Dreamscape Interview 1993 part 2

Dreamscape Interview part 1

When you plan an event do you worry that it will all go wrong?
No I have never had a fear that nobody will turn up, but the only fear that I had was when we did Rage at Leicester which holds legally about 450 people, we had way over that in throughout the night, the club is on two floors, and on the top floor I would only walk around the edges I thought the floor was going to go through, people would not sit in the office, they thought the roof was going to come down, basically it would have been a disaster just like Hillsborough because the club is over a restaurant,  I was shitting it, although we never had that many people in at one time it was frightening, it was too packed for my liking but a lot of people in enjoyed it, a lot of people said they would have enjoyed it more if there was less people in there.  On New Years Eve we planned an event which was to be held in an Aircraft  hanger but Vision was going for their license, it was the same area, we were told if Vision got their license we wouldn't, in the end neither of us got it which I am really pissed off about that,    I was quite lucky to stage an event and we went back to Rage again, with not as many people in this time but just over the legal capacity, it was packed but comfortable, I did shit myself as there weren't enough fire exits in there for the amount of people.  People that do the illegal events have got to be aware, such as Exodus, that when they get 10,000 people in a warehouse and it only has two exits, if anything went wrong in there it would be a nightmare I'm as much to blame as I shouldn't have filled over the capacity at Rage.   The safety levels are set by the councils and they have to do their jobs, sometimes they go too far and you have to argue with them, but you have got to agree to the regulations, cause one day there will be a disaster, and that will end every promoter for good.

Is there anyone your want to give a shout to?
Yeh, Gideon from Obsession, the 5HQ boys, DJ Clarkee, Dougal, Grooverider, Carl Cox, G E Real, Quest, Danny from Fibre Optic, Universe, Phantasy, there's too many, everyone who's helped me out - the biggest shout to Clarkee for sticking with me event though I've been such a bastard to him.  Before I got into the rave scene I used to manage a sports shop and I employed Clarkee as a shop assistant, he was Bruce Springstein's number one fan, I converted him, I must admit I even went to a Bruce Sprinstein event with him, basically he has never looked back since.  We have been best mates ever since 1988 or earlier.

So when did he get into the DJ'ing side of it?
No, I wouldn't let him play, I used to play records and buy loads every week anyway, the element of buying records wore off and rubbed off on Clarkee, he bought some decks and away he went, he used to hassle me to let him do the warm up set and I would say 'no your shit', anyway he kept playing and practising and eventually I let him have a warm up slot, I used to pay him £20, right up to 1991.  He has played on every Dreamscape but he's now got to pull his socks up and get out and get some work, he is to shy but I do believe that if there was a rating chart for the mentality of the music he plays he would be in the top 5.   I would say there is another Clarkee from down London way, he has been around a long time, the Funning things is they are both called Richard Clarke, they were both born on the same day! My Clarke is white and the other is black.  One event I want them both on at it, I would like to finish off by saying thanks to Stacey and Vanessa, especially Stacey for sticking by me.

This has been my goal since 1990.  I think the rave scene has lost its sense of direction, there are too many categories under the dance music label.  If we go back to the days of the illegal raves, you had the acid house parties the music that was playing was acid, bleeps, ambient tunes, and it was a good vibe, every tune was open minded and sounded good, there was lots of hugs and kisses, and everyone was on the same wave length.  Today the music is a mess in my opinion, the jungle has messed it up really, I like the music but its giving people an attitude.  There is nothing wrong with the jungle base but it should be mixed with Techno, the bleeps and the acid tracks, so that its not so dark, the atmosphere is just not there, you loose it with regards to the piano music with the hands in the air, I think the Techno will come back in a big way.  Even though you don't like the jungle you will still play it at your events.  Yeh of course so then it gives a cross section of the music that will only work on a big type festival event.  In October hopefully we will open a club up not too far away from Milwaukee's, which I want to run it as a Hardcore / Techno club on a Friday and Saturday got to garage.

In Europe at the moment its going Techno mad and that's what I want to concentrate on that most, its more a mature music and a thinking persons music so it will attract the older crowd back into the scene who will keep it going a lot longer, the only person who I know is doing well on that sort of scene is Gideon from Obsession he's putting a line up that is across the board and is bringing in an element of Techno.  For music content the best event I have been to was the event at Westpoint last year by Obsession.  Techno isn't in demand at the moment and the big named DJ's aren't bringing it in so they are as much to blame as the promoters for the state of the music, hopefully  the DJ's will soon start okaying across the board and cater for everyone.  There needs to be more events like Universe who put on events and cater for every category that's the only way to do it.

Really the garage type people are a selected few and they will only go to certain places and they rip off people who have a damn good time with the white gloves etc. 

So you can't see the day when you got to an event when the main tent will  be garage?

No definitely not, it will never work,  I do feel its a totally different vibe with Garage music, its on a mellow style there is no way you can have a bollocks atmosphere with 5/6,000 people where there is a Garage music playing, unless your into Garage.  I just don't think there will be the vibe, the main thing about a good event is to let all you inhibitions go and not be bias as to what you listen to.  The likes of  Ray Spence of Raindance and Gideon at Obsession and Universe know what to do but is should have been done last year.  The best music was 1991, the music is just not as fulfilling now as it was back then.

Is that why a lot of promoters are starting to put on DJ's playing a set from 1991?

No, there's nothing wrong with having a set of past music but I don't feel that's achieving anything, the whole point about Rave music was to let yourself go and rebel against societies music, because the music of today has got more to offer, you can't keep living in the past.  I think I will release some tapes from last year because they are really good, from when I first started doing ESP, the music is excellent.

Dreamscape Interview part 3