Since a move brought him to London back in September 2001, Rob Coley has been a semi-regular fixture on the capital’s dancefloors for near on a decade.
With an avid interest in music from his school days, Rob caught the DJ bug while living in Nottingham back in the late 90s. Soon after, a stint back in his home town of Leicester in 2000 saw Rob helm his first weekly residencies, with a soon to be insatiable desire for new and classic vinyl helping keep many East Midlands record shops in the black. Once settled in London and with a clutch of influential club nights now on his doorstep, he soon got inspired to try his hand at promoting nights in the capital and after a particularly memorable night on the dancefloor organised by the legendary London Whistlebump crew of the time, ‘Soul-Identity Music’ was founded in late 2003. With eclecticism at its root and influenced by the many revered DJs of New York and London Rob often followed, the fledgling site developed into a resource and (now defunct) radio station for those who dance to the beat of underground house and disco, hip-hop, soul, jazz and Afro Latin rhythms, always dipping into the past and present, while keeping an eye on emerging trends.
Over the past 10 years Rob has organised nights and held down regular residencies in a number of London nightspots, including Vibe Bar, Favela Chic, Proud Camden, Queen of Hoxton, Bedroom Bar and Barrio North, as well as DJing other notable events in the UK and overseas. He is responsible for the organisation and promotion of the Soul-Identity Summer Boat Parties on the River Thames, which after successful voyages headlined by Greg Wilson and DJ Format in 2009 and 2010 respectively, returned in 2012 with a house-inspired cruise featuring the DJ talents of Dan Beaumont and Nicholas.
Joining as a resident DJ/promoter of The Jazz Meet collective in 2009, Rob entered the world of live music promotion and can now be found gracing the decks of the Brazilian restaurant cum club space Floripa twice a month, alongside some of London’s freshest live jazz talent.