Bodytonic is an Irish music collective that was set up in 2002 by Trevor O Shea aka Tayor. The Bodytonic ethos has always entailed setting up their own identity through club promotion, music production, and establishing their own website & record label. Over the past six years Bodytonic has grown to become a prosperous music company and includes a large number of DJs/producers, graphic designers, web engineers and promotion reps.

Trevor began promoting Bodytonic parties at Druids nightclub in Co. Meath. Shortly after, he established Bodytonic as a weekly club night in Dublin’s Voodoo Lounge. This night provided a meeting point for most of the Bodytonic crew who are still heavily involved today. They placed particular emphasis on encouraging new DJs to play alongside some of the more well-known local names of the time like François, Shay Hannon and Ron’s Mobile Disco.

Their big break came after only 6 months when they were offered a Sunday night residency at the prestigious Kitchen nightclub which was owned by U2. This night was called Discotonic and was a night whereby the DJ’s had the freedom to play a varied collection of music such as soul, funk, disco and house. When the club closed unexpectedly 9 months into their residency, they begin a nomadic existence around various venues in Dublin for the next 18 months. Venues such as Voodoo, Molloys, Spy and the Legal Eagle played host to Bodytonic nights – all with varying degrees of success.

It was during this period, that the birth of Bodytonic in its current guise really began. Trevor took on board Stephen Flynn as DJ, graphic designer and website designer. John Mahon also came on board as a DJ, organizing events and as a promoter too. It was also this time-period that was the toughest for Bodytonic. A lot of gigs went wrong, an international DJ didn’t turn up because he went on the piss, venues owners were continually trying to rip them off no matter how hard they tried and generally, things were at a very low ebb all round.

Dublin was mainly a techno town in this period, and their brand of house, disco and funk wasn’t exactly in vogue. This all started changing after Miami WMC 2003. Trevor and John Mahon went over to NYC and Miami to play gigs, run a party at WMC and generally attended as many parties and meet as many people as they could. Re-invigorated after their trip, they pulled our their first major gig at the Red Box with Derrick Carter. The week after they had Charles Webster rocking a rooftop party in Dublin city centre. After that they ran a boat party and had Brooks play to a capacity crowd at their weekly night at the Legal Eagle. Then in August of 2003, they ran a massive beach party at Red Rock in south Dublin which over 1500 people attended. By now things had taken a complete turnaround, and after years & months of hard work and complete dedication to never giving up, things finally took off.


In October 2003 Bodytonic moved location once again to Wax on South William St. This move marked a significant turning point in Bodytonic's road to success, as they had finally got the weekly residency they had always craved in a proper venue. Since they started it,almost every night has sold out and its know considered one the the top house nights in Europe, with DJ’s like Mark Farina, DJ Deep and Rithma claiming it as one of their favourite nights to play at. and playing host to some of the finest talent in house music both locally (Fish Go Deep, Vinyl DJs, Hystereo) and internationally (Mark Farina, Ben Watt, Yousef, Jori Hulkkonen, Dj Deep amongst many others).

They renamed this night Stereotonic in 2005. In April 2006 they finished at Wax ending their 2&1/2 year association with the little club on South William St where they made their name. Many people wondered why they left, things were still going well, but a combination of new owners they didn’t know , and just generally having itchy feet and wanting to try something new , meant they upped sticks to Rogue on Dame St. Initially the move their went well , but things went slowly downhill , and they eventually decided to quit Rogue in February of 2007 . They again went nomadic for a well running Stereotonic one offs in various locations until they settled in their current home of Pod every Friday night where they currently reside.

Since starting Bodytonic at Wax on Fridays (now called Stereotonic) , they have also branched out to set up 4 other nights, though with much different music policies.
Stereotonic @ POD on Fridays is their oldest and most loved night. Orginally called Bodytonic as they grew and got into new ventures they re-named it Stereotonic to give the night its own identity. Stereotonic is a relatively open-minded club musically but its heart is in house music . Its been running over 4 years now every Friday night, and is the only real consistent weekly house music party in Dublin. The team of people involved have been DJing and partying together for years. Residents include Tayor John Mahon, Eoin Cregan, Mike Black, Steve Egri, Dazboy, James M, Conor L, Ben Morgan, Ru, Robotdancer and Resoul. Over the years they’ve hads loads of great guests...Theo Parrish, Carl Craig, Francois K , Derrick Carter, DJ Sneak, Greg Wilson, Fish Go Deep, Charles Webster, Jori Hulkkonen, Ame, Dixon, DJ Deep, Brett Johnson, Ian Pooley, Fresh'n'Low, Miles Hollway, Greg Wilson, Todd Terje, Jimpster, Luke Solomon, Swirl People, Mark Farina, Ralph Lawson, Ben Watt, and loads more ....

Pogo @ Pod on Saturdays has been a roaring success since it launched in November 2004. A 3 room affair with capacity of 800-1,000 people its their big Saturday night soiree. Now into its 3rd year, its seen many chops and changes, but what has always remained a constant is Barry Redsetta hosts POGO Club and Nic James resides in POGO Pub , and both are DJs of a world class calibre capable of rocking any party. They also have a 3rd room POGO Live and this allows them to stick on all sorts of acts from bands to drum’n’bass to electronica to hip-hop. To give you a flavour of what POGO is all about here’s a list of some of the guests who have played for Bodytonic...Adam Beyer , DJ Yoda, Pantha Du Prince, Carl Craig, Switch, Booka Shade, Fabio, Ivan Smagghe, Klaxons, Alex Smoke, DJ Numark, The Rapture, James Holden, Low Budget, Sinden, DJ T, MyMy, DK7, Krafty Kuts, Calibre, Putsch 79, Superpitcher, James Murphy, Donnacha Costello, Andy Stott, Alloy Mental, Jay Haze, The Ting Tings, Friendly Fires, The Whip,The MFA, Lo-Fi-Fnk,DECAL, Funk D’Void, Leftfield’s Paul Daley, Jori Hulkkonen, Who Made Who, Supersystem, The Long Blondes, Ian Pooley and many more...
Scribble at The Bernard Shaw Pub is named after their label of the same name and is the busiest night in the Bodytonic run pub, often times full by 10/10.30 with a queue outside. Label Manager Stee Downes runs the night and Scribble Residents play every week. Musically it’s a mixed bag of soul and funk drenched sounds , with the emphasis on playing new and upfront music as well as some of the old stuff too.
Backlash @ Wax on Thursdays was a dancefloor-rock-house-electro-anything goes kinda night, featuring mainly residents. While it took a while for people to catch onto this night, its currently probably the busiest night in the country, fills up really quickly and has a completely hedonistic atmosphere. This night tends to move wherever Stereotonic goes and when they finished at Wax so did Backlash which moved to Rogue and then Pod in March 2007 where it now currently resides. Guests over the years include Jacques Lu Cont, Optimo DJs, Nathan Fake, Ivan Smagghe, Andy Weatherall, Shit Robot, Serge Siantiago, Freeform 5, The Glimmers, Who Made Who Live and loads more......
Mr Jones is the newest Bodytonic night on Thursdays and takes over the mantle from one of their most successful nights Backlash which until December 2007 ran every Thursday night and became of the most revered club nights ever in Dublin. A lot of people wondered why they finished it , it was going well and certainly numbers wise they didn’t have problems, but it was time to move on. All the DJs involved had changed their styles drastically, and weren’t as passionate as before about the club. They felt it was just going backwards all the time and needed to make a lot of changes starting with the name and look.

Bodytonic continues to grow with their own village at this year’s Electric Picnic festival and have a big involvement in Malawi’s Lake of Stars festival. There are also plans to open up their own nightclub in the coming months as well as expansion of their website and record labels.

[www.bodytonicmusic.com]

<ref>This information was taken from http://www.bodytonicmusic.com/about/past/</ref>