Savage's honeymoon

By STEPHEN JEWELL

While club culture has formed a backdrop for numerous films, no DJ has yet had their life story immortalised on the silver screen.

That may be about to change as Buena Vista is poised to make a movie based around the DJ episode of British television series Faking It, which involved seasoned DJs Anne Savage and Lottie teaching novice spinner Sian Evans the tricks of the turntable trade.

"It's hilarious," says Savage. "I can't wait to see what the film's like. I've possibly signed my life away. We'll have to wait and see."

When I ask Savage who she would like to play her good self in the film, she predictably answers "Madonna", obviously not having seen her Golden Raspberry-winning worst-actress performance in Swept Away.

"Faking It was a great experience. I've made a good friend out of it and it was great to see her develop," she says. "Sian had literally never been to a house club before moving into my house. I'd never met her before and we filmed the whole thing on our first meeting. She now lives in Belfast and DJs every Saturday night at a club there. She is still part of the Ulster Orchestra so she's juggling the two. But she's definitely got the buzz for house music."

Despite embarking on her DJ career only a month before, Evans, a classically trained cellist, easily convinced a group of industry professionals, including frequent New Zealand visitor DJ Elliot Eastwick, that she was the Real McCoy.

"It was unbelievable," says Savage. "It just goes to show that anybody can do it if they put their mind to it. To be fair, she had her records [organised for her test set] two weeks beforehand and she practised those records over and over ... she certainly fooled them on that night. Between me and Lottie, we did our bit. My part in it was taking her out and showing her a good time. She was actually living with me in my house, so I had to be a bit of a Hitler character to make her get the hang of the decks, but she loved it."

And, like Evans, Savage was classically trained as a child before discovering dance music in her teenage years. "I did classical guitar for eight years and then I joined a hardcore punk band when I was 15," says Savage. "That didn't go too well, but I've been collecting records since I was 9 or 10.

"I used to go out clubbing and I thought I could do a better job than what the DJs I saw were doing. I managed to persuade the local DJs to let me have a go. This is before house music. I got the bug and then house kicked off and that was it. That was me, that was my life."

Television is becoming a significant second job for Savage as she has followed Faking It by fronting a Melbourne-based episode of the BBC's Choice World Clubbing series.

"I was talking not just about the kinds of clubs that go on [in Melbourne] but also other things to do if you chose to go to that particular city on holiday.

"I had jet lag and Id been travelling for about 33 hours and I had to go horse riding, which I hadn't done for years."

So what can we expect from Savage when she plays the Staircase tomorrow night?

"I've got lots of new stuff that I'm playing on CD at the moment because it's so expensive to get acetates cut. I've got lots of new techy, funky, hard, uplifting tunes. Basically, all the usual stuff you get from Anne Savage."

Performance

* Who: DJ Anne Savage

* Where: The Staircase, K Rd

* When: Saturday May 3