Special Request @ CE/MENT 2025

“The history of electronic music, particularly in the UK, has been one of fractures and splits, as ever more specific styles and subgenres spin off into their own orbits. Special Request (aka Leeds’ Paul Woolford) is one of the enlightened few moving the other way, with his diverse catalogue including everything from chart-house bangers to pungent nu-jungle.”
Ben Cardew, Pitchfork

Grammy nominated, platinum-selling record producer Paul Michael Woolford aka Special Request has been working tirelessly for over 20 years, both in DJ booths globally and in a myriad of recording studios, to redefine and reinvent all shapes of dance music. He has has applied his touch to hundreds of records, including the work of Calvin Harris, Moby, Sam Smith, Depeche Mode, Chemical Brothers, Lana Del Rey, Disclosure, Jamie XX and many others, as well as influencing flocks of producers to drop their inhibitions and embrace bolder sounds.

Woolford has recorded seven Essential Mixes for BBC Radio 1 and released four mix compilations including most recently DJ Kicks 25 under his Special Request moniker. As a DJ he tours relentlessly globally, and held down a nine-year residency at Space on Sundays in Ibiza, as well as a seven-year hometown residency at Back To Basics in Leeds, in addition to playing pretty much every respected serious venue of note globally. Woolford cites a combination of the raw energy and diversity of the pirate radio airwaves, a lifetime of collecting records and the enlightenment of his art school years as key influences.


INSTAGRAM / SOUNDCLOUD / BANDCAMP
SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC