May 31, 2009

All about Detroit Red Wings music

Check out this article about the music played for the Detroit Red Wings at Joe Louis Arena, as well as a list of Detroit's player goal songs. The music is programmed & played by T. Campbell aka DJ T. Some highlights:
It wasn't always that way. In the pre-Campbell years, the team tried to pump up the crowd with old-fashioned organ-driven chants.

That all changed in the early 1990s when the Wings did away with the organ and brought in a DJ. The original DJ didn't work out, so in came Campbell. He had been the music-spinner for Michigan State games at Munn Ice Arena.

"They know I have a feel for the game because I've been playing hockey since I was 5 years old," said Campbell, who is 49 and whose three older brothers all played for the Spartans. He himself won two state championships as a prep player.

He continues to DJ at Spartan games and makes the 80-mile drive from his home in Okemos for every Wings home game - his license plate reads "HCKYTWN."

Campbell arrives 2 to 2 1/2 hours before each game. He wears a suit and stands for the entirety in his perch high above the ice. His booth is behind press row, and he shares it with the replay official.

Campbell wears a headset to communicate with the onsite event producers and is surrounded by black and silver machines that help pump his music to the masses. The tracks are listed alphabetically, so all he has to do is turn a dial, click and button and whoosh - the song heads into 20,000 sets of ears.

At Wednesday night's Western Conference championship clincher over Chicago, Campbell kicked off the pregame festivities by spinning Kid Rock's "Intro" chant, which goes: "It ain't no party like a Detroit party/'cause a Detroit party don't stop."

When the Wings made their way through the tunnel and stepped on to the ice, Campbell quickly queued up the thrash-metal rocker "Adrenaline" by 12 Stones.

But his musical selections aren't all rock tracks. He'll play anything from techno, dance or trance tunes to rap and classic rock. On Wednesday, he even played the soft Kiss ballad "Beth" in honor of a young lady who earned a Zamboni ride between the first and second periods.

1 comment:

coolmike said...

whats the song the when the road team scores and it sounds like the guy is singing slowly.