The Secret Life of the Warm-Up DJ

Depending on how you look at it, being a warm-up DJ can mean a number of things. A foot on the bottom rung of a soon to be climbed ladder, a humiliating experience of having your great taste in music ignored, an opportunity to be part of a night’s great programming, or simply a clock-in, clock-out way to get some bucks.

Auckland-based DJ Barnie Duncan speaks to a variety of people who have paid their dues doing the warm-up set, including Tina Turntables, record shop owner and promoter Cian O’Donnell, and also finds out what it is like to warm up crowds of a different nature… like at a strip club, or a sports ground.