Angel began her DJ career way back in 1991. One of the original female DJs in the UK who helped break the stereotype of what was once considered a uniquely male vocation, Angel has earned her place in the UK house scene’s hall of fame. Rewind to 1983 age sixteen armed with a fake ID and the desire to dance, Angel became a regular on Nottingham's underground club scene, which served up a selection of jazz funk, electro and soul light years away from anything she’d ever heard before. This led her to the Garage where Graeme Park and Allister Whitehead were mixing up the best underground house. After many years as the proverbial club-diva, Angel got a job as a barmaid at Nottingham’s legendary Venus. A year later she decided that she fancied a shot on the other side of the decks. Angel borrowed some turntables, bought a load of vinyl and spent the next three months beat matching until she'd taught herself to mix.
She delivered her first mix-tape to renowned club promoter James Bailie. On the strength of that mix he booked her to play at Venus on New Years Eve 1991 alongside a prestigious lineup and the rest, so they say, is history! Throughout the 90’s Angel’s feel-good sound of uplifting vocals, loaded bass lines and heavenly melodies placed her in strong demand headlining all the major house haunts across the land. A regular at the UK’s finest like Hacienda Manchester, Shindig Newcastle, Progress Derby, Miss Moneypenny’s Birmingham, Gallery London, Lakota Bristol to mention a few. Alongside playing on line-ups with the likes of Frankie Knuckles, Tony Humphries, Todd Terry, David Morales… and the who’s who of house music royalty, Angel earned a reputation for being a DJ that delivers. In 1994 Angel took up a four year residency at top midlands’s night Swoon. Her mixture of funky uplifting house soon built up a strong rapport with the Staffordshire crowd. As Angel's profile increased so did her demand and she was soon spinning at the hottest spots around the globe, from Brazil, to China, Latvia to South Africa, Dubai to Canada… Production wise Angel’s first outings were around 1993 under the guise of Masters Of The Monotonal Groove, a collaboration with Dean Marriott aka D Ramirez, on Liverpool’s 3 Beat records. After which she went solo as Angelheart and in 1996 and had a massive club hit with “Come Back To Me” featuring Rochelle Harris on London’s Hi Life label. She also produced many tracks under the name DJ Angel including a collaboration “Love Thing” with the late great diva Kim English. Nowadays she produces house music under Angel Johnson with releases on labels like Nervous, Let The Be House, In It Together, Lapsus… among others, as well as many releases on her own imprint Ocata Records.
A career in music which has spanned over thirty years, Angel is still going strong!
