DJ Ian Kennedy

08/05/2025

This man is an embarrassment to my family. Many people seem to believe that his opinions are valid, but all I can say about that is please don’t. Not only are his policies widely debunked but his motivation is dangerous. He’s recently been given the mandate he’s been seeking for over two decades, and his ideas are daft and counter progressive. It’s only out of concern that I’m posting this. Don’t believe everything you read or hear on social media, so fact check anything I’ve said.

19/08/2024

Absolutely one of my idols a a kid. What a legend. I just watched the documentary and highly recommend it

09/07/2024

Delighted to release my latest track ‘Floatin’ On’ which in all honesty is a remix/re-recording of the brilliant ‘Encounters’ by Nadia Cassini (1978).

I took the original vocal and re-wrote all of the instruments myself. It was a long process but so rewarding, and because I have such respect for the song, I couldn’t release my version until I was satisfied it would stand up to the original.

It’s available now on my Bandcamp page. Hope you enjoy

24/06/2024

Last night someone asked my why I’d stopped DJing, the first thing the came out of my head was this: because I don’t want to play the game anymore. I know that I want to focus on making my own music, and I definitely don’t want to have to turn my life into an egocentric and selective scrapbook, hyping my status to a predominantly uninterested ‘follower’ list, very few of whom even bother to come to the gigs I produce or DJ for.

This record released on Euka House in 2000, just arrived in the post, and exemplifies everything I’m trying to say. The track is the product of a few writers and producers who all sit comfortably at the top of the house music tree.

I love this record for many reasons. Firstly because it’s a belter, and secondly because it reminds me of how right I was back in 2000 not to have tried to throw my musical hat into the ring when I’d have been so novice, so freshman, so crap frankly, compared to these honchos and others like them.

It’s not arrogance to show who you are. If you can do it, and especially if you can do it brilliantly, do it. And it’s neither a fault nor a justification for criticism to care; but caring too much about oneself to the detriment of, or in disregard to others, is arrogance. The brilliant deserve to shine, and we should all appreciate the divine gift of basking in their rays of enlightened creation.

The truly great suffer more than others, because it is them, and only them, who set the benchmark to which the rest of us strive. When their humanity is laid bare for all to see, their inevitable fallibility played out in public, the emotional effects are devastating, and in far too many cases they are fatal.

This is why we admire life’s celebrated high achievers, because they were somehow able to deal with that emotional trauma and go again; but sadly, the majority cannot.

So let’s spare a thought for the people who were so brilliant, and so effortlessly human, that they considered being a disappointment worse than being alive.

When I’m done and dusted, if any of my productions brings even half the joy to someone that this one gives me, I’ll take that every day

12/05/2024

Last week I published a piece on Stephen Keenan, who drowned in 2017, whilst saving the life of his close friend and fellow free-diver .zecchini. Steve was an amazing man, and was represented beautifully in the Netflix film The Deepest Breath, which I only gathered the courage to watch about 10 days ago. When we were kids he was a source of inspiration and fun, like an older brother I never had. I wrote this piece and share it now, to tell just one more story of a life he touched. https://notesfrombalearium.wordpress.com/2024/05/03/save-the-last-chance/

01/05/2024

If you don't know Rita & The Tiaras... you're welcome...

track by Ian Kennedy

21/04/2024

Absolutely floored tonight by the news that has left us. Eren was an inspiration to me as a young DJ, the Sancho Panza parties at the Notting Hill Carnival rank up there with the best I’ve ever had the privilege to witness. And when I finally got to meet him on a SP boat party, and the day I took this photo, he was the most humble and generous ‘legend’ I’d ever met. And he was a legend. To those who don't know, it was Eren who put Candi Staton's - You've Got The Love with Frankie Knuckles' - You Love to make one of the best club tracks of all time.

I’m so grateful for his friendship and advice over the years. Can’t quite believe he’s gone. RIP Eren, you brought joy to so many people and have left us with timeless memories

19/04/2024

Bring The Beat Back - Duck ‘n’ Dive Records

19/04/2024

FONOTECA Music (FTR003) - Friendless E.P. Limited release of the B Side ‘Downbeat Mix’

19/04/2024

FONOTECA Music - Carbo Diem E.P. A Side released today on Bandcamp. Hope you enjoy x

04/04/2024

It’s a strange new world out there, at least that’s how I see it. Though it’s counterintuitive for me to publish these words, in truth I’m not sure how else I should express myself. I started trying to mix records, and spending ridiculous amounts of my money buying them, in the late 90’s. I like to say that it was then that I became a ‘DJ’, and that’s neither an exaggeration, nor a vanity play.

Over the last 25 years I’ve plundered even more money into buying music than I’d ever want to calculate, I embraced the advent of CDs and eventually laptops as the storage for my collections. There was a time when the new technology of digital music excited me, and admittedly I benefitted massively by building a far greater collection of music than I could ever have afforded were vinyl to have been the only option. But, a quarter of a century on, I’ve arrived at a conclusion: I don’t really care anymore about playing what I have, and apparently neither does anyone else.

It does feel fairly sad to retire; and to hang up one’s headphones is a comical phrase, yet that’s exactly what I’m doing, publicly and consciously. For anyone who’s enjoyed the music I’ve played, and the parties I’ve put on, I say: ‘Thank You’, from my heart. I only had one motivation, and that was for you to enjoy yourselves. To anyone who didn’t enjoy… well, there was always somewhere else to go. After a career of trying to organise (often free) parties, delivering quality music, I’m calling time.

If you collect music and want to change the world, I sincerely hope you succeed. My unsolicited advice is this: do the work by listening to all kinds of music; learn about the history; be yourself and don’t become the c**t who steals their girl/boyfriend’s music; don’t be the melt who constantly selfies themselves DJing; avoid adding spurious punctuation marks or removing vowels from your DJ name… honestly, who does that?; remember that you’re just a person who plays music and not a celebrity; and above all, play good tunes in the right order. Best of luck x

21/03/2024

I’ve just become aware of a Go Fund Me campaign for my friend . For many he needs no introduction, as with no overstatement he has dedicated a lifetime to playing quality music and sits right at the very top of the list for DJs to whom small timers like myself owe our opportunities and careers. If there is anyone who deserves some support from the global DJ scene it’s Alfie. So please give generously and share about. I’ve put the fundraising link in my biog.