@burko73, remember Lakota? I used to go when I was a student at Bristol in 93-94.

the Milk Bar?

Think that was the one, reasonably plush for a club and there was a decent house night on there iirc.

We got refused entry to the Milk Bar when we tried it. Found another club which by chance had Carl Cox playing that evening (if my memory serves me correctly).

We used to attend Decadence at the Town & Country Club in Kentish Town (first place I ever heard Loaded by Primal Scream played). Remember seeing A Man Called Adam, Baby Ford and Guru Josh 😳 play there – back end of 89, early 1990.

Did anyone attend Energy at the old Docklands Arena? That included the likes of Adamski, 808 State and Black Box (again 😳). A great day/evening.

Also a Cue Club regular from early 90’s til I moved away from the Midlands in 97. Specific details are very hazy, definitely remember Atomic Jam, Space Hopper on a Friday? Also remember a Megadog or two but could be getting confused? Loved the atrium above the dance floor which helped generate an energy you just didn’t feel anywhere else. Great memories of that place and the people that made it so special.

So many clubs, so many DJ’s. Basically every club in Brum and Wolves and few in Liverpool and Sheffield, and every DJ that was a name in the mid 90’s to mid 2000’s. Perhaps my most memorable night was starting off **** scared then ending up having an awesome time with a load of Yardies in Wobble with Tuff Jam playing

No doubt been in the same clubs at the same time as others on here…. If you remember anyone wearing that screaming orange Orange jersey in Sundissential that were me

I wish I was a little older so I could’ve been there for Acid House…. And I’ve still not been to Ibiza 🤦🏻‍♂️

Just missed acid house myself, I was an indie kid and some of the lads I worked with at 17 were going to the orbital raves.

Wish I’d give with them.

Introduced to dance music (and a snowball) at a Tribal Energy party in a recording studio in Peckham in 1990 or 1991.

Then as a student in London there were no shortage of clubbing options, as well as the odd squat party.

That was kind of before the London acid sound had developed and a lot of the parties just played normal house and techno.

Great times, but my god the toilets.

I really can’t remember if it was called the milk bar….but on Sunday mornings when astoria finishes it was called the breakfast club….really weird getting out of a club on a Sunday afternoon in the sunshine

I used to be a frequent visitor to Cream when Oakenfold and Nick Warren were resident DJ’s. My missus was at John Moores Uni at the time so we’d go pretty much every other week when I went to visit her.

The 5th Birthday was good but the 6th Birthday in the courtyard was insane. Broadcast live for the Essential Mix, it’s by far the best club night I went to. Oakenfold rarely failed to deliver around that time and in that venue.

Most probably stood next to a few of you guys in the 98-00 days, I had mates who were older and had been to proper raves who looked down a bit on the Super club cyber-kid scene but it was all what we had at the time, and by **** we made it ours!

PaSSion was the standard Saturday (anyone remember the guy who turned up weekly holding a frying pan?) Tamworth services after, I remember queing there at 4am for a tea, the old lady on the till was going on about these kids turning up with stereo systems every week, the guy behind was like ‘totally agree, it’s terrible ain’t it’ looked behind and it was JFK 🙂 I think it stopped after services management got wind – the huge towel with the mitsi symbol painted onto it and the kids dancing around it was probably the final straw

Best set of my life was a Friday night at Nottingham Renesance with Carl Cox, blew the place away, the guy from Underworld proper wrecked The Club one night in Nott’s, I remember that..

The other place we went was a monthly called Eden at a Lincolnshire village hall type place (Metheringham) the hall was placed at a Bottom of a quarry, man alive they put a sound system in there, £5 on the door and always a great headliner like Trevor Jackson or someone, I think Judge Jules played the night it closed, although being a bit snobby we used to mostly avoid the JJ nights as it bought in the mental crowds

Great time, glad I was part of it

Some of you had to be on gurn.net?

PaSSion was the standard Saturday

Can you remember when you used to be able to get cups of tea in the top chill out room? If you were a regular then we’ve probably crossed paths at some point.

Police waiting in the car park at closing and everyone trying to walk in a straight line past them 😂

By the early 90s things were going a bit wrong, there were some good progressive house tunes (like Leftfield – Not Forgotten) but it was getting Cheeeeezeeee. Where it started for me – Outer Limits was gone and the scene was kinda exploding. We were putting on parties in Milton Keynes, some legit and some were not and for a bit we dabbled with progressive and a bit of trance, it was fun running across fields being chased by the police for a while.

Then in about 94 after a night in London the whole thing changed, an old friend had told us about this club in South London that played proper bass driven dirty house music, early tech-house I suppose from the guys at Swag Record in Croydon (Nathan Coles, Terry Francis), the super clubs were on the rise but this wasn’t like that (I did go to Cream’s 2nd Birthday around this time) this was dark, a bit dodgy, warehouse vibes, single strobe or maybe a laser and an absolutely relentless arse-moving groove.

A group of us got together on an early internet chat forum around 96, UK-Dance, you got a digest of messages twice a day and replied to the list-bot and your reply featured in the next digest, it kind-of exists still on FB but it’s not the same as the delay was what made it all a bit more chilled, this was the era of 2-Step UK Garage, Jungle and Drum and Bass as well as HouseNo (don’t know why that label didn’t stick). While it was mostly chilled, anyone trying to explain why Trance wasn’t shit generally got “flamed”.

We were mostly internet nerds as you an imagine, but somehow a bunch of us got asked to play at a party in a Mansion somewhere in Teddington I think, right by the river, dance floor was the drained swimming pool, dj booth was the jacuzzi (also drained). Here a plan was hatched to put on our own nights.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kr3N6E]1974388_10152013491896443_68767655_o[/url] by nickgilling, on Flickr
(me DJing at the first Triology party in 97)

First Triology (three rooms, sounds a bit like Biology) was in an old S&M club under the railway arches in Lambeth in 97, sweat dripped from the roof onto the records, we partied all night, I wouldn’t be surprised if the camo netting we put up to “lower” the roof is still there, no name DJs whatsoever but a queue around the corner had the venue management panic a bit, but in the end it all went off like a dream.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2kr3hPN]135453_10150143599609348_4837946_o[/url] by nickgilling, on Flickr
(Main room – first Triology Party 97)

A couple of parties a year at the All Nations Club (run by Yardies who were cool with us), Trendz & Nation, all in Hackney, led to us to accumulate the vast sum of about 1500 quid, which we blew on three coaches and a very full on weekend in Normandy, the party was at a Monastary that some rich friend of a friend was trying to turn into a night club, it was about half finished, some derelict and some quite nicely done (with a killer sound system), but in the middle of nowhere, this was probably the messiest weekend of my life, that’s about all I am prepared to say.

For about a year after this, until around mid 2001, the House/Techno crew from Triology – Kult put on nights at the George IV on Brixton Hill, these were great nights, we had some of our hero’s play like Eddie Richards and the rest of the Wiggle crew, plus DiY and some more I’ve forgotten, we played guest slots at other parties at places like the Dogstar in Brixton and had a great time dropping acid and seeing how long we could stay in Caesers in Steatham before getting the fear and leaving in a panic only to collapse in hysterical laughter when back at the flat above Brixton Cycles.

Around 2002 I pretty much knocked on the head, my daughter was 6 months old and we were living in Shrewsbury, travelling every weekend to DJ and hand out flyers in Brixton wasn’t compatible, it was also about this time I got my first mountain bike 🙂

I kind of miss it, it was the best time, I’ve obviously left out loads of details 🙂

If I had to pick one tune that sums it all up, would have to be E-Dancer’s Human Bond

put on nights at the George IV on Brixton Hill

Now there was a venue. Think my times there were a few years after yours, the Dogmatique house night and later some questionable Sunday daytime sessions.

All the retrospectives about the scene in the late 80’s/early 90’s concentrate on clubs like the Hacienda, but it really wasn’t a Manchester City centre thing.

Where it really got going was in the warehouse parties in Blackburn, then places like Wigan Pier, Legends in Warrington, Angels in Burnley, The Pleasuredrome in Farnworth

Here’s a great little article from Vice on Legends, which was our regular Friday night

The Small Town Nightclub That Quietly Changed British Clubbing Forever

@PiknMix your posts stir some great memories.

I spent many a weekend in the Emporium, in the Engineers next door before hand, mostly as Passion events. The best times when that place was full at the heyday.

Also spent time at the usual other places. I remember attending a few Gatecrasher events at the NEC, and the first Love Parade that was held in Leeds … I think like a million people turned up!

Slinky also ran a night in Leicester for a period of time, I quite often went along to that, but it was a tiny place.

Good times!

Slinky also ran a night in Leicester

Yes at Flaming Colossus was a great night out.

I spent many a weekend in the Emporium, in the Engineers next door before hand, mostly as Passion events. The best times when that place was full at the heyday.

A few of my mates would play the warm up sets in there, messy pub that 😂

You must have gone to a few of the infamous PaSSion classics nights?
Lee lights (who did all the lighting for emporium) was one of my staff in his day job. We turned up to work in some right states!

I started going out when i lived in Portsmouth to the original raves around M25, Ravealation, Dreamscape etc, then moved up to York for uni.

Used to spend most of my weekends at Back to Basics and Up your Ronson, the Orbit in Leeds and some clubs in Sheffield (anyone remember a place called Niche? full of hookers and bodybuilders but open til midday on sunday?) and had a great little scene in York itself around the Arts Centre.

Started to get into drum n bass on trips back down south, then moved to London and remember (very vaguely…) nights at Roast for jungle, the End for techno and of course if you lived in London at the time, then you had to have a killed a large number of brain cells at Bagleys at Kings Cross?

Dave Lee Travis, Adrian Juste, Bruno & Liz.

Smoking Camel Lights in a cafe in Rimini at 6am, prodding the packet to make the camel dance.

The Arches in Glasgow – RIP

Nothing like a good night at Pressure, coming out in the early hours and hearing the trains rolling into Central station about you

oh gawd, thats a tough one – too many to mention from being a kid and going to the free parties and raves in 89, to ending up working in the industry running nights and tours until stepping away in 2004 to ahem, get certain consumption issues under control, ahem.

personal highlights for me where:

going to the arches in sheffield when it was still SADMAC and you had to have a membership card to get in. a real diverse mix of people – from crusties to the glam brigade. all in a barley converted and deeply hazardous car mechanic garage

doing double headers of sasha @ shelleys on frdiay night and then dave seaman at jam factory on Saturday night, little to no sleep all weekend, but somehow still functional on monday morning

Rise @ the leadmill in Sheffield – it went through various guises musically with the changes of promoter, but we lived for it every Friday mid 90’s and you new at least half the people in there!

tyrant at the bomb in Nottingham in the late 90’s with sasha and lee burridge as resident in a tiny sweaty sub-terrainean club belt out a golden era for progg house and mitsibishis had recused the scene! always over the fire limit, always hotter than hell in their and always could never find the the little chill out room other than by complete accident

i always have a soft spot for the cross in kings cross (sadly no longer there). i used to run monthly Saturdays there early 2000’s, and the venue and the crowd made it feel like a throwback to early 90’s clubbing in terms of atmosphere – dancing on all available surfaces as well as the terrace. having norman jay as our second room resident didn’t hurt

@sofaboy73 – Rise regular also so undoubtedly we will have met at some point 🙂 and yes, live for Friday night we did. I have still have my Rise jacket and wallet. Now retired and placed in my little shrine to clubbing memories I have in my music listening room.

Went to Tyrant once by complete chance and had one of the best nights of all time there. Such a great little venue…

little to no sleep all weekend, but somehow still functional on monday morning

It’s funny looking back and also looking at some of the younger people in my team on a Monday and Tuesday, we say we were functional on a Monday, but were we? Really?

I mean back then, just getting to work and not being fired or throwing up was concidered “functional” I guess. Certainly no real work was done. I have a couple of lads in my team that used to be out all weekend and even though they would swear blind they’re working on a Monday they did pretty much nothing. Tuesdays are no better…

The Arches in Glasgow – RIP

Nothing like a good night at Pressure, coming out in the early hours and hearing the trains rolling into Central station about you

A quick stroll to The Unit for the afterparty, with the bemused rail workers looking down into the courtyard

6th Form, Manchester, 1994 onwards:

Yellow – Friday nights at The Boardwalk – Funk
Hacienda – Saturday night – Pretty much every single that played there!
The Jam Factory – Sheffield
Hacienda on a Wednesday for indie night

Absolutely killer times!!

Hopefully this Covid kerfuffle wont kill the club scene for the youngsters!

For me though, a few stouts in my countryside local is fine for me! These days i’m normally getting up when i’d be coming in!!

tyrant at the bomb in Nottingham in the late 90’s with sasha and lee burridge as resident in a tiny sweaty sub-terrainean club belt out a golden era for progg house and mitsibishis had recused the scene! always over the fire limit, always hotter than hell in their and always could never find the the little chill out room other than by complete accident

Don’t forget Craig Richards. There was a chillout room at The Bomb? I never found that.

Checkpoint Charlie After Dark Reading.

Yes! I remeber borrowing a drivers license to get in and watch Orbital live in there.

For me there was Final Frontier at Club UK in Wandsworth. Party until well after dawn, bundle into my mmates Polo and then get dropped straight off at work for a full shift on the Tesco deli counter before heading off to party the following night. Awake for 48 hours every weekend and wondered why my A-level results were so bad 😉

The Bomb was quite a venue, only went there once, a friend of mine was driving Eddie there from Milton Keynes to DJ and I drove over from Shrewsbury to meet them, spent most of the evening up in James Ballie’s office, which was up a couple of flights of derelict stairs somewhere in the building, can remember getting lost in a maze of corridors and popping out of a door straight into one of the rooms in full swing.

There was a chillout room at The Bomb? I never found that.

vague memories of a little room off to the side, halfway up some flight of stairs. found it once, went looking for it again on later visits, never to be found again. the place was rabbit warren, however my er, judgment may of been a little off at the time!

Chillout at the Bomb was up the stairs, to the other bar i think. Was it a separate bar/cafe in the daytime?
DJ Sy at Venus in 1990 was fun… before the makeover which brought in the Boys Own type nights. but it’s all good 🙂

Found a couple more pictures from some of our parties

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ku1brJ]2450_58278075753_5538735_n[/url] by nickgilling, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2ktWuwB]1891422_10152014903961443_699538111_o[/url] by nickgilling, on Flickr

Turnmills was like that for me. I must have wandered round there for hours, never really knowing where I was.

@Mister-P – My Brother in Law and his mates used to put an all-nighter on called ‘Faith’ at Turnmills on Easter bank holiday weekend. Chicago house and new school funk. I loved those nights. We’d get the train down from Manchester, en masse, for the weekend. Turnmills was a brilliant venue. We had some blinding nights in that place!

Some good memories of the Bomb there. Was just a doorway in the middle of a row of shops as I (vaguely) remember. A proper low ceiling sweaty club. Made the sound great.

There were some good nights in Nottingham round that time.

Easygroove playing at a beach party in tenby around 92, watching sy play at martha`s in swansea, john pleased wimin playing at our local club in tenby,such a showman, tdv at patti pavilion swansea,carl cox at universe, such a great time, as renton said in trainspotting music has changed.

So lucky….

Sasha at the Hac, Jay Weardon at the Thunderdome, Unabombers, all the 808 State crew……

But.

DAVID MORALES.

Bagleys , sub club oh man the youngsters these days sure missed out … best times of my life i thought would never end .. nights out the last ten years seem like another world im visiting and not for the better thats a cert …😢

Back in about 89/90 I managed to get into the Hacienda as 16 year old. Just went in on my own whilst up there on a school Materials Science trip to UMIST.

Utterly brilliant atmosphere!!
Managed to get back once or twice more before it closed, but still superb nights.

The long-lost Nation, then Cream, was also a scene of some awesome nights, as was the 051 where Cream started before moving down the way.

I now DJ for fun (hopefully clubs post-Covid 🤞🏼🤞🏼) and intend on making my own music before long. Still as enjoyable to me, but from a different perspective!

Can’t believe that I missed this thread.  I went to uni in Brum 96-99 so was lucky enough to catch what I guess can be considered the tail end of the great house era there.  Definitely ticked most nights (and days if you include Sundissential) off the list with the exception on Miss Monneypennys (must have been down to figuring it was too glam for a bunch of students).  My absolute standout was Tall Paul’s set at God’s Kitchen at the Custard Factory (I think) when everything just came together in one of those just lost in it all moments.

Definitely also remember Logical Progression at Que Club, getting lifts to Cream, someone organising a coach trip to Passion and a couple of trips to MK to the Helter Skelter raves (I was big into D&B too at the time).

And I’ll end simply on how most Brum nights ended……..Mr Egg.

Jeez, just checked back in to this thread. Some great tales/memories!