Fantazia Timeline - Into 94 &
Beyond
House Collection 2 – Jo Guest / Boy
George. Following on from the success of Vol 1 Fantazia
persuaded Boy George (ex Culture Club), Tony De Vit and Jon of the
please wimmin to mix vol 2, which rapidly became a massive success
story. The cover featured an early appearance by famous glamour
model Jo Guest with a feather boa.
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09/94 - House Collection 3 – The
hits keep coming and so do the superstar DJs. This next volume
targeted the up and coming Ibiza style with massive DJs Jeremy Healy
and Allister Whitehead and an advert shot in the sunset isle. Over
100,000 sales were racked up in record time with high chart
positions.
12/94 Circus Circus event –
Fantazia first and only visit to Northern Ireland and it’s a
storming party at the infamous Circus Circus club. Featuring a live
performance from Dye Witness in their chemical warfare suits.
26/12/94 Palace Blackpool – Teaming up with The Ark Fantazia take on
raving on Boxing Day. Sy, Slipmatt and Stu Allan headline.
Club Classics 1 - Fantazia’s first journey into the past and our
biggest seller ever. This album featured mad canner Brandon Block
and the return of the Luv Dup twins and Mike Cosford. A magical
collection of the best tunes, from the start of early house to the
present day.
House Collection 4 – Jeremy Healy & Allister Whitehead return to
relive the experience of Vol 3. With additions of sound effects this
does recapture the spirit of the party and is an amazing creation.
Not to be missed. Reach no 2 in the Compilation Charts and
interestingly featured Jeremy Healy’s model girl friend on the front
cover,
28/08/95 Ritz Leeds – We team up once again with the boys from The
Ark to bring Fantazia to Leeds, this time bring the glamour of House
Music.
Club Classics 2 – Volume 2 followed on where volume 1 left off
though this time with a devil theme…. A triple collection of yet
more classics tunes.
1996 European Tour Following a deal with Sony music Fantazia embark
on a European tour to promote the launch of House Collection 2.
Dates in France, Spain, the Baltic states follow amongst other.
House Collection 5 We welcomed Tall Paul to this collection along
side of Allister Whitehead to once again bring a top line up of
tunes including Bamboo’s Bamboogie. Competition in the House
compilation market is becoming increasingly intense, and the success
of Fantazia and the likes of The Ministry of Sound mean the major
record companies are buying up many of the independent music labels
from which we licensed records. They are then releasing compilation
on their own labels and refusing to allow Fantazia as an independent
label access to the most current tunes until long after their own
albums. This is putting strain on our products as we are not
prepared to put out musically compromised albums.
Club Classics 3 The original Club Classics line up of Brandon Block,
Luv Dup and Mike Cosford return to finish this trilogy with the
remaining classic tunes from the past and present of house.
House Collection 6 – Paul Oakenfold graced this double pack, but due
to the unfortunate death of Princess Diana the biggest name DJ to
ever grace a Fantazia album is not the success we would have liked.
Retail sales drop to almost nothing in the weeks following and ours
are similarly effected….
25/3/97 Winter Music Conference Miami, continuing Fantazia promotion
overseas Fantazia promote a series of parties at Zeppi Tepi during
the influential Miami week.
Nov 97 Gmex event 12,000 – Fantazia return to enormous parties with
a little sponsorship from Lynx. 1 million cans of Lynx Inca with a
Fantazia logo on and 200,000 free Cds lead to the largest indoor
house party ever staged to that date. Carl Cox, Paul van Dyk are
among the big names filling the historic old train station in
Manchester.
Ibiza 22/8/98 Privilege – Having filmed our TV commercial for House
Collection 3 back in 94 in Ibiza we could not resist putting on a
party on the isle when offered a date by Privilege the home of
Manumission. Taking on the challenge in true Fantazia style we made
the venue our own. Moving the DJ set up to the other side of the
club and suspending vertical flame cannons down from the ceiling. Oh
and not forgetting a dancing horse. A host of celebs from TV are in
attendance and we pull a huge crowd making this one of the biggest
parties of the season. A total blast.
Cyprus 98 Season Pzazz – On a slightly smaller scale throughout the
season Fantazia do a residency in Aya Napa which is fast rising as a
rival to Ibiza. The UK big name clubs aren’t in attendance yet once
again demonstrating Fantazia’s ahead of the game.
However despite these successful events the main directors,
frustrated by restrictions on the tracks they are able to license
for the albums and the large fees being charged by “superstar” DJs,
start to concentrate more on their other business activities in the
property market in West London and Cheltenham meaning less releases
and events are inevitable.
Release of British Anthems Vol 1 A new series and a new look and
Bamboo’s Bamboogie catapult this album to our largest sales for
sometime. Included for the first Fantazia release is a large
booklet.
Release of British Anthems Vol 2 – Hit singer/artist Sonique joins
us to mix this latest album in the Summer of 99.
Ibiza 99 Pacha / Sundissential – Following on from last years
massive success we are invited to join another promoter at the
world’s most glamorous club Pacha, in Ibiza Town. An international melting
pot of clubbers we truly hold some rocking nights week after week.
British Anthems 2000 – The last of the British Anthems series ends
with the Millennium. Sales are falling as our ability to secure big
tracks comes to a head. The major record labels increasingly will
only allow their records to be used only on their own compilation
releases. Our hearts goes out of making more compilations as we feel
that we cannot produce the albums to the standard we would
want…
31/12/99 Black & White Ball – Unlike almost anyway one else, Fantazia
manage to pull of a successful sell out gig on Millennium Eve. Many
parties are cancelled or empty as high prices and hype mean many
people stay at home. Our sell out 4000 people event is held in the
grounds of a grade 1 listed manor (Croombe Court) in Worcestershire
and is a huge success.
However with our move away from music compilations and the rise of
the property market it is clear that for the time being Fantazia
will receive less attention than would have been our wish.
But the vast easy money to be made in property is just to tempting.
2001 Aural Pleasure, a niche album, is released by one of our old
employees with by far the raunchiest cover yet. Without James creative input and financial backing, the albums struggles to
make much impact against the huge TV adverting campaigns of the other
compilations. This turns out to be our last album and activity for a
while.
2003 Fantazia Website launched – With the rise of broadband there are new opportunities to reach our audience from
the past and present. A large number of amateur tribute sites are
already on the internet and are a testament to how much this scene
is loved by all who have been touch by it. Fantazia feature heavily
on many of them. Charlie realises that we have so much information,
video, thoughts and memories that people would love to see. With the
financial independence that has been brought about by their
continuing property interests he is able to set about creating a site
dedicated to the rave scene from past to future.
2004 Fantazia Forum launched
28/1/06 The Legend Returns 7000 people
30/09/06 Into the Wonderland 8000 people
2006 Club Classics 2006 album
27/01/07 Showtime 9000 people
June 07 Sanctuary Festival (rainy but fun)!
BCM Magaluf 2007 June July August
29/09/07 Clash of the Titans 9000 people
Butlins weekender, Bognar Regis
Fantasylands
Fantazia Allstars
Fantasylands 2
Gatecrasher Summer Sound System
August - Sanctuary Festival 2008
To be continued...
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