2: Next....

So……

A lot of my mates hadn’t been raving yet and i was determined to convert them. On Fridays i used to go swimming over at Coventry baths with my social worker before a sauna and a few beers over the road from the Eclipse, at the Elastic inn. I told my social worker about going there the week before (obviously leaving out the bit about taking LSD) and he gave me £30 so i could go that night, bless him. I arranged to meet a mate in town who wanted to go and said goodbye to my social worker with a spring in my step. When i met my mate he had changed his mind so we just ended up getting pissed and going home. I hadn’t given up though and was nagging my mates that were my age to come with me and check it out. Eventually (March!) i got 3 mates to tag along to Total Kaos! Kaotic for a dj battle. We drove over in an old Austin Ambassador and waited in the queue. As we waited my mate noticed the telly in the reception area and there was me, out of my face sitting on the stairs trying to avoid being filmed. We paid our money and went inside, straight to room 2 on the first floor and decided what drugs to take. Some geezer offered us a wrap of speed but none of us had tried it before. Me being all brave (or just not thinking) decided to buy a wrap. Now as i said, none of us had had any before so didn’t know how to take it, so we all ended up having a dab each and seeing what happened. My mate Ronnie was an avid arcade game enthusiast  and had found some fighting game in there and was glued to it, not even moving when his favourite song came on (DJ H feat Steffy – think about). I had moved up to the main room and was dancing around having fun. At about 3 am my mates were bored and wanted to go home?!?! WHAT? the speed hadn’t really had any kind of effect and they were moaning that it was late and time to call it a night.

I went back there pretty much every Saturday for the first few months in 1991, but we had other stomping grounds as well. My weekend started on a Wednesday, at The Royal Haven, in Fenny Drayton, where they had a disco that played rave tunes. Thursday night was at the Pump & tap, in Nuneaton, where again a normal disco played a few tunes we liked. Friday night was on the piss in Atherstone leaving Saturday night for members night at the Eclipse. We heard on the grapevine about a house party in Nuneaton and decided to gate crash it. We met a load of ravers that night, and forged some friendships with people i still see today, and one of those was a dj called Hardcore Massive. I knew him from school, albeit not my school we were the same age and i knew him from when he was a scooter boy. He had a pair of Hi-Fi turntables and little Realistic mixer and was spinning a few tunes. My dad had had a disco for over 25 years so i was immediately interested and he let me have a little go. I had no idea how the crossfader worked but had a lot of fun playing with them. We became a bigger crew of mates then and soon a load of my mates from Arley had joined us when raving. Hardcore Massive soon upgraded to a pair of Technics 1210′s so i bought those Hi-Fi turntables of him and started to practice. It only took a couple of weeks to get the gist of it, and Hardcore Massive (HM) had taken over the Pump & Tap on Thursday nights, along with 2 others, DJ Shorthand and Rhythm Skitzo. I had improved a lot so i got my first gig warming up (or the 7-8pm set). These nights were off the hook. It was the only place in Nuneaton that played proper rave tunes all night (well, till 11:30) and was rammed every week. People came from surrounding towns and villages and soon we had built a reputation up, and we had called our night ‘Innovation’. These nights continued until summer 1992, but that is a different story there….

We had not limited ourselves to the Eclipse, we also travelled to Stoke – on -Trent to go to Shellys laserdome, Jenkins Lane, Barking to Raindance and loads of other clubs.This was my summer of love. Our gang of ravers had swelled to over 100 people, and when HM got a gig at Milwaukees in Northants we took a coach load and loads of cars over to Helter Skelter. This proved to be another quality club and a lot of money got spent ther as well. Shellys was something else though. We loved that club, even when the bouncers give my mate a punch in the head for an 8th of draw! (bit harsh, i thought) Sasha played there most weeks and i loved the vibe there. Milwaukess was a different type of club. It had a low ceiling and was more hardcore with its music policy, and was an absolute sweat box. In the loo one night i ate two wraps of speed without a drink and something in my throat was destroyed that night, i was dry retching all night and still suffer from it today. Not groovy. As you may remember, pills in those days cost £20 each and i couldn’t afford them as i was on  a YTS earning peanuts, so i decided to start selling them. I got get them ‘on tick’ at £14 each, and an ounce of speed at £120. I got 50 pills at first and two ounces of speed and we went to Birmingham, Aston Villa Leisure centre to ‘Time’ and sold the lot. £6 profit on each pill, and £160 per ounce of speed. Now i was making some decent money! I done this most weeks in 1991 till my dealer was sent to prison, unsurprisingly, for selling drugs. He done a great prank one night. He had the drug squad sat outside of his flat every weekend and one night he called 999 and told them there was an Astra parked outside his flat with two men with guns on their laps and was scared they had came to shoot him. Within 30 mins an armed response unit had surrounded the drug squads car and had them on the floor in the middle of the street! Class.

I had now moved out my foster home and lived a mate now, and as i said earlier a load of lads from Arley had joined our crew. One of the lads was two years above me at school and was in an indie band called ‘Easter Island’ and he showed an interest in learning to dj, so i duly taught him on those Hi-Fi decks i had. His name is John Graham and he went on to produce tunes under the name ‘Globe’ before changing to ‘Skanna’ and releasing a shit load of fantastic jungle. He now lives in L.A, dj’ing and producing and living the dream. Bastard lol.