Let’s settle the debate once and for all – is the correct term to use, when referring to, say, The Prodigy‘s first album, ‘old school‘, or is it ‘old skool’? For years, I have tended towards the former – as a journalist I just can’t deal with that ‘k’ in place of the ‘ch’. But the…
Having forged an early career as master remix duo The Dust Brothers, schoolmates Ed Simons and Tom Rowland unveiled a new identity in 1995: The Chemical Brothers. Today, more than two decades on, the pair are still considered amongst the premier dance acts and festival headliners on the international music circuit. But all good stories…
Behind every great man, the saying goes, is an even greater woman, and in the case of Carl Cox’s emergence from the illegal rave scene to become the global household name that he is today, that woman was his former partner Maxine Bradshaw… This interview from Clubland magazine in December 1990 [taken from the It’s…
For US-based DJs coming to Europe in the late 80s and early 90s, the rave scene must have been eye-opening – the ‘do it yourself’ ethic, coupled with a soupçon of absolute hedonism, was somewhat different to what was going on Stateside. For Frankie Bones, speaking here to Rave magazine in 1990, the difference was…
Tony Humphries has been one of the most committed house music pioneers for more than a generation, commencing his DJ career at Zanzibar in New York in the early 80s before becoming ‘remixer of choice’ for acts such as Soul II Soul and Chaka Khan. As this interview from I-D Magazine in 1992 points out…
Music and fashion have gone hand in hand for more than half a century, and this article from Smash Hits in early 1993 sought to shed some light on what the self-respecting raver should have in his or her wardrobe for the coming year. And who better to offer some sage advice than The Beloved’s…
“The official line is this. Yes, there are some drugs involved, but not as much as you’d like to think. Instead, why don’t you concentrate on the good things. The new music, the attitude, the fact that we now have a movement as big as punk on our hands. Even bigger really…” Thus commences this…
Laurent Garner has always been one of techno’s more imaginative producers, following up early rave stompers with The Man With The Red Face and more ambient work such as The Cloud Making Machine. This interview with Top DJ Mag from 1994 finds the Frenchman, sporting a Save Vinyl t-shirt, in playful form, particularly when it…
Earlier this year, Shortlist published one of the most life affirming posts on the rave scene, writing about a video that has been doing the rounds on YouTube for a couple of years now, entitled, Old School Rave – The Morning After The Night Before… Documenting the morning after a Fantazia new year party, it’s…
How do you follow up a track like Voodoo Ray? Back in 1989, around nine months on from its first appearance in the clubs (and to coincide with its entry in the pop charts), Sounds sent John Robb to Moss Side, Manchester, to meet Gerald Simpson, aka A Guy Called Gerald, to uncover what the…
