This interview is with the real Diddy. Not the hip-hop guy, Sean Puffy Combs who changes his name every year or so, but the brilliant Hi-NRG producer/DJ who made "Give Me Love" and did all those incredible Blondie remixes. A tragic accident in 2001 slowed him down for a little while, but he is back on his feet with a successful club Megawoof, a new record label, and several new productions.

DJ Ron Slomowicz: So let's just start at the beginning, where did the name Diddy come from?


Diddy: The name comes from junior school when I was very, very, very small – Diddy means small.

DJ Ron: Were you a DJ first of a producer/remixer first?
Diddy: I was a singer/songwriter first and then I had a sort of 70s band. I found clubbing and I started writing dance music when I was preparing for the club Trade. About seven years later, I started DJing.

DJ Ron: So "Give Me Love" is seen as your debut dance single. When you wrote the song did you have any idea it would become as big as it would?
Diddy: Yes, when I wrote it. It was the second thing I'd done and I wrote the main riff by accident one evening, just sitting and playing around. I knew it was so good that I didn't dare touch it, I just stopped. I was really excited and the lyrics were fantastic. I wouldn't have a go at it for the next few days and I had a little think about it and then I thought well I've got to finish it, I can't just leave it at that bit, so I just started writing the rest of it.

DJ Ron: From the success of "Give Me Love," you became a very in-demand remixer.

How did you get involved with the Blondie project?
Diddy: Oh, the Blondie thing happened because I was out clubbing I'd bumped into someone from Chrysalis who was introduced to me and he was a big fan of "Give Me Love." He'd got this idea in his head because he loved Blondie and he loved "Give Me Love" and he wanted to put the two together. He came up with this project to do Atomic, and it just kind of took off.

DJ Ron: Then "Atomic" became a club hit, and you did two or other three Blondie songs.
Diddy: I did "Heart of Glass," which actually in Britain was bigger than Atomic. Then I did "Union City Blue." They decided after the one they thought well we'll do another, and then after that they thought well we'll do a whole album, so I did a third of the album with remixes.

DJ Ron: During that time, '95 and '96, you were sort of a go-to guy for all the big UK pop dance records. What about your sound really made those pop records sound so good?
Diddy: We moved away from ordinary pop and rock music when the rave thing happened and the the underground house scene sort of took off. Then suddenly there was this kind of resurgence and we could put vocals back in and they worked really well. We sort of pulled two different crowds together – the underground people and the people who just love clubbing anyhow. It was just of the moment, a big room sound and I was just sort of riding that crest at that time.

DJ Ron: Looking at your discography, I notice how it sort of takes a break in about 2001. Something happened then which sort of changed your career, what was that?
Diddy: In 2001, I tripped over and fell on my head. For three weeks it was fine but then suddenly I lost my sight and I couldn't speak and I'd damaged a really important part of my head. I had to take care of myself and it took a long time to recover from it. It was very, very serious and we didn't know how long it would take to recover and we just assumed it wouldn't be that long. It took about three years really to start getting back on my feet again and I couldn't understand music at the time and luckily it all slowly came back. The doctors said you've just got to be patient.

DJ Ron: You worked really had and you're back joining us. Is that sort of when the MegaWoof club started?
Diddy: Yes. I did some records on our label and my partner owned the record label that's on. I think he was getting fed up of waiting for me to improve to the point where I'd start it again. So he was dragging me out and getting me out in the open and encouraging me to socialize even though I was still finding it a bit hard. We went to the parties and we just happened to know the manager of the venue. He showed us the dance floor upstairs and we just said oh fine, well we'll have a party here as it was kind of like a little joke. We had people asking us to do something, because people were bored. We set it up and it just kind of took off instantly. We did this one party and we had a few hundred people there and it was like wow, we better do it again. We just carried on and never stopped.