Ajax was voted one of Australia's top five DJs every year since 2005. Picture: Manuela Cifra Source: news.com.au
That’s how I felt when I woke up this morning and like every other 21st century fool addicted to social media I checked my Twitter feed and saw Inthemix had posted “Tributes pour in for DJ Ajax”.
What? Why? He was lost to us overnight, hit by a truck near Melbourne’s Cemetery in Parkville. I felt sick. I still do.
His real name was Adrian Thomas, a spritely Sydneysider who for a long time was both the Crown Prince of Australia’s dance party scene and its court jester too.
He and his Bang Gang DJs collective almost single-handedly brought bright neon clothing into fashion and Ajax would often spin tunes while dressed in a hot pink onesie.
I remember being on the Bacardi Express concert train tour that travelled from Sydney and Brisbane in 2008 and meeting Ajax there.He was a sweet, warm dude who always had a twinkle in his eye and a penchant for talking about new tunes as if he’d just discovered plutonium.
He and the Bang Gang DJs put on a veritable DJ masterclass at each Bacardi Express stop, mixing in MIA’s Paper Planes at different tempos and bringing the party into the red levels every time.
I interviewed him a year later about the record label he had started - Sweat It Out, and he spoke fervently about signing Melbourne hip hop quartet Gameboy Gamegirl.
“They’ve got their own sound,” he enthused.
Electro house and mash-ups never sounded as exciting and edgy in anyone else’s hands and for a few years I was lucky enough to see Ajax and his cohorts play sterling, jaw-bruising sets everywhere from the 3D World Dance Music Awards in Sydney and Honky Tonks in Melbourne to Splendour In The Grass in Byron Bay.
My crew nicknamed him Ajax Captain Fun. He never knew this, he was too busy rocking the party and making sure everyone else was having a good time.
In 2008, I was hanging out with Sydney friends and they scrunched up their faces when I mentioned Bang Gang DJs, saying they were sick of them.
That same night we saw Ajax and his band of merry men play a four-hour festival set of hip hop, house, techno and dirty French electro. At one stage he was wearing a brightly painted motorcycle helmet while spinning.
Everyone agreed with me afterwards that it was time for a backlash against the backlash: it was impossible not to love Ajax.
Police have ruled there were no suspicious circumstances in his death.
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