Top Buzz shocked crowds with their upfront, driving music for half a decade, and looked set to do so for a long time but, but then the team disbanded.

The crew consisted of Jason K . Mikey B and Patrick (Mad P) - the MC who is the son of Cynthia Jarrett, who died after a police raid on her London home in 1985, an event that attracted much media attention at the time. 

Jason Kyriakides - Interview

Jason was born in London on the 19th February 1969.  After leaving Southgate School, he had the choice either to go on a Royal Institute of Charted Surveyors course or become a DJ. Fortunately for us, he didn't think he could stand the excitement of surveying, and he plumped instead for a quiet life in the tranquil surroundings of clubland.

"The music was just holdin' me at the time.  Dem times I was working with affluent Jewish people that drove around in Bentleys, Ferraris an' fings like that.  Yeah, an' I used to war a suit an' have to speak perfect Queen's English, an I'm not really into that.  It's only t'rough the congregation with the brother that I lost it - I'm not English anyway, I'm 100% Greek Cypriot."

Top Buzz got into House because they reckoned they could do better than the DJs they were listening to at the time.

"Well, we were raving  at the time-this was when the music being played was more or less Garage in 88 / 89.  Every Rave that was on, we was there.  Whether there was a million roadblocks, we were getting in  in them days.

"We thought certain man weren't drawing the tunes, so we went home and Mikey got the decks out the van from this old soul sound called Funky Express that he used to have, and we put them with the decks I had already, an' we just started messing about.  We had the tunes at home, but we were just some Mickey Mouse outfit fuckin' about.  Then we got a couple of plays an' certain people started to hear of us an' it just went from there really.

"It became an ambition to play in front of a big crowd and we did eventually. "  "Our style of music is Dance music, maan.  There's no wild noises or anyfin' like that.  It's music you can understand, it's got a lot of rhythm to it, so it would cross over to other ears.

"The music that was coming out when we was labelled was just Reggae with a faster beat.  We originally said 'Jungle Techno' just as a phrase, but people jumped on to it when it wasn't really meant to mean anything.  Jungle was just a word to describe the feelin' of the music that was bein' made, but people were misinterpreting it like they do with 'dark'.  When you say something's 'dar', you're sayin', 'Yeah, it's wicked'.  But I hear people sayin', 'Yeah, that tune, darkness music'.  What do they know about 'dark'?  They're saying it's a music, but it ain't.  'Dark' is just one word that mean 'wicked' or somefin' like that.

"Shut Up and Dance [a record label that had national chart success with the tune 'Raving, I'm Raving'] said, 'Jungle Techno is a racist term', an' that if you took the drugs out of ravin', blacks and whites would start to fight.  But that's fucking rubbish, because here in England we've got a better colour bonding than any other country in the world.  At the end of the day, all these kids are gonna realise that it doesn't matter what colour you are, 'cause you're all the same. The youngsters are mixing now- and there is still a lot of racism out there, but give it another twenty years or what ever and they won't even notice a colour difference.

Top Buzz did take their career into the next stage, remixing and producing, but continued to play to crowds because, as Jason said, 'DJing is hard work but good fun'. 

Jason regards Fabio and Grooverider as top DJs, and the best up-and-coming unknown DJ as Donnovan Smith, although there are a few people he would like to see make it to the top - but whether they will cut the standards or not is a different matter, or t'ing, as the boys would say.

After going their separate ways Jason Kaye continue playing as Top Buzz on his own as well as playing garage.  Mikey B is now on radio 1 and is part of the Dream Team.  Mad P spent a time in prison and following his recent release is back as the MC for Top Buzz.

Links to Fantazia

Top Buzz played at many Fantazia events and we have many of their sets available.   The Dream Team and Jason Kaye also played at the Fantazia Return of a Legend party.

Fantazia New Year 91
Fantazia Second Sight
Fantazia Summertime
Fantazia One Step Beyond
Fantazia Showcase
Fantazia Club Tour
Fantazia Return of a Legend

Buy these sets here