9: Into 1993

So….

1993 saw us putting on more and more raves, illegal and legal and Utopia was building up a decent following now. We had put on raves with Easygroove, Tango, Ratty, Fallout, Food Junky and lots more big names. Times were good. The illegal nights we put on were in rooms above pubs, bikers clubhouses, and one in a bike breakers yard! The sound crew from the now called Edge (formerly the Eclipse) supplied us with a dogs ‘taters P.A and their dj had decided to quit to start a family. DJ Addiction his name was with his mc Garvey. good lads and a great dj but family life came first so he quit. Good news for me though as they then offered me the chance to play at the Edge every weekend playing first and filling in for any dj’s that were late or no-shows on the first floor. I played at Dance planet, Amnesia House, and all the promoter nights on and was finally getting bumped up the schedule week on week. Only one drawback; The Darkside was upon us. I played some dark stuff but my heart wasn’t really in it. I loved Jungle Techno, nice amen break beats with a driving techno stab, but the dark stuff was all pervading, especially at The Edge. For those that never went there it was painted battleship grey inside, not exactly inviting good vibes.  At dance Planet one night, dj Mongoose was playing. I had one of his tapes from somewhere but had never seen him live. He was a great dj from Yorkshire and i never saw him again which was a shame. They had 2 big screens either side of the dj box showing mad videos and one was of a man getting smashed to bits by a train. This was the tipping point for me. I had played in the main room once and the sound crew thought it was high comedy to keep messing with the monitors, turning them right up then right down again. Not funny when you’re trying to impress the bosses and get sets in that room. One night, one of the biker gang was with me in the dj box while Stu Allen was on the decks. He (biker) was off his nut and pestering Stu while he was playing his set. The biker was leaning on the railing for the spiral staircase that led down to the stage and stood up straight before going to lean on the railing again. He missed, went arse over tit down the stairs and flopped out onto the stage behind the mc. One of the funniest things i have ever seen! The last night i played there i shouldn’t have. It was NYE 1993, Amnesia house. I rocked up with two mates, went to the side door and the bouncers let me in with my mates and we went upstairs and i started playing some tunes but was quickly kicked off the decks and told i wasn’t supposed to be playing, there was no guest list and Neville Fivey aka mc Loud & Nasty was pissed off and looking for me. Not good news, nobody had told me this before and i spent all night dodging him in case i got a slap or thrown out. Later that night i saw Mickey Lynas in the cinema room, and he glared at me whilst walking towards me, and crushed a polystyrene cup and slammed it on the table in front of me. I was off it and didn’t know whether i should be worried or laugh, as he looked like Eddie ‘the eagle’ Edwards and it was hard to take him seriously. I knew better though, as he WAS to be taken VERY seriously. This was the last time i set foot in the Edge, as the dark vibes had put me off and it closed not long after, that was the end of an era. A sad day.

Also in 1993 we lost a lot of money with our bigger club nights. We had booked the TicToC (then called Club Antics) and our first rave there wasn’t a big success, We had Easygroove again and he played a blinder as usual but there wasn’t many people in; we had forgot to check if there was any other big nights on that night in Coventry and the Edge was packed while we struggled to half fill the cavernous club. We put another rave on there but lost even more money as well. Things were looking grim for Utopia. We still put on illegal nights and our regular thursday night was still going strong, i was also getting bookings here, there and everywhere but like i said, i wasn’t liking the dark stuff. The tunes that i enjoyed at that stage bordered on happy hardcore, which was just starting to emerge, and would soon split the  scene the next year when the darkcore fucked off and was replaced by the soundbwoy sample heavy drum & bass.

Some 1993 hardcore that wasn’t too dark!

LTJ Bukem – Good Looking Records

I hated this stuff with a passion. I know this will rankle with some people but the chin stroking pseudo-intelligent jungle bored the shite out of me. It reminded me of the prog rock shit from the 70′s, like that blonde haired weird beard Rick Wakeman was churning out; self indulgent tripe. Some tunes on that label i enjoyed, like Tayla – Bang the drum but even that was a bit too dramatic for me. i was pining for some bludclart jungle techno and this stuff would make me either leave early or piss off to a chill out room. I heard a lot later of how much of a twunt LTJ had became, with artists not being paid, mc Conrad beating his mrs up and not being able to work in the U.S.A and all sorts of crapness.

The halcyon days of P.L.U.R had now long gone. The scene started to get serious and moody, but i had discovered a club in Leicester that would see the final leg of my raving days…. Die Hard!