I've loved music since I was a child - I had my first record player when I was age 4, and that was when I started collecting music.
When I was a teenager I had a couple of jobs, which gave me the money to buy lots of the current chart music. This was back in the early 80's when I was still at school. We had a record player in our class common room, and I was the one who took most of the music in to listen too - I even started to get requests!
Later, when I was aged 20, I got to help a local DJ, mainly by helping him set up his gear and playing a few records whilst the people arrived at the gigs. In the meantime, I got a job in a HiFi store, which gave my the chance to buy and set up a home 2 deck system to play around with (very generous staff discount!).
Eventually, I got a few opportunities to do some gigs, using my friends rig, filling in for him occasionally. He had a lot of contacts who did installations in pubs and clubs, and one day he told me that a wine bar was replacing their DJ setup, and asked if I would like to buy it for £100 - of course I bought it.
It was a 2 deck console with built in amplifier, and had 2 2x12" speakers - a bargain! I was given a few lights, and also built some of my own, and I was in business.
This was an exciting time as House music had just taken off, and I managed to get some regular gigs in some local clubs, as I was really into this new music and had bought a lot of imports that most DJ's didn't know existed!
I gave up DJ'ing and sold all my gear after getting married... to cut a long story short - I should have kept the gear and NOT married the woman... LOL!
Fast Forward many years and I'm working weekends in a small pub, using their gear, playing soul/motown/reggae, and doing a karaoke night in a local club. The manager of the pub got fired for stealing, so that was one job down, and the club was sold, so there was job #2 gone!
Left without too many options, I bought some more gear and managed to get some gigs to pay for it, and I've been successful enough to expand my gear a couple of times so far, and have a residency, as well as my mobile gigs.
And yes, I still love the music as much as I ever did!