Former deputy Prime Minister and current Federal member for Grayndler, Anthony Albanese has some great achievements to his name, but perhaps none bigger than the career he built as ‘DJ Albo’. But now, he faces a challenge from an up-and-coming pollie DJ – a challenge from within his own party.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari is hitting Brisbane this week for his second ever stint as ‘DJ Dasher’, The Music reports, playing The Apo Upstairs in an effort to raise some funds towards the campaign of aspiring Labor state candidate Bart Mellish.
“Like politics I will promise something new – but will actually mostly play hits from the nineties and naughties – because that’s what people want,” DJ Dasher tells us. “I’m here to fill a floor. It will go OFF.”
As The Music notes, Dasher’s first effort at the decks (a back-to-back set with fellow Labor pollie Tim ‘DJ Mega Watts’ Watts) copped a bit of criticism for its pretty generic song selection (think Drake and Salt N Pepa), but he shot back with the sharp retort “I fill a floor”.
We’d expect a similar sort of setlist this time around, based on the following not so subtle hint from Dasher himself: “I’m having WILD THOUGHTS as I plan to DROP IT LIKE ITS HOT, thinking of the 24 KARAT MAGIC I’ll be playing on FRIDAY.”
Despite that, we’re willing to give him another crack at it; we had our doubts about DJ Albo at first too, thinking it may have been a pretty cynical move considering it followed hot on the heels of an uproarious reception to Greens senator Scott Ludlam in his ‘DJ S-Luz’ guise the previous year.
DJ Albo was able to prove the doubters wrong though, making fire rock mixtapes especially for us, hosting an episode of Rage, and spinning awesome bands like Polish Club during his stint as official Record Store Day ambassador. He even took a moment to give a speech about it in parliament, and everyone was all aboard the DJ Albo train pretty quick smart.
Albo did put his foot in it a bit recently when he claimed that Client Liaison “jumped the shark” when teaming up with Tina Arena, and his swift backpedal lead many to question whether he either misunderstood the phrase, or doesn’t quite get what the ’80s throwback band are all about.
Either way, it was the first chink in the previously-infallible legacy of DJ Albo, and now he faces a challenge from some young blood for the throne of Australia’s best pollie DJ.
We can only hope for a full-on showdown set one day, but for now you can catch Dasher playing 8pm this Friday September 15 at The Apo Upstairs, and check out DJ Albo’s Tone Deaf playlist below.
