We are all getting older. Who were the DJ’s that gave you those nights that you still remember. I could list countless, but I’ll always remember my first proper night out.

Far too many to list, but a couple off the top of my head;

The Tidy Boys

Lisa Lashes

Lab 4

Tiësto

Armin Van Buuren

Ferry Corsten

Above and Beyond

Paul van Dyk (no e in Van Dyk 😉)

Clubbing used to be my life, Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Storm, PaSSion, Gods Kitchen, Cream and everything in between.

I was a full on cyber kid and have some very embarrassing photos to prove it 😂.

Evil Eddie Richards, Little Louis Vega at Outer Limits in Bletchley Milton Keynes in 1989

Taking my to be wife to our first date at the Hacienda.

Wiggle at Woolwich Tramshed, my god they were good nights.

Oh man… The good old days, when we used to be allowed to go out! NEVER AGAIN will I make an excuse such as too tired, too old, or got work on monday for the chance of a quality night out again! 😩

Soooo many good memories, soooo many good DJ’s, soooo many good venues!

Probably my best memory was 2 days before my 21st… Richie Hawtin (before he went all minimal and boring!) and Sven Vath at Sven’s Cocoon Club residency at Amnesia in Ibiza… The club was rammed full of mad German techo freaks, and me and my GF at the time! It was brilliant… Some of the best Techno I’ve ever experienced, Hawtin when he was still pioneering the use of Traktor in his DJ sets banged out 3hrs of perhaps the most cerebral and enthralling tech house/techno I’ve ever heard, laced full of samples and his signature wizardry on multiple decks and effects. The on came Sven Vath, old school with 2 turntables and a mixer, playing 3hrs of the most banging kick ass techno I’ve ever heard! The Germans in there seemed quite intrigued at the 2 token English people in there, but we were loving it! Never seen Sven Vath since, sadly saw Hawtin only a year or so later by which time he’d gone all minimal and boring…

Oh, and Monika Kruse @ The Fuse in Brussels… Wow, that was a bit hardcore even for me! Had a few of her records by that point, seeing her DJ live though to her home crowd in Brussels… Me and my mate needed a bit of relief, so went up to the 2nd room where there was a house DJ playing, just as we started dancing Xpress2’s Lazy came on (it had only just been released at the time)… Was a moment to truly cherish and remember!

So so sooooo many other highlights (Andy C at Global Gathering, Carl Cox in various venues, Evil Nine and Adam Freeland at Sheffield Uni, Krafty Kuts at The Purple Turtle in Oxford the week after his first Essential Mix to name but a few), but those are the two that stand out most memorably for me. 😍

Checkpoint Charlie After Dark Reading.

I was at uni in Brighton from 1998 – 2002 and looking back it was a probably a bit of a golden era for dance music in many ways. I was more into breaks, big beat, funk and there were so many amazing nights on there at the time.

Norman Cook’s big beat boutique at Concorde was a favourite and had loads of good nights there. Similarly, Phonic:Hoop at the Engima with DJs like bonobo and Mr Scruff. Also Krafty Kuts Supercharged night at the Funky Buddha Lounge with DJs like Adam Freeland. Loads of good funk nights at Casablanca’s too.

Feels like I was luckily in the right place at the right time and have very fond memories. Got into DJ’ing myself and spent half my student loan on vinyl in Rounder Records and other local records shops!

Best ones for me are Jam Factory Sheffield, Havanna Middlesborough, Renaissance/Hot To Trot Mansfield & Glastonbury 1999. Strewth they were good times!

I remember nothing and luckily no pictures exist so you cant prove it 😄

Swerve at The End on a Wednesday night is one that sticks in my mind. Fabio and LTJ Bukem will always be heroes of the DnB scene to me.

I was a Friday night regular at Fabric for a few years but pulling out a specific memory isn’t easy. James Lavelle, Evil Nine, Hybrid and Plump DJs were all there at some point.

Stu Allan!

I was in the Navy from 96-02 and wasn’t massively into music until this point. Being together with lads from all sorts of backgrounds brought lots of amazing music to my ears. Probably first memory would have been Dave Pearce at the Dance academy in plymouth, Slinky @ The Opera house in bournemouth was another good one but can’t remember who was playing :-). Home in sydney 2000 was another cracker of a night out. Locally everyone used to head to a place called Pawlett Manor which was really good for local DJ’s

Ninja Tune nights at the 333 Club, Old St. 97-2000. Seeing Coldcut and others live 😎

Free parties around the north London area and up towards Luton at around the same time. Might have been a bit messy.

Seeing Chris Liberator at a party near Cambridge. Probably in 96 or 97.
Kick-started a love of proper techno.

The End club, London, in 95-99
Loads of amazing techno and house djs.
owned by Mr C if I recall correctly.

Dungeons Leyton 1990ish – sweaty, gurning.
Rockshots Newcastle Trannies with Attitude 1993 – wore a dress, liberating.

Dance academy in Plymouth

Had some very, very messy nights in there!

If you can remember, then you weren’t there😉

Far too many to list, but a couple off the top of my head;

The Tidy Boys

Lisa Lashes

Lab 4

Tiësto

Armin Van Buuren

Ferry Corsten

Above and Beyond

Paul van Dyk (no e in Van Dyk 😉)

Clubbing used to be my life, Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Storm, PaSSion, Gods Kitchen, Cream and everything in between.

I was a full on cyber kid and have some very embarrassing photos to prove it

I fear we may have crossed paths @PiknMix as that’s a very similar list to mine.

So most of the above, plus:
Fergie at Storm is a strong memory, followed by a very sketchy drive home.
Tall Paul at a messed up night at The Custard Factory.
Judge Jules at Gods Kitchen when it was still at The Sanctuary.
Fatboy Slim at Cafe Mambo.

Been to a few super clubs I spose they where back in the day but, the best for sound and atmosphere was always our local – Ascension @ Lingards in Bradford (around 88-90 iirc)

Cheesy carp downstairs but come 11 and up we went to Scott Page belting out awesome tracks on a wicked sound system.

Probably nobody here that was there as it wasn’t a big night, although was always rammed.

Great times.

I think you might be right!

Judge Jules at Gods Kitchen when it was still at The Sanctuary.

Was at the sanctuary a lot and definitely saw Jules there.

In the spirit of the thread, standout moments;

When Tiësto dropped his remix of Southern Sun at Gods, one of the first times it was played out.

The whole of Red and Black on Boxing Day at Crasher.

So many hazy yet beautiful memories:

Sasha’s 30th birthday at the Ministry, 1999
Guy Ornadel, Brandon Block, John 00 Fleming and Sister Bliss at various nights in the Cambridge Corn Exchange
John Kelly and Ferry Corsten on a Gatecrasher tour
The Secret at the Cambridge Junction (as well as a local DJ known as The Bear, I think). Helicopters and Viking-helmeted chaos…
Tiesto at the Moulin à Danse (MAD) Lausanne: notable for delivering an excellent set, then being totally eclipsed by a Czech girl Laydee Jane immediately after him – she played the best hard trance I ever heard live. Fantastically intimate connection with the crowd.
More Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Yves Deruyter, Paul van Dyk and Tatana over the years in Lausanne. And one exceptional performance from Signum circa 2007-2008ish.
Mauro Picotto at Zouk (Singapore). Not the most receptive crowd, but he didn’t let it bother him… Also John Digweed somewhere else in Singapore a few years later.
John 00 Fleming again, in psy-trance mode in a field outside Kuala Lumpur.

There will have been other sets and nights which I’ve forgotten. I was remarkably lucky to be in the right places at the right times over the years… The only DJs I really regret never hearing live are Tony de Vit (who left us far too soon) and Rob Tissera. Perhaps a freeform set from Sharkey and Kevin Energy too.

Early days for me including first creamfields, Winchester 98? Global Gathering in Luton 97?
One Love parties Bristol & Swindon. Uni days at Southampton on the Manage et trois Boat Parties. They were good!!
More recently as I’m getting old now – Sasha At the Barbican and again at the Roundhouse few years back. The good old days 🎧👍

Sasha at Mixmag festival Weston Park, when Age Of Love had just come out. Progressive house nights at Wobble Birmingham, Golden at The Academy, Stoke. Just dig out Renaissance: The Mix Collection. Tunes!

A few club nights in Edinburgh (Citrus Club, Sativa, others I can’t remember) but mostly Glasgow for me. Slam at the Arches mostly and a few Saturday night Sub Clubs too. Awesome 👍

Global Gathering in Luton 97?

The first Global Gathering was in 2001 at Long Maston airfield, it was epic!

Tribal Gathering was in Luton I think.

Surely if you can remember it you were not doing it right?

Life @ Bowlers. Trafford park.

For me it was Camden Palace, home to Peach trance nights run by Graham Good and Saturday was Frantic, hard house, gurning out to BK, Andy Whitby,Rob Tissera ( who played an extra long set on my birthday!) Lab4, Mark E G, I was lucky enough to be close friends with their close friends so spent many a night with them.
And then the tidy weekenders happened…. Anyone venture to them?!

Did someone say the Plymouth Dance Academy?

I know I went quite a few, can’t remember much though 😆

So many good memories from my clubbing days. Rise at The Leadmill and in particular BT live and DJ Sonique are two sets that particularly stick in the mind. Oh and the Trade nights there.

Mix Master Mike with Beardyman as a warm up whilst I was err… seeing things at Sheffield Student Union and Diggers at the same venue.

The early Urban Gorrila nights and the Tuesday Club.

Insomoniacz – particularly the early days. Again, so many good nights but I particularly remember an early Tidy Boys set before they became too big for themselves.

Gatecrasher – sat on the fire escape or in the service lift talking bollocks with people and a very memorable Miles Elliot set when they used to have a DJ upstairs. Oh and Tony de Vit totally demolishing the main dance floor.

I Love Techno in Belgium – largest one night club event in Europe (the world?) – 30,000 people in a single venue. Dave Clarke played a killer set.

Headcharge – the Atomisers always played a belter and the likes of Dave the Drummer and the Liberators.

Various ad hoc live sets – Justice, DJ Shadow, Orbital etc

A one off night at Progress as guest of Farley Jackmaster Funk when he and Tony de Vit were playing.

The Cue Club in Birmingham – getting lost in the various corridors and backrooms.

The first Gatecrasher Lotheron Hall was immense.

Randomly stumbling across Andy Weatherall at a night in Cologne, Germany – belting set he played (unsurprisingly).

So so many nights spent clubbing and I am still good friends with a lot of the people I met and am still married to one of them too 🙂

Spent many a night /day /night /morning gurnning, jaw askew, eyes rolled back trying to see up into my brain, sweaty and topless back around the late 90s,early 2000s in clubs that no longer exist.

The End. The Cross. Turnmills. Fabric. Heaven….

Good times. So glad that not everyone had a camera in their pocket back then…!

Who was playing? 🤔… Did it really matter once the goods kicked in? More important was where you were going to sleep after leaving the club at 6am.

Mate and I used to leave a bag in the lockers at Liverpool Street with a change of clothes.

Lost count of the number of times I was woken on a Sunday morning by the train conductor at Southend-on-Sea…. and then again a few hours later at Fenchurch Street. 😁

All good fun and I regret none of it.

I was here for this…

Oh, and Monika Kruse @ The Fuse in Brussels…

Ha, me and the Mrs were on a work’s do to Brussels and veryone else went off round the bars and we went to Fuse and saw Monika. Epic night, really enjoyed it. The coach journey back to the UK the next day hurt though 😀

Insomoniacz

Just what you need after a messy Saturday night, a very messy Sunday morning 😂

The first Gatecrasher Lotheron Hall was immense.

How could I have missed that off my list! I didn’t have a lift home but some complete randoms drove 2 hours out their way to take me.

Gatecrasher – sat on the fire escape or in the service lift talking bollocks with people

Very good chance at some point, I was one of those people!

More important was where you were going to sleep after leaving the club at 6am.

The look of disgust from commuters going to the office whilst you’re still a sweaty mess. At least you got the table seats to yourself.

Probably went to some of the same nights as you Alpin.

Turnmills was my regular for a while – the gallery or a night called headstart iirc.

Before that I was regular at the drum club and sex love and motion, both at the sound shaft.

Went almost everywhere in London really. Including a South London phase of escape from samsara at the fridge.

I was never 100pc on board with trance, but it was a brilliant crowd for London.

The Cue Club in Birmingham – getting lost in the various corridors and backrooms.

The Que Club.
An incredible venue, just amazing, so many rooms, once you lost your mates you never saw them again.
Went to a quite incredible Sundissential night there, Fergie, Lisa Lashes, TdV, Tidy Boys, etc.
I remember stumbling into a room in there that was almost pitch black and some kind of deep, deep house was playing and round the outsde sat 20 odd people just swaying in what I assume was a huge K-hole.
Beautiful to see.

The Que Club was my spot between 94-1999 (last time I went properly clubbing was Atomic Jam for the millennium)

Best night I had up there was a Trade/Ultimate Orange with TDV. Went every Saturday so enjoyed Space hopper, logical, oscillate, HOG, Antidote, AJ… Even the Cream and other big club nights.

Dave Clarke dropping Access at midnight on NYE at fantasy Island with MC Ribz on the mic was special, as was the first time I heard Sven Vath at the Orbit.

Great thread, giving me flashbacks. Dance music and clubbing were big parts of my identity from an early age to well into my 30s. A few key moments;

1. Seeing the video for the Prodigy’s single “One Love” on one of those Saturday morning chart shows in the early 90s and instantly falling in love with hardcore / rave music.

2. Going into Fearnley’s Records in Middlesbrough and buying my first happy hardcore / gabba mix cassette.

3. Getting in to my first club as an underage 17 year old to see Anne Savage.

4. Getting a £1k bank loan while still at 6th form college to buy a pair of Numark TTX1 turntables and a mixer, then proceeding to spend every penny I earned from my weekend shelf stacking job on hard house vinyl.

5. Going to uni in Sheffield circa 2003-2006. Gatecrasher, Sundissential, Tuesday Club, Urban Gorilla, Headcharge, Planet Zogg + many many more. Somehow scraped a 2:1, barely.

6. Getting a reasonable job after uni which paid for 2 X Pioneer DJM 1000mk3s and a DJM 800 mixer plus many more records.

7. Putting on a monthly drum and bass night with a couple of good mates at a local late bar, circa 2008-9.

I then lost interest for a couple of years and in early 2012 sold all my hardware and bought a Native Instruments S4 USB controller and started messing about with laptop DJing, just after I’d moved to Leeds for work. I also met an awesome group of people who I went out with clubbing regularly to nights like Back to Basics, Mint Club, Wire etc and started to play mainly house / techno at house parties with a mate. We even got a couple of gigs at friends’ nights in and around Leeds.

Around 2016 I started to lose interest in it all though. I sold all my kit (but kept my old record vinyl collection) and I played my last proper gig in 2017, which was a bit of a reunion night in Leeds. I just couldn’t get into it though and didn’t even bother going to the after party. My old group of mates did a big reunion house party (100+) people in May 2019 which I went to and DJ’d at but again, just couldn’t get into it and even symbolically left my tatty old Sony DJ headphones which I’d had since 2003 at the party as a way of saying “yeah, this used to be me but it isn’t any more.”

I started mountain biking in 2013 and that kind of took over as my main hobby. Just as expensive as clubbing / DJing / record collecting but a lot more healthy. Plus, in 2018 I got married to and had a little boy with my long term girlfriend and it just felt like I’d grown up beyond staying out very late.

It’s sad, because there is a huge music-shaped hole in my life now. I do still listen solely to electronic music but my tastes are definitely more towards the Boards of Canada side of things than full on rave. Anyhow, writing this post has brought back some (hazy) memories and its been really great reading all the other contributions. it’s amazing that some others on here remember Headcharge in Sheffield. Had some of my most intense clubbing memories down the Wicker Arches listening to acid techno.

Used to love blowpop at the blue mountain club in brizzle. Saw John Carter/ Junior Cartier, Plump DJ’s, Freestylers, loads of breakbeat/ house classics. Super cool vibe in there and a great roof terrace for chatting with nice people. A classic night.

Played at the old fire station in Bristol at a ministry of sound night once. The pinnacle of my club night dj performances…!

1993, a pal loaned me a cassette of some London pirate house station.
Haven’t heard it’s like yet.
First track was something that sounded akin to simply reds ‘fairground’ and there was also a track with the lyric “every woman grab your man…love and understanding, love and understanding…”

Wow your all youngsters…lol
I used to go to acid house parties in the 80’s, raves in the days you had to drive around and ring from a phone box ( remember them) then on to the massive tents in a field before it started going to the clubs.
My clubs were Fridays
That tiny club next to astoria (can’t remember then name) or Camden , Saturday astoria,cross club, club labyrinth,..so many others i can’t remember but mainly where the local estate hardnut was working the doors so we could get in for free
The Dj’s
Fabio, Grooverider,Carl Cox , Ritchie Fingers…..to be honest in those days you didn’t really ho for the djs, you just went to whatever places your mates are going and if you can jump in the car
I did Djing myself…so sometimes I would even get paid for a night out…
God I feel old

Danny Tenaglia

Sasha and Digweed.

My Cream favourites Leftfield.

@cheekyget the Milk Bar?

Remember a sat night at the Astoria sitting up on the balcony slightly jaded and MC Chalky White came bouncing along the tables and stopped with us whilst MCing. Blew my mind.