preview
GUEST DJ Terry Farley at
Ultragroove
La Belle Angele, Edinburgh, Sat 20 Jan.
Ask any big name DJ who's been around the block a few times whether the scene is as good now as it was ’back in the day’ and they'll probably say it's better. Realistically there are saying this because they’re now getting paid inordinate sums of money to do something they once did simply for the fun of it. Terry Farley, an integral player in the UK’s dance music scene since the early days of acid house and one of the men behind legendary label Junior Boys Own, takes a much more honest view.
’Nothing's ever as exciting as it was back then; it isn't. It doesn't matter what you're into. Say you’re a hip hop fan; the golden years of hip hop will always be in the South Bronx with people playing breakbeat records. Just as the golden years of house will always be that lawless edge of people taking drugs for the very first time, en masse as opposed to it just being something that celebrities did and dancing to a music that was basically brand new. Nothing can ever be as exciting as when it first came out.’
Along with his partner Pete Heller, Farley has been flying the flag for soulful house grooves since the late 805. He's remixed everyone from Nick Holder to the Happy Mondays, put out records by the likes of Underworld and the Chemical Brothers and produced club classics like Ultra Flava and Beat In Your Bones. Well placed to comment on the history and current status of dance music then, Farley's equally outspoken about the recent slump in credible house music. ’The people on Radio One who shape the tastes of younger clubbers were playing awful trance music and magazines were only pushing this awful trance sound
smaller clubs.’ Thankfully, it's not
month is moving
Meanwhile, Farley
(Catherine Bromley)
UNIQUE NIGHT Phat Dat Club
The Glass House, Glasgow, Sat 27 Jan.
The first lecture at the University of Club Promotion is based on a simple concept: always tell everyone that yOur club is uniQue, gr0undbreaking and utterly, utterly different from every other nightclub in the world, ever. Of course, this mantra tends to be a barefaced fib, but in the case of Phat Dat, Superstar frontman Joe McAlinden is telling the truth.
'It’s all abOut tables and chairs and candles,’ he says, ’and banana trees and lizards, ducks and fish' This isn’t a grand statement of psychedelic intent, as Phat Dat has Quite a venue to call home. It’s the sub-tropical Glass House in Queens Park. ’People really respond to it being in a big greenhouse,’ says McAlinden. ’The club came about because we were bored With the kind of venues and facilities that are available for people to see good mUSlC In.
Aside from the in-built attractions of the venue and DJ Sace’s laid-back
House band Superstar
Pete Heller and Terry Farley have had a long wait in the underground
Heler 8i ranev‘
and to hear proper house music, you had to go to
are finally looking up, not only for Farley and the London-based scene he's a major part of but also for the smaller clubs he refers to all over the UK. Ultragroove, the proper house night that's playing host to Farley this i
into a fortnightly slot after a
successful year of running monthly and this month also sees the boys launch their own record label.
'5 flagging Junior Boys Own label is set to be boosted by some exciting new talent including Peace Division, Future Shock and Joey Negro and, now that the commercial explosion is slowly dying down, Radio One DJs like Pete Tong are reflecting a resurgence in cool, underground grooves. 'It has reverted back,’ says Farley, 'as an underground thing it hasn't lost any ~ of its shape or excitement.’
eclectiCism, Phat Dat’s reputation rests
on live mUSIC, whether it‘s the mini-gigs from house band Superstar or the
Teenage FandUb' If a band '5 mmed to i first of these, Naked, is another l'lzllfl
play, they have to come up With
clubs@|ist.co.uk
; Word up
NOW IN lTS sixth year of annual
broadcasts, Glasgow's excellent student-run Subcity Radio will again be providing an antidote to the chart pap horrors of commercial
stations and Radio ‘On’ One's
increasingly out of touch dance music coverage. The station starts broadcasting 24 hours a day on Saturday 3 February and runs until
Friday 2 March at 106.7FM and, for the first time, will also be streaming ‘ on the web at www.subcity.org. To
provide a taste of what the station will be offering listeners, there's a launch night at the Arches on Thursday 1 February, featuring the Dub Dentists, the Operators, the Freek Menoovers, Subcity veteran Charlie lnman and funky afro- drummers Awayara to name but a
; few. f FANS OF THE Big Chill summer festivals
held in attractive areas of the EngllSll countryside will be pleased to learn that the promoters are staging a Blfl
: Chill Love-In in Wales this February The all doom and gloom because things 5
event takes place at the histoiir (]()lfll(
manSion of BaskerVille Hall Just outside
the market town of Ham-on-Wye from
' 9~ll February and confirmed acts
include Ninja Tune’s Mr Scruff and Hexstatic and Tummy Touch boss liin 'Love’ Lee. Weekend tickets |Tl(_lll(llll(]
accommodation are £80 and are : available on 0207 771 2000 Of www.ticketweb,co.uk, a full line-up
can be found at wwwbigchillnet illi(l all other enquiries should be made to
the Big Chill information line on 020/
503 9700. Plans are afoot for a new music
i festival to take place in Glasgow's j Kelvingrove park on Saturday 2 . Jun. The event will feature the likes
of Andrew Weatherall, Richard Fearless and Alex Knight and what '5 more, its all going to be free!l
t’s Willkommen and bienvenue to secretive and excluSive sets from the
likes of Ben & Jason, Eugene Kelly and
something different to their usual live ;
show,’ McAlinden explains. ’People can come and see bands as they wouldn’t normally see them. Because we do tend to get quite well known bands, we
never say Who’s playing. I don’t like the i
idea of attracting people With the
bands we put on. That’s half the charm:
people finding out after the fact and
hearing that so-and-so played at Phat
Dat. It has a nice mythical edge to it
now, we hear from people selling the ' tickets that people come in asking if Noel Gallagher is playing next time, and
the rumours start flying around.’ Phat Dat, then, can genuinely claim to be straying from
the herd of;
sweatboxes With big names or scruffy 3
gig venues. ’We've never had any
complaints,’ McAlinden says. ’But if you 5 don’t like the music, you can always i
have a talk to the fish.’ (Jack Mottram)
Naked and Rampage, two new nights set to take the capital by storm. The
house club launching on Thursday 8 February with very special guest lisa Lashes (below). The following night (Friday 9 February), Rampage goes Wild at the Wee Red Bar With some hard acid, trance and techno. Full details on both nights to follow next issue
l8 Jan—l Feb 2001 THE llST 61