This post is also available in: Nederlands (Dutch)
In 2016 I had a chat with Henry Kicken a.k.a. DJ Kicken about the start of his career. “With two of my friends we were responsible for the music at the goodbye party from alimentary school."
“My first real gig was in the last class of my alimentary school in Stein, in the Dutch province Limburg. That was in the eighties. At that point, I was twelve years old.”
Goodbye party
“Together with two friends I was responsible for organizing the saying goodbye party of our alimentary school. This too place in the basement of the gym. I was pretty nervous, but all those nerves evaporated as soon as I took the microphone.”
Funky Town
“I remember very well that everyone was standing on the side of the room. I tried to change that by asking the teachers to come together on the dance floor. First we played Girl Crazy by Hot Chocolate. We continued with Funkytown bij Lipps Inc. This broke the ice and the dancefloor filled up soon.”
Partytent
“I already hosted my own radioshow in those days (see picture above). I got inspired by AVRO’s Toppop and the Veronica Drive-In Show. Both had been hired in the past for the partytent of the local carnival club. In those days tracks were connected by talking, There was no mixing involved and the audience was encouraged to dance their butts off.”
Dutch music
“Two years later, I was allowed to to my thing during carnival at a youth center in Stein. No-one told me that I wasn’t supposed to play Dutch music. I remember very well that I played Wat Ruist Er Door het Struikgewas (old Dutch song by Toon Hermans, red.), when someone from te organization came up to me and said: ‘On Limburg soil no Dutch carnival music will be played’. The man in question was subsequently escorted out of the youth center, hehe.”
Alcoholic Party
“Since then, I mostly play in clubs in the region of Valkenburg. Right now, the remix I made of the track Alcoholic Party is scoring nicely. On top of that I organize a few events with concepts as the Party Klopfer Tour and Kicken met Bassie.
“I’m an allround party-DJ who is allowed to play somewhere every week. These days I also vlog. Funny thing: I am the brother of Veronica-DJ Patrick Kicken. Sometimes people confuse me with him.”
This interview with DJ Kicken was originally published on DJMag.nl on March 3 2016.
Who is DJ Kicken?
Henri Kicken was infected with the music virus at an early age, partly because of father Kicken. This resulted in his first performance as a so-called DJ at the age of 8. At primary school he was allowed to play music for his classmates on Friday afternoons, under the motto: “What is your hobby?” The following year, DJ Kicken was asked to provide the music at a school party, which he did together with two friends. Only he dared to talk through the microphone and the others did not.
In 1981, DJ Kicken started his first radio station called Radio The FLYING DUTCHMAN 97.0 FM. In 1982 he started his Belgian radio career at RMC in Maasmechelen, where DJ Kicken had a program on Friday evenings. In the years that followed, he played at various Belgian radio stations, such as Maasvallei radio, Arcan Radio, Grafiek Maaseik, Radio Royaal Hamont-Achel and a small radio whose name he doesn’t even remember.
This all-round deejay has also been playing in discos since the 1980s. In the early 1990s, the tourist town of Valkenburg became his working area, where he worked for weeks every summer. In 1994, DJ Kicken became a weekly resident in Schinveld at the Meetpoint discotheek.
At the end of the 1990s, his first own productions became a fact because making remixes of old songs is still one of his hobbies! This resulted in his first single in 2002: I Wanna Dance With Somebody, a cover of Whitney Houston. He then edited Pennywise – Bro-Hymn, which is still a much-played party hit under the name Let Me Hear You. In 2004, together with Mc-q, he created Ain’t no party (Like an Alcoholic Party), which became the party hit of that year and even reached the top 10 in Belgium.
In the same year, the 4 Non Blondes were around to be remixed, under the project name: SALOU S.L. feat Joyce – What’s up. In 2005, DJ Kicken almost scored a Top 10 ranking with the remake of the evergreen Happy Together. 2006 is the year of new collaborations such as with Sonic solutions and Jude, which resulted in Nasty Creep and Walking on Sunshine 2006. The mix CD The alcoholic Party mix has become a fact with surprising combinations of well-known hits!