Welcome to the site of Charity Shop DJ

Celebrating who we are and the Music that has shaped us

On Your Bike: A Cultural Olympiad Project for Derby

On Your Bike is a programme of events hosted by Derby LIVE which will be underpinned by the motifs of community empowerment and interdependence. These motifs will be illustrated and presented through the provision of a cycle powered generator system which will power DJ and/or other equipment on stage in Derby Market Place.

There will be three events: 18 August (Film Day with Sinfonia VIVA and the Lost Boys), 25 August (Sports Day) - and the finale event, which will be held on 9 September to coincide with the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games.

Charity Shop DJ is presenting the finale event which will feature Some of Derby’s finest artists, who will be sharing the stage with people who have never performed before - members of derby’s diverse communities who will be stepping up to play the music that matters to them. All powered by members of other community groups who will be pedalling on the bikes to keep the music playing.

The event will be produced entirely from within Derby, and will involve voluntary community associations and groups, schools, sports teams, disability groups, and representatives from the city’s business and industry community.

Find out more here

Download pdf version here

On Your Bike Launch:  3 June 2012

Come to our Pedal Powered Party!

On the 2 & 3 June, we’re working with Sustrans, Electric Pedals, MisAchievement and a team of 20 volunteers to build a four-bicycle generator system in Derby’s Silk Mill. This generator system will become the On Your Bike cultural legacy – and will be available for schools and community groups to power their events and activities.

From 7-11pm on 3 June, we’re holding an experimental Pedal Powered Party at the Silk Mill to test out the capacity of the bike generator kit. And, we’d like to invite you to join us to celebrate!

We’ve got a really exciting line up of DJs including Soesmix Selecta, Mark Cunliffe, Holy Smokes! and sinfonia ViVA.

In keeping with On Your Bike’s project themes of community empowerment and interdependence, the party can only get going if you’re prepared to jump on a bike and generate the power! If everyone who comes along can donate 10 minutes of pedal power, the DJ’s will have enough juice to spin some vinyl joy.

The DJs need your pedal support to power the DJ decks; you need the DJs to play some incredible party tunes. One cannot exist without the other = community interdependence. There will be a bar, and we’ll also throw in some mischievous surprises along the way.

Please come, and please arrive early - we need your Pedal Power! And don’t forget your dancing shoes…

To get involved click here

Welcome to Death Island Discs!

Women & Theatre in association with Charity Shop DJ presents a lively & uplifting night of dancing to the soundtracks of our lives...

Wednesday 25 April 2012 at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham 7-11pm

“Everyone has the desire to tell their story, to let the world know they matter”- Charity Shop DJ

Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs is into its 60th year. The format is simple: a guest is invited to choose the 8 songs they would take to a desert island. For one night only, Women & Theatre in association with Charity Shop DJ, are inviting you and your mates to the first ever ‘Death Island Discs’ night.

You can pick, play, dance or just chat about the records you would want played at your wake. Rummage through the DJ’s discs and put on the songs that mean the most to you – songs you have laughed, loved and cried to – songs you’d want to take with you.

Come & have a dance to the soundtrack of each other’s lives.

This event is part of Women & Theatre’s development phase for a new project called 'Exit Strategy' about death and dying. Supported by Arts Council England, The Sir Barry Jackson Trust and The Bryant Trust.

Download Flyer here     

See some images here

Charity Shop DJ at Alchemy 2012

Charity Shop DJ is back at the Royal Festival Hall. This time it's the Alchemy Festival

Charity Shop DJ from Pixelat3d on Vimeo.

Sir Peter Blake with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Join us on a journey to a special place created exclusively for the Vintage Festival by Charity Shop DJ and Derby Museum.

A place for re-discovering the things which make us what we are. For finding the stuff which is often lost, sometimes forgotten – but always welcomed back.

 Down the Back of the Sofa is a special place in our memories. It was created in the big bar on the 4th floor (Blue Side) of the Royal Festival Hall, using museum artefacts, charity shop treasures and a little bit of mischief.

Featuring a specially built set from our inglorious domestic pasts courtesy of Derby Museum; a line-up of surprise guest DJs; Shakespearean Insult Swingball with 1623 Theatre Company;  Charity Shop DJ’s Unlucky Dip with visual artist Ola Wilson; Maison Foo’s Memory Gathering Librarians; comics under the bed, and the legendary Choose Your Cheese club nights.

 This is “Westworld with a happy ending” Mike Flowers, The Mike Flowers Pops.

Record players and radios; gramophones and ghetto blasters; nests of tables, chests of drawers, Smash Hits and broken Action Men. As you explore under the bed, on top of the wardrobe, in the far corner of a drawer, you might just find a little bit of your own past, hidden in the recesses of your memory.

Down the Back of the Sofa: “Sometimes you don’t know what you’ve lost til you find it”

Click here to find more about Charity Shop DJ at Vintage 2011

Charity Shop DJ at Vintage 2010. Find out what happened here

Click here for our exclusive interview with Wayne Hemingway, the man behind Vintage

Down the Back of the Sofa shortlisted for award...We finished in the top three! Find out more here

Artefact or Bric-a-brac from Pixelat3d on Vimeo.

Charity Shop DJ looks at how and why we value things. Find out more at The Vintage Festival, South Bank, London 29-31 July 2011. Join us for a journey Down the Back of the Sofa.

Welcome to Charity Shop DJ Productions

We are a production company based in Derbyshire, UK.

" What you do is facilitate understanding between agendas that think they are different. You make collaboration possible where previously it wasn't even considered. " Jonathan Wallis, Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

All of our work aims to break down barriers between individuals, communities, sectors and interests.

This is why we’ve worked across the UK , and further afield in India, Syria and Australia. It’s why we work with local authorities, museums, schools and universities. With festivals, businesses and voluntary organisations.

It’s why we do gigs, put on parties , run workshops, create venues, work in Parliament, tour international borders.

“Charity Shop DJ manages to be radical through the act of celebrating.” Jacky Fleming, Cartoonist, Guardian and Daily Mail.

Our work is about the power of people, and the power of dialogue and communication. Find out more here

“ You are telling a different story. It is a real story about real people. “ Tony Benn

Featured Links:

On Your Bike 2012

Alchemy 2012

Vintage 2011

The Big Disco at Derby Feste 2010

Vintage at Goodwood

Generations Together

100% Proof at the Harley Gallery

The Missy Tassles Page

Derby Record Holders

The Gallery

International Sessions

The Secret History of Popular Music

Talking About Old Records

The Flip Side of the 60s: Charity Shop DJ Goes to Carnaby Street

Charity Shop DJ is untangling the Secret Histories of the Sixties as told by the charity shops of Swinging London. What were people really listening to? How much of it survives today?

Psychedelic Suburbia at Vintage 2011

Read more here

A Unique Partnership with

Derby Museum Community Gallery

Creating Party Spaces and Showcasing the Museum Collection

missy tassles @ charityshopdj

Missy Tassles is a short film maker, model, illustrator, DJ, cook, radio show host, painter, collector of odd vintage miscellania, writer, maker of stuff, superstar and all round good egg from Sheffield. From time to time she will be sending us her cartoon diaries, doodles and musical musings which will feature on this very special part of the Charity Shop DJ website, the Missy Tassles page.

New Cartoon added - Wild Billy - check it out !

Go to the Missy Tassles Page

Tony Benn with Guantanamera by The Sandpipers

Visit The Charity Shop DJ Picture Show here

Send us your album cover re-enactments!

This is Derbyshire-based artist Arwyn Quick doing Help! by the Beatles.

Can you match that? Send your images to info@charityshopdj.com

Charity Shop DJ Gets High

12,000 km, 15,000 feet above sea level, the greatest Indian film soundtrack ever recorded, the highest motorable road in the world. For the full story Click Here

Kate Hoey, Labour MP for Vauxhall, with Tell me More by Nina Simone

Charity Shop DJ goes to Parliament

Find out what rocked the House

Parliament is in session!  Read more here

"Is there room in our hearts for the leftovers of our musical pasts? Charity Shop DJ is bringing back to life the memories locked in vinyl"

John Humphrys, BBC Radio 4 'Today' programme

Click here to see Charity Shop DJ on BBC East Midlands Today

Charity Shop DJ has teamed up with Dr Matt Connell of Nottingham Trent University to help bridge the generation gap through a shared love of music.

Talking About Old Records is an intergenerational music project bringing teenagers and pensioners together through a range of intergenerational DJ workshops, intergenerational music workshops, and performances. Read more

Read about Talking about Old Records in The Guardian here