Paddy Ashdown Is Becoming A DJ And Here Are The Tracks He's Laying Down

    Spoiler: He likes French dance music.

    Former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown will take to the decks this Saturday at a special party event.

    The 74-year-old peer and former Royal Marine will compete with other politicians in the battle to be crowned Lib Dem DJ of 2015. The Lib Dem Disco will take place on the opening night of the party's autumn conference in Bournemouth.

    Last year's title was clinched by Alistair Carmichael, MP for Orkney and Shetland. But this time round, Ashdown is determined to claim victory.

    BuzzFeed News got a sneak peek at Ashdown's playlist. Here's his first track – "Ta fête" by Stromae.

    View this video on YouTube

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    French for "Your party", the track made it to the dizzy heights of No. 2 in the Belgian dance charts last year.

    He also plans to lay down "Rose rouge" by St Germain.

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    The track, which samples Marlena Shaw's 1969 hit "Woman of The Ghetto", is taken from St Germain's 2000 album Tourist. St Germain is the alter ego of French musician Ludovic Navarre.

    And he'll play "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon.

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    The catchy single from American indie rock band Walk the Moon hit No. 4 in the UK charts this summer and is being played in cheesy discos everywhere.

    It's fair to say that Ashdown considers this a pretty hot playlist. He's raring to go.

    But one friend has suggested to BuzzFeed that he *might* have had some help from his grandchildren. Back in 1991, Ashdown chose a rather different playlist for Radio 4's Desert Island Discs – opting for the composers Schubert, Vivaldi, and Handel.

    Advance tickets for the event are being sold for £10 each, with the money going straight into party coffers.

    Ashdown also faces competition from former MP Julian Huppert – aka DJ J-Hupz – mayoral candidate Caroline Pidgeon, and ex-MP Jo Swinson.

    Even party leader Tim Farron might get behind the decks.

    Farron told BuzzFeed News: "I may make a brief appearance. It's relatively unknown that my father was a DJ, just to make ends meet on a Saturday night. It was in a club not far from Preston – he was very, very, very good."

    But fans of Farron's teenage band The Voyeurs, also known as Fred the Girl, will be sadly disappointed. "We will not be playing anything from my band," he confirmed.

    But it's clear who the biggest draw of the evening will be.

    There's nothing I've ever wanted more than to see @paddyashdown as a DJ #libdemdisco

    Paddy Ashdown is DJ'ing at Lib Dem disco, I can't even..

    @LibDemDisco I can't wait to use the hashtag #PaddyAtTheDisco