Rockit - Chris Baxter

I grew up in Hornsey, North London in the 1980’s. I embraced New York Hip Hop culture and was a dedicated DJ and graffiti artist. In those days, in my mind, you only had four life choices to make. Rap, breakdance, Graffiti or be a DJ, cutting up breaks on two turntables. I truly believe that those that embraced it were truly blessed in life and I dedicate everything else in this story to Hip Hop, the true foundation of my life. My sister’s Joanna and Nayo would put up with non-stop music and noise in the house. However, they were into it as much as I was, embracing DJ & music culture at an early age. The Technics SL1200 turntable became my bible and records were my hymns. Back then if you wanted to DJ to an audience you had to be part of a sound system, ours was called Sweetbeat. This was my first sound system, made up from a collective of friends playing at house parties in North London. This was the first time I had speaker boxes and turntables; it was an addictive era. We had red LED lights in the bass speakers that would flash as big basslines dropped. Sweetbeat was the beginning. My school friend Elliot was a big part of this. We spent many hours behind the turntables, practicing and perfecting sets and mixes. We even performed once on the turntables during a school assembly at school. Elliot’s name was ‘TC’ which stood for Total Control and my DJ name was O-Jay. After these early years we enjoyed spending many years working together. We had a talented mic man, a school friend called Derek John who would get the crowd going with sweet lyrics and cool raps. Derek started to DJ and later became the legendary Jazzie D soon after this period. We all embraced the street sound culture. My late father Timothy Baxter was a professor at the Royal Academy of Music. In later years he was one of eight professors that travelled the world assessing and marking music exams for the Associated Board. My mother Rosamund Grant is a food writer and restauranteur. She had a restaurant in Crouch End, five minutes’ walk from school. I worked at the restaurant on most nights for many years and had a great induction into Caribbean, West African and Southern American food, preparation and cooking. We appeared on the BBC Hot Chefs programme as Mum and son cooking and I thought ‘this is it’ . I am going to be a chef, but it transpires that music and events was my destiny. My Uncle was Bernie Grant MP and he also had massive influence in my self-belief and confidence to believe that anything is possible. Bernie was an amazing Uncle with a love for football and basketball (as well as politics) which we would watch religiously while I was a teenager. Derek had a cousin called Terry, DJ Crime. We all bonded so quickly as soul brothers, with like for like interests and B-Boy Culture running through our veins. Terry played for one of the biggest sound systems in North London and it wasn’t long before Terry Introduced the three of us to the Funki Dreads of Soul II Soul founded by Jazzie B who became my musical godfather and mentor. Myself, Derek and Elliot joined Soul 2 Soul and became full time DJ’s. Around the time when Fair Play was released, Soul II Soul’s first single, I decided it was time to setup my first business. One night during service at the restaurant mum came into the kitchen saying there is somebody she would like me to meet. I met James Cashin, his company was called Secret Agent. He was looking for DJs to join his agency, I told him there could only be one! but there was two, myself and Elliot. Secret Agent opened our eyes to the corporate world of DJing in the West End. Many of my future connections were made during this time including DJing for the Marines at the American Embassy and other Embassy’s in London. The business was called ‘Sounds Good to Me’ .

This was a DJ agency supplying DJs for corporate events. I had some of London’s best DJs doing corporate parties for an evolving events industry. I was building up my stock holding and getting lots of new clients. I then became a BBC contractor. This was a big deal as a young Black DJ and business owner. The highlight of this was to DJ at the Top of the Pops awards in Manchester and having Kylie and Danni Minogue arguing in front of me about which one of their records to play. During these years I worked for celebrities up and down the country. My favourite was Lenny Henry, we clicked straight away, I would do wrap parties and events for him. I also did his wedding celebration in Cornwall. Lenny is also a lover of hip hop culture and often used to beatbox a song in my ear, saying ‘play that one next’ . Working for London’s finest event planners created an interest in technical event production. My first big production clients were Sharon and Reggie from Luster Hair Products. We had many years of successful shows at the Grosvenor House Hotel which is one of the biggest ballrooms in Central London. During this time, I was the technical supplier for the Afro Hair & Beauty show when it was at Alexandra Palace for many great years of progress and black excellence. For Afro Hair & Beauty we supplied sound, stage and lighting equipment and one year we did Destiny’s Child with Beyoncé and Kelly Rolland in the West Hall which was one of my first big production jobs at the time. Many thanks to Claire Jackson for recognising me and giving me this opportunity. I was DJing at events and looking at the lighting and sound systems and thinking that I could do better. My biggest event in those days came via a great friend and influence, Steve Leslie Lewis from the Mobile Music Company. He was one of the first black DJs playing on the corporate circuit that took corporate event DJing to the highest levels. Legend has it, that he played for her late majesty the Queen. The event was the festival of speed at Goodwood. I think this was this biggest dancefloor I had ever played for. It was for 2,000 people; the event organiser came up to me five minutes before I was due to start and asked what was my first song going to be. This continued to be a question I was asked throughout my DJ career. I did the opening night at Pacha London for the BBC and was asked the same question.

My answer was simply,

“I will go with flow and read the crowd” . A DJ can start to read the audience while playing background music. I would thunder big tunes all night and keep the dancefloors packed. These were great years. My Soul 2 Soul days also contributed to this period as Pops and Daddy Harvey part of the Soul 2 Soul family, would express to me how important the equipment was as part of the event process. Sounds Good to Me was a great business, but I lacked business knowledge, so I did a course at City and East London college business studies. This gave me a great foundation to take my company to the next level. While at college we started a movie hire service - on video cassette. (This was before blockbusters I may add). We used to even do our own trailers for the films you could rent! The entrepreneurs were all around me. As digital music started to evolve and DJs started to use CDs, DJs became their own managers and didn’t need agencies like mine to find work, so I decided to sell the company and join forces with David Graham and Sound Division which at the time was the UK’s biggest DJ equipment retail store. I stayed on to run the hire department and fell in love with equipment ownership, hire and production. During these years I met and married the love of my life Maxine and we were blessed with two wonderful daughters, Rebecca and Ella-Louise. After 11 loyal years at Sound Division, we parted company and I decided to set up on my own. 2007 was the start of Rockit Event Production Ltd. Rockit started with a small loan and a safe store garage. In the early years we excelled and won key contracts to allow investment into equipment and grow the company to what it is today, 15 years later. I believe that success is determined by the people you surround yourself with. I have talked a lot about music and Djing. Music is like a treasure chest of lyrical dialogue. Lyrics are stories of love, adventure and situations. I find myself reflecting on lyrics of songs every day in life. With a strong family and supportive friends, you just have to believe in yourself and in my case, believe in the music and everything starts to fall into place.

I think that everybody in life should experience being their own boss. Living with your decisions and learning from bad decisions is really important. Being patient, kind and considerate was my approach to life and business. I have always trusted my own judgement and encourage younger generations to do the same. You are in control of your destiny if you can have foresight and belief. If you make the right decisions your business will grow and you will succeed. After 15 years I am very happy with life and business, although the reality is that I still have mountains to climb. The struggle and fight still goes on, there’s just less pressure with experience. Years of experience gained from mentors and people that had done it all before is a key factor to business growth.

In future years I hope to continue to drive forward investing in equipment and growing my business into a bigger and better version of its current self. Rockit supplies technical equipment and services for the events industry. We specialise in suppling sound, lighting, video, staging and power distribution for corporate events, marketing agencies and brands across London and the UK. Rockit was named after a Herbie Hancock record from my old school days and is a true reflection of me as a person. I went to see Herbie Hancock perform Rockit live at Hammersmith Palace back in the day with Grandmaster DST live on the turntables. This lived with me forever so it was only just that I named the company after that experience. ‘Big Up’ my Uncle Leyland for taking me to that concert. I hope to continue to grow, expand and give value to the Events and Music Industry. I would like to thank my family and friends that have supported me over the years. Thank you to musical mentors Norman Jay MBE, Trevor Nelson MBE and the late Paul ‘Trouble’ Anderson for being such an inspiration to me. Looking forward to many more successful years and creative influence.

ChrisBaxter

DirectorofRockitEvent ProductionLtd