Midfield General
Midfield General is the DJ/Production alter-ego of Damian Harris, founder of Skint Records.
Harris spent his formative years immersed in records. Buying them, dancing to them, playing them, selling them, writing about them and designing the sleeves. So in 1994 when he was given the opportunity to start an off-shoot of Brighton’s Loaded Records he drew on this experience to draw up the plans for Skint, it went on to become one of the most influential dance labels of the 90/00’s.
To launch the label Damian asked his friend & then landlord Norman Cook to come up with the first release. Cook gave him Santa Cruz and Skint and subsequently Fatboy Slim were born. The label went on to release a broad spectrum of leftfield club music from The Lo Fidelity Allstars, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Dave Clarke, X-Press 2, Alter Ego, Goose, Alloy Mental, Freq Nasty, Super_Collider, Tiga and International Pony. It also gained a reputation for some of the most innovative & iconic music videos of the era.
In 1996 he started a club night, called The Big Beat Boutique. A place for himself, Norman Cook and the other Skint artists and DJs to play the records they where putting out… The club enjoyed an amazing time in the sun, playing host to some truly memorable nights, special guest spots and live performances. It also spawned the On The Floor At The Boutique mix series. The third of which was Damian’s where he glued together his own personal Boutique favourites of house, techno, soul, hip hop, breaks and some old jazz funk records. The Boutique went across the country and the world with memorable residencies at The End, Fabric and Heaven with Bugged Out and hook ups with The Heavenly Social and tents at Reading and Glastonbury. In the summer of 2002 he toured Japan during the World Cup and then came back to open up the Big Beach Boutique where he played to 250,000 people on Brighton Beach.
The Midfield General moniker saw him release his own music on the label. After several well received singles he released the critically acclaimed Generalisation in 2000. The album featured collaborations with comedian Noel Fielding, soul legend Linda Lewis and even Elvis Costello sneaked a writing credit. His second album General Disarray, took 8 years and a year in Paris to complete. He collaborated with Justice, Soulwax and MC Vila for the club hit Disco Sirens.
After leaving Skint in 2009 Harris has been doing lots of odds & sods. Directing a film for Vice, making a cartoon called Zebra Face about a hip hop obsessed Zebra with a diabetic side-kick for Channel 4, learning to write scripts and hosting a monthly radio show called Generalisation. He is also a partner with his brothers in The Sportsman in their home town of Whitstable. The restaurant has enjoyed huge success and international acclaim, it was voted the UK’s best restaurant in the National Restaurant Awards of 2017… which was nice.
