Lisa Dawn Rose-Wyatt was born in Holbrooks, Coventry, where she grew up with her mother, father, three sisters, and two brothers. Raised as a Jehovah's Witness, on Sundays, Lisa would attend meetings and do door-to-door preaching with her parents to hand out The Watchtower and read from the Bible. In her early years, Lisa went to John Shelton School, then to President Kennedy Comprehensive School and at 16, joined a 2-year youth training scheme with Marks & Spencer, where she worked for eight years.[1]
Lisa first discovered a passion for dance music when she began clubbing at events such as Miss Moneypenny's and Chuff Chuff, where she got to see her favourite DJs of that time: Lisa Loud, John Kelly and the late Tony De Vit.[2]
1993–2003: Early
Lisa Lashes first emerged as a DJ in 1992. In 1995, she performed at a friend's boat party, where she met Sundissential promoter Paul Madan or 'Madders'; she got offered the second official advertisement to continue residency at the Sunday club in Birmingham.[3]
Her single release "Unbelievable" spent four weeks in the United Kingdom official singles chart, peaking at No. 63 in July 2000. Two years later, in 2002, a follow up release of "Unbelievable", remixed with trance artists Lab 4, reached 78 in the same chart. In October 2003 the single "What Can You Do 4 Me?", released on Tidy Trax, achieved her highest UK singles chart position at number 52.[4][6]
In 2000, Lisa Lashes was voted by readers of DJ Magazine in their annual top 100 list of the most popular DJs, the first and only female to date among the top ten DJs in the world.[7]
2003–2010: The Launch of Lashed
In 2003, Lisa Lashes launched her 'Lashed events' in Ibiza. Having held residencies in Ibiza for several years, playing Godskitchen, Judgement Sundays, Slinky, and Tonic, Lisa wanted to create something unique. For 15 weeks in the summer of 2003, Lashed in Ibiza took over the iconic nightclub 'Eden' in the heart of the San Antonio waterfront and it quickly became a sell-out event. To bring Lashed to a global audience, Lisa partnered with Nettwerk Management to promote Lashed as a premiere dance music event, taking Lashes to China, Canada, America, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.[8]
2010–Present: Transition to trance and techno
Lisa Lashes launched her trance-based Lashed Podcast on iTunes and her website in April 2010. The monthly podcast garnered 90,000 subscribers within the first year.[9] Lisa Lashes then began producing trance music with her debut release 'Election Day' being signed to Marcel Woods' Musical Madness label. She went on to release on labels such as Discover Dark, High Contrast, Reset Records and her own Lashed Music label,[10] some of which received support from leading trance artists Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk and Judge Jules. Since her transition to trance music Lisa has performed at major trance events such as A State of Trance 550 in Den Bosch, Holland, Nocturnal Wonderland in California and Gatecrasher in Shanghai, she continues to tour and perform worldwide.[11]
