Ben Liebrand [Grandmix] interviewed by Lenny Fontana for True House Stories™ # 024 (Part 2)

TRUE HOUSE STORIES™ W/ BEN LIEBRAND # 024 - PART 2
Ben Liebrand (Dutch pronunciation) (born 27 September 1960 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands) is a Dutch dance music DJ and remixer. He has produced for artists such as Forrest and MC Miker G & DJ Sven and remixed tracks by artists such as Michael Jackson, Salt-N-Pepa, Sting, TLC, Fun Fun, Tavares, Bill Withers, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, George Aaron, Rick Astley, SWV and Phil Collins. He has also charted under his own name, an example of which was Ben Liebrand's version of "Eve of the War". His radio show "In The Mix" was the first non-stop mixed show that aired on Dutch National Radio in 1983. Early listeners were Armin van Buuren and Tiësto, who have cited Liebrand as their main reason for entering the music business. "In The Mix" also spawned an annual yearmix with 100+ tracks called "The Grandmix." The first series of Grandmixes aired from 1983 to 1992 and later versions from 1999 on are also released on CD.
Liebrand began his DJing career in 1976 at the age of 16 with his mobile set-up, "The B. Liebrand Audio Studio", playing parties around his hometown of Nijmegen. Two years later, when he became old enough to frequent nightclubs, he moved from mobile discos to a nightclub residency, playing in "Juicy Lucy" nightclub (1978–1979). At this point, he was still letting one record play into another without beatmixing; however in 1979, he began a residency at "The Kwien" (pronounced 'The Queen') nightclub (1979–1980). During this time, Liebrand learned the art of mixing from Kwien resident Huib Luiten.
At his longest residency to date at "The Keizer Karel" (1980–1988) played a five-hour set each night after the club first opened. He continued DJing with his sister Rita Liebrand, at "The Hippodrome" Hennef, Germany (1990–1995). His last residency was in the club "Disco Inferno" (2000–2004). Ben is still active as a DJ having specialised in doing key-mixing on 4 Pioneer CD players simultaneously.
In 1997, Liebrand released "Funky Town" and in 1998 began negotiations with Dutch radio-station Radio 538 (an offspring of Radio Veronica), the result of which was the re-broadcasting of all the Radio Veronica "Grandmixes" the last Saturday of the month throughout 1999. The final intention was to broadcast a brand-new "Grandmix" in December 1999, a "MillenniuM-Mix", containing the greatest dance tracks of the century. Liebrand was invited to produce a mid-year summer Grandmix and an end-of-year Grandmix for Radio 538. On 31 December 2001, a three-part "Grandmix" was broadcast, followed by a "Grandmix Disco Edition" on 23 August of that year. "Grandmixes" were broadcast in the summer and end-of-year of 2002 and 2003.
In 2004, Liebrand returned to Radio Veronica for a two-hour weekly mix. He makes Grandmixes available in a new format on 3 CDs on his website and has his 'In The Mix' show on Radio Veronica.
Until 2018 Grandmixes were available on CD every year. Due to licensing problems which occurred through changes in the music industry in 2019, there was no Grandmix available on CD in 2019. Instead Liebrand changed the concept to a three-hour (2:59:33) long mix called "Grandmix Decade Edition" which covers more than 250 songs of the years 2010–2019. It was broadcast on Radio 538 and Radio Calletti on 31 December 2019 from 18:00-21:00. Listeners have been very happy with this mix returning to the fast mixing style of the early days of Grandmix free of any licensing blockages using all available material to the artists choice.
Source: Wikipedia

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