When she was 18, Sally McLintock went into the family business.

This was not, as is usually the case in stories like this, a profession like butchery, running the corner shop or undertaking.

Instead, after her A-levels Sally stepped up to help run the DMC World DJ Championships – currently one of the most prestigious DJ competitions on the planet.

“It’s my aunt and uncle’s company,” she says, referring to Tony Prince, who founded the Disco Mix Club (originally a radio show) in 1983. “I grew up with DMC, because it used to be run from their house when I was at school. After finishing school I started off doing the promotion for our record label, Stress Records. After about a year I started getting interested in the championships, and after a couple of years I completely took over.”

She laughs as she recalls learning at her uncle’s elbow, presumably ducking occasionally so as not to get hit when he was scratching the record. “My Uncle Tony is funny. Whenever the people from MTV or wherever came down, he always made sure I stood behind him. He calls me his filing cabinet because he never remembers anything, and he’ll ask me any question and I’ve got it.”

That was ten years ago, but the family business of giving shine to the best DJs in the world is still going strong. “My mum is the managing director here as well. My family always worked closely with me until I got old enough and wise enough to completely do everything by myself, which took a few years. I’d like to think I’ll be doing it for ten more years, as long as the interest is there.”

Of course, the annual DMC World DJ Championships is an event one starts planning for the second the last one finishes.

McLintock admits she is working “day and night” in the run-up to the Worlds. The UK champs took place a few weeks ago, to a packed house, and when we speak to her McLintock has recently been in New York for the US champs. No rest here.

The Worlds takes place over two days, and involves a team battle, a DJ battle where DJs go head to head, and a solo set. It is the last of these that is arguably the main event: DJs from 34 countries get three minutes each (six in the finals) to impress the judges. Gold-plated turntables and $10,000 cash for the winners.

We were at the UK finals, where Million Dan warmed up the crowd before the DJs threw down some stunning sets. Despite the slightly stop-start nature of the competition, the scratching and beat-juggling skills showed that the UK is without question in with a shout this year. It came close – too close, some would say – but eventually DJ Skully took the crown with a monster set.

McLintock is happy the event went down so well. “At a live show, you’re just seeing what that person has to offer. When you come to a competition, there’s nothing better than that intensity in the room. In the UK Finals you had JFB who’d come back to defend his title, and Skully, who was 2002 champ and has come second at the world finals twice before.

It meant there was a lot of hype with those two going head to head.”

DJ Skully (Mark Hull) says he feels blessed for the opportunity to take on the Worlds again. The twelve-year veteran has been here before, back in 2000 and 2002. “No-one from the UK has ever come back like this. With the event being at home this year there’s the extra pressure of the home crowd. Your frame of mind is very important, and it’s going to take me out of my comfort zone.

McLintock might be doing all the planning and the paperwork, but Skully is adamant he’s taking it just as seriously. “I’ve been training eight to ten hours a day, absolutely non-stop, eating right, adjusting my sleep patterns. I take it very seriously. It’s not the usual outlook for a DJ, which most people think is normally about partying all the time, but then the DMCs are not like your average DJ work.”

One of the more interesting aspects of the DMCs is the judging. The judges – McLintock can’t yet specify how many there will be at the worlds but Skully thinks about twenty – are all experienced DJs, with some former world champs among them, including last year’s solo champ, Germany’s DJ Rafik.

However, unlike similar competitions in disciplines such as B-Boying, there is no judging criteria. McLintock explains that the judges are looking for a good all rounder – “you can’t make someone world champion just because he’s good at scratching” – and are of a calibre that they know what to look for, even if the difference between two DJs’ skill isn’t always immediately obvious to the crowd.

Skully is cool with this, as he would be, having won the national title. “It all comes down to technical ability versus crowd reaction. It’s an anything-goes policy.”

The product of McLintock’s family business is looking to be a particularly massive event, taking place at Indig02 at the Dome. Over two nights Million Dan, beatboxer Killa Kela, DJ Vajra and DJ Rafik will heat the jam up before the finalists get down to business: DJ battle and team battle on the Friday night, solo champs on the Saturday and, presumably, one monster of a hangover the next morning.

As an aside, we ask McLintock what her uncle Tony is up to these days. “He runs a wedding channel on Sky. He flies off to New York to film the first lesbian wedding while his wife and my mum and me do the DMC.”

Of course he does.