Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 40
Sign: Aries
Country: UK
Signup Date: 1/18/2006
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Monday, January 23, 2006
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Category: Music
Shelleys in the new decade of the 90s was not the first club that was known for upbeat music and dancing, many many years before with the Legendary Golden Torch, a northern soul club.
How history repeats itself, many years earlier, The Golden Torch was also closed down by the authorities.
The Golden Torch
The 80s, Electro, with dancing styles and art we loved from America, mixed with the domestic British electronic bands, such as Human League, Visage, Depeche Mode, Yazoo, New Order, Listening to some of this music, it was early techno/electro, it was prog rock, some timeless. Lest not forget Europe generally, Italy, with people like Alexander Robotnik , Germany - Kraftwerk who in the 80s where adding more dancefloor electro beats, certainly around the time Francois Kevorkian's mix of Tour de France. Japanese, Ryuichi Sakamoto especially worthy of a mention.
Nothing happens overnight, all these paved the way for the later styles, such as House and Techno. In the early 80s, I suppose Juan Atkins had already invented Techno, although it was termed Electro in the UK, and was more part of the Hip Hop and break dancing scene here. House had been brewing in Chicago from the early 80s, and had came to world wide acclaim by the mid 80s with its mix of stark European music and disco to a 4/4 beat. The first House imports reaching us around 85. Then the first house LP released in Britain, The House sound of Chicago 1986. This was really the new start as this well priced LP was in everyones reach, similiar to the earlier Electro compilations. Euro, avant-garde, Electro, Disco. It was something that combined all but sounded totally fresh.
The Tory's had been in power sometime and caused much unhappiness, to live through the eighties for most people was a living nightmare, record high unemployment being the main factor in urban areas. Electric blues songs due to the cold war, reflected in music like Frankie Goes to Hollywood Two Tribes, apocalyptic visions regularly appeared on our goggle boxes.
Protect and Survive
The north south divide was still apparent, The post punk era brought, strikes, race riots in London- Birmingham - Liverpool - Leeds. Police corruption, the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad didnt help race relations at all. Mass football hooliganism, most cities where the same as Birmingham, I remember in the early-mid 80s when Birmingham City played at home, the city centre would be a scene of pitch battles, usually with the Police or perhaps away fans, looting of shops, this was expected and after a while shops like Olympus sports would close around the time the match ended.
A lot of discontent, and angry people looking for a release, which manifested itself in violence, music, and art. Music and art seemed a lot more useful. Art such as graffiti . We got ideas from book, TV, film. When a friends dad brought Subway Art back from New York before it was available here, we studied it over and over, break dancing and films like Wild Style, Beat Street, and BBC's Arena documentary also gave us great insight into New York street culture.
more info: - http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk/index.htm
So whats this history lesson got to do with the party scene and Shelleys?
Well, all of this led up to it. The people who dived firstly into House, then Acid House, Techno, had previously known each other through the Electro music that came earlier, also felt they couldnt escape the politics.
Around 1982, I was Break dancing to Electro(funk) music, going to alldayers on Sundays at Cannon Hills Mac centre, south Birmingham. Unknown DJ from Shelleys used to go around with crew called Sonic Shock, the best in Birmingham in my opinion. I used to be around a crew called Rock 6 also from south Birmingham, all friends down the football, we went to the same places where they had challenges and also to graffiti, we shared similar music backgrounds. Maybe similiar to the way Bod and Steve Warner shared music in north Birmingham. I met Bod and Steve through music also. Thats the 4 residents of Sindrome at Shelleys: - Myself, Unknown DJ, Bod and Steve Warner. Myself and Bod promoters of the night itself. Music broke a lot of boundaries, who supported who, who you ran with, as tribalism was also a massive factor in the mid eighties. A lot of people made good friends they may not have met with, because of music, it saved a lot of people from getting into mischief. It also made for strong foundations as the music your into reflects something about your character, well perhaps, yet Im no psychologist
I wasnt following so and so's latest chart like some, that ground has been covered, and it hardly shows originality. We where on the ground ourselves, in the record shops, we had the history to have an idea what was new, good, interesting, danceable. Also, what had been done before. Afterall, We have to know where we have been to know where we are going.
When the opportunity came to do Shelleys I was managing a record shop in Solihull. I had promoted and DJ'd various nights, and had a few residencies that I found important to get an idea on how much you should push new music and how much you should simply please the crowd with. I knew if you leant to far either way, you where either a jukebox or a DJ staring at an empty dance floor, as with everything in life balance is important. I used to try and lull them into a false sense of security at the Hummingbird, play them something they knew, then when they are dancing away, slip in something a little less obvious, sometimes you had to play a record for three consecutive weeks before people would recognise the melody. I suppose theres some psychology applied somewhere after all.
I already knew and respected Neil Macey from around the midlands, I was proud he was from in this neck of the woods. Neil Macey was consistently good. At the time he worked for Network./Koolkat records. I used to get records for the shop from Network HQ, which is little south of the city centre, the building is still their, Stratford House, its a listed building, born out of Shakespeares era.
Stratford Place
I used to see Neil Rushton (owner of the label) , who is also a legendary Northern Soul DJ, funnily enough, he used to play at The Golden Torch, Tunstall, mentioned earlier. At this time he was manager of Inner City on Ten records
Network Records was a shining light for Birmingham at least the ones that knew it was in Birmingham, I'd say every Detroit techno pioneer visited Stratford House at some time. Judy Nanton worked at Network, also a regular at the Powerhouse in Birmingham around 86, the constructive Trio where Birminghams pioneer house DJs and used to play at The Powerhouse.
Judy's sister Ann, married Kevin Saunderson. Koolkat/Network licensed at lot of new music coming from Chicago and Detroit and seemed to have their finger on the pulse, very much at the time, but not always over seas. Nexus 21, a very Detroit influenced British techno outfit, licensed to Network. Later, they changed there sound, donned masks and got into the British charts as Altern 8. It was Neil Macey who had the idea to bring the lorry to Shelleys to shoot one of their videos.
The owner of Shelleys, John Matthews, he was quite eager to meet and had contacted me. Found the meeting with John very pleasing. I believe we met on a Wednesday and the club was not open.
Living in Birmingham, the idea of promoting a night in a club, which was 50 miles away, was a concern at first. Had to check out the local scene, which seemed to be Introspective. I spoke to people I knew from Stoke, I also questioned friends from Birmingham who knew Stoke from business or pleasure. I got impartial advice here, the first person I asked was straight to the point, "Shelleys, dont do it, its brawling central at the weekends". I also heard that it was used as a concert venue in the early to mid eighties, bands like The Fall played Shelleys. The latter was a little more what I wanted to hear, a musical connection appealed to me, I was also versed to DJing at a concert venue, The Hummingbird in Birmingham Fridays from early 1989.
The fact Shelleys wasn't an established dancing venue made it harder work to promote, yet this was also a blessing, bad promoters soiled a club and their reputation sometime stays, whether that be through bad music, door policy, under age drinking, commercialism generally. We had a blank canvas, apart from the Kev n Trace element ritzy element. That didnt bother me to much, the fighting side was more worrying. Fighting and dance music dont usually go hand in hand anyway, I thought with the right doorman and attitude it could be turned around. The venue was so perfect for dancing it was an opportunity that couldnt be missed. 120K lasers system, podiums, spacious DJ box, a ready built dance club basically, except we beefed the sound. After going to an 808 State concert at the Hummingbird and being blown away by the sound, I actually went partially deaf for a few minutes. We contacted the PA company that supplied 808 State concerts we had half what they used at the 808 State concert, 8K coming through new JBL speakers.
After the second meeting with the owner John Matthews finalising the details and approach. I then got on the phone to find out DJs availability; got on and designed the first flyer. We discussed flyer distribution, a case back then of doing it yourself to guarantee them getting to the right hands, rather than on the floor, from knowing a lot of people, collectively we used word of mouth and got some of the dance music shepherds helping out. The dance scene although it had grown massively year to year from the late 80s, there still wasnt the amount of businesses specialising in the dance music industry as say, nowadays. Now you have numerous agencies, flyer designers, marketing houses, etc. We also saw that paying someone to distribute your flyers wasnt the best way. We wanted it to be a nice environment, what better way to create a nice environment than word of mouth; the flyer was a colourful reminder of this perhaps.
North of Stoke, Manchester was probably where we did most of the promoting. We went to other cities or had friends who helped with that, certainly Nottingham was a regular stop off, having house nights from 1986 we understood cities that had a house / techno music history, this to us was important as the DJs we booked also had a history. We always had flyers in shops like Eastern Bloc, Spin Inn, Piccadilly, etc; we tried to fly the clubs as much as possible. Promoting up north and around the Midlands seemed to work, we promoted at a lot of the all-nighters, north and south. As long as our night didnt clash, most helpful, giving Shelleys a shout out over the mic. The Eclipse in Coventry, on certain nights was a good place to flyer as you would catch people from all over the country, pretty handy to get too from Birmingham, which was also a bonus, less time travelling, more time spent give out flyers.
July 1990, the first week we had Evil Eddie Richards. The sound was set up, the crowd had turned out, the club was looking nice. We had a crowd Birmingham and from all over the midlands, north east and surrounding areas. The crowd was very mixed and some people had turned up as they had the week before. Some of these hugged the bar as they didnt like the music of our new night. We actually asked the doormen not to turn anyone away as we wanted as close to capacity as possible and we werent keen on doorman, fashion policing either, we just didnt want any known scumbags to enter. We had quite a large guest list that night and myself and Bod where on the door when possible. None of the people where troublesome at all. Some of the suited and booted types didnt return, some returned the week after wide eyes and kitted out for dancing.
Evil Eddie played a storming set as usual, playing different styles new and old. We had the Club Culture video playing on the large screens. I remember him having a chuckle at the people he knew, including himself. Very amiable guy who done a great job on the first night, there was much rejoicing and much calling for another one. I also remember going to Hilton Park service station on the way home and being very happy how it had gone.
It carried on building in numbers weekly, John Matthews had already pointed out the capacity, from memory around 750. having 750 inside the club, people queing outside, who we let in anyway, I think we got 1300 as an average, from memory.
Derrick May, marvelous, he would play a tone, pitched up and down, basically playing the deck like an instrument. great dj, juan atkins is also pictured, both nice people.
When Dave Angel came, he played "Technarchy" before anyone else, he also had a lot of other records that blew you away, totally new techno stuff, Dave Angel was the only DJ that turned up late, I remember Daz Willot was playing, Daz was looking in his box, Dave basically walked straight in, unplugged Dazs headphones and was mixing the next record in before Daz had noticed he had arrived. Dave was with a massive geezer that kind of reminded me of the Marlboro man, very serious guy, but he got the job done and the crowd, again rejoiced. Neil Macey playing some moody deep tracks, like Defcon Bass, this was also probably the only night where we saw any nonsense, but i won't bore you it wasn't a major upset. One incident isnt bad over the time. Delight , one night the doormen got done over by some Manchester gang, that was the only bad thing during that time also. Remember Manchester very much had that problem, remember the Hac kept opening and closing because of it. So one incident that was chance didnt worry me too much on the future.
Tony Ross was always a pleasure, why he never got as acclaimed as people that were of equal or lesser skill, I dont know, thats a media thing perhaps.
Colin Dale had me reaching for that mirror ball, amazing, thoughtfull set of music, he was probably one of my favourites around this time, he also played a variety and brought the crowd to their knees at points and then bringing them back into the world of lazers. The night he played was packed.
After that night at Shelleys where Colin Dale played there was some illegal do in Hanley, we where asked to come down and play. I remember most of Shelleys piled down to this place, a disused abattoir but we didnt know this till later. This was like some circus show, as we walked upto the place a guy ran past, the organiser in hot persuit. We later found out a guy from Bimingham had stolen the door takings. As I got closer to the entrance, I spotted a guy having a fit on the floor, vigorously shaking, he had friends with him, I asked if there was anything I could do, they declined and said they had it in hand. I carried on upto the entrance with my record box. I was having second thoughts about having my records and was thinking about sticking back in the car until I had a look around. At this point, the Police turned up in numbers. The large industrial doors where opened and everyone was told to pile in, which we did. We found not much lighting on the groundfloor, people tripping over various industrial stuff, once our eyes got used to the dark we spotted the stairway and we headed straight for it. As we where going up the stairs we where reminded to be carefull as some steps where missing. Once we got upstairs in this dive, we realise we where in a abattoir that hadnt been used for many years, what looked like a dance podium was actually a huge meet scale covering a hole in the floor, I dont think the people dancing on it realised this either. I think?, Pete Bromley was DJing and the crowd where going loopy. I respected Pete a lot, me and him had many a long musical chat. Anyway, The door downstairs was closed and we where in a lock in situation, positive thinking may have fooled ourselves that the Police would just dissapear. It was kind of second nature to us, we had experienced this kind of thing before, many stories of strange nights and brushes with the police. Yet, dancing in a abattoir was a first for me. It carried on with no hassle so, I was celebrating a great night at Shelleys and wasnt very compus mentus, I still had a pocket full of love. Anyway, I starting DJing and all was going great guns. Then the Police come up the stairs and head straight for source of the noise, me. I noticed one had a different hat and looked like the authority figure of the bunch. He asks me to turn the sound down and play something mellow, the party was over, I played Radio Babylon by Meat Beat Manifesto. I think the copper was a little put out by the "wooh alright , b-a-b-y-l-o-n burning in extasy", also the dazed young women who had climbed into the rafters of the building and was spitting at the Police probably didn't help either. The Police left shortly after. The party was done, as the meet wagons where arriving outside by now. I hoped I may not be arrested, so much awake , partying for me, i was wrong. I had a meet wagon to myself and a belly of troubles. That night in the cell was real fun they put me in a cell with a phycho arsonist who had caused 60K worth of damage by setting fire to some gypsy caravans, he had a cigarette dangling through the hole in the cell door, and all night he was repeating over & over, to any passing officer "got a light...", then a laugh, that i can only describe as odd.
I had the money from the takings of the door at Shelleys, which also led the police to believe that I organised the illegal party als. The Criminal Justice Bill hadnt yet come in but there was much disaint at illegal parties at this time. With nothing really on me, except suspition and no charge they released me in the early hours on Monday. As the one officer was waking me down the corridor to let me out he makes sure he tells me what he thinks of me, Im pinned with this copper telling me he hates scum like me, he had a kids of his own, that kid died because of people like me. I didnt know the guy who was fitting later died in hospital. Nice thought for the way home, rip, whoever you are.
I was cold, in the same sweaty clothes from Saturday, pissed off and well down. I know found there was no trains, nothing, so I called my brother and arranged to pick me where junction 15 comes into Stoke, got in the taxi, and was waiting for my brother for around an hour, pissed off, freezing, tired. Then the Police turn up again, what are you doing sunny, we've had reports of someone loitering, you can't make it up. My brother turned up and that was that, unfortunately I then had 7 months of Police hassle, it took me an age to get my records out of Police custody. The Stoke police stepped it up a gear after that. They kept my records for the best part of a year, although it was erm an interesting party, it was this type of ramshackle promotion that didn't help the scene in the long run, besides the fact it was a totally unsafe building in the first place. I had done enough illegal parties to know, parties in indian restaurants, taxi ranks, community centres, tunnels under the motorway.
At Shelleys I was grateful to meet some of K Klass, Eric, the manager. he brought some nice people.
I was playing the record "in a state" one night and was thanked by a member of 2 for Joy, he was over the moon that his song was being played.
This was many years ago, some of the nights are a bit of a haze now. "sindrome" graffiti on front of the building. getting lost in the laser tunnel, remember a mate from school turning up in a pink VW camper van which was a nice lounge space in the car park afterwards, and then Bod crashing into it later, the girls, the love in the club (sounds corny but fuck it, it was special) Queuing to get out of the car park and sharing friendly banter, the general sound montage outside the club as cars passed with various tracks blasting out, people outside flyering that you knew, the one more shouts at the end, breaking down on the motorway on the way home and calling the AA (motor rescue) and saying we are across from your HQ... we're the ones dancing on Motorway hard shoulder
4:06 PM
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