After Dinner Speakers: Seb Fontaine, Tim Berners-Lee, Lennox Lewis

Seb Fontaine had dance music in his blood from the day he was conceived in Ibiza - his mother is a semi-professional DJ. Growing up in West London, Seb’s initial musical development was stimulated by ska, but soon dropped out of sixth form college to pursue a career as a DJ. His first ‘proper’ gig was at Crazy Larry’s on the Kings Road, getting paid Ł30 a night to spin tunes for a typical Eighties ‘sloanie’ crew. By 1989, Seb landed a residency at The Fridge, Brixton, where he played mainly hip hop and rare groove, swiftly followed a year later by a residency at The Wag, playing ragga, rare groove and acid. Next came a residency at Subterania, alongside Norman Jay and Jeremy Healy. In 1993, Seb gained his first house residency at Glitterati at The Cross. Malibu Stacey was the next stop for Seb - a night he put together and promoted at the Hanover Grand with friend Craig Richards. As Malibu got more established, Seb got increasingly restless, and took to the road in a big way, focusing more and more outside of London, becoming one of the UK’s hardest working ‘motorway jocks’. At the same time, music becomes harder and deeper. In 1998, Seb was offerred a fortnightly residency at Cream, which soon became a weekly gig. In 1999, Seb took Ibiza by storm, with Cream at Amnesia. Seb Fontaine clinched the deal with Radio 1 in February 2000, initially to deputise for dance shows exclusively on Radio 1, gaining him the nickname ‘super-sub’. He also joins Radio 1 in its mammoth summer of live music at the major dance festivals, and at the station’s own Radio 1 Dance Parties.