"There was a lorry parked up in there," he says with wonder "covered with people waving their arms, going crazy, shouting 'mental, mental, mental."!  That was it, I was hooked."  He started going out not just at the weekends, but every night.  The week began at Spectrum with Paul Oakenfold and Johnny Walker on a Monday and ended chilling out on Clapham Common after a full on all nighter.  Going out to massive raves like Sunrise, and DJing at his own small scale parties opened Jarvis up to wider possibilities and in Spring '89 he ran his first full scale warehouse party - Biology - at Linford Film Studio in Battersea.  3000 people squashed into the venue.  A few months later he threw a second party in farmland outside Watford.  This time 10,000 people turned up to hear a DJ line up that included Paul Oakenfold, Trevor Fung, Grooverider, Paul Trouble Anderson and Nicky Holloway amongst a who's who of today's clubland legends.

"Now that's what I call a line-up" says Jarvis, with justifiable grin.  "My one memory of that night is turning up in a stretch limousine, coming round a corner and seeing thousands and thousands of people all dancing as the sun came up.  There was no attitude, no pressure.  We started that party at ten o'clock on Saturday night and stopped it at six - o'clock on Sunday afternoon.  Not because we had to. but because we wanted to."

After the success of that first major outdoor party, Jarvis wanted to hold a massive spectacular, bringing over US hip hop stars like Public Enemy and EPMD to play alongside British act like Richie Rich.  Police pressure forced the event's cancellation and put Biology back to square one.  Jarvis decided it was time for a change of track.  Time to take it back underground.

The next few months were spent breaking into warehouses throwing free parties, dodging the police, paying for the sound system by handing around a collection bucket.  Passing on the location by Vodafone at the last possible minute.  "I've done lots of legal parties," says Jarvis, but you can't beat illegal raves for pure excitement".

Of all  the rave promoters of those glorious, mental days, Biology stood out because, unlike events like Energy they weren't run by a consortium of public schoolboys, or a well off professional gamble like Sunrise's Tony Colston Hayter.  They were run by a geezer.  A ducker and a diver.  A raver, the same as his crowd, if a bit more sussed, a bit more streetwise.

"I saw the other promoters as toffs," he grins, "and we were the scruffs.  But we were doing it from our hearts.  You couldn't beat that.  At out parties you could have a barrister dancing next to someone on the dole, but they could be best mates.  They were equal."

Pirate radio advert for Biology:

"This is a Party Political Dance Broadcast on behalf of the Biology Party. Here are the following requirements for this Saturdays DJ Convention and gathering of young minds...

Firstly, you must have a Great Britain road atlas. YES THATS A GREAT BRITAIN ROAD ATLAS.

Secondly, a reliable motor with a full tank of gas

Lastly, you must have a ticket and you must be a member.

So we now end this Party Political Dance Broadcast on behalf of the Biology Party. Don't waste your vote: stand up and be counted.. because... BIOLOGY IS ON!
 

Partyography

Biology - DJ's Convention (8 Jul 89)
Biology - Brothers Of The Same Kind (21 Oct 89)
Biology - Telethon 90 (8 Sep 90)
Biology - (4 Apr 92)
Biology - The Tough Get Tougher (12 Jun 92)