Hello peeps. I’ve finally got around to registering on here after lurking around for a long time, having stumbled across the site. I was particularly encouraged to get on with it by something djperkins recently posted which seemed a bit downbeat, suggesting there were few people out there who still give a fuck about the music we love. An easy impression to get if everyone is just hiding and not joining in. So, about me –
First off I’d just like to say an enormous ‘thank you’ to the people who have posted up rips of tapes in their collections. I’ve downloaded shedloads of these, I am soooo grateful to these people for giving me the chance to get hold of so many sets
. I was there but I just never bought many tapes back in the day, to my immense regret now. Up until I found OSA this was a big era of my life which was just in my head, now with the music available I can love it again. I share the frustration that you guys have with lowlife taking these rips and flogging them on Ebay etc.. Just to say that there are people out here like me who are taking these offerings in the spirit intended and not taking the piss – I do hope that you will continue to share what you have.
Ok, so I was a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to the scene back in the day. I was very much into anarchist punk and indie in the late 80s / early 90s and used to see loads of bands at the uni and poly at Sheffield. About this time I was working in Rotherham and the dude I worked with was getting into dance music and used to tune the radio into Fantasy FM pirate, which we could get there. This just opened my eyes to a scene. I saw a lot in it which was very punk in its attitudes – and let’s face it, what a laugh! The idea of this pirate station operating from the flats with all these shout-outs going on, and shutting down when the feds raided before coming back on air again. FFS, it was like the Wild West, you just had to be fascinated. And I started to get into the music and decided to explore it. At this time I was buying shitloads of records a week at indie shops and started checking out dance music shops in Leeds and Sheffield and just getting into a whole new scene. TBH it kinda ruined indie for me over a period of time as I saw that as increasingly boring and irrelevant, especially when it all went Britpop and totally bollocks.
As for the music, although I flitted around a lot listening to all sorts what I enjoy is mainly vocal House tunes, Deep House, early Trance etc.. I can tolerate Garage but I’m not a big fan. Anything too acid, hardcore etc does my head in. I also like ambient techno (lot of Warp stuff), D&B from Danny Bukem’s stable. Although I bought a couple of decks and learned to mix really badly I haven’t got a very big House collection of vinyl. My main collection centres on stuff on the Toko and Glasgow Underground labels, plus loads of Good Looking D&B and offshoots.
So, clubbing. Well, what can I say, Sheffield back in the day! It’s been really good having access to people’s recollections on forums such as OSA as it’s filled in so many (good night out induced) blanks for me, reminding me where I’ve been. We used to go The Arches a lot when Gatecrasher was there. Then we moved with it to The Adelphi in Attercliffe. I remember going to the place Gatecrasher then moved to back in the city before they took it over – wasn’t it then a different club called Republic? Didn’t go that many times when Crasher moved back into town as it just got crap. Also went to Niche – never much liked that place, always a heavy vibe and not keen on the music, but often needed somewhere to be in the warm and dry after other clubs closed in the small hours before getting the train home on Sunday morning. Times we’ve been walking back home through the cultural wasteland of Doncaster at 10-ish on Sunday morning having got off the train, still in club gear, with Sunday morning shoppers looking at us like WTF!
Clubs kicked out at 2am in Donny, this was like the aliens had landed. Small town, small minds.
In Sheffield we also went to a few other places in the city centre which were good but never got the hype that places like Crasher obtained but I'm struggling to remember the names Also went to The Pleasure Rooms at Leeds once, queued for fucking hours until we got ‘picked’. This was when things started to disappear up its arse with image being more important than the music.
Then, over what seemed to be overnight (but it wasn’t), the whole scene just seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke and you were left thinking WTF!? Suddenly House turned into cheese, nothing new was coming out, everywhere went trance (which I wasn’t keen on after the early stuff, although I liked Oakenfold) and that was it, game over :|. And I just drifted off into D&B and ambient techno bedroom listening. TBH I lost a lot of interest in music full stop for a long time. The club clientele seemed to change too as dance music became mainstream and clubbing ‘normal’ – less friendly, more nightclubby (‘I’m here to get pissed and get a shag, not to dance’) with an undercurrent of pub tension. Fucked, basically.
Fast forward to two or three years ago and I’m searching through some music and I bang on a Jon Pleased Wimmin mixtape I come across and it’s like a punch in the face. I really couldn’t believe it. What was lodged in my memory was all the music which caused me to lose interest in the scene, not the stuff that got me into it. This just took me right back and opened up so many happy memories. I started trying to hunt down more tapes and CD sets, then by chance stumbled on OSA. That’s when I really did think I must be dreaming it. But here we are, and that’s a bit about me and I hope I haven’t rambled on too long. Happy days!
First off I’d just like to say an enormous ‘thank you’ to the people who have posted up rips of tapes in their collections. I’ve downloaded shedloads of these, I am soooo grateful to these people for giving me the chance to get hold of so many sets
. I was there but I just never bought many tapes back in the day, to my immense regret now. Up until I found OSA this was a big era of my life which was just in my head, now with the music available I can love it again. I share the frustration that you guys have with lowlife taking these rips and flogging them on Ebay etc.. Just to say that there are people out here like me who are taking these offerings in the spirit intended and not taking the piss – I do hope that you will continue to share what you have.Ok, so I was a bit of a Johnny-come-lately to the scene back in the day. I was very much into anarchist punk and indie in the late 80s / early 90s and used to see loads of bands at the uni and poly at Sheffield. About this time I was working in Rotherham and the dude I worked with was getting into dance music and used to tune the radio into Fantasy FM pirate, which we could get there. This just opened my eyes to a scene. I saw a lot in it which was very punk in its attitudes – and let’s face it, what a laugh! The idea of this pirate station operating from the flats with all these shout-outs going on, and shutting down when the feds raided before coming back on air again. FFS, it was like the Wild West, you just had to be fascinated. And I started to get into the music and decided to explore it. At this time I was buying shitloads of records a week at indie shops and started checking out dance music shops in Leeds and Sheffield and just getting into a whole new scene. TBH it kinda ruined indie for me over a period of time as I saw that as increasingly boring and irrelevant, especially when it all went Britpop and totally bollocks.
As for the music, although I flitted around a lot listening to all sorts what I enjoy is mainly vocal House tunes, Deep House, early Trance etc.. I can tolerate Garage but I’m not a big fan. Anything too acid, hardcore etc does my head in. I also like ambient techno (lot of Warp stuff), D&B from Danny Bukem’s stable. Although I bought a couple of decks and learned to mix really badly I haven’t got a very big House collection of vinyl. My main collection centres on stuff on the Toko and Glasgow Underground labels, plus loads of Good Looking D&B and offshoots.
So, clubbing. Well, what can I say, Sheffield back in the day! It’s been really good having access to people’s recollections on forums such as OSA as it’s filled in so many (good night out induced) blanks for me, reminding me where I’ve been. We used to go The Arches a lot when Gatecrasher was there. Then we moved with it to The Adelphi in Attercliffe. I remember going to the place Gatecrasher then moved to back in the city before they took it over – wasn’t it then a different club called Republic? Didn’t go that many times when Crasher moved back into town as it just got crap. Also went to Niche – never much liked that place, always a heavy vibe and not keen on the music, but often needed somewhere to be in the warm and dry after other clubs closed in the small hours before getting the train home on Sunday morning. Times we’ve been walking back home through the cultural wasteland of Doncaster at 10-ish on Sunday morning having got off the train, still in club gear, with Sunday morning shoppers looking at us like WTF!
Clubs kicked out at 2am in Donny, this was like the aliens had landed. Small town, small minds.In Sheffield we also went to a few other places in the city centre which were good but never got the hype that places like Crasher obtained but I'm struggling to remember the names Also went to The Pleasure Rooms at Leeds once, queued for fucking hours until we got ‘picked’. This was when things started to disappear up its arse with image being more important than the music.
Then, over what seemed to be overnight (but it wasn’t), the whole scene just seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke and you were left thinking WTF!? Suddenly House turned into cheese, nothing new was coming out, everywhere went trance (which I wasn’t keen on after the early stuff, although I liked Oakenfold) and that was it, game over :|. And I just drifted off into D&B and ambient techno bedroom listening. TBH I lost a lot of interest in music full stop for a long time. The club clientele seemed to change too as dance music became mainstream and clubbing ‘normal’ – less friendly, more nightclubby (‘I’m here to get pissed and get a shag, not to dance’) with an undercurrent of pub tension. Fucked, basically.
Fast forward to two or three years ago and I’m searching through some music and I bang on a Jon Pleased Wimmin mixtape I come across and it’s like a punch in the face. I really couldn’t believe it. What was lodged in my memory was all the music which caused me to lose interest in the scene, not the stuff that got me into it. This just took me right back and opened up so many happy memories. I started trying to hunt down more tapes and CD sets, then by chance stumbled on OSA. That’s when I really did think I must be dreaming it. But here we are, and that’s a bit about me and I hope I haven’t rambled on too long. Happy days!
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