'State Of The Nation' – Ireland's dance music industry, 20 years ago

Back in 2001, Clubbing Dot Com magazine undertook a comprehensive assessment on the Irish dance music industry at the turn of the Millennium, speaking to DJs and producers from across the four provinces.

It was a period of transition for the industry – on the negative side, the rise of late bars led to a raft of closures (including some high profile venues), while at the same time, some of the country’s most influential promoters, such as D1 and Bassbin (along with the Creation free party crew) were at the peak of their powers, not to mention venues such as Sir Henry’s, Temple Theatre, The Savoy, Switch. With the internet in its formative years, flyers were still the number one source of information, along with publications like The Slate, Dubfly etc.

‘We may not be the size of the US, our cities and towns may not have the same mixture of faces and cultures as in the UK, but Ireland has one thing in its favour when it comes to our musical product and invention – we are the underdogs,’ the article intro puts it.

As for the country’s clubs? ‘The simple fact of the matter is that, while we’ve got a sizeable club scene, it’s gotten lazier and less innovative than five years ago,’ the article suggests. ‘There are pockets of resistance in every corner of the land, but too many of the bigger clubs are guilty of resting on their laurels for far too long.

‘That said, there’s still a hell of a lot to be proud of and excited about. There’s some decent clubs, many decent DJs and most importantly, lots of top class producers.’

From a purely nostalgic point of view, there’s also a smattering of references to great artists – hello Bass Odyssey, FishGoDeep, Spectrum is Green, Ron’s Mobile Disco, Decal… 🙂

Check out the full article below, which was originally printed in Clubbing Dot Com Magazine, November 2001. Click images to open in a new window.