Allister is one of the hardest working DJ’s both in the UK and abroad.
His big break beckoned when Mike Pickering, then of M People, asked Allister to cover his DJ’ing slot at the infamous Hacienda club. Immediately the club offered a residency, as did Cream where the Whitehead following was born. Being the first guest dj ever booked at Golden, he then went on to achieve nationwide recognition playing at the Ministry of Sound, Gatecrasher and just about every other club in between. On the strength of this Whitehead set up his own club “Zero-G” in his hometown of Nottingham. Here he continued to draw crowds of 1500 plus, as well as numerous bookings to play elsewhere. His successes were made timeless with the sale of his compilation albums for Fantazia and Ministry of Sound going Gold and Silver.
However, his talents don’t stop there. Whitehead is a skilled and respected producer and remixer. His remix of Gala’s “Freed from Desire” was the catalyst to the track selling over 500,000 copies across the UK alone, spending weeks at No1. Released previously the record only charted at No87. With Allister’s skill “Freed from Desire” became the biggest selling record in France of all time. He has also worked with the likes of Martha Walsh, Natalie Imbruglia and Robbie Williams and following these achievements released a couple of tracks on his own record label “Sporting”. His first release Blackheadz ” Saturday Night” got fantastic feedback, with high chart ratings in the press as well as from fellow Djs. His second release sold out within days. Following this, Whitehead was required to remix Rainstar’s “Breakdown” for WEA records, which rocketed to the number 3 slot in the Hype chart. Other remixes have included his legendary IRS vs John Paul Young “I Love You Baby”, and more recently “Let the Music (Use You)” released on Toolroom Records. This collaboration with the 90s No1 selling artist Errol Green has been a huge club hit, achieving a No1 position in the Buzz Chart and a top 3 positions in the Hype and Miami Hype Charts. It has been played constantly at Radio 1, particularly by Tong, as it recently featured at No1 in his personal chart.
The last year has been one of the busiest yet for Allister. He was asked by Bacardi to be the producer to remix the House entry in their Bacardi DJ competition. The remixed track went on to win the entire competition (out of 12 finalists and 4,000 entries). Bacardi then sponsored the release in July of Allister’s record ‘Heaven’ on Toolroom Records and the winning Bacardi DJ track was featured on the B-side. A trip to the Miami Music Conference followed the competition where he was promoting his forthcoming releases ‘Heaven’ and ‘Blu Car’ (Phonetic Recordings). This brought him to the attention of Ambush (dance imprint of Simon Fullers 19 Entertainment, responsible for The Spice Girls, American Idol, The Beckhams, Will Young etc…), who immediately signed Allister up for his production work.
Heaven was released in July to huge success with Toolroom receiving record feedback from the industry (95% positive) and continues to be a staple in many DJ’s boxes. ‘Blu Car’ was released in October and achieved high chart ratings all over including the Coolcuts.
The production success has continued with the release of ‘Blame’ featuring Gerideau under the guise of ‘The Holy Rollers’ on ATFC’s label Onephatdeeva and several upcoming releases on Ambush’s label ‘Blu Bamboo’.
Allister has also been busy in the studio working on remixes with studio partner Michele Chiavarini. Amongst other things Michele is Dave Lee’s keyboardist and has written for Pavarotti. Over the last 12 months they have remixed the likes of Lemar, Mutya Buena (solo since leaving the Sugababes), the Sohodolls and the Bhangra Knights. They are currently working on a remix for Intra Records and their follow up single with Gerideau.
Allister continues to be one of the hardest working DJ’s both in the UK and abroad having just completed his busiest December ever. Recent gigs include Cream, Fantazia (7,000 people), Godskitchen , The Gallery, 360 (Dubai) and Attica (Singapore).
