Eddie Gordon

As a young lad Gordon passionately collected 45 single records of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, buying them with his secondary school dinner money from his school friends Mum's who "had a box of old singles from their younger days", he immersed himself in the different styles of songs A and B sides from the UK and the USA.

Eddie Gordon (born Edmund Richard Gordon; 9 February 1959 in Biggin Hill, Farnborough, Kent) is an English music journalist, producer, DJ and music business personality.

Born in Biggin Hill, Gordon was raised in Gravesend, Kent.

He was educated at Cecil Road Infant and Primary school in Northfleet, Kent and Northfleet School for Boys.

He then attended Gravesend Technical College to study Advanced Level English language and literature.

Gordon is married, and lives in Los Angeles, California

Aged 13, first brand new 7" (45rpm) he bought was Michael Jackson's cover version of Bill Withers hit Ain't No Sunshine, released in the UK in May 1972. Playing his collection at home on a Dansette record player, Gordon was fascinated by the song's, themes and lyrics of love; ability to paint virtual pictures; and how they resultantly engaged with the listener. Gordon's first DJing was in 1974 at the age of 15 in a Northfleet Church hall and later at 16 selecting music at friends parties

At 16 years old Gordon completed his secondary education at Northfleet School for Boys in June 1975, employed full-time immediately at Cosy Glide in Northfleet, an aluminium Door and Window manufacturer.

December 1975 Gordon left Cosy Glide to take up a previously held position as a Laboratory Assistant for the aircraft paint manufacturing company Dufay Titanine before moving in 1977 to work as a Laboratory Assistant for Britannia Refining Metals.

From 1977 to 1980 Gordon took evening classes at Gravesend Technical College to study O Level then Advanced level in English Language and English Literature.

A period of his life that gave Gordon the necessary education to later write weekly newspaper columns.

Early 1980 Gordon was employed by the Royal Mail and stationed at the main Post Office in High Holborn, London WC1, Gordon's last 'normal' job until taking up DJing full-time in 1982.

Throughout the 1980s Eddie Gordon was responsible for introducing the music for the Frank Warren Boxing Shows on the ITV channel with the boxers emerging from the dressing room to a fanfare of music to arouse the audience, which is now a regular part of all world championship televised boxing.

The events held at the Royal Albert Hall, London, were major ITV programmes of the era.

Also from the mid to the late 1980s Eddie spotted and supported the emerging DJ talents of Tim Westwood BBC Radio 1, Trevor Nelson MBE BBC Radio 1, Gilles Peterson BBC Radio 1, Norman Jay MBE, CJ Macintosh and Paul Oakenfold at his Gravesend club night The Slammer and in his weekly music column Sounds Spot in the county newspaper the Kent Messenger.

Starting out as a DJ and music journalist in 1982 in his hometown Gravesend, Eddie Gordon wrote a weekly column for the Gravesend and Dartford Reporter and Kent Extra before being invited to write a weekly music page for Kent's major county newspaper the Kent Messenger, a position he held from 1982 to 1991.

Nine years of weekly Gordon "Sound Spot" columns writing about artists from all genres of music to fully cater for the very diverse Kent readership.

From 1984 through to 1988 Eddie was regularly booked by major London event promoters as the support DJ for BBC Radio 1 DJs and Capital Radio DJs working in the big towns and cities of South East of England.

This was a rich period for Eddie Gordon's DJ career with various awards Gravesend and Dartford Reporter 'DJ of the Year 1984–1985', Radio Kent '1986 Club of the Year' with The Slammer, Kent Evening Post '1986 Club of the Year' with The Slammer, Kent Evening Post 1987 Kent Club of the Year with The Sleeze and in 1989 Eddie Gordon was Kent 'Music Man of the Year' – Kent Evening Post.

Eddie managed Pete Tong of BBC Radio 1 for 20 years from 1984 to 2004 and Jeff Young of BBC Radio 1 from 1985 to 1992.

In 1985, a local Gravesend DJ Pete Tong personally requested to be added to Eddie Gordon's DJ Management/Agency roster which included BBC Radio London's Jeff Young, Radio Kent's Rod Lucas and the UK Club DJ of the Year Colin Hudd.

Eddie's Agency was the first of its kind in the UK devoted to Radio DJs playing Dance music.

The Kent Messenger won the Weekly Newspaper of the Year title in the Regional Press Awards for 1988 and then went on to collect the title of overall regional newspaper.

It's one of the highest accolades for a paid-for weekly paper in the UK.

in 1999 Eddie set up the DJ Agency IMD Ltd with DJs Pete Tong and Carl Cox heading the roster with a vision of the worldwide stage for Pete Tong.

21 September 2002 Eddie Gordon was invited by USA Billboard magazine as the only European representative to co-chair a closed-room key discussion at the Billboard Summit in New York to discuss the threat of the new world technology to the traditional music business with 69 heads of America's record labels.

Eddie opened and closed his participation in this unique meeting by predicting that digital delivery would be 'the future' of the world's music business.

Eddie has moderated The Future of Digital Distribution at USA Billboard Summit in New York in 2003, attended panels as a speaker in 2004 and 2005 including a keynote speech at the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) – MP3 the Future of Music Promotion in Holland.

USA Billboard magazine DMS 2003 – The (Internet) Revolution will be Televised Eddie Gordon said that the 5 majors are concerned about marketshares, but they have to get on the internet and dance with the kids or die.

Winter Music Conference 2004 – Other Parties Future Music.

Michael Paoletta,.

Derek Graves, Seven.

Eddie Gordon, Debra Eriksen.

PlexiPR Party.

Steve Porter.

Betty Kang.

Hed Kandi Party.

Eddie moderated a panel at the first USA Billboard Magazine Summit in Las Vegas 20 September 2006 titled 'Across The Pond' "The iPod is the Elvis revolution but the iPod plus the phone will be the Beatles revolution."

EG quote at Billboard Magazine Conference, Las Vegas.

"USA Billboard Magazine Dance Music Summit 2006 – Las Vegas Wrapup Eddie Gordon (Music 2 Mix) predicted this on a DMS panel more than five years ago to an almost dismissive audience, stressing the importance of building an audience. A vision confirmed 7 months later by the unveiling of Apple's iTunes in March 2003, which is now largest music retailer in the USA. 4 Apr 2008. iTunes 'biggest US music seller' group Wal-Mart to become the largest music retailer in the US, an independent study has said..."