Towards 2000 started in the early months of 1978. Partner, Mark Rowlands had started running a mobile disco business straight out of school and ran it as a serious business, soon expanding to 3 units within a year. Family friend Tim Mahoney had been travelling in America working as a researcher for Marks fathers company (Twinlock Office Products) Mark assigned Tim to check into the Mobile DJ business in the states - figuring they would be bigger and better than in the UK. Tims return to the UK revealed the surprising fact that there were no mobile Discos in California. Several parties had revealed the norm was the local rock band at homes and at high schools and colleges. In the UK at this time it was rare to ever see a band at a party - it was always a DJ.
Wheels started spinning. This was the year of Saturday night Fever - surely this DJ thing would catch on. The plan was to go to the states and sell the gear for DJs to use. There was a whole industry built up around the mobile DJ in England. Roger Squires had several stores and every town had a small DJ store at least. Companies such as Citronic, Le Maitre,Cloud, Pulsar, Soundout, Zero 88, Optis, Ice and Powerdrive specialized in making gear for the DJ. Some research showed that none of these companies sold any significant amount of gear in the states. Our plan was clear - secure the exclusive rights to sell their gear in the US and retire rich by age 22. All these companies were happy to oblige with some sort of exclusive rights to sell (for a year at least) and we were able to procure samples (at a good price of course) for our mission to America.
We landed in California with a suitcase or two and our samples arrived shortly thereafter. Our samples conveniently made up an awesome roadshow, with the addition of some Par cans, and some JBL speakers our rig was ready to go - to bring the Mobile Disco to High School America. It was surprisingly tough. The concept of "Mobile Disco" was hard to explain - the immediate reaction was "Huh a dance floor on a truck?". Our first High School gig was a nightmare - we had never heard of Foghat, luckily we had a couple of singles that went down well and we survived the night. From there on the word spread there were these cool guys with English accents that would come and spin records with lights and fog and projectors.....high schools, birthdays and then Bar Mitzvahs and weddings! We got in with the right folks in the party business at the right time, we did parties for every famous person We had ever dreamed of meeting, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Elton John, The Blues Brothers, one year we did the Christmas Parties for MASH, Dallas, Taxi, and Knotts Landing on the same night. We did the new years eve parties for all the best restaurants in LA.
All this while we were selling bits of gear to the new pioneers of the Disco empire. Citronic mixers went down big, we sold a dozen of them before GLI PMX9000 hit the scene. Suddenly people were realizing this was an industry. Colin Hammond (Meteor) was bringing in gear from Europe (at fantastic markups) and a few companies such as Lumitrol, Diversitronics, Litelab were making some home grown gear. The business was growing.We were the one and only DJ store.
Slowly we expanded our DJ business and our sales business, there was no competition! We started an import and distribution company called Lightforce - we were the first to import such lines as Programsistems, LED, Light Processor, FAL and Abstract. We also started an industry magazine - Pro Light and Sound. This was a joint venture with D.I. - there was no magazine that remotely catered to the club or DJ. The magazine was a hit. We were doing great but the magazine soon spawned well financed copy cats that quickly saw the advertising we were pulling in. We had full pages from Pulsar, Clay Paky, Light Processor, High End and many others. Quickly a new magazine called Night Club And Bar emerged, and then DJ Times. We hit an impasse with our partners at DI. We were writing, printing and publishing the whole magazine (on the Mac) in the U.S. with little help from back home. We did not see eye to eye any longer and no friendly settlement seemed to be forthcoming - so the employees stole the magazine and started a new one which failed miserably after one issue, and we folded PL&S. All good experience. Suddenly the new wave and Rap thing hit. Overnight everyone was a DJ. Dj consoles were suddenly on music videos - it was all over town. Everyone was a DJ. Which was great because we sold them the gear. At the same time it was getting tougher to make a buck actually DJing. We expanded into the lighting market.
This was early days for Blackstone, soon to be called High End Systems. We were one of their early dealers and started using and selling their new hi-tech disco lights - the Color Pro and Intellabeams! These lights were shunned by the traditional lighting companys for a long time. We forged our way as leaders selling the High End range of products and stopped importing gear from England and Europe.
We became a key distributor for moving lights, and the Vanguard on the West Coast for intelligent lighting. Vegas exploded with new shows, rock & roll discovered moving lights they could buy and Towards 2000 began expanding into rentals and production.
Since this time we have continued to expand our sales base and rental departments. We are always fortunate to be able to offer our customers the widest selection of gear. We believe that we offer equipment to our customers to rent or purchase, we do not sell.
We continue to build and remodel clubs in Los Angeles from classic California Institutions of rock n roll such as the Whisky A Go Go on Sunset Bl, to hotels such as the Hard Rock and clubs such as the House of Blues.
The future offers more of the latest gear, an expanded presence in the film and movie markets and an increased global presence through the internet - way beyond 2000. I am 42 now and still waiting to retire but that day is closing in!