4.5 hours per week. As you'll see below, like me he's got his creative fingers in many different projects. Such as, some readers will be interested to know, he's co-producing a movie about the history of ecstasy in America, due out next year. He's also in a band called the Feels, although I'm not 100% sure I'm meant to know that, or be telling anyone, as I think it's a secret project.

Photo circa 92. Barry Weaver on left, legendary LA promoter Tef Foo in the middle, and Wade on the right.

As I've described described before, because of a misguided/misspent youth with an over-consumption of hallucinogenics, my memory for how and when things took place is often muddled in my brain. I believe I met Wade on my first trip to SF when I also met Scott Hardkiss and the whole Hardkiss crew. He was the organizer of the incredible Big House party I described in Scott's post.

Working on this story, I discovered many things about Wade not known before. One the most interesting is that he knew psychedelic guru Timothy Leary! Check this great pic by Philin Phlash of a very young Wade and Tim, with the original Keith Haring painting between them.

When I asked Wade about knowing Tim, he said "Timothy's godson and son of his lawyer, Chris Milman, was my roommate, and this is how I became involved with him. In the early days of LA underground massives, Tim and I worked together live on stage at our events and also behind the scenes, strategizing rave politics, media relations, and typical music/counterculture revolutionary issues, off and on from '92-'96. We spent a lot of time together the last year of his life when he was really sick and wheelchair-bound but still wanted to have fun. So we threw house parties. Lots of them. This carried on until his funeral, where I played an extended set at his home for the memorial with everyone from Winona Rider to Oliver Stone in attendance."

"Depending on how you look at it, Timothy either pranked us one last time or did the nicest thing ever that day, by pre-paying an AV company to wheel a HUGE big screen TV into the backyard so the entire memorial could watch the last 5 minutes of his life which he had filmed. Raising hell and full of surprises 'til the end. God I miss him."

DB's Notes on Wade Hampton:

Wade makes a brief appearance in the Peter Jennings TV special on the history of Ecstasy.

He was music supervisor for the movie Groove and played himself in the film.

Here's a remix Wade did for the soundtrack for the Oscar winning cult movie Requiem for a Dream.

I love this flyer from 92, with the 3D imaging, which was really bleeding edge back then

Check this dope flyer, including all the Hardkiss crew, Rabbit in The Moon, and The Chemical Brothers, back when they were still called The Dust Brothers!

Proper old skool vinyl box.

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