Tapes from the golden era of jungle/drum n bass recorded from the best pirate station in London, Kool FM. 

Kool FM Tapes

This was recorded on my 14th birthday, almost 19 years ago. It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since I taped this - It's recorded over Michael Jackson's album 'Dangerous', which I probably recorded over several times before I finally kept on to this show. 

At the beginning, as I did quite a lot back then, I taped a tune I liked from Brockie and Dett's Sunday night show... This was something I did a lot in the early days as I couldn't afford to buy new tapes. If I heard a tune I liked, I'd just hit the record button over an unimportant part of whichever tape was in my stereo at the time. Fortunately, as time went on I was able to buy packs of blank tapes and didn't carry on that bad habit.

This is such a special tape, recorded during an amazing summer of discovery and adventure. The carefree days of being a 14-year-old traveling all over London during a seemingly endless summer seem a million miles away from where I am now. I'm glad I still have this tape to take me back there, though.

By the way, I have no idea which 'publication' 5ive-O and Navi are berating throughout the show, if anyone does please let me know!

Footloose with 5ive-O & Navigator - Kool FM (94.5) - 5th August 1995

Here's another one from '95 - recorded on to a Poundland tape. My aunty Karen got me a six-pack of them for my birthday that year. Unsurprisingly they weren't the best quality, but I was grateful to have them nonetheless - although this one has a TDK sticker over the Poundland branding, so I guess I wasn't exactly full of pride to be using their audio tapes. Teenagers eh... 

Adding to the bad quality of this recording is interference from GLR, which was the nearest legal station to Kool. I spent many days and nights battling with my makeshift aerial (the old metal hanger which so many of us used instead of the standard aerial on a stereo) to try and get a clear signal. Sometimes I'd be lying in bed holding that hanger in the right position for an hour or two just to get a decent recording...

RIP Stevie Hyper D.

Nicky Blackmarket with Stevie Hyper D - Kool FM (94.5) - 1995

Another Poundland special. Always great to hear Stevie Hyper D and Nicky Blackmarket in action, the two complemented each other so well. I used to spend ages trying to catch all of Hyper D's lyrics and recite them at school - the man was a don. RIP.

Nicky Blackmarket with Stevie Hyper D - Kool FM (94.5) - November 1995

More of the show featuring Footloose with MCs 5ive-O and Navigator, with more 'public service addresses'. 

Footloose with MC 5ive-O & Navigator - Kool FM (94.5) - 5th August 1995 (Part 2)

The Supreme Team show went out every Friday night from 11pm - 1am, if my memory serves me correctly. This one features 5ive-O on his own with Ron and SL back-to-back. 

On side B the show comes to an end - followed by 15mins or so of Marly Marl with MC Navigator, 5ive-O and Moose. 

Classic shit.

DJ Ron & SL with MC 5ive-O - Kool FM (94.5) - 1995

Another classic from that regular Supreme Team Show. Pre-Carnival lick.

DJ Ron & SL with MC 5ive-O & Moose - Kool FM (94.5) - 25th August 1995 (Part 1)

"If you're taping this, well...!" - 5ive-O says it all at the beginning of this tape, absolutely storming and one of the earliest recordings from my collection that's still intact. I'm so glad I didn't tape over this one.

As you can see from the image, I taped over my 'Rave 92' compilation and I'm glad I did - this show is an absolute classic and check out the ads at the end!

As I've said, summertime 1995 was a special time - jungle was blasting out of everyone's cars, the sun was blazing down and Kool FM ruled the airwaves. 

Younghead with 5ive-O, Navigator & Flinty Badman - Kool FM (94.5) - 9th July 1995

This is one of my absolute favourite tapes. Ryme Tyme and Trace are deadly together and 5ive-O just adds that little bit extra - he's obviously lean! I'm guessing that this was recorded later on the same day as the Younghead set from 9th July, but I could be wrong.

The tape itself is absolutely ruined, it's been repaired/chewed up several times - you can even see the blu-tac I used to repair in the photo! Somehow it has retained a decent level of quality. In fact, this tape is in such a bad way that side A kept on slowing down during recording (which is why this is just side B) and then it broke while I was converting side B - so now I've got to go old school and try to fix it. 

Wish me luck...

DJ Trace with Ryme Tyme & 5ive-O - Kool FM (94.5) - 14th May 1995

Nicky B, Rodney T, Stevie Hyper D and MC Gee... Need I say more?

Nicky Blackmarket b2b Rodney T with Stevie Hyper D and MC Gee - Kool FM (94.5) - 18th June 1995

Side A of this tape features more from Ron, SL, 5ive-O and Moose from August 1995.

Side B is a proper mish mash of tunes from Bryan Gee and Jumpin Jack Frost from the late 90s. 

DJ Ron & SL with MC 5ive-O & Moose - Kool FM (94.5) - 25th August 1995 (Part 2)

This is one of my home mechanic jobs - I had to remove the audio tape from an old damaged cassette case and re-house it a new one (not sure why)... That black case, which you can see in the picture housed a single by Louchie Lou & Michie One called 'Shout (It Out)', which was released on FFRR back in 1993. I loved that song.

Side A of this tape features the mighty Bryan Gee, who I recorded religiously every Sunday from 1995 onwards when he stepped in to cover DJ Trace's Sunday night slot on Kool (9-11pm) - Trace was in the States for a prolonged period and Bryan Gee ended up making that slot his own.

On side B is a special show to promote Telepathy's huge 'Step In Time' event with DJ Ron and Andy C back-to-back with Stevie Hyper D and Sting. Massive.

A: Bryan Gee - 1995 * B: DJ Ron & Andy C with Stevie Hyper D & Sting - 15th September 1995 (Pt.1)

This was a proper job to sort out. The original tape (dubbed over my Jungle Mania album) must have snapped and I naively mended it with some Sellotape but somehow managed to do a proper Frankenstein's monster botch on it, taping one half of one show to the other - so halfway through the tape it cuts from Younghead b2b Pressure X to the Andy C show with Hyper D, and vice versa on the other side. You can see how mashed the tape is in the picture. One of the spools is missing, there's blu-tac (green) involved and loads of Sellotape, side B has loads of cracks. 

Luckily, with the aid of 21st Century technology, I was able to rectify this and reinstate sides A and B to their original format. 

Still though, it's funny to listen to the original tape, which makes a whole heap of noise when it's playing, and funnier still to think that I valued the tape so much that I kept hold of it even though it was in such a mess. 

You've got to have hope eh...

A: Andy C with Stevie Hyper D & Sting (Pt.2) * B: Younghead b2b Pressure X with 5ive-O - 1995

Another classic half hour of music, some all-time great tunes on this one and the MCs just kill it, too. Badboy.

This was dubbed over one of my mum's old reggae tapes. 

SL with 5ive-O, Navigator and MC Co-Gee - Kool FM (94.5) - 1995

On side A of this tape there's a mix by Alex Reece which was broadcast as part of Radio 1's 'One In The Jungle' show. 

Side B starts off with a really low quality fill-in broadcast of a Jungle Fever tape on Kool FM featuring Brockie with Moose and 5ives. Then goes into the first part of the return of the Supreme Team to Kool after a short break... they've just got back from New York. The repeated jingles are a bit annoying and the reception was awful, but hey... 

A: Alex Reece (One In The Jungle) * B: DJ Ron & SL with 5ive-O, Moose & Strings - December 1995

When DJ Trace went over for an extended stay in America, Bryan Gee stepped in to look after his Sunday night slot between 9 and 11pm. I recorded his show almost every week and this is one of the earliest tapes I have - there are two different shows on either side. Side B suffers from poor reception in places, but the music is too good. 

I have no idea of the exact dates, but I guessed they were around the end of summer 1995... possibly a bit later in the year. 

Bryan Gee - Kool FM (94.5) - Summer 1995

Kool FM Tapes

Marcus Barnes