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Rob Webster is a UK based Musician, DJ, record producer, remix artist and record label owner. He began working in nightclubs from a very young age at 16 in 1993 and has been releasing records since 1999. Born and raised in the city of Derby in the United Kingdom, Rob made his name with the 90's clubbing brand Progress as their resident DJ. During the 1990's he performed at venues across the UK and around Europe as a DJ and became a regular on the Midlands night club circuit in the UK.

Education & Early Life

Rob Webster grew up on the Sinfin housing estate which is located on the Southern side of the city of Derby. It was here he attended Grampian Primary School from 1981 to 1988. He then went on to be educated at Sinfin Community School from 1988 to 1993. In May 1993 he left school and began working in a local record shop called BPM Records on the Strand in the city of Derby. Like many school leavers during this era he was an apprentice for the YTS trainee scheme for £30.00 per week. Rob accepted the job and it was here he began to get heavily involved in the local music and nightclub scene.

Progress

During his time at the record shop, Rob met Russell Davison and Pete Wye who were the promoters and DJ's of the local nightclub Progress at the Where house club on Friar Gate Derby. It was here Russell began employing Rob as the lighting technician and general worker on the Friday and the Saturday night. After a few months of doing the chores at Progress on a Saturday night and rubbing shoulders with the big name DJ's of the day such as Pete Tong and Jeremy Healy, Rob was soon warming up on the decks and began performing his DJ skills to the crowds.

Within a couple of years Rob had began to build his name around the East Midlands and was soon taking up resident slots at clubs in Leicester, Mansfield and Stoke Upon Trent. By the end of the 1990's he had become a well known player on the circuits. Rob played as the Progress resident DJ until 2002 when he decided to end his residency there due to the club taking a more Hard House direction, whilst Rob wanted to go down the more Disco house route. During the years of 1993 to 2002 Rob played residency slots at clubs in Leicester, Mansfield and regularly toured the UK with the Progress brand.

The Boy Wunda and Chart Success

In the Summer of 1999 Rob produced a track in his bedroom which borrowed the string section from the intro of Madonna's hit single Papa Dont Preach [|Papa Dont Preach] After a short session he added some beats and sped the track up to 140 bpm. Feeling like the track needed an extra edge to it, Rob sampled the dialogue from the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest where the actor William Redfield who plays the character Harding speaks out aloud about his fears and paranoia's regarding his wife. This powerful speech fit perfectly over the build up of the original strings which ended up being a finished composition ready to perform within his DJ set.

The record was pressed up on 500 white label test pressing 12" singles through the Progress record label and as Rob was a resident DJ for Progress, handed a copy to Radio One DJ [|Judge Jules], who after a short period made the single one of his most played songs throughout that Summer. The record was in demand and several more runs of white label promos were pressed up and sold around the country.

Within weeks [|Pete Tong] had also picked it up and began making it his essential new tune, and a record label bidding war soon began. After several offers Rob and Progress decided that the record label Manifesto Records would be the one to sign to as they had an impressive roster of artists to which Rob could join ranks with.

Then the lengthy process of sample clearance and promotion began. The strings were replayed by session musicians to avoid copyright issues with Warner Bros who owned the original Madonna recordings, and the sample from the movie was rewritten by Rob and performed by him to avoid the same legal issues.

The record entered the UK official charts on the 15th of December 1999 at number 7. It spent 4 weeks in the top 40 charts and was also in the top 40 charts in France, Germany and Holland, and it also did well in Asia also. There was also an appearance on Top of the Pops on the BBC. SMTV which was hosted by Ant & Dec on Saturday mornings refused to air the music video due to the use of a straight jacket a syringe and the visuals of a mental hospital. This was viewed by the shows producer as being too unsuitable for children. The single has sold over 150000 copies worldwide and continues to be popular on streaming services.

Sugar Funk & Suite Art Records

In 2002 Rob set up the Suite Art record label which was a Disco House label. The label released 3 singles on 12" vinyl only with small pressing runs of 500 per release. The 4th release was pressed up on test pressing only and sampled the classic track Peg [] by the band Steely Dan [|Steely Dan], but the single was never released. Only three copies are known to exist of this record.

In 2003 SugarFunk released a three track ep on the Soulful Solutions label in the UK. The three tracks were recorded with Stacey J on vocals of a song Rob had written and produced called Real Love. The B-Side was recorded with Andy Holder which was called Velvet, whilst the third track was a cover version of the Kool & The Gang classic Funk record Summer Madness.

Area Social & Cold Rockin Records

In 2009 after a few years away from production, Rob began a new label called "Cold Rockin" which released Nu-Disco music and retro sounding House Music tracks influenced by the mid to late 1980's dance music that came from Chicago and Detroit. It was here he released a string of singles under the name "Area Social" and also released an album called "Taking The Dissgo" which peaked at number 8 in the Junodownload album sales charts in 2010.

RobJamWeb & Waxadisc Records

In 2013 Rob began the Waxadisc record label which was a sister project from his online tutorial You-Tube channel of the same name that produces electronic music production tutorial videos. The label was a new output for his RobJamWeb alias. This name change came about after deciding to release just Disco edits of old and forgotten classics, but this soon evolved into his own productions and gradually began to move away from the edit scene to focus more on original music within Disco. In August 2014 Rob achieved a number one sales chart position in the Junodownload charts with his rendition of Hot Butterfly originally by Greg Diamond and Luther Vandross. The track entitled Bionic Love was a huge dancefloor hit within the Nu-Disco scene and was the start of a 5 year run of regular appearances in the Disco charts. Rob had 3 more number one positions either as part of an album with other artists in the edit genres or on small e.p releases.

2015 saw Rob have his track entitled "You Know How" featured on a limited edition vinyl pressing with the Masterworks record label. In 2017 he released a best of album that peaked at number 8 in the disco album charts at Juno which was a collection of his finest edits from 2011 to 2017.

In 2019 he achieved another hit that became popular with other DJ's with his rework of the Techno classic Strings of Life by Rhythim is Rhythim. This was a Disco version called "A Disco in Detroit" that peaked at number 14 in the Traxsource Disco charts.

Calm Drama

Rob began producing Ambient and Chill Out Music was back in the 90's as a side line away from club music. This lead to many projects over the years which eventually lead to the Calm Drama project being born. After completing a music production degree in 2015 at Derby University, Rob had an albums worth of newly recorded material that he released as the first Calm Drama album online. This was entitled "Shadows at the edge" and was released on his own label "Traxscape Music" The album was a blend of Techno influenced music combined with soundscape and piano driven music but with an Electronica feel to most of the work. A follow up album was released in 2018 entitled "Sonder" which was an even bigger step into soundscape music and minimal Ambient productions.

In 2020 the third album entitled "Beneath the Surface" was released and this was a much more piano driven project.

DISCOGRAPHY

The Boy Wunda Everybody 1999 The Boy Wunda Unfinished Sympathy 2000 Atomic Kitten See Ya Remix 2000 Sugar Funk The Poly Bomby EP 2001 The Rhythm Masters The Ghetto Remix under Sugar Funk Alias 2002 Sugar Funk Real Love EP Soulful Solutions Records 2003


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