Steve Guarnori has been collecting soul records since he was a teenager. "There were two of us in the school I attended who liked soul music - everyone else was into rock".
Early influences ranged from local soul/funk discos in West Kent (there was a different one on every night!), to Wigan Casino. "I was still at school when I started going, and had a saturday job in Tesco's in Tunbridge Wells which financed the train journey's north once every three weeks".
In the late 70's to the mid 80's Steve was involved in Blackbeat magazine, relocating to Peterborough, when he married in 1982. There he DJ'ed at various gigs in Peterborough, St Ives and Stamford areas, and ran several sucessful modern soul nights with Max Rees and Robin Salter.
Steve moved back south in 1990, and now lives in East Hertforshire. In the last few years he has DJed regularly at the Soul Essence weekenders, and guested at various nights around the country.
Now 41, he has amassed a collection of over 30,000 soul records from the 1960's to the present day. The collection ranges from deep soul to northern originals, and on many labels he has comple runs of releases. He writes articles for magazines such as "Voices", "In the Basement", "Manifesto" and "SoulUpNorth".
He started his radio career in the spring (2000) with www.Soul24-7.com. "At first I was a bit nervous, and didn't know what to expect. But you soon get the hang of it, and I really enjoy it immensely. I felt Radio was a natural progression; I've got records sitting at home that deserve to get heard by a wider audience. Also doing a weekly show encourages me to keep buying the quality new releases as well"