A WELL-KNOWN Bradford DJ is making a come back spinning discs and inspiring younger generations.

Jerry ‘Red Dred’ Crawford, from Wapping Road, is about to return to a city centre club after a 20-year gap to entertain Friday and Saturday night crowds with tunes from the present day to James Brown, Lee Scratch Perry, Motown greats, Bob Marley and Northern soul classics.

The 56-year-old will be getting the former Love Apple, now Deja Vue, on Great Horton Road close to the Alhambra Studio, back in the groove along with fellow DJ Trevor Smith.

As well as getting the party started at Deja Vue, he is also about to open his own training recording studio in the New Year in the Legrams Lane area, funded by his own savings and a number of community backers.

He had worked at MAPPA Community Centre in West Bowling as a youth worker, running the studio there until council cuts cost him his job.

“It’s good to be back. I got a kitchen porter’s job for a couple of years but this is what I wanted to do. I wanted to take up what I had to leave behind at MAPPA.

“Music is a universal language and I want to give as many people the chance to speak it as possible. It’s a great way of expressing yourself and it boosts confidence. There’s a lot of people out there who could do with that kind of help. I’ll be putting on training courses so people can learn the craft.”

Mr Crawford has been A DJ and events promoter for more than 30 years, starting out at Bradford’s early pirate radio station Paradise City Radio and then working at Livestock Records in Morley Street, which was Bradford’s first ever dance music shop.

He went on to set up Bradford’s first dance all-nighter with KAOS and SOAK which went on to become Up Yer Ronson and he became a champion of underground acid, house, garage and breakbeats.

And in the 1990s, he set up the city’s first community recording studio at Bradford Community Arts running successful music production and DJ mixing courses for the first time to the district.

Other involvements have been with BCB Radio, Bradford’s Youth Service and the Prince’s Trust. He puts the likes of Dynamo, who used to showcase his latest tricks outside Bradford clubs, and Prince Charles, who he met while at MAPPA, as just some of the well-known figures he has met through music including Public Enemy, the Three Degrees, Pete Waterman and Terrence Trent Darby.

“That’s what music does. It breaks down barriers and gets people connected,” he said. Mr Crawford is still looking for more sponsors for his Legrams Lane venture. Anyone interested can contact him on 07561 807564 or by emailing jerrycrawford1@icloud.co,.

His new weekend spot at Deja Vue starts this Friday. He said: “I’ll be championing the cream of funk, soul, rare groove, reggae, lovers rock, dub, Northern soul, old skool hip hop and r&b. It’s going to be a musical explosion. We know how to get the party started. We were pioneers of the original weekend vibe, long before digital downloads and iTunes turned it digital.”

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