Listening to and reviewing all 1997's Essential Mixes

bosstrabs

mono-stereo Noodles frothing in the pan of a doorless shitter as Lee Burridge drops Patricia Never Leaves The House to a dancefloor of pissed Brummies

mono-stereo

Pushing too hard

-si-

“Lads, listen up, I like the japes and banter as well as any of you, but If i see anyone downing shots, or sniffling lines, before we’ve all fuelled up on our carb heavy pre-rave health and safety dinner, I’ll be raging with you!”

RichM

bosstrabs haha that sounds bizarre having a meal in a club. I was at uni in wolves so only ever went over to Birmingham for Atomic Jam. Then stuck to a load of techno and drum n bass nights locally, mixed in with some nights at UK Midlands

Old-Dutch

Having a meal in a club isn’t as mad as you might think. Ask my mate who at Pier Head on Millenium had the genuis idea of hiding his Garys in a cigarette (admittedly only 1 or 2 but still, lol), forgetting he did this and then smoked said cigarette.

We were watching him strolling around and grabbing some poor wreckrd bird’s head (she was wearing a hat and sat on the floor and he kept trying to sit on her head.

After a minute of trying to work out what the fuck was going on, we went over and asked him what the fuck he was doing. He thought he was in a Japanese sushi restaurant and the girl with the hat was a stool.

IndustryStandard

Old-Dutch ….you used to get a meal ticket at The Greyhound for Full Circle. Something about Sunday daytime licensing laws and a way of getting round them. From what I recall the choice and queue were unimpressive.

For those Chelmsford/Essex old heads, The Dukes Experience had a full on restaurant setup in the same area where you collected your party bucket / hats / cheap knock off champers if you were having a Birthday Party there (a topic worthy of a whole separate thread as I still have PTSD from this topic)

Old-Dutch

gcw I wonder how much ‘Mav’ got for that percussion gig each week? Do you think any of the Cream clientele actually noticed it? Always struck me as an odd mention on a flyer.

My mate was a bouncer at Cream back then. Apparently Mav used to get about £200 a night. Bleasedale only got £500 apparently too. Was a fucking brilliant warm up DJ

RichM

Old-Dutch but did Mav do the whole night? If so maybe that was why they were paid more. Was an unneeded role in a club back then. Who the fuck thought the club needs it when you paid DJs to play decent music

Smallman1

Rich is such a thicket.

RichM

Please explain what makes me a thicket based on what I said?

Not denying I am, and could just be a general accusation, in which case you are probably right. Just curious on said view

bosstrabs

RichM Please explain what makes me a thicket based on what I said?

I think the Oxford Brookes graduate is sneering at you going to Wolverhampton Uni.

Dan

RichM It’s a bugger to mix when some cunts on them 😆

RichM

bosstrabs that’s fair enough tbh 😂

nicksneddon

That 97 MAW essential mix is fantastic, would love them to broadcast it again – unfortunately the classic essential mix they play on sounds every week ends up being Martin Garrix or Deadmau5 from a couple of years ago

Dan

IndustryStandard I was going to mention Dukes 😆

Amps

Mav was a boss percussionist and a top lad. He was in Crazy Penis too. How much anyone ever noticed his contribution was pretty much down to the DJ who was playing at the time. His bongo / percussion set up was on a channel on the main DJ mixer, so it was up to the DJ as to how loud Mav was in the mix and how much he was used. Some DJs wouldn’t bother much and others like Roger Sanchez were bang into it; proper filtering the fuck out of tracks with the isolator and letting Mav play over the top of it, or just dropping tracks clean out for him to play solo.

Regards odd additions to club line ups… I once went to NY Sushi (Fat Boy, Freddie Fresh, Monkey Mafia) and they had avstract interpretive dance acts on in front of the booth. Funny as fuck when you’re off your nut.

Courtyard was originally an outside space, which was eventually covered over, it probably held about 1500, unbelievable when going off, but so was the whole club. Saw everyone from the Chems, Underground Resistance, X-Cabs, Garnier, Sasha, John, PVD etc. smash it in there. They killed the vibe in the front room when they put it all to one level. No idea what coin Bleasdale was actually on, but yeah, he’s generally considered to be the most overlooked DJ in the history of the universe.

Mad_Cyril

Amps Courtyard was originally an outside space, which was eventually covered over, it probably held about 1500

From what I can remember was where the empty crates were stored, then opened out for random stuff like D&B dj’s before what it became post refurb.

Amps Mav was a boss percussionist and a top lad. He was in Crazy Penis too. How much anyone ever noticed his contribution was pretty much down to the DJ who was playing at the time. His bongo / percussion set up was on a channel on the main DJ mixer, so it was up to the DJ as to how loud Mav was in the mix and how much he was used. Some DJs wouldn’t bother much and others like Roger Sanchez were bang into it; proper filtering the fuck out of tracks with the isolator and letting Mav play over the top of it, or just dropping tracks clean out for him to play solo.

Raises a good point, a lot of the US House based stuff being played then lent itself more to a percussionist as well at the time.

Amps They killed the vibe in the front room when they put it all to one level

If by front room you mean the Annexe, I can only remember it being tiered, like a mini forum, and certainly not the massive space Dave described earlier -did it get opened up in later years (post 96?)

Amps

Mad_Cyril you had the Main Room / Front Room, which was split on two levels. The Annexe which was noticeably the smallest room, one level. The Courtyard, the biggest room, one level.

Mad_Cyril

Amps
93 to 96 there was only the annex and the main room.

Annexe a small space with a sunken floor, raised booth and kind of raised steps.

Two open archways into the main bar, a large area.

Other exit from the bar were the bogs and into the main room, which was huge and had another small bar and seating area.

The courtyard was barely in existence when I was going, apart from the odd random D&B sessions with a few white kids trying to figure how to dance to it.
That make sense?

Amps

Main Room probably held over a 1000 and included the VIP.

Amps

Mad_Cyril Correct. So regards your earlier post, the Annexe and Main Room / Front Room are different spaces.

bosstrabs

Mad_Cyril Annexe a small space with a sunken floor, raised booth and kind of raised steps.

Two open archways into the main bar, a large area.

That is how I remember it too. Given that I mostly went in late 1997-2000, I wonder if it was extended. It seemed long to me. Or maybe I was just absolutely melted most times I was in there.

Here’s a vid, but it’s from 2015, it may have been remodelled a couple of times:

Anyway, I defer to Amps’ better knowledge about the whole place, as I said I only went about 15 times.

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