In the late 1980s, the house music scene exploded in London. And after many nights spent driving around the M25 on the way to parties in disused warehouses, Nick Hook finally took out a loan and bought a pair of Technics decks and a mixer. These were soon followed by Nick’s first drum machine and keyboard. But it was a trip to Ibiza in the summer of 1990 that made Nick determined to start his own club.
That year he met house music producer Morgan King, with whom he teamed up to make tracks for the Swedish house label Btech. Soon, in the following spring of 1991, Nick launched his first club called Up, which later became Loosen Up.

Nick and Morgan’s partnership lead to immediate recording success. One of their tracks was 'Take Me Up', released under the name Soundsource (one of Nick and Morgan’s many guises). 'Take Me Up' became one of the biggest underground tunes of ‘91 and was licensed by FFRR and released in 1992, reaching no 62 in the national UK chart.
That year the Soundsource partnership launched Om Records, which fast became one of the most influential labels of the fledgling progressive house scene. Om Records released tracks by Nick and Morgan under various different names plus many rising stars of the London house scene including Billy Nasty, Paul Daly, 108 Grand, Marc Auerbach and Steve Travell. And featured remixes from Slam, Leftfield, Bump and Well Hung Parliament.
Nick’s releases on Om include Soundsource: 'One High', Pleasure Box: 'Goodbye To Jane EP', and First Life: 'Love Bomb'.

At around the same time, Nick’s club Loosen Up went from strength to strength. Between 1992 and 1994, it was one of London’s most influential clubs and had the reputation of being London’s friendliest night out. Many DJs who went on to become some of the scene's leading lights guested at Loosen Up in those years including Sasha, John Digweed, Darren Emerson, Orde Mikele (Slam), Billy Nasty, Paul Daly (Leftfield) and Tall Paul. But the main success of the club was down to Nick’s legendary ‘graveyard shift’ sets, which always left every body feeling high and looking forward to the next club night.

The success of Loosen Up saw Nick’s DJ career take off, and he went on to play guest spots at many of the UK's top clubs of the 1990s, such as the Ministry Of Sound, The Drum Club, Slam, and Club UK, as well as playing extensively in Europe and Ireland.

Nick started his solo career in 1994 after leaving Om Records. His first solo release was ‘Credence’ on the new progressive label Whoop Records. In fact, he was involved in the recording of most of Whoop Records’ early releases. One of Nick’s acts, First Life, partnered by Martin Sharp, released its second single 'Be One Of Us' in 1994, which became a progressive classic. It was massive for both Sasha and John Digweed and was one of the tunes responsible for kick-starting the progressive house scene in Florida. First Life also remixed Dum Dum’s 'One Earth Beat', which was one of Whoop Records' biggest releases – both mixes were used by John Digweed on his Renaissance 2 mix CD.

In 1995 Loosen Up joined forces with Whoop to form a new weekly progressive house night called Whoop It Up. It ran for over five years as a weekly Friday night club in London – three years at the Gardening Club in Covent Garden and two years at The Velvet Room on Charing Cross Road. Alongside resident DJs Nick Hook, Terry Marks, Andy Lekker and Joel Xavier, Whoop It Up featured the cream of the UK house scene including Seb Fontaine, Timo Maas, Sasha, Nick Warren and John Digweed.

Meanwhile, Nick launched Off The Hook Records, which released 11 singles between 1997 and 2000. These included four solo singles and collaborations with other artists including Shango and the late, great Tom Bouthier. Off The Hook also released a new First Life track called 'Burst Into Fire' – another big track, the video for which was shown twice on MTV.

In 2000 Nick teamed up with DJ Gordon Kaye to form Subterfuge. They had previously worked together as First Joy (with releases on Whoop and Stress in 1995). Subterfuge released two singles on React in 2001. Their first single 'ID Sanctuary', which included mixes by Circulation and Funk Funktion, featured extensive radio play from people like Radio One’s Pete Tong and reached 81 in the national chart. Subterfuge’s second single 'Prana', which featured remixes by Soul Mechanik and Gil, received critical acclaim, with support from all the top jocks including Radio One’s Seb Fontaine.
Also that year Nick's collaboration with Andy Morris, 'Groove On' was released on the legendary Scottish house music label Limbo Records.

Nick signed to Distinctive Records (the home of Hybrid and Way Out West) in 2001 and his single, 'Enhanced', (which featured vocals by the late great comedian Bill Hicks) was released in 2002, becoming an anthem at Ibiza’s Bora Bora, and featuring top remixes from Soul Mekanik and Mike Monday. Other releases that year included Hook vs Philter 'The Feeling' (a collaboration with Moussa Clarke) on Oven Ready Records.

In 2003 Nick started working with In Music, and his first release for them was a collaboration with Skynet entitled 'U Treat Me Right (Love Thing)', which reached no 1 in the Balance Promotions Chart. First Life’s classic track ‘Be One Of Us’ was released on In Music in 2004, with a brand new First Life mix and a brilliant remix from Chris Fortier (again topping the Balance Chart and gaining support among many of the UKs top DJs).
Also in 2004 In Music released Nick's 10th solo single, 'Burn Out Baby', which included remixes from Mike Monday, Martin Sharp and Hedstatic. Featuring vocals from Carol Neen 'Burn Out Baby' was a favourite for many top DJs around the world. And the First Life partnership of Nick and Martin Sharp continued to produce for In Music and Wallop Recordings that year.

Over the last 18 years Nick has remixed many tracks for labels such as Stress, Whoop, DMC, Limbo, Phonetic, Multiply and Fresh Records, including Saint Etienne, The Grid, Alex Neri and Gusto’s classic ‘Disco's Revenge’. Recent remix work has included mixes for Whoop!, In Music, Jeepers!, Wallop and Segment Records. See the Discography page for more details.

In recent years Nick has been more busy than ever in the recording studio. 2007 saw a flurry of new releases such as First Life (Nick Hook & Martin Sharp) - 'Survival' on Inevitable Records, The Casey Jones Effect (Nick and Robin Green) - 'Electrify Me' on Baroque, and Hook & Black (Nick and Matt Black) - 'Lucky Punk' on Segment.
First Life also remixed Luis Paris vs Adamski's 'One Of The People' for Phonetic Recordings, and Janet Gabriel's 'The Power' on Inevitable.

Also in 2007 Nick launched a brand new house music label, called Jeepers!, along with fellow Brighton DJ Lee Morrison. The first release on Jeepers! was a Nick Hook solo single entitled 'The Funky Muzik', which gained DJ support from such luminaries as Laurent Garnier, Tim Andresen and the Flash Brothers, and topped the MOS electro chart and reached number 2 in the DJ Download chart.

Since then Jeepers! has gone from strength to strength with great releases from top artists, and Nick Hook's remixes have featured on releases from Anton Neumark ('Get No Sleep), Full Blown ('Madness') and Martin Sharp ('I Got The Feeling'), all gaining outstanding DJ support.
2008 has seen new a First Life single, featuring Deeyana, entitled 'That's Life' on Jeepers!, plus a new Nick Hook solo single entitled 'Brothers & Sisters'. Both tracks have seen exceptional DJ support from the likes of Tall Paul, Roger Sanchez, Miss Nine, Hybrid, Slok and many more.

Look out for two more First Life releases, 'The Preacher Man' and 'The Devil Knows', on Jeepers! in 2008, plus a First Life remix of 'Trick Me' by Plastic Frequency featuring Katy Allen.
Nick is also remixing the next Tim Andresen single, 'Gimmay', for Tim's label What Happens.

After the demise of Whoop It Up, Nick relaunched his legendary London house club night Loosen Up in 2002. You can catch Nick playing at Loosen Up at various venues across London, such as the Key, Retox Bar, Hidden, SE1, Rinky Dink Bar and Sin, about once a month. See the DJ Gigs page or check out the Loosen Up website for details.
Nick also launched a new club night, called Loose, in Brighton (where he now lives) in 2006. Loose has fast become one of Brighton's best monthly house clubs. Checkout the Loose website for more details.

As well as continuing to DJ at some of the UK's top clubs Nick also continues to headline top clubs abroad, with recent gigs in Poland, Ukraine and Russia, being testament to his international reputation.