Nick Hook

Nick Hook started DJing in the early days of the house music revolution. He recorded his first house track in 1990, and started promoting his first club night, Loosen Up, in 1991. Loosen Up became one of London’s most influential house clubs during the early 1990’s (check-out the Loosen Up website for a full history), and Nick’s DJ career took off accordingly.

He soon found himself playing regular guest spots at some of London’s top clubs, such as the Ministry of Sound, Club UK, and the Drum Club, as well a guest at top clubs around the UK such as Slam in Glasgow and Space in Belfast. Nick also started playing regularly abroad, and has now played sets in such countries as France, Germany, Russia, Poland, Ireland and Ibiza.

In 1995 Loosen Up joined forces with Whoop! and Nick became one of the resident DJs and co-promoters at the resulting club night, Whoop It Up. The club ran every Friday night for five and a half years, and became London’s most significant progressive house night, with guests such as Sasha, John Digweed, Seb Fontaine, Nick Warren and Timo Maas all playing alongside the residents.

After the demise of Whoop It Up Nick re-launched Loosen Up in 2002. You can now catch Nick playing at regular Loosen Up club nights across London at venues such as The Key, Infinity and Hidden, and DJ bars such as The Retox Bar and Rinky Dink. He also continues to play guest spots around the UK and abroad. And recently Nick launched his new monthly house club night – Loose – in Brighton, where he now lives.

Nick’s DJ style is to play the best uplifting, upfront house music, spanning funky, dirty, electro and progressive house styles depending on the venue and the crowd.

Nick’s recording career took off when he collaborated with Morgan King on many projects in the early 90s, the most successful of which was Soundsource whose track ‘Take Me Up’ was signed to FFRR and became one of the biggest club tracks of 1992. Together they went on to launch Om Records, which became one of the most influential early progressive house labels.

In the intervening years Nick has produced over 70 tracks (including remixes) for various labels such as Whoop!, Distinctive, React, Multiply, Limbo, Stress and DMC as well as for his own label, Off The Hook, under artist names such as First Life, Pleasure Box, Subterfuge, and Hook as well as, of course, Nick Hook. His many remix credits include artists such as The Grid, Gusto, Alex Neri and Saint Etienne.

In recent years Nick has been recording for Wallop Recordings, In Music, Segment and Inevitable Records. Look out for new releases by Nick under the act names of First Life and the Casey Jones Effect.