Ryukyu Underground

Bio: Keith Gordon

Keith Gordon grew up in Newcastle, England, and started Djing at 14 at local live venues between bands, at that time (1982) alternative music - New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen, Smiths. Soon started to play Hip Hop and Funk after Djing in a local nightclub at 16 along with an American DJ who had a very cool collection of old 70s funk/soul/disco classics that really opened his eyes and ears musically. At that time Newcastle was a bastion of Heavy Metal, Goth and Punk but had a renowned soul Club called Walkers where he managed to blag a midweek night and combine an eclectic mix from Punk and Indie to Hip Hop and early Chicago House into a longrunning highly successful event which saw crowds averaging over 1500. Over the next few years he spent his University grant promoting indie bands and Djing over the North of England getting fully immersed in the whole Madchester/ Hacienda scene. Inspired by the openmindendedess of those Europeans he met in Ibiza around that time and frustrated by the pigeon holing UK music scene he headed to Denmark where he lived for a couple of years DJing and doing remix work. Had a small hit in Europe with a dance cover version of 'Falling' the theme song from the Twin Peaks TV series.

He fled Denmark to evade taxes and traveled through South East Asia for a year, staying in Thailand and then traveling through Malaysia, Indonesia and eventually ended up in Australia where he stayed for 3 years. During this time he took a musical hiatus, going from place to place and shitty job to next shitty job. A chance meeting with an Okinawan led him to Japan. After a few years in the Japanese mainland he washed up on the shores of Okinawa in 1997 and began Djing and promoting various events in Okinawan clubs and occasional all night beach parties. It wasn't long before he met up with Jon Taylor and Ryukyu Underground made its first tentative experiments with two laptops and a tiny keyboard. He continues to live in Okinawa and thinks this might be the last stop on his world tour. When not teaching part time at a Junior High School he can be found pruning his extensive bougainvillea collection or stumbling around Okinawa taking photographs for the next Ryukyu Underground release.