VODAFONE : BIG TOP 40 GIVES LOCAL MANCHESTER DJ BIG BREAK

Manchester local Chris Durkin is celebrating after being named the next Vodafone Future Breaker winner, giving the unsigned DJ a fantastic opportunity to launch his budding music career. The Vodafone Future Breakers initiative, launched as part of the Vodafone Big Top 40 partnership with Global, has given Chris the money-can't-buy chance to record and produce his own mix with industry professionals, as well as his live studio session broadcast online with the Big Top 40.

Fashioning his music as a low-tempo take on electronic, Chris thinks he can bring something new to the music scene and really give people a reason to care about electronic music. Durkin's upbringing was grounded in a variety of music influences from friends and family, but he was first set on playing guitar in a band, only later turning his hand to electronic music. He soon realised this was his true love after playing around with pairing various sounds together and falling for the energy of the electronic music scene.

Taking inspiration from the likes of Flume and SG Lewis, the 21 year old DJ hopes this big break will be the stepping stone to something bigger, including producing many more tracks over the coming year. Having primarily focused on performing in local Manchester clubs for the past year, Chris is excited to be bringing his sound to bigger audiences via the Big Top 40.

On his experience with Vodafone Future Breakers, Chris commented: 'I think the best thing about winning this competition is that it can really push my career forward. I can now go to gigs and say that I'm a Vodafone Future Breaker - it's a massive deal to everyone. The whole experience has been amazing though, just performing my mix in the studio was brilliant, with such a good atmosphere.'

Fronted by the Vodafone Big Top 40's very own Marvin Humes, Vodafone Future Breakers is continuing the search for the very best unsigned talent from across the UK to uncover the next big thing in music. Listeners, budding artists, DJs and band members can still get involved and enter their tracks or videos through the dedicated hub where they could win a recording studio session with a top industry producer!

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Notes to editors:

About The Big Top 40:

The Vodafone Big Top 40 is the UK's number 1 chart show with 2.4 million listeners every week. It is presented by Marvin Humes, and produced by Global, the media & entertainment group. The chart is the UK's first real time chart show with the top 10 taken live from iTunes during the show. The show airs Sundays from 4pm across 130 radio stations, online at bigtop40.com and through the Big Top 40 app.

Find out more about Vodafone Future Breakers and the Vodafone Big Top 40 here:

http://promo.bigtop40.com/breakers/home/

• Hi res images and logos available on request.
• Follow up interview with Chris available on request.
• Chris Durkin's SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/chrisdurkin

About Vodafone UK

Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies and provides a range of services including voice, messaging, data and fixed communications. Vodafone has mobile operations in 26 countries, partners with mobile networks in 55 more, and fixed broadband operations in 17 markets. As of 30 June 2016, Vodafone had 465 million mobile customers and 13.7 million fixed broadband customers. For more information, please visit: www.vodafone.com.

Vodafone UK partners with businesses of all sizes - from start-ups and small businesses to the largest corporates and the public sector. The company has worked with UK businesses for over 30 years, starting out as a mobile provider and becoming one of the UK's leading total communications partners. It provides a range of voice and data services, secure communications infrastructure, fixed and call centre capability, unified communications and was the first mobile phone operator to offer a truly converged service for fixed and mobile.

Vodafone is currently spending around £1 billion on its network and services across the UK following a similar amount spent last year. This includes £200 million on its network in London, the introduction of its 4G service to more than 871 cities and towns, as well as thousands of smaller communities whilst also making network improvements across its UK 3G network. Meanwhile, The Vodafone Rural Open Sure Signal programme is also aiming to bring 3G coverage for the first time to 100 remote communities across the UK.

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