James, i'm sorry mate but i have to say this, i take your very constructive points but you seem to construct and base your comments in such a way that outside of the people you mention Ady, Butch, Tim etc. by the very nature of your statistics you seem to undermine pretty much everyone else who DJ's outside of the 10% sorry 1%, or that's how it seems to me, of course the people you mention are head and shoulders above many but does this mean that some of us should not be DJ'ing? seems to me that you are happy to sport the corner for the select few and dismiss others who in your eyes are not top of the pile or moovers and shakers, spare a thought for the many good jobbing DJ's out there who may not have the million pound collections but do have some depth to their collections, now i'm not gonna name names or bring anyone else into my reply here but i can use myself as an example, although i choose not to DJ as much i feel i can still contribute to a night, have a depth of collection and the experence to judge and read a dancefloor, i like to think that i get the odd booking on merrit, reputation, quality of records, entertainment value etc. i do not get asked because i'm someones best mate who runs a gig although i do take your point James on this one as it does happen but not in my case.
Yes the best records need to be played by the best DJ's but i think the number of DJ's able to do this is slightly higher than your percentages James.
Regards - Mark Bicknell.