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Clare
James
One of
the newest recuits and first female resident to
join the L'America crew is Clare James, age 29
from Newbridge. Since very young Claire has always
had a real passion for all kinds of music, shaking
her booty around the playground. Lets just say
it wasnt strange to see a very large group of girlies
following clares dance movements and singing,
getting ready to impress at the next (Primary)
school disco.
Throughout her later school years clare's musical
tastes were influenced by Madonna, Soul II Soul,
anything with a groove really! This was when
Clare became aware of Acid House culture wearing
cut off jeans covered in Smiley faces , thinking
she was the kiddie!!!
One of Clare's fondest memories of her introduction into the dance scene
was watching Alison Limerick performing Live at Pontllanfraith Leisure
Centre " Pont
Rave" in 1990.
June 19th 1992,
a blazing hot summers day was the day that Clare
claims to have changed her life. That day Clare
had completed her final GCSE exam and as soon
as that was over she headed off to the fields
of Magor, just outside Newport, where the biggest
dance event Wales had ever seen was being held, "Universe".
Clare was amazed at all the different genres
of music that had come together in order to create
this spectacular. There was hardcore, ambience,
girlies running around with buckets of sweets
but for Clare it was being outside with the sun
coming up listening to the sounds of John Kelly,
Judge Jules and Sasha. Clare recalls looking
up at those , what she thought were "Gods" and
thinking "that's where i wanna be one day,
gettin a groove on and entertaining everyone"!!
Anyway as time passed by Clare felt it best to
continue studying whilst enjoying the club scene
throughout Britain and abroad. Clare has been
a regular face at dance venues across the country
such as Marthas,Spice of Life, Escape, Lakota,
One Love (Brunel Rooms), Chuff Chuff, Renaissance
L'america and many more.
Between 1994 to 1998 Clare was busy studying at University
in London, Cardiff then going onto build a career, managing an Education
Consultancy and still finding the time to let her down and keep a finger
on the pulse in the club scence and on what local DJs were up to i.e
Neil Young, Craig Bartlett plus others.
It wasnt until nearly 10 years after visualising
the dream did Clare gather up enough coinage
in order to set herself up with the wheels of
steel and begin collecting vinyl. Since 2001
Clare has had the pleasure of playing house sets
in many pubs and clubs throughout Wales and Bristol
i.e The Secret Garden, OTTs, LAmerica (Baltica,
Newport) & Bar Ice etc.
However Clare's biggest triumph to date is becoming
resident for L'America, Wales No 1 dance night.
Throughout her sets you can expect to hear Masters
At Work, Blaze, Spen, Joey Negro, Terry Hunter
and many more. Clare's style is very influenced
by many female vocalists such as Jocelyn Brown,
India, Kathy Brown, Babs Tucker, Jill Scott,
Stephanie Mills etc etc. Take all these artists
and mix them up with sexy, strong, percussive
grooves and that would sum her style up perfectly.
Anything that gets the booty bouncing really!!!!
Alongside DJing Clare takes regular singing lessons
and hopes that one day, when she enters the wonderful
world of production that she will be using her
own vocals. Sky's the limit here and Clare is
really looking forward to learning new things
with the L'America team and progressing even
further with her music.
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