Hmmm... it does indeed look like my little Rat Pack cuss has backfired on me, big style. Everson Allen, the MC (for those of you who don't know) is the perfect host.  He makes sure that we are sorted out and have plenty of sounds to listen to including a sneak preview on the new material and then Mark arrives. Thank you God....After much horseplay, the interview finally gets underway..............

So how di you two meet then?
LM: Through my cousin really, she met Everson first before me, he was DJing at Locomotion a long time ago on a Soul and Reggae tip.

And what about the name Ratpack?
EA: You wanna explain that, Mark!
LM: Nah, go on. You do it! (laughs)
EA: It started off one day when I was reading a newspaper and I saw Sean Penn and Madonna, you know, the young rich kids and they call them the "Brat Pack". So I though "Yeah, I'm coming from the gutter and I ain't got a chance of that, but I'll be the Rat Pack.  I'd like to be one of the young rich elite."
LM: And what would you think if you heard of someone called the Rat Pack?

Badboys!
LM: Exactly! Nuf said...
EA: And you'd think there was a lot of us too wouldn't you?  We came up with a name that sounded big from the beginning.

How did you come to work together?
LM: Well, we both played out at a club that we used to promote call "Trip City in North London (plug, plug) - one of the original raves back in 87 and 88 - and one night there was a spare set and we both got up and spun a few and Ev got on the mic and it was well good...
EA: Then we started getting response because I was the original MC back then.  People were saying "You can't talk "beepdiddlewopneeoooww!!!" and all that, but I found a way of doing it and we just built it up  through Trip City.

Obviously, there's a huge difference between now and then.  How do you see it?
LM: The biggest thing I've noticed is the attitude.  Back in the early days, they couldn't even spell the word attitude!  It all used to ride from the summer of love and it bought a lot of people together, it was all about fun...
EA: Now its grown so much that people are calling it commercial and saying that it's the new age "pop". then they section it off by saying "This is Jungle, this is Ragga, this is Breakbeat etc." When all it started from was ACID HOUSE.

How do you see the drugs have gone on the scene?
EA: Too dark, the drugs have gone to dark. There's too much cocaine use, there's too much abuse of the drugs and there's too much abuse of people from the dealers putting shit about which puts a dampener on the scene.

There are reports that you go booed off at Peacefest recently.  Have you got anything you'd like to say about that?
EA: (Quite irritated) Yeah, for those that wanna know the truth , what happened was that there were a few raggas in the crowd who were shouting "Booyakka" which is a term used by the ragg ravers, meaning "wishing well" and someone out there who doesn't know the scene took "Booyaka" to be a Boo" and "Booyaka" is an upper, not a downer, for those of you who don't know.
LM: That's the only word it could have been that sounds like "Boo",  cos we never got booed.
EA: And we have never seen even the shittiest DJs get booed, let alone people like ourselves who have earned a reputation, and with a good majority of the people who like us and at the end of the day we're out there to please the punters, not compete with other DJs to see who can play the newest records.

What's the best place you've player at?
BOTH: Trip City, back in 87-88.

Anywhere more recently?  A lot of people won't remember Trip City!
LM: Bournemouth and Donington Fantazia's last year.  Also Heaven (Rage)

Are there are promoters that you like working for?
LM: Any promoter that does good business, doesn't treat you badly and looks after the punters.
EA: A couple to mention would be James from Fantazia, Finbar from the Pirate Club, and the Edge in Coventry, and Gary Mac from the Ark in Southend.

By Stalker, Nite-flite

Links to Fantazia

Ratpack appeared at many Fantazia events, live sets from the following are available:

Fantazia Summertime
Fantazia One Step Beyond
Fantazia Showcase
Fantazia New Year 1992
Fantazia Birthday Party
Fantazia Big Bang
Fantazia New Year 1993, Australia

They also appeared on the albums:

Fantazia The First Taste
Fantazia Twice As Nice
Fantazia Twice As Nice Remix
Lords of the Dance

To buy any of these click here