DJ Fabio - Interview 2 part a - 1993

DJ Fabio has been collecting records for a long time now and back in 1979 he was going to soul clubs which was where his interest in music came about. The first time he really DJ’d was in 1984 at a club called Gossips, a DJ called Tim Westwood who was a hip-hop DJ on capital radio asked Fabio to play the last set because Colin Dale could not turn up. This was a soul night and back then Fabio did not even have his own decks, but played around with a cassette recorder. A one off night as far as Fabio was concerned, his interest was in music production or singing, he didn’t even have a DJ name back then.

The next live play DJ Fabio got wasn’t until 1987, when Colin Dale was now playing on Kiss FM, which back then was a pirate station with a massive London following, still playing Soul and Jazz. Another pirate station was starting up at the time which Colin was going to be involved with, but decided to pull out, this was when Fabio was approached again and asked to fill in. Not at all interested he was talked in to appearing and reluctantly, off he went. He arrived at the radio station and admits he was not looking forward to his set and was still trying to get out of playing, but his time soon came round and was quickly asked his name before he went on. As he had not chosen a DJ name, and hadn’t even thought about it, he had to make a decision quickly. A previous girlfriend had always talked of calling his kid Fabio and he loved the name, so chose it as his DJ name to the shock of every one at the time, now proved to be a name that sticks and a name known to most people, if not every one involved in the scene.

After the first 5 minutes he really got in to his set, and after the 4 hour show, had quite enjoyed himself. The next day he received a call from the radio station who had told him that they received a massive response from the listeners and did he want to continue to play, by which time Fabio had really got on to the DJ Buzz and although it was still not taken seriously and he only filled in, he really enjoyed himself. He next was given a day time show, but this was still in the days when he was playing Soul, and although he did buy House music, he never thought it would be big.

So how did he get in to House?
"Well we bought the tracks at first because we liked the tracks, but we decided we liked the labels as well, they come in different colours. Back then we never thought it would be big and some people classed House as gay music. I never thought of it as gay music, it had feeling to it. All of a sudden you could feel as if something was happening, there were no clubs for House music, but you knew if there was, it would be big."

After Chicago House Fabio and Grooverider met each other and both got in to Acid. They worked on the same pirate station but back then weren’t really good friends or anything. Grooverider started to play some really deep acid and his show got a real big following because no one else was playing music like that, Fabio continued to play more of a House set in his afternoon show. The guy behind the radio station decided to do a Rave at a club called Endosa’s which was well known for never being packed. Fabio received a call one Wednesday night and was asked to go along to an acid/rave night and play alongside Grooverider, yet again Colin Dale was unable to make it so Fabio had been asked to stand in, but he wasn’t really sure as the music he was playing at the time was so different to Grooveriders. Anyway he decided to go, absolutely no-one was there and by about 3 o’clock, they had decided to leave, Fabio continues the story.

"In my experience of clubs back then, no one shows up after 3 o’clock, so we went to put our records in Groove’s car and all these crazy people were coming down the alley way, no tops on, shouting - we couldn’t believe what was going on. We ran back in with our records and within 15 minutes the place was absolutely packed. We had never seen anything like this before, we were playing the same record 4 times and people were still dancing. Back then there wasn’t much House music and we had every record going."

They continued to play through till around 1 o’clock, people were going home and coming back and it was an experience that both Fabio and Grooverider had never had before. From that day on they continued to run the night in there on both a Wednesday and Friday night, all sorts of people would go down to the club, such as Paul Oakenfold but soon problems started with the police.

But by now people had got to know the pair as DJ Fabio and Grooverider, like a double act. They started to play at wine bars and then a few of the bigger raves and that was when things really started to take off.

Grooverider was playing harder than Fabio, but they were playing a selection of tunes, playing up to nine hour sets that eventually lost Grooverider his day job, playing until 7 in the morning and then going off to work with his suit in the car. Although Fabio and Grooverider were playing different sets they did gel and this was why it worked so well for them both, but the big events like Sunrise, were the start of them getting booked on their own as well, because some producers preferred the style of one from the other.

When they played together they would play 45 minutes each, taking people up and down but was the reason they stopped playing together because they fell out?

"No, not at all! Rage, which at the time was probably the biggest rave club in the world used to get every one coming down, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson, Joey Beltram. We never split up because we still played on the Thursday night and now playing together was thought of as quite special. When me and Grooverider play together we go such a long way back there is a vibe, we have been through so much, we have been so broke, we will never forget those times."

But did they ever think that they would be the countries top DJ’s?
"Back then there wasn’t many DJ’s about, but now every one wants to be a DJ, now my drivers and people who used to help carry my boxes are DJ’s, they see you make some money and that’s why some do get in to it for the wrong reasons. We never thought this scene would be big and we wouldn’t have to be work in the week, we have always played because we bred the music."

Fabio is well known on the scene as a Junglistic DJ but it seems obvious from what he has already said that he is an open minded person who loves all aspects of House music, does he play other kinds of sets?

"I don’t play Techno sets as a rule, the problem with Techno with me is back in ’91 we were like Techno DJ’s, there wasn’t breakbeat stuff really, I was playing really hard sets in Frankfurt and it started to get a bit rhythm less, a bit wayward and as the breakbeat stuff came along I found myself playing more of that. Now you're either a Techno DJ, a breakbeat DJ or a Garage DJ and you’re either one or the other. I decided to play the Breakbeat because initially it was the original rave side of things - I have no regrets about that. I would never dis’ Techno, I know what it has done for the music, Techno is the original computer music for the future, Breakbeat is more of a mixture of Hip Hop and Soul. There is a lot of bad breaks out there and I’d be the first to admit that, and you’ve got to pick and choose. Being a collector over the years I sort of know what’s good and bad. Some weeks I’ll spend £150 on House music, £150 on Techno in Unity, I’m no following a trend, the reason I play more Breakbeat than Techno isn’t really out of choice it’s just the way it’s gone. I still go out and listen to Colin Dale and Dave Angel was my personal Techno favourite. Dave used to be on the same pirate as us and was a wicked Jazz DJ, always being musical and ambitious and his music reflects a Jazz vibe making it very musical Techno that I like."

Fabio Interview 2 Continued.....