The Rezerection concept was the brainchild of Paul Ludford way back in 1989. “This guy called Keith and I used to run a night called Kitchenware at ‘Soul Kitchen’ in Newcastle’s we used to hire it out one night a week and put on pop and indie bands, ‘cause that’s what we were into at the time. We had people like Aztec Camera who did their first date outside of Scotland there, Orange Juice and the Fire Engines from Edinburgh.

I don’t know why, but I’ve always had this link with Scotland. Kitchenware was the first ‘student’ club in the town and it was very arty. We used to have things like an art gallery, film nights showing things by local film makers and sculpture exhibitions. So people could come and listen to the band, but there was always something more. It was brilliant fun”. As the night grew more and more popular, Paul booked New Order for their only UK date in 1981 and put them on at the Mayfair. All 2,500 tickets were sold and Kitchenware made a killing. The money was put into setting up a management company, and the team soon became responsible for groups like The Kane Gang and Prefab Sprout. They put on a few more nights showcasing up and coming pop bands, during which time Paul learned a great deal about production and how to stage an event. Little did he know that he was gaining a perfect grounding for what was to come.

His transition into the rave scene soon followed. “The dance thing started purely by fluke. A friend wanted to do a show at the Mayfair and asked me to help because of my background in production. It was the first time since the punk scene in about 1977 that I’d seen that attitude of the people that came. It completely knocked me out. I was so used to that stand offish attitude of the pop music scene. The atmosphere at Rez was electric – everyone was there purely to enjoy themselves. I never thought I’d see that again; it was like a breath of fresh air”. The very first night saw the Mayfair fill to it’s capacity, subsequent nights were planned and Rezerection took over Paul’s life completely.

Rez has always had top line-ups, with people like N-Joi, Shades of Rhythm, Carl Cox, The Ragga Twins, Stu Allan, Slipmatt, Grooverider, Sasha and Magika getting a play from day one. Vast amounts of money was spent on the design of the show; one night saw the stage transformed into a churchyard, with the DJ playing from the pulpit to his adorning disciples below. Every single night sold out, which begs the question, why change?

The move north of the border came in 1991. Paul felt that they had done everything they could with the Mayfair and wanted to try something a bit different. Scotland was the obvious choice for Paul, with The Royal Highland Centre becoming home to the cream of the crop. “When we stopped doing nights in Newcastle, nobody filled the void.

We were the only ones doing it, but we wanted to move on and progress, so we decided to go further north. The scene’s completely different in Scotland. The people are unbelievable. Scotland has an incredible sense of togetherness. They really support each other, their artists, football clubs, national teams – I’ve never seen it anywhere else. They really are 150% behind all things Scottish”.

This patriotic feeling is displayed at every Rez event, with the pipe band being the first sound to hit the airwaves followed by a wealth of Scottish DJs. Artists like Technotrance, Scott Brown, QFX and Q-Tex go down a storm each and every time, but the set list is not restricted to home-grown talent by any means. Rez pride themselves on providing international flavour to satisfy any techno-hungry raver’s taste buds. “We always make the effort to fly people in from other countries. There’s very little new talent coming through though, but we’re always looking. It’s expensive, y’know, to fly people like Lenny Dee in from New York – he wants Club Class, a nice hotel, the works….

It costs a hell of a lot of money but it’s worth it. That’s one of the things I hate about the English scene – you can always predict the line-ups. At least we’re a bit different”.

Indeed, many people think that Rez set the standard from which others can learn, but Paul is quick to contest this. “We don’t make trends; we follow them. In a club you can (make trends), but not at a big event. Having said that, we do experiment quite a lot, but experimenting doesn’t always bloody work!!” One such example was The Event V, the outdoor at the end of last summer. As a predominately techno-based operation, Rez stuck their neck out and put on five arenas, catering for all styles of music. Some people really liked this approach, others preferred the less diverse set lists. “Drum & bass is a bit of a funny one. I blame the categorisation of music that happened a couple of years ago.

We used to have Grooverider, Fabio, Randall… But once the music segregated, Scotland became more techno based. This was probably because of the record producers at the time – people like Scott Brown and other bouncy techno artists. Drum & bass never really took off. People pay a lot of lip service to the different categories, y’know, they say they don’t like such and such a style, but really they do, they just don’t want to admit it. Because of the mass movement to techno in Scotland, people feel they should follow that. Four years ago, we did an outdoor event – it was a bit of a milestone. Instead of just hardcore, we moved right into techno…. Richie Hawtin, Laurent Garnier. At the time, that type of event hadn’t been done before, but with the segregation happening, it was a good time to do it. The idea was to open people’s minds”.

Recently, Paul has had to try to open the minds of the media and people from outside of the scene, so much so, that he has even very briefly considered throwing in the towel. What’s the problem? Drugs. The Edinburgh Evening News ran a two-page spread about drugs which accused Paul of promoting the use of “jellies” (temazepam). The “basis” for the story hinged on one of Paul’s typically lighthearted flyers for the last Hogmanay party, the theme of which was innocent little jelly babies! “Because we’re involved in “rave”, we get a lot of media attention. The spotlight really is on us.

We have to make sure our events are tip top and we always do. We’ve always had medical services at our shows – 2 doctors, 2 paramedic teams and first aid teams. We have doctors because they can diagnose problems, whereas the first aid people can’t. It can save the time lag between getting the person to hospital, which minimises the risk and could prevent a possible death. We don’t ignore the drug factor. Crew 2000 was set up at about the same time as Rez – it helps to educate people and tell them what really happens with different drugs. We give the basic facts. We’ve been accused of condoning drug use, but it’s not like that. The number one priority is public safety – whether that be crowd control barriers at the front of a concert or medical services and advice… by minimising the risks, you have a safe event”.

This narrow-minded attitude that drugs are restricted to the rave scene really angers Paul. “Drugs aren’t restricted to one music, one age group, one club, one pub. They’re right across the community. The Government needs to wake up to that”. As one of the more responsible promoter in the scene, it seems particularly unfair that Rezerection come under fire. Paul travels up to Scotland at least once every two weeks during which time meetings are held with police, the medical services, fire brigade and other such bodies. They review previous events to see if there’s any way of improving their already smooth running operation.

You do get a lot of grief being a promoter, but Paul reckons the good points outweigh the bad for him. It’s a full time job, so you have to love it and when it takes 9 months to arrange a big show, it’s far from glamorous. “A good promoter has to be able to listen to people on every level. Not just the public, but people who have production values as well. But it’s the people who make a good event. That’s it. Full stop. You can have the best production, the best rides, the best DJs, but without people with the attitude to party, you might as well go home”.

Paul rates all promoters including the late Murray Beeston. About 18 months ago, Paul and Murray got together and decided to do something, but Murray’s unfortunate death meant that their satellite linked events did not happen.

However, Rezerection and Dreamscape join forces at The Showground in Edinburgh on March 22nd and one week later at Shepton Mallet, Somerset, on the 29th March 1997. “Dreamscape means nothing in Scotland, but it doesn’t mean we’re not going to try it. The whole idea was to amalgamate two different ways of doing things. We’re just trying to push things further. People travel from Cardiff, Portsmouth and Exeter to come to our events, so there’s no reason why it shouldn’t take off in England. If it’s a success, we’ll definitely do some more later in the year”.

Their enviable record of sell-out events suggests that Rezerection can’t put a foot wrong. They really have made the big time. “We haven’t! Every show we do, there’s something to learn. There’s always ways to make it better. It’ll never be so that there’s nothing to do. If it was, I’d stop and move on to something else”.

With possible new greenfield sites in both Scotland and England and Paul’s fanciful ideas of doing weird and wonderful all night parties, the end of the road is a long way off.