Jeff Dexter (DJ)

Jeff Dexter (born 1946) is a British disc jockey (DJ), club promoter, record producer and former dancer, who rose to prominence in the mid-1960s as the resident DJ at the influential London club Middle Earth. He is closely associated with the Mod scene and popularising The Twist in England.

Dexter was born in Lambeth Hospital, and his upbringing was in Newington Butts, close to Elephant & Castle, moving to Camberwell Road when he was ten years old.

The first record that Dexter bought was Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955 or 56. It was a 78 that he got from the A1 Records stall at East Street Market. Dexter had to visit friends in order to play the record as his family didn't have a gramophone.

Dexter has been interested in clothing and style from a young age, influenced by his mother and brother, and as a boy joined the Sea Scouts and the Boys Brigade so that he could wear the uniform. He did dressmaking and tailoring which made him popular with girls which he enjoyed. Often he was the only boy at some of the places where he mixed.

When he was fourteen, some of the girls that Dexter knew asked him to go to the Lyceum, but Dexter later recalled: "I was 4’ 8 1/2” at the time, and probably looked about 11. How could I [have] got to the Lyceum? I had all the clothes; I had every piece of equipment to look like I was a grown up, but I had this tiny little face and tiny little frame." Finally, he managed to become a member in August 1961, aged 14, by saying that he was 16. It was there that he first met the DJ Ian Samwell, and they soon became firm friends.

In 1959, Dexter became friends with a 12-year-old Mark Feld, who later became known as Marc Bolan and they used to visit the Lyceum together. Both had trouble gaining admission due to being small for their age, which they made up for with plenty of "front" and nice clothes. Neither could afford to buy expensive suits, so they would visit the children's department of high street shops like Woolworths and C&A and adapt the clothes themselves with help from friends.

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