Who'd start a record label right now? This guy.

"It just sort of makes sense," says Chris Cox, aka the DJ Frank Booker. He looked at the odds and decided: “Fuck it, let’s do it."

Chris Cox, the DJ otherwise known as Frank Booker, is full of stories. Spend any time with him and he extracts them like records from the crates of vinyl he owns. Like the time in January, 2016, when he ended up DJ-ing a party attended by the famed film director Quentin Tarantino, here to promote his movie The Hateful Eight.

“There was a strict rule – no photos,” remembers Cox about that night in a burlesque bar on K’ Road. “Everyone was cool with it, but someone got carried away, went up to him and was like, ‘Hey, can I have a photo?’” Cox remembers Tarantino's gruff reply like it was yesterday. “What do I look like? Fucking Santa?”

Cox deferred to the Pulp Fiction soundtrack for his set that night, playing funk and soul songs from the 60s. “I know Tarantino likes Kool & the Gang,” he says. “I played things from that era.” Later in the night, Cox got the response he was looking for when Tarantino turned and thundered, “Good fucking music,” at him.

Chris Cox, the DJ known as Frank Booker.

A month later, Cox found himself on a rooftop bar in Tāmaki Makaurau performing at an afterparty for Prince, who'd just played two intimate, stripped-back shows at ASB Theatre. Part of his Piano and a Microphone solo tour, those shows were among his last; in April, 2016, he died of a fentanyl overdose in his Paisley Park home.

That party “was at … the top of the Seafarers Building,” says Cox. “I had to sign an NDA [that said], ‘You can’t take photos, you can’t record your set.’” Around 2am, with a room full of Prince fans in front of him, Cox was having fun, but he’d given up on the star showing his face. Then people starting yelling: “He's here! He's fucking here!”

Stressed, Cox told his DJ friends egging him on to “shut the fuck up” so he could concentrate. He pulled out a rare call-and-response record from the Motown act Rufus, fronted by Chaka Khan, to play. A friend looking out over the crowd was watching Prince. He turned and told Cox the news: “Prince is dancing!”

“That's my epitaph,” Cox says now. “I made Prince dance.”

Cox has been making people dance since 1998. He’s built up a résumé of shows, festivals, tours and private parties that makes him the envy of local DJs. Many of those experiences have become stories for his grab bag.

Now, he’s attempting to add another into the mix: Cox has chosen this moment to start a record label.

Why now? “It just sort of makes sense,” says Cox. He knows times are tough, that there’s a cost of living crisis, that the risks are higher than ever. Still, as he sips coffee on an overcast day, he says he eventually decided it was time to give back. “Fuck it, let’s do it,” he told himself. “I reckon I can make that work.”

The idea came last summer during a week off. Scrolling through Instagram looking at posts from other DJs, he noticed plenty were showing off the parties and festivals they were performing at, but no one was talking about the music they were playing. “It seemed weird that it was almost a secondary thing,” says Cox.

With his business partner Sam Harmony, they started putting on events under the name Music First, booking DJs and playing music that fit Booker’s tastes. He veers towards “soulful dance music of all shapes and sizes – house, broken beat, disco boogie,” he says. He calls his sets “vibes”, not dissimilar to Joe Kay’s Soulection playlists, “niche – but curated.”

Those live shows went well. Post-Covid, everyone wants to dance, says Cox, who enjoyed his busiest year yet once lockdowns eased. Calling it “music first” just sounded right. “It’s a pretty simple concept to get,” he says. So, with momentum flowing, and after a chance conversation with one of the Holiday Records founders, he decided it was time to take the leap and turn Music First into more than just a promotions company.

That meant starting a record label. And that meant pressing records. But what should be first? Collected Works, Cox’s first release, gathers four out-of-print songs from Booker’s back catalogue: ‘The Sun,’ ‘Egbe Mi O,’ ‘El Salvador’ and ‘Universal Drive’. They’ve been remastered to give them “new punch,” then pressed by Holiday Records.

Music First’s first release.

It is, Cox says, an intention of the kind of music he wants to release, and is the first of what he hopes are many. He’s working with up-and-coming artists, hoping to nurture them. What’s he looking for? “I’m thinking with my DJ ears on,” he says. “How would that fit in with how I play? It’s that vibe thing … ‘Is it something I’d part with my money and buy? Or is it something that I’d want to play?’”

Before he goes, there’s time for one more story. Earlier this year, Cox was booked to perform at Electric Avenue, the Ōtautahi festival headlined by The Chemical Brothers. “It’s a big festival,” says Cox. “I wanted to put my best foot forward.” But, by the time his flight landed, he was coughing. By stage time, he could barely stand up. He’d caught a cold. “I was like death warmed up,” Cox says.

He played through his afternoon set regardless, but got a tap on his shoulder halfway through. Another DJ had missed their flight. Would he be keen to play again at 5pm? “I was so sick, I was delirious,” says Cox. Yet he stayed put, dug in, and got it done. By the time The Chemical Brothers came on – the biggest name on last summer’s stacked festival scene – Cox was nowhere to be found. “I didn’t even make it,” he says.

He’d returned to his hotel room. “I just needed to collapse.” That experience hasn’t put him off: there, on the poster for next year’s expanded event, is Booker’s name. No doubt, that show will result in another story ready to be popped into his crates.

Frank Booker’s upcoming shows can be found here. Collected Works vinyl can be ordered here.

Yes, after Tuesday’s piece about Chris the record collector, I realise this is my second story this week about someone called ‘Chris’. I am also called Chris. That’s a lot of people called Chris. Is it too many? Yes, I believe it is. Next week will be entirely Chris-free. Apart from me, of course. You can’t escape this Chris that easily. Anyway, if you’d like to support my lil’ newsletter and keep this thing going, you can do so using this blue button. Every little contribution helps the dream stay alive.

Everything you need to know.

• Our first Eden Park show for 2025 has been announced, with country star Luke Combs confirming two stadium performances on January 17 and 18. This seems … ambitious? Perhaps I don’t understand the appeal of country music? Combs seems to know this. “It’s never been about the small town you grew up in, it’s knowing where home is; it’s not about the dirt roads you ride down, it’s the freedom you feel,” he told The Washington Post. Pre-sales begin on Tuesday.

• Last week it was The Killers and Green Day. This week it’s Kylie Minogue who is snubbing Aotearoa for her “world” tour. That’s not all: Supergrass and Primal Scream have also booked extensive Australian tours, yet we’re not getting a single show. I don’t know what’s going on here, but when you add The Weeknd, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish into the mix, it adds up to a frustrating trend that I’m not enjoying one little bit. If anyone can explain why we’ve suddenly become a touring afterthought, I’d love to hear from you.

• Some relief might be in sight: Metallica says they will perform here in 2025. “We will return to Australia and New Zealand after far too long away!!! Stay tuned for the full announcement coming VERY soon,” the metallers wrote on their website after announcing a slate of North American dates. They were last due here with Slipknot in 2019, but cancelled so singer James Hetfield could enter rehab. \m/

• Meanwhile, Flo Milli has left the Listen In line-up, the hip-hop and EDM festival that’s fast approaching. “Her team have told us this is due to her dealing with exhaustion,” organisers say. “We’re working hard to add a new act to the line-up as soon as possible.” This season’s first festie takes place on October 4.

• Speaking of Go Media Stadium, Fat Freddy’s Drop will play the neighbouring Lilyworld venue (I did a deep dive on that Big Day Out-inspired spot here) on January 26. It’s in support of their new album, SLO MO. The Teskey Brothers, Coterie and Rubi Du & TOI are also on the bill; tickets are available here.

• A New Zealand actor has been cast to play Bradley Nowell in an upcoming biopic on the ska band Sublime. Riverdale star KJ Apa will play Nowell in the film, which is being overseen by the remaining members of the band and the late singer’s estate, Deadline reports. Sublime now seem completely inescapable: one version of the band is touring five dates here this summer.

• I’ve got plenty of new releases on my must-hear listening list this weekend, including Jamie xx’s newbie In Waves, Nilüfer Yanya’s My Method Actor, Floating Points’ Cascade, and Ka’s The Thief Next to Jesus, which has finally hit streaming services. Plus, a new Bon Iver single, ‘S P E Y S I D E,’ debuts in a few hours. What are you spinning? Please let me know…

And one more thing.