Gabriel
Before founding Heatwave with Sam Lawlor and Henry back in 2003, Gabriel had played at and promoted nights in London, Bristol and Valencia. The early days of Heatwave saw it move around various venues in East London while Gabriel was resident DJ at 333's dancehall fortnightly CherryPie.
Gabriel started DJing in 1998, at first mainly hip hop and 70s dub, before being converted wholesale to reggae and dancehall in Spain in 2001. Upon arriving in Valencia for a 12 month stay and discovering that Spain's third largest city had no dedicated hip hop shop but did boast a recently-opened reggae store, Gabriel began buying 7" singles and became hooked. Under the name Xiquet, Gabriel founded More Fire Sound with Italian MC Montikilla, playing regularly at the legendary Juanita Club. Together with Henry Heatwave aka Mr Pannot, Danny Kingston, Julien Rihani and Twister, the sound played throughout Valencia and Barcelona and at the U-Zona reggae festival on the same bill as Buju Banton and Luciano.
Gabriel presented various radio shows from 2000-2003 on Bristol's Burst FM and Valencia's Radio UPV (formerly Radio Fí). As Programming Director and Head of Music at Burst FM alongside Station Manager Sam Roberts, Gabriel commissioned shows from DJs like Rob Ellis aka Pinch, Paul Rose & El Sid (Hot Flush) and Tapedecklee aka Paul STN and promoted the station's successful nights featuring the likes of Mr Scruff, Jah Warrior, Deckwrecka and Fingathing.
Since starting to write music reviews and features at university, Gabriel has written for publications like Undercover and SOS, worked as Dance Music Editor for Epigram in Bristol and currently contributes to Woofah. Gabriel began making blends and refixes in 2002 and has been producing original music - often alongside his brother, Myddelman - since 2006.
