ORLANDO VOORN; rise of a superstar DJ

Dutch champion 85

September 23rd, 1985 saw the final showdown for the mixing championships in Holland. The finale was held in the studio of Dutch broadcastingcompany AVRO, hosted by Robin Albers. Albers was the big pushing force behind turntable mixing in Holland and was the creative force behind the AVRO mixing contest called "3 maal doordraai". Footage of the contest was shown on television through the show "AVRO's Top Pop" (if anyone has this on tape, please get in contact).
The 7 final contestants were Ulrik Saba, Jean Claude Mattimena, Guan Elmzoon (a.k.a. ALL STAR FRESH), Lex van Coevorden, Raymond Adriaans, Ruud van Rijen and a 17 year old kid from Amsterdam called ORLANDO VOORN. The jury consisted of Robin Albers (ofcourse), Peter Duykersloot, Ruther Kroese, Leo Cotino and "Godfather of Dutch mixing" BEN LIEBRAND.
After a display of quality live mixing, it was the kid from Amsterdam that stood out according to the jury, especially because his set was spiced up with some ballsy showmanship. VOORN returned to Amsterdam with 500 Guilders, a mixer and a contract for recording a 12" at Boni Records. But more importantly......he was going to defend the Dutch honour at the DMC world mixing finale held in London.

DMC world finale 86

March 16th, 1986; the world mixing finale was held during the DMC International DJ Convention, held in the Hippodrome in London. 12 national champions (USA, UK, Holland, France, Denmark, Spain, Norway, Israel, Switserland Sweden and Belgium) were going to battle it out on the wheels of steel. The jury consisted of John Morales, James Hamilton, Ben Liebrand (again!), PAUL HARDCASTLE, Sanny X, Les Adams, Alan Coulthard and one of the Three Degrees.
Dutch Champion was up for the 3rd set of the evening and showed up in a cape an wearing some crazy mask. After starting his first record he duck away behind the turntables to get rid of cape and mask and continued his set.
After al 12 sets the smoke cleared and the jury revealed the top 3 of the night:

1. DJ Cheese (USA)
2. Chad Jackson (UK)
3. Orlando Voorn

Alltough 3rd place was an incredible accomplisment, VOORN felt bad about it and grabbed the microphone of host Tony Prince to ask the question: "Is this a mixing contest or a scratching contest?". Prince was angry but everybody knew it were the heavy scratchers that came up 1st and 2nd that night.
DMC 1986 would go in the books as the edition that made the change from live mixing into turntable tricks in the years to come.

Enjoy Orlando's 1986 mix and a cool photo slideshow here:

Dutch champion 86

December 12th, 1986; the annual Dutch live mixing championships were held in discotheque Locomotion in Zoetermeer. Voorn defended his title succesfully against contenders Guan Elmzoon (a.k.a. ALL STAR FRESH), Raymond Adriaans, Ruud van Rijen, Lex van Coevorden, Huub van Dooremalen, Wilfred Hunsel, Ronald Links and Rene van de Berghe.
The jury was made up from Tony Prince, Ben Liebrand, Ferry Maat, Rutger Kroese, DJ Sven and Ruud Vink. They declared VOORN the new champ alltough it was obvious that Juan Elmzoon was knocking on the championshipsdoor hard!

DMC world finale 87

March 9th, 1987; the world mixing finale was held this time at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
Before the contest there were already rumours that the competition was fixed and a UK contestant would be winner.....oooh shit!
VOORN prepared a 10 minutes set, only to hear on the night itself the set could only last 7 minutes.....oooh shit!
The whole competition was a mess....most sets were ruined by technical faults due to the organisation. Suprisingly the sets by UK contestants CHAD JACKSON and CJ MACKINTOSH (....I guess they had 2 national champs??) stayed clear of these kind of difficulties.
To make a long story short....CHAD JACKSON from the UK became worldchampion (tricks with a poolstick and a rugbyball...) and the event turned out messy with a lot of politics. VOORN stopped competing after this.

Voorn hits the wax

After a world tour as DJ for MC MIKER G & DJ SVEN ( I guess Sven didn't DJ...lol), VOORN started producing some raptracks under the moniker DJ FIX that hit vinyl. Most notable are:

* Fixomatic - Hurt 'em bad (1988)

Please note that it's also VOORN who does the rapping on this release, NOT the other guy in the picture! (he played bass guitar I believe...)

* B.E.W.A.R.E. - Pick up the pieces (1988)

Nice production using the Average White Band song with a very young Tony Scott rapping. This 12" was brought out by Peter Duykersloot of the famous Amsterdam recordshop "Rhythm Import".
Check it here:

* Born Free MC - Olympic rap jam (1988)

RUDEBOY REMMINGTON already had left BORN FREE MC and was replaced by DJ BLACK BASS.

* Shy Rock - May the funk be with you (1991)

Great 12" with rapper SHY ROCK from Haarlem....I wish they had done more! Check it:

Around 1988/1989 VOORN also recorded a demo with MC TEN (of GOTCHA fame) from Haarlem using the groupname "2 BROTHERZ IN BIZNIZ". Unfortunately this stuff never saw the light of day as an official release. You can grab the track "Music from the lowlands" through this link:
2 Brotherz In Bizniz demo download

Orlando Voorn goes techno and conquers the world

Following a series of dancefloor tracks recorded for the now defunct "Lower East Side Records" under the monniker of FREQUENCY in the early nineties he was introduced to techno God JUAN ATKINS and went on to work with both DERRICK MAY and BLAKE BAXTER. In the years to come VOORN moved to Detroit USA and recorded numerous techno classics using an endless variety of monnikers. In 1994 he made a brief sidestep to his old love hiphop, releasing a very underground 12" with Dutch rapper D-WORD called "Top billin'".....I guess it was still in his vains.