Keb Darge

Keb Darge (born 1961) is a Scottish DJ and music producer, in the genres of Northern Soul and Rockabilly music. He is credited with inventing the term "deep funk".

Darge has described himself as "a bit of a thug" in his youth. In his late teens, he "picked a fight with the only English boy in the town"; the other teenager beat him up, using taekwondo moves. Surprised, Darge asked him how he had done it, then began taking taekwondo classes. He eventually became a taekwondo world champion.

Darge began disco dancing in his early 20s, and entered in local disco dance competitions (dancing in the "northern soul style") in the North of Scotland. He made an appearance in the nationally televised 1979 UK disco dance finals. He also danced at the Wigan Casino, whilst collecting Northern Soul records.

Soon after he began dancing, he was DJing in Wigan at a club next to the casino, and around Scotland as well with his record collection throughout the 1970s.

At the age of 22, Darge moved to London, ceasing to be a DJ. Music promoters from then approached him, asking him to come back to DJing. He obliged, and gave the Northern Soul phenomenon exposure in London through his performances, bringing in people from northern England to London who were previously associated with Wigan's Northern Soul scene before it dissolved. Meanwhile, he worked in various jobs, including butcher's boy, window cleaner and delivering leaflets.

During the 1970s, his work in tracking down vintage funk and soul music led to friendships with American musical luminaries such as Isaac Hayes, Curtis Mayfield, Harold Melvin and George Clinton.

In 1987, he sold many of his Northern Soul records to pay for his divorce, but he had left over in his loft many other records of what he then referred to as "junk music" that he had picked up in the United States on his many jaunts to find northern soul records there and in the UK. This "junk music" would be the beginning of what Keb would later call "Deep Funk", having underestimated the potential of these leftover records.

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