An Interview with Steve Redman

…and how Michael Schumacher saved the day!

So, Steve how did that come about?

Well, I was working in Elverum when the well known Norwegian racing driver, Harald Huysman, who was by then a Formula 1 commentator for Norwegian TV, contacted me and asked if I would like to do a party for Michael Schumacher and his family at their Norwegian cabin in Trysil which was fairly nearby. It was 2004 and Michael had just won his seventh world championship smashing Fangio’s record of a mere five.

So, with great excitement and anticipation, Guy Harris and myself prepared for the big event and wondered what such a superstar, surely with a massive ego, would be like.

It was New Year’s eve of that year we set our sound equipment up in the Cellar of Michael’s stunning Cabin. Admittedly, my preconceptions about Michael were that he would be arrogant and a bit full of himself. I was wrong, very wrong.

Michael and his wife Corrine came and introduced themselves. As the night went on, we sang with Michael, I danced with his mum, we laughed with his family and it soon became apparent Michael was the most down to earth person you could have wished to meet.

I got his kids doing a bit of DJ’ing, we did Karaoke with Michael, who incidentally loved country music.

Michael usually had a firework display on New Year’s Eve, but that wasn’t to be this year, he had just lost his bodyguard to the Tsunami in Thailand and out of respect, they all just held hands quietly for a moment at 12 o’clock around a fire in the memory of his bodyguard.

We finished the night at about 3 in the morning and we were loading up the trailer with the sound equipment, when the brake on my trailer failed and it started sliding towards the edge of the mountain. At first, Michael’s housekeeper, then Michael, came out and saw me struggling, he grabbed me as the trailer was dragging me closer to the edge of the steep valley. Next, Michael came out, grabbed me from behind and told me not to worry, after which Micheal put a stone in front of the trailers wheels. Looking back it was hilarious, and I’m not sure how many people can say they’ve had Michael Schumacher grab them from behind and say “Don’t worry, Don’t worry” in a German accent. A wonderful memory.

Back in the early 90s you took over the IDEA brand from Paul Brighton, who in turn bought it from me in 1988, What happened, and how come you eventually turned to contracting chefs?

The Norwegian market started to implode quite a few years back. It was something I saw coming a couple of years beforehand. The authorities were making if it more and more difficult for anyone to make a living from the nightclub market, which was a shame, as there were some fantastic clubs around years ago. Back in my early years Hawk Club, Tromsø, ‘New York’ in Stavanger, Cobra Stavanger, Svalbard, were all some great places to play.

Svalbard? Was there life and music up there? Really? Must have been boring, I thought.

Boring? No way, seriously, it was the most fantastic place I ever worked. Longyearbyen is the ‘town’ with an international community back then (1990’s) of around 1300 residents, predominantly Norwegian but French, English and of course, there was the Marine Biology University too. It had a Michelin Star restaurant and cruise ships dock there. Svalbard (formerly Spitzbergen named after its largest island) is a thriving tourist destination. I was resident DJ there several times between 1993 - 1996. You worked from 10 m until 3 am and the night club was incredible, people very friendly and was a party every night pretty much.

It was the ultimate adventure playground, we’d go out in the day on snow scooters and watch the polar bears on the plateau. We were often invited out on fishing trips with the Police and other times we’d go kayaking. The whole of Svalbard is teeming with wildlife, you can get to see the Arctic Fox, Reindeer, Bearded Seal, Little Auk, Humpback whales and Puffins all in their natural habitat.

The first thing that hits you when you arrive in Svalbard is the stunning scenery, mountains and sheer beauty of it all. Your residence (and night club incidentally) was in a building called HUSET (Literally ‘the House’) and the first thing they give you when you’ve checked in is a hunting rifle essentially for scaring off polar bears. In fact, it is illegal not to carry a gun!

How did you get there?

Well, DJs had to make their own way over but the route was a flight from Oslo to Tromsø and then on to Svalbard way up in the Barents Sea. Something else you had to adjust to was the 24 hours daylight or total, relentless darkness. In the summer months, there were no nights and I had to place tinfoil over the windows to try and get some sleep. During the winter, one polar night lasts for three months.

Andy Walton was a great asset to IDEA in the day and really nice to work with.

In the late 90’s things began to change for the nightclub industry in Norway, with the government introducing VAT and even trying to enforce it on DJs at one point. This caused a few clubs to go under. Some of the good jocks to work with were Tony Clarke, Liam Roche, Dave Malatesta, to name a few, but there were a lot more, all of which had great reviews from clubs and good rebooking rates.

So, clearly, I had to adapt and change as well. We managed to change the company from a DJ agency into an Entertainment agency for the Cruise industry, which was the right thing to do.

10 years ago, I had the opportunity to start the second company, a recruitment company. This was difficult to run from Norway, as it was so small. So, we moved back to the UK with the intent of giving it a year and seeing if it worked, luckily it did.

I was originally a chef so when my Norwegian customers lamented losing their own chefs I knew from my own experience I could help them and it seemed logical to book them over there on similar contracts as with the DJs but through my recruitment business. This worked very well and I found there was a continuous need for chefs also in the cruise industry.

The Cruise industry is massive, Steve and well done you. I can think of at least two former IDEA DJs who were chefs - became successful DJs in Norway - then reverted to running and owning their restaurants; Chris Rowlands in Kragero, and Stig Fiske, probably several others too.