Forget Calvin Harris... DJ Steve Davis is in da house!
Former snooker world champ on how he’s cued up new career at 59
IN his 1980s heyday he was the snooker superstar who was praised for his brilliance – and mocked for being ever so slightly boring.
Despite being one of the greatest green baize players of all time, Steve ‘Interesting’ Davis earned his ironic nickname because of his apparent lack of charisma.
Fast forward to the present day, however, and the six-times World Snooker Champion has moved away from the sport that he once dominated – and shaken off his dull image.
For the 59-year-old has embarked on a new career – as a festival DJ.
On Friday he made his musical debut in Scotland, where he performed a two-hour set behind the turntables at the Doune The Rabbit Hole Music Festival, near Stirling.
Leaving behind the baize, he played in a field – not to a TV audience of 18 million but to 200 eager festival-goers. And rather than the white shirt and black waistcoat of the snooker professional, he performed in a hoodie and jeans.
Speaking to The Scottish Mail on Sunday, he said that he was recapturing a youth he sacrificed to snooker – and loving every moment of it.
He said: ‘Back in the 80s I was in my bed at 10pm with a glass of milk, whereas now I’m out partying most weekends and playing music.
‘If somebody told me how much fun I’d have doing this, I wouldn’t have believed them.’
Since retiring from professional snooker in April last year – after failing to qualify for the World Snooker Championship – he now spends his weekends spinning tunes for music fans.
He said: ‘It really is a case of one door closing and another door opening. I have always been really into music, and now I am getting to share it with others.
‘It’s easier than snooker. If you were preparing for a competition, you’d be practising every day for three or four hours. But with DJ-ing, you just stumble upon the best tracks accidentally.’
Davis added: ‘It’s great fun – I just have to remember to stay sober enough to remember which record is playing and which button I have to press.
‘And I have been known to turn the record off while I’m playing – where there’s a split second of silence. That’s a worry sometimes but I then just get back to it and apologise for being rubbish.’
On Friday Davis played everything from rock to electronic music at the Stirlingshire music event.
While perhaps not in the same league as Scottish superstar DJ Calvin Harris, he has been spinning discs for ten years on an Essex community radio station, Phoenix FM, where he hosts a weekly show.
He added: ‘I don’t miss snooker. I retired from competitive play, not deliberately to do this, but just because it was the right time. And now I am just having so much fun.
‘I know it’s backwards, and I am doing things a different way round than normal, but I’m having a blast.
‘I don’t know if I’ve got street cred with my two sons, or whether they think I’m going slowly mad. I think people can’t quite get their heads around it – in a way, I’m just living the dream.’
In his heyday he was world champion six times, ranked as world No 1 for seven years in a row and raked in £5.5 million in prize money.
And in the spring of 1985 at the pinnacle of his career, a record 18.5million viewers tuned in to watch as he tried to defend his world snooker title against Northern Ireland’s Dennis Taylor.
Even 32 years later, the legendary Sunday night showdown – which saw Taylor win by a nail-biting 18 frames to 17 – still retains the record as the BBC2 programme with the highest ever viewing figure.
‘I’m having so much fun – I’m living the dream’