Rave Archive UK

DJ Flight

DJ Flight
DJ • Broadcaster • Radio Producer • Label Founder

DJ FLIGHT

A foundational drum & bass selector whose career links late-1990s pirate radio, Metalheadz and Swerve with national broadcasting, play:musik, EQ50 and a new generation of artists.

Flex FMMetalheadzThe Next ChapterEQ50
Biography

Selection, radio and the deeper path

Flight was drawn into drum & bass by the mid-1990s rave scene and, in particular, by seeing Kemistry & Storm perform. After learning to DJ and returning to London, she began broadcasting on pirate station Flex FM in 1997, where regular graveyard-shift sessions gave her space to develop the patient, deeper and more experimental selection style that became her signature.

In 1999 Kemistry, Storm and Goldie invited Flight into the Metalheadz circle, and she became a resident at the label’s parties. The following year Fabio brought her into Swerve. Those residencies placed her inside two of drum & bass’s most influential musical environments, where atmosphere, sequencing and long-form storytelling mattered as much as immediate dancefloor impact.

Her reach widened dramatically in 2002 with the launch of BBC Radio 1Xtra. Flight became the first woman to host a national drum & bass radio programme, and The Next Chapter became a key route for listeners to discover deeper, forward-looking and experimental music. Her broadcasting career later expanded into radio production and documentary work, including the award-recognised Windrush Stories and the BBC series Turn It Up: A Short History of Drum & Bass.

Flight’s influence also extends through infrastructure and mentorship. She founded play:musik in the mid-2000s and, in 2018, co-founded EQ50 to push for fairer representation in drum & bass. Through EQ50 she has directly mentored younger artists, while continuing to DJ internationally and remain connected to Metalheadz, Rupture, Kool FM and the evolving underground. Her career demonstrates how selection, broadcasting and community-building can shape a genre as powerfully as production alone.

Image archive

DJ Flight in frame

Radio & live recordings

Play The Next Chapter

Flight’s own archive shows the deeper, exploratory side of drum & bass that has defined her radio and club sets.

The Next Chapter — 09.04.13
DJ Flight archive artwork
Mixcloud • site-wide player
Mixcloud ↗
The Next Chapter 3.1 — 09.15
DJ Flight archive artwork
Mixcloud • site-wide player
Mixcloud ↗
Flight & Deeizm — Sun & Bass — 07.09.16
DJ Flight archive artwork
Mixcloud • site-wide player
Mixcloud ↗
The Next Chapter 3.9 ft Lenzman — 10.16
DJ Flight archive artwork
Mixcloud • site-wide player
Mixcloud ↗
Live footage

Flight on the decks

DJ Flight — Boiler Room London — 2017
DJ Flight Boiler Room London 2017 thumbnail
YouTube • site-wide player
YouTube ↗
DJ Flight b2b DJ Storm — Boiler Room Festival Amsterdam — 2022
DJ Flight and DJ Storm Boiler Room Amsterdam 2022 thumbnail
YouTube • site-wide player
YouTube ↗
Flight b2b Mantra b2b Tasha b2b Double O w/ Chickaboo & Blackeye — Kool FM — 2023
DJ Flight Rupture Kool FM 2023 thumbnail
YouTube • site-wide player
YouTube ↗
Career trail

Four chapters in Flight’s story

1997Flex FM — pirate-radio foundations and the development of her own selection style.
1999–2000Metalheadz and Swerve — influential London residencies at the deeper edge of drum & bass.
2002 onwardBBC Radio 1Xtra — The Next Chapter makes Flight the first woman to host a national D&B show.
2018 onwardEQ50, mentoring, documentary work and continued international DJing connect experience with the next generation.
Further listening & sources

Explore the legacy

A selector who made radio part of the artform.

Flight’s legacy sits in the records she chooses, the artists she has amplified and the spaces she has helped open.

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