All of our tutors are actively working within the
music business and have proven track records. This ensures our students
get the most professional and practical tuition available. See for
yourself....
Dave 'Deptford' Pine Head of Music College
Deptford's long list of credits as an engineer and/or producer includes Leftfield, Massive Attack, Neneh Cherry, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, The Smiths, Erasure and many more. This leaves him in an excellent position to pass this knowledge on to you with practical experience to back it up. He coordinates the courses at management level and has been instrumental in putting into action Point Blank's pioneering teaching techniques.
Lucy Ambache Radio DJ/Tutor As well as teaching here at Point Blank, Lucy DJs at Choice FM daytime and evenings. Lucy has worked closely with many exciting acts, including, un-cut, Shy FX & T Power, Jaheim, Eric Benet, Vikter Duplaix and Hospital Records. Her on-air experience has seen her working with top artists including LTJ Bukem, Adam F, Bryan G, De La Soul, Misteeq and Damage, as well as celebrities such as Ken Livingstone, Ben Elton and Ian Wright.
Dave VJ Guest Tutor Gone are the days when Club DJs and Radio Broadcasters were two different things. In the competitive commercial radio environment of today being a personality is not enough. Dave VJ represents a new breed of radio DJ that handles both the music and the broadcasting complete with a big personality!
Dave is on Choice FM five days a week with ‘Dave at Lunchtimes’. During his career he has interviewed the biggest names in the business including Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Fugees, Will Smith and Beverley Knight. He is a perfectionist and says that he is still finding his feet as a broadcaster and has some mountains to climb in perfecting the art of his craft, and he loves music and guest lecturing here at Point Blank.
Ian McKenzie Music Production Tutor
Ian is the man behind Dub Conspiracy, scoring the Top 10 hit 'Freak Like Me' in 2000. He has also produced numerous house & garage projects including Garage anthems 'Dinamite' and 'Mr Big'. Remix/ production credits include Pink and Shola Ama. Ian has played live and recorded for Depeche Mode, Dexy’s Midnight Runners and Edwin Starr, and is currently playing with a band called Groovejam which features members from the Brand New Heavies and Primal Scream. He plays drums, keyboards, bass & lead guitar and has just finished recording an album for Sony for one of Point Blank's youth projects.
Danny Lewis Music Production Tutor
Since his debut single, the club chart number one and national top 30 hit 'Spend the Night', Danny has been supported by the likes of MAW, Giles Peterson, David Morales, Kenny Carpenter, Todd Edwards, Todd Terry, Danny Rampling and the Dreem Teem to name a few. As well as teaching at Point Blank, Danny is currently working on Future Jazz and Urban projects including the acclaimed Spiritual South act as supported and championed by Giles Peterson.
Ben Bristow DJ Tutor Mr Bristow has been DJ ing for over 8 years. He reached the regional finals of the Daily Telegraph's Juice DJ competition twice whilst studying Music Technology at degree level and has since played out in clubs across London, including The Aquarium, The Medicine Bar and The Marquee as part of the band 1 i Bear, which boasts members of the Brand New Heavies & Dub Conspiracy. He has supported many well known acts including The Freestylers & DJ Yoda.
Tanya Holland Radio Tutor When she is not teaching students at Point Blank, you’ll find Tanya at the world famous BBC Radio 1 studios in London. As Operations Assistant, she’s responsible for the smooth running of the studios and the stations play-out system and during her five year career in radio, Tanya has worked with Trevor Nelson, Zane Lowe, Spoony and many others. If you’re looking for insider info on producing a slick, professional radio show then this kind of experience is invaluable.
JC Concato Music Production Tutor
JC Concato brings to his students vast experience and expertise from current and previous projects which include sound engineering and producing for Allister Whitehead, Big cheese all stars, Bim Sherman, Bjork, Conner Reeves, Dag, Earthling, Erasure, Galliano, Indochine, Intik, In Vivo, Normangaby, Oedipussy, Omar, Pressure drop, Raggatwins, Renegade sound wave, Take that, TFI Friday, The Cure, The dust junkies, Urban species, Us3, Watts prophets. He has also remixed the following:Flux -The Last conversation, Kid Loco - Love me sweet -, Portishead - only you, Preachers from another planet - LSD
Receiver - Santa Maria, Us3 - Get out
Danny McMillan Music Production Tutor
Danny McMillan has been producing and DJing in the progressive dance scene for over ten years and is now considered a "pioneer" of the UK breaks scene. His DJing takes him all over the UK, Australia, America and the Far East. He hosted Kiss FM’s weekly breakbeat show and presents the annual Breakspoll Awards at Fabric alongside Radio One’s Annie Nightingale. As a producer he has been responsible for many of the genre’s defining moments including releases as Uptown Connection, Boundarie Hunters and Mcmillan & Tab. He was label manager at Rennie Pilgrem’s TCR records before founding his own label In-Flight Recordings. http://www.in-flightrecords.co.uk
Ian Button Rock Music Production Tutor
For the last 9 years Ian has been playing, recording and writing for Death in Vegas, including work on collaborations with Iggy Pop, Liam Gallagher and Paul Weller. Outside of Death in Vegas Ian has worked for all the top artists inlcuding Arthur Baker, Dot Allison and Brandon Block and has amassed a formidable wealth of experience in the music industry - all of which he's keen to pass on to you!
Anna Kiss DJ Tutor
Resident DJ in Ayia Napa in summers 2001 & 2003, playing at UKG, DnB & House nites in most of the clubs. - Weekly radio shows on 2 UKG Award winning stations; Freeze 92.7fm & www.majorfm.com - Has played many venues in London and as far afield as Aberdeen. International venues include Manheim, Germany & Warsaw, Poland. Update on activity: - currently in the studio producing first UKG track.
Dave Sloly Radio / DJ Tutor
David is the Breakfast Show producer for Choice FM and DJs all over the world. Equally comfortable teaching both our DJ and Radio courses, he has also written the excellent ‘DJ Techniques’ and ‘Extreme MC’ books for Point Blank, published by Sanctuary.
Steve Hillier Songwriting Tutor As a founder member of the band Dubstar,Steve wrote eight of the bands nine Top 40 singles and sold over half a million records in the process. He has subsequently contributed to songwriting projects for artists including Tom Jones, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Sugababes and Natalie Imbruglia. Steve also co-wrote and played on Mark Owen’s Top 5 single “Four Minute Warning” which stayed in the UK top 40 for 7 weeks.
Steve Travell Music Production Tutor
Steve's music training began at the legendary Townhouse Recording Studios, where he worked with the biggest names in the business including Queen, Phil Collins, John Martyn and Simple Minds. Since then he's been engineering, producing, remixing, DJing and releasing records around the globe working with artists as varied as Phats and Small, Artful Dodger and Shaggy.
Erran Baron-Cohen Songwriting Tutor Multi instrumentalist/producer Erran is founder member of “world fusion beat scientists” Zohar. Signed to Miles Copeland’s Ark 21 label, their album “one.three.seven” was released worldwide in 2001 to critical acclaim and supported with extensive touring including appearrances at Homelands, Glastonbury, Womad and international gigs in the USA, Bali, France, Greece, Turkey, Israel, Hungary and Latvia. Production and writing credits have included collaborations with Grammy award winning producer Narada Michael Walden, legendary Buddha Bar DJ Claude Challe. Martika’s Kitchen, and some of the worlds greatest Middle Eastern vocalists including, Algerian legend “King of Rai” Khaled. Erran has had extensive experience in both touring and studio session work, and has worked with many well known bands including; Incognito, Sister Sledge, Terry Callier, Larry Adler, Mike Pickering(M People), Matt Cooper(Outside) and many others.
Phil Ramacon Keyboard skills Tutor Phil is a hugely experienced musician who has performed with everyone from Jamelia to reggae legends Bob Marley and Jimmy Cliff. He co-wrote “Buffalo Stance” with Neneh Cherry which was nominated for both an Ivor Novello award and a Grammy. He’s also done extensive remix and production work and is a very experienced music teacher at diploma and degree level.
Rickardo Reid Songwriting Tutor Rickardo has played keyboards with internationally successful bands including Raw Stylus and Kreuz and lent his writing, production and remix talents to a wealth of other artists. Among them are Destiny’s Child, Mica Paris, Mariah Carey, Craig David, Mary J Blige and Miss-Teeq. This kind of experience is invaluable in helping students to get creative with their songwriting and production and exploring the workings of the music industry.
Amit Bajaj Music Production Tutor
Amit Bajaj has been a full time producer for over 5 years. His list of credits include remixes for Jon B, Timbaland & Magoo, Craig David, Nitin Sawhney as well as production credits on Jay Sean's debut album "Me Against Myself" and Juggy D's self titled Album all under the pseudonym "Mentor".
DJ 2Tall DJ Tutor A former member of the Truesicians crew (UK DMC Team champions 2003), 2tall has risen to gain respect as a producer and turntablist of enormous skill and originality. If you've not already seen 2tall live (he recently supported the X-ecutioners when they hit London) or heard him on the radio (most recently appearing on Radio 1's "One World" show dropping his live turntable music showcase) then be sure to look this guy up: his live skills switch things up again to showcase all that can be done, 100% live, on 2 decks, a sampler and some FX. Truly unmissable stuff.
Ellis Dee Music Production Tutor When it comes to rockin' a party there's few DJs with more experience than Ellis Dee. From massive outdoor raves to dingy basement dives, he's been doing the business for well over a decade now, yet he's still searching out fresh music and is just as committed to injecting passion and energy into the dancefloor.
DJ No Names DJ Tutor DJ NoNames has been spinning for over 8 years and is a member of two of the leading crews on the UK hip-hop scene. Foreign Beggars are winners of best single and best group at the 2005 Lyric Pad Hip Hop Awards. An awesome live act, they have supported Public Enemy, Roots Manuva, Taib Kweli, Ty, Masta Ace, Grand Master Flash, Wu Tang, SkinnyMan, Blak Twang, Ja Rule and many more. He’s also a member of Focused Few, a full live band, currently ripping it up at venues across London including Cargo and Jazz Cafe. Focused Few are currently working on their second single, and the second album from the Beggars is to be released in July 2006. In the meantime here's an exclusive snippet from his forthcoming mixtape Beggars Brew, with Nonames and beatboxer Shlomo, back to back
Kary Stewart Radio Production Tutor Kary has worked for Radio 1 and 1Xtra and made documentaries for US College Network, BBC World Service, Guerrilla News Network and more. In 2005 she set up the online youth radio station Xstreameast in East London. She has also presented regularly on Xstreameast and Ministry of Sound Radio and has experience with video, radio, print and online media. If you’re very lucky you might even catch her DJing under her Chika moniker.
