Industrial Hardcore / Crossbreed / Hardcore Techno

It started for me, when I was about 16, in 1990. The whole rave scene was going off all around the country, myself and a few mates were going off every weekend for some wicked sounds. Primarily free parties around Oxford and Bristol way. Easygroove was one of the main men who were spinning at these parties, and little did I realise what a massive influence this DJ would be to me in the future!

It was during one of these free parties that I got close enough to one of the DJ’s playing, and I thought yeah, I’ll have some of that, so off I went the next weekend, with my savings and bought myself some decks, and then of course some tunes. Every weekend I spent my time in Manic Hedgehog in Oxford buying tunes, primarily the harder edged stuff from Europe, than the hands in the air cheesey stuff that was also available round then. So practise practice it was, and eventually I managed to get myself a few slots at the free parties, and local parties around Oxford.

In 1993, I moved down to Plymouth to go to University, and it was here that my musical scene changed for me. I got into MC’ing. Purely coincidentally. I was asked to shout a bit of shit for a dj that was playing at one of the student nights at the legendary Plymouth Warehouse. I was then asked by the manager there, if I would like to mc for a techno night that he was doing in the Warehouse, as he liked my style, so I agreed. From here I realised that I liked MC’ing, as it allowed me to get pissed up, have a laugh and not worry too much, unlike DJ’ing. I still was DJ’ing as a resident at the Warehouse, but MC’ing took over. From here, I was then MC’ing for most of the big nights that were held at the Warehouse, those being Revelation, Big Nasty Dragon, Omnitech, Enjoy Project, Oblivion Plymouth as well as becoming both DJ Chase and DJ Gimps MC, which meant I MC’d at events like Deathrow Techno in Bristol, Obsessed in Plymouth, and the legendry gabba club The Shirehorse in St Ives. The music that I was into at the time was gabba and hardcore techno, which was extremely popular down in the south, with DJ’s like Easygroove, Scorpio, Carl Cox, Clarkee, Producer, Loftgroover + HMS.

Between 97-2000, id taken a bit of break from the scene ,as I had moved back to Oxford, and to be honest there was no one else into it like me, and so music had taken a back seat. That was until I’d heard of a club called North. This was primarily a techno based outfit based out of Stoke and Trent, and so I had to go ,and I loved it!! The DJ’s that I still loved were still blasting out the hardcore sounds, to all the skinhead nutter’s who were crying out for more. I quickly grabbed the mic, and I was back in business, MC’ing for the likes of Loftgroover, Producer, Scorpio etc etc. I was also then asked to be the resident MC of a new gabba night called Oblivion, based in Leicester. Basically North and Oblivion were running nights every other month ,and I went wherever they went…..

It was through travelling to Leicester in 2003 that I met my wife, and it was also around this stage that the hardcore scene that I was a part of was disintegrating due to bad vibes, bad mouthing of each other, and it all became stale, so I left it behind.

I’d always loved my oldskool stuff, primarily 1990-1993 hardcore sounds, and I found this to be my saviour really, and I threw myself back into DJ’ing in a big way. There was a simmering Oxford oldskool scene around this time in 2005, and it was here that I met a lot of the Oxford based friends that I have now that love Oldskool, and I was introduced to a clan calling themselves Breakfreakz. Who held legendry boat parties along the Thames, with DJ’s like Top Buzz, Slipmatt + Ellis Dee. I was beginning to play at a few local parties that were being held, but it was the forums that I gained a lot of info and of course friendships that go with it. In early 2010, I discovered a site called onlyoldskool, and it changed my life to be honest. Id met a decent group of lad and lasses who all had a love of oldskool, but more importantly, they had a radio station, that needed oldskool DJ’s. I was on it in a flash, and was soon playing the music I loved on a weekly basis every Friday night. Oni, (from Bass Generator Records) and another DJ called Mogwai, set up a night on onlyoldskool radio on a Tuesday, geared specifically for techno, and so Techno Tuesday was born, and so my love for the old gabba kick drum was rekindled!!

Since then, my scratching style and musical taste for the harder edged sound soon got me noticed, and since then I have now played for some of the biggest names in the rave industry, such as Dreamscape and Interdance and ive also played in Norway for a club called Orangutang, in Stravanger.

Now things have taken an even better turn, as I’m now signed for the legendary Bass Generator records as a DJ (and maybe even an MC), a well known and well established record label and business based in the UK. I will be playing Oldskool Hardcore from 1990-1993 and then Hardcore Techno, Acid Techno, Gabba + various other forms of Hardcore.

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