Phill Smith: Don’t Ever Stop and the Untold Story of Tony De Vit
In this episode of Hard House History, Paul sits down with filmmaker Phill Smith, the man behind the acclaimed documentary Don't Ever Stop. A lifelong clubber turned BBC documentarian, Phill has spent years piecing together the legacy of one of hard house's most loved and most mysterious figures, Tony De Vit, while also capturing the wild, chaotic and pioneering world of late 90s and early 2000s club culture.
Phill takes us back to his underage clubbing days in Leicester, sneaking into Flaming Colossus at 16 to watch Boy George, discovering Passion, Storm and Insomniacs, and collecting flyers that still sit in his archive today. His journey from clubber to filmmaker is equally fascinating, revealing how his time running the Tidy Weekender Diary Room eventually led him to connect with Fergie, Andy, Amadeus, and Tony's sister, Jane, to create one of the most important hard house documentaries ever made.
Paul and Phill dive deep into Tony's impact, his unmatched technical skills behind the decks, the genre-defining production work, and the heartbreaking reality that so little footage of Tony exists. Phill shares how the team uncovered rare tapes, long lost radio recordings, and a priceless studio tour filmed by Amadeus, all of which helped shape the documentary's emotional core.
The conversation also explores the early days of Tidy, the madness of Sun Essential and Gatecrasher, the legacy of LGBTQ+ influence on club culture, the near-mythical presence of Madders, and the challenges of telling a story where so much history lives only in memory.
This is a beautiful, nostalgic and insightful look at the people who shaped a movement, the scenes that shaped a generation, and the stories still being uncovered today.
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