b. 30 August 1963, London, England. Oakenfold was active in club promotions from the early 80s and became one of the most successful DJs and remixers of the 90s. Having trained as a chef, he decided instead to pursue a career in music after he had been introduced to the decks by his friend Trevor Fung in 1981. He later moved to New York City where he worked for a number of record companies and regularly visited the Paradise Garage. When he returned to the UK, he worked for Champion Records, promoting Jazzy Jeff and Salt-N-Pepa among others, and later Profile Records and Def Jam Records. He also DJed at the Project Club in Streatham, London, and wrote a hip-hop column in Blues And Soul magazine under the name Wotupski. In 1987, along with Danny Rampling and a few others, he visited Fung and Ian St. Paul (who later helped to set up TIP Records) in Ibiza where he went to clubs such as Amnesia, which were playing a mixture of Chicago house, pop and indie - known as Balearic.
On his return, Oakenfold recreated the Balearic feeling at a few after-hours parties at the Project Club and towards the end of the year, with St. Paul, he organized a similar club at the Sanctuary in London's West End called Future - it became Spectrum when it moved to Heaven in 1988. Spectrum, along with Rampling's Shoom, helped to establish the underground acid house movement. Later, Oakenfold played at a number of the huge Sunrise and Biology raves, opened shows for the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays and later toured the world as a support act for U2. In 1989, he set up the label Perfecto Records and remixed the Happy Mondays' "Wrote For Luck" with his musical collaborator Steve Osborne. The pair have subsequently remixed for a variety of artists including Arrested Development, Massive Attack, M People, New Order, the Shamen, Simply Red, the Stone Roses and U2, and have recorded under a number of names including Grace, Virus, the Perfecto Allstarz, and Wild Colour. Oakenfold has compiled a number of compilation albums for the Ministry Of Sound and, in 1994 was employed by EastWest Records as an A&R consultant.
The label also became the parent company to Oakenfold's Perfecto imprint, after his association with BMG. In 1998, Oakenfold parted company with EastWest and his next mix album was released through Virgin Records. During the late 90s, he helped to popularize the trance sound and has become one of the best-known DJs in the world, graduating from house towards a melodic, commercial style of trance, particularly through his residency at the UK's Cream - which is commemorated on Resident - Two Years Of Oakenfold At Cream. In 1999, Oakenfold found his name in The Guinness Book Of Records as The World's Most Successful Club DJ, although the book's estimate of his annual earnings at £250,000 was laughably short of the mark. He was also voted number 1 in the UK's DJ magazine's Top 100 DJs in the world, and became Director of Music at home, London's new superclub. He released his first album of original material, Bunkka, in June 2002. The set included the worldwide hit single "Starry Eyed Surprise", featuring vocalist Shifty Shellshock.
