Preaching the Gospel of House: Stuart Patterson on Faith, Festivals & the UK House Sermon
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As one of London’s most trusted voices in house music, Stuart Patterson has seen every corner of the scene from founding iconic clubs and record shops to releasing fanzines, running parties, and playing globally renowned dancefloors. But this summer, it’s Campo Sancho where Stuart feels most at home.
Ahead of his return to Walkern Hall for Campo Sancho (July 25–27), we sat down with the Faith Collective mainstay to talk about his journey through house culture, the magic of building community, his football-fuelled new release UK House Sermon, and why Sancho is one of his unmissable highlights of the summer.
Q: Stuart, you’re described as a “global dance music pioneer & industry visionary” and your journey in dance music has been extensive. From DJing, producing and party promoting to running your own label, bar, club and record shop, you’ve made a huge contribution to the dance music scene and seen it from all angles. Take us through your back story?
Like most, simply a love of the music from entry-level tracks from the likes of Gil Scott Heron and The Fatback Band to venturing into London for club nights before we were actually old enough to be there to quickly wanting to try to put on parties in Bucks that played similar music, not knowing any DJs at that point so playing the music (badly) ourselves!
The big progression was moving into London in the mid 90’s and putting parties on in West London that went from pretty average at best to the more successful Soulsonic (alongside Leo Zero) where things took off for me as a promoter and DJ.
Q: In all of this, what have been the highlights for you?
The international DJ gigs have been the highlights. The chance to travel most of the World and go places I never would have been. (I was in Albania last week for the first time, and I played in Tirana on Friday night).
Also, finally pulling off the Goa and Spain events has been very satisfying.
Q: Which early musical influences have helped shape your path and sound?
My early influences would have been Pete Tong, Bob Jones and Gilles Peterson at Special Brach and Dave Dorrell and CJ Mackintosh at RAW plus Norman Jay at The Bass Clef. Although I’m mainly known as a house DJ that’s a lot of influences and I still collect and love soul, jazz, reggae and funk etc (which I always feature in the first hour of my monthly Mi-Soul show).
Q: Tell us about your new track, “UK House Sermon”? What inspired you to make this? Do you think UK house music continues to shape and lead the global industry?
I had the idea of a roll call of UK house originators for a while, there has been plenty of American versions but I thought the UK deserved one. Producer Dan The Drum approached me with the idea of me telling my house story so I suggested we amalgamated both ideas. Add in some lovely vocals from Carmy plus some special remixes from XPress-2 and the North St West crew (Ashley Beedle, Darren Morris and Jo Wallace) and i’m really happy with the whole project. FCLR037 – Dan The Drum x Stuart Patterson – UK House Sermon ft. Carmy Love (Original-E Mix) | Dan The Drum, Stuart Patterson, Carmy Love | F*CLR Music
Q: Which current artists have caught your eye?
They’ve been around a good while but a few names that are now getting the attention they deserve are like Rob Redford, Coflo, Wade Teo and Makez in the house world and names I seem to play a lot on my mi-soul show are Cleo Soul, SAULT, Florence Adooni and DeeVoNay.
Q: Your long-standing friendship and collaboration with Terry Farley – how did that begin, and how has your partnership evolved, particularly with the Faith brand?
I booked Terry to play at my first event London promotion at Woody’s in West London in the mid-nineties (alongside Norman Jay) and then he was a regular guest at Soulsonic. He then approached me to join himself, Bill Brewster and Dave Jarvis to start a new party called Faith. He is now a good friend, although it annoys me when he knicks my tune choices and claims them as his 😉
Q: Can you elaborate on your involvement with Defected Records and how the Faith parties have developed, including boat parties and your international residencies like Amour Andalucia and Goa?
Defected approached us just before the pandemic with the idea of resurrecting Faith fanzine which was also around the time of when we were meant to be calling time on the parties. 20 and Out was the name of the party, it was one of our best so not continuing with the fanzine about to relaunch would have been daft. While the Faith parties have remained fully ours, Defected have included us on the lines up for their Croatia and Malta festivals every year and we look forward to joining them again in August and October.
Amor and Goa have been a labour of love as are very different than other overseas festivals as in we use different venues for each party when we are there rather than being stuck in one venue. It throws up it’s issues but in the end I feel it give’s everyone a better experience being able to party in different incredible outdoor venues. Buy tickets – Amor Andalucia 2026 – Various, Alhaurin El Grande
Q: The Faith community continues to blossom and is now one of the longest-standing clubbing communities in dance music. What is the secret to building and maintaining a solid community like this and what are your plans for it going forward?
Faith is definitely on a high at the moment with more and more younger house heads joining us. Firstly, we love the music, the fanzine is free, we book Djs we love for the parties not just safe bet crowd pullers. We have had a few rough periods but I think the fact you don’t give up because you love it stands you in good stead.
We hope to keep the fanzine running alongside the Faith record label via Defected although it’s not easy being free. The London parties are already in place for the next year and we have our first outdoor day festival near Brighton this summer on July 12th, which we are really excited about.
Q: What’s coming up for you this summer?
I’ve mentioned Faith In A Field on July 12 and i’m DJing at something very special in Bristol on July 19th which is followed by Campo Sancho festivalon the last weekend in July – which is always a highlight.
It’s about far more than DJ sets there as I like to hang out all weekend, catch up with old friends and listen to some great DJs. We have Faith at Defected in Croatia on the first weekend in August and always close off the UK summer with my carnival party on Sun 24th Aug which features both Faith and Sancho Panza residents. North Fest 10 Carnival Special at The North London Tavern, London · Tickets
Q: For aspiring producers starting out in music today, what advice would you offer them?
Patience is probably the biggest factor alongside ability because there is so much music being produced even good tracks gets overlooked. If you are convinced what are you are doing is strong and patience isn’t your forte.. start your own label it will quicken the process of releasing music.
Stuart Patterson plays at Campo Sancho festival, July 25th – 27th, at Walkern Hall, Stevenage. Tickets for Campo Sancho are flying out the door and are on sale now here
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