IT'S Tuesday afternoon and the eyes are still a little bleary following a massive weekend in London.

Dale Castell was playing not one, but two nights at the Brixton Academy flanking no less than the Swedish House Mafia. It's the kind of gig most DJs dream of, though it's becoming increasingly common for Mr Castell.

At 27, he's spent the last five years battling to get somewhere and, finally, it seems he's arrived. But it wasn't always that way. Even this time last year he still couldn't quite shake the feeling he was blagging it a bit.

"I remember getting a gig at Amnesia in Ibiza," he recalls. "It had just been done out and there were hundreds of people in front of me at one of the best clubs in the world.

"And I couldn't help but think 'How the hell did I get here? How did a lad from Halifax end up behind the decks of the Cream terrace when I'd been selling concrete a few months earlier?"

Dale really had been flogging concrete, among other random products, as a sales rep. Up until 2008 that was his day job, while his nights were filled with getting as many gigs as he could.

That also meant leaving his home town and shifting himself lock, stock and vinyl to Leeds where he'd place as many of his mix CDs into as many influential hands as possible. It paid off big style when Danny Savage, the man behind the huge Leeds success story that is Filth, took him on board as resident at Mint club.

He says: "Danny taking me on really was my big break. I owe him so much, but I like to think I also contributed something to Filth as well. I'm much more confident in myself now.

"I know I've got better and better over the years and you need to have that self-belief. After being down in London again this weekend I'm starting to think that that might be a next step, as well as getting an agent.

"But I already feel I'm moving on a stage. I felt I'd gone as far as I could with Filth and I had chalked up just about every club in Leeds too. So now I'm trying to move it up to a higher level. I know I'm not blagging it now, I know I've done the graft to get here."

That higher level sees Dale join forces with Josh Karpf in not only being resident, but events manager of Bitch as it finds its feet as one of a new crop of nights at Mission.

Bitch comes to Leeds from Manchester. It's held on the second Saturday of every month and October's debut event saw the Heaton's Court venue filled to capacity. They're expecting a similar crowd when it stages a reprise this weekend.

"Bitch really is one for the cool kids," he says. "It's for a crowd that really know their music, who know their DJs, they have a real ear for stuff. It's quite similar to Filth, though we're not trying to take that crowd away from up there at all.

"We're trying to bring in more and more names as well, really good DJs that the crowd will know and appreciate. It's one night of a pretty good mix down at Mission which sees different stuff going on every Saturday.

"I've fallen back in love with house music basically, big house and a little bit techy. I've got bored of the electro and fidget house thing now, even though that was something I really kicked things off with."
Castell certainly rode the electro wave from the start of his DJing career, and it was a move which secured his name on the billing of virtually every club in the city - as well as a few dream gigs.

On top of the aforementioned Brixton Academy and Amnesia appearances, he's twice played alongside the legendary Deamau5 at mammoth events at Victoria Works. Now he's looking forward to playing a Boxing Day Garlands in Liverpool with Boy George.

Yet it all started when he was 17 and a drummer producing the more conventional sounds of indie/rock band Fungal Ashtray back in Halifax. Unlikely, but a musical epiphany for the teenage Castell.

"We were a pretty good band actually," he says. "And being a drummer really paid off for me. I started spending more and more time with a DJ mate watching how he worked the crowd and responded to clubbers and when it came to the actual technical aspect of mixing the records I just took to it instantly because I already had that strong sense of rhythm.

"When you're a drummer the band look to you to keep the whole beat going, so you're listening to your own rhythm and trying to match that up with the guitars and vocals and everything. And it's kinda the same with DJing, you're listening to two different sounds and blending the two together as one.

"And I think you can really tell a difference between a DJ with a real sense of music and a DJ who's just behind the decks to get all the attention and girls.

"What sort of DJ am I?" he laughs. "Well, both of course."

Bitch is at Mission, Heaton's Court, Leeds, on Saturday. With MYNC Project, Timo Garcia, H2, Alcatraz Harry and Matt Fear. 11pm to 6am. Tickets: £10/13, visit www.bitchpromotions.com