Ashley Beedle 01/05/21

Referenced in Daft Punk’s song as one of the ‘Teachers’, Ashley Beedle first began DJing during the 1980s and made a name for himself during the heyday of Acid House.

In the early 1990s, he teamed up with Rob Mello and John Howard to form the first incarnation of the Black Science Orchestra, signed to the legendary dance label, Junior Boys Own. After releasing the seminal club classic ‘Where Were You?’, BSO’s production unit morphed and evolved with Uschi Classen and Marc Woodford and tracks like ‘Strong’ and ‘Philadelphia’ were released as well as the 1994 debut album ‘Walter’s Room’ and deep house classic ‘New Jersey Deep’. From there, his production skills went from strength to strength.

While working with the Black Science Orchestra, Ashley started another project known as The Ballistic Brothers with Dave Hill, Uschi Classen, Rocky & Diesel spawning the ‘Ballistic Brothers vs The Eccentric Afros’ Pt 1 & 2 EP plus ‘Blacker’ (a favourite of Prince’s) and the 1995 LP, ‘London Hooligan Soul’. In 1997, the Ballistic Brothers released their second album, ‘Rude System’ while at the same time, Ashley was working on a multitude of projects including Black Jazz Chronicles, Roots Revolutions
and Rising Sunz with Uschi Classen and Phil Asher. Running parallel with the Ballistic Brothers, Ashley was a founding member of the group X-Press 2, with fellow DJs Rocky and Diesel performing on 6 decks and 3 CDJ players. They scored global dance chart action through the 90’s and 00’s with tracks
such as ‘Muzik Xpress’, ‘Say What’ and ‘London Xpress’ and charted at #2 in the UK Top 40 with their global hit ‘Lazy’, their collaboration with Talking Heads’ David Byrne which earned Ashley an Ivor Novello award. X-Press 2 also released two albums, ‘Muzikisum’ and ‘Makeshift Feelgood’.

From the late 90’s onwards, Ashley continued to remix and produce, releasing the milestone ‘Grass Roots’ compilation in 1999 and between 2001 – 2003, Bent’s ‘Always’ + ‘Magic Love’ and The Streets ‘Weak Become Heroes’ all received the Beedle remix treatment. Ashley’s remix of Elton John’s ‘Are You Ready For Love’ catapulted the song to No.1 in the UK Singles Chart. In 2005, Beedle remixed Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” with Damian “Junior Gong” Marley’s “Welcome to Jamrock” to create the
mash-up ‘Stand Up Jamrock (Ashley Beedle Remix)’ which the Marley family loved so much they ended up including it on the Bob Marley compilation album ‘Africa Unite: The Singles Collection’. The track went on to chart at #1 on the Jamaican National Charts.

Since 2015, Ashley has been working as part of the ‘North Street’ remix/production collective with North Street West owner and musical genius, Darren Morris and Ramrock Records/F*CLR boss, Jo Wallace as well as solo remixes. In 2017, Ashley’s remixes of Stan Serkin’s ‘Save Me’ and Glenn Davis’ ‘Body & Soul’ reminded the international dance music community that he is a force majeure in the world of
remixing and production and his remix of Mama’s ‘Unmask Me’ was voted the No.2 best single of 2017 by DJ History and became the late, great Andrew Weatherall’s
theme tune.

Despite everything that 2020 has tried to throw at him, Ashley has already finished a plethora of projects
including a Bent remix, two Groove Armada remixes (release date mid 2021), Smooth + Turrell remixes, Lady Blackbird remix (voted no.1 remix of 2020 by DJ History) and the Glenn Davis ‘Special’ remix. As well as hosting his incredibly popular ‘Heavy Disco Spectacular’ radio show on Worldwide FM, Ashley has been working on his solo “Defying Foes” LP, plus “The House of Ashley”, an EP aimed squarely at the (virtual) dancefloors, the Afrikanz on Marz concept album and the reunion of the legendary Black Science Orchestra. X-Press 2’s anthem ‘Lazy’ ft David Byrne is featured in the Spike Lee directed movie ‘American Utopia’