At 15 years old Donovan was a dancer, winning competitions around the South-West. He started listening to mix tapes from Kiss 98FM USA and wanted to learn the art of mixing. As a teen he travelled all over the country going to soul all-dayers and all-nighters seeing DJ's work their profession. He also went to The Brunnel Rooms, The Horseshoe in London, Global Village, Slough Community Centre, Bojangles in Swindon a lot, and it's in Bojangles Donovan came across a DJ from the USA called Dave Bumford. Instead of dancing like normal, Donovan would sit and watch him mix for 2½ hours, grab the tape session and then go home and practice what he saw. Throughout the eighties Donovan built a rep for himself as a DJ playing at all-dayers in Birmingham, Preston, Swindon and Bristol as well as local radio shows under the names of 'The Baron', 'Don the Glove' and 'Quick Eddie'. During this time Donovan met a lot of up and coming DJ's, who are now at the forefront of their scenes, like Nellie Hooper, Daddy G, Tim Westwood, Brian G, GrooveRider, Simon 'BassLine' Smith, Fabio, JJ Frost and Wild Bunch to name but a few. In the late eighties as the underground scene started to take off Donovan was already a resident at The Brunnel Rooms which was attracting DJ's such as Carl Cox, Sasha and Jumping Jack Frost. It was here that Gideon (Fantazia & Obsession) heard Donovan's set and asked him if he'd like to play at an illegal rave in Stroud. Donovan played at 8:00am in the morning after EasyGroove to 10,000 people. From this point Donovan's career changed direction and between the late eighties and early nighties he was playing all the major raves up and down the country including Fantazia Summertime, Fantazia New Years Eve 91-92, Ektos and Raindance, Elevation morning after club at Busbys, Perception, Dance Planet, Obsession, Fruit Club, Die Hard etc under the DJ name Donovan 'BassLine' Smith. It wasn't until he was tagged by the Top Buzz's MC Mad P that he became Donovan 'Bad Boy' Smith. Donovan's drum and bass career exploded in the summer of 94 playing massive gigs to ravers up and down the country in venues such as the Roller Express, Elevation, Life, Utopia and the Astoria. At this time Donovan Bad Boy Smith also started to produce his own tracks with his first release being 'Obsession' released on Ruff Beat. It was then that he teamed up with Jack Smooth the then producer for Basement Records that he produced two tracks for Basement Records under the name 'Rough with the Smooth'; Donovan being rough and Jack smooth. His next project was to do another basement tune under his own name which was produced by Roger Johnson. As time went on Donovan joined forces with DJ Lee and Toby to help run the famous basement record shop for a while then was asked to run StreetBeats which had producers such as Photek and Peshay to name a few who were doing tracks for the label. This gave him a platform to start his own recording project with Reading engineer/producer Noel Newton which was to become Astral Vibes. This has seen Donovan earn himself world wide respect Fast forward to 2013, Donovan is still actively involved in the Drum and Bass scene using his wealth of experience to act as a mentor for up & coming talent in the local area and to help push the established record label DSM. From running the new label and listening to the masses of quality beats around at the moment, Donovan's love for deep and soulful Drum n Bass is as strong as ever. He also enjoys his own radio show every sun between 4pm and 6pm GMT playing soulful house the address is www.gloucesterfm.com Donovan Smith's DJ'ing career has been exceptional, spinning high profile slots such as the original 'One in the Jungle' show on BBC Radio One, Movement at Bar Rhumba, The Mass in Brixton and a Knowledge Magazine cover CD. Donovan is now a favourite of the GFM family; presenting his own show on home-grown Gloucester station, GFM 96.6fm. Every Sunday, from 4pm till 6pm; lock in to hear Donovan play the latest in sexy, soulful house.

 

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