An early breakthrough in Fergie's DJ career came when he was 17, when he DJ'ed at Trade for the first time. He played in their Test Lounge; a room in the club where new DJs could be tried out and crowd reaction gauged. Present were Tony De Vit, fellow Trade DJs Steve Thomas and Malcolm Duffy, plus Trade owner Laurence Malice (amongst others). This led to a phone call a few weeks later requesting him to play the Trade main room; for his full Trade debut, he played the last set of the event at 12 pm on a Sunday afternoon. He would later become a resident DJ of Trade. In 1997, he played outside of the UK for the first time when he toured South Africa, as the support DJ for Tony De Vit. It was only his second time flying on a plane and De Vit had to be Fergie's named guardian for the trip (he had to be added to De Vit's passport). Fergie's first appearances in Ibiza came in the summer of 1998 with Trade when he played the Space main room, the Bora Bora beach club, and the back room of Privilege. The party at Bora Bora was held by Trade in memory of De Vit who had died not long before. In 2018, Fergie said of De Vit, "Tony was my mentor. I wouldn't be where I am today if it was not for his support. (...) He opened doors for me and was a huge help with the technical side of my DJing too." Fergie told Mixmag in December 2000, "Maybe I wasn't his best friend but he was certainly mine."