okay better late than never good evening guys welcome along it is Inspire and be inspired uh weekly motivational conversations occasional life hacks today it is all about the music scene and more particularly we are discussing the UK garage explosion in the Second City uh brummisfuck is the title of the series that I’ve been doing for over 12 months now and today we are skipping forward to the back end of the 90s into the 2000s with two of the gentlemen who can tell us all about uh hi the second city became such a hot spot for UK garage I’ll begin by saying chats to all the crew with us live and don’t forget if you’re coming back and checking out the recording always feel free to leave a comment always feel free to give your input because my guests will be checking out the comments and I’m sure they’re gonna ask you one of to answer your questions as well Jeff Jefferson is watching us on YouTube pogwash and Lisa are with us on Facebook good evening guys uh anyone else feel free to say hello uh so good evening Amy here in Spain she says uh hello my dear nice to have you with us let me bring my guests on now because we were slightly later than usual um beginning I’m not sure if you’re the right way around on the screen so when I switch this no you’re the wrong way around I’ll fix this on the left of my screen we have uh nitrate so let me change this just to make sure there’s no confusion uh I’ll move that across I’m not going to say who was late uh I don’t want to put anyone on the spot um but yeah I knew I knew he couldn’t give it I know he couldn’t control it and then on the right we got the man like Jedi so let me begin officially by welcoming nitrate and Jedi thank you for joining me guys uh it’s a pleasure to catch up with you after so long okay just catch up with you and definitely it’s been a very long time very very long time but like I said you just get younger and younger don’t you well you know I did sign The Pact with the devil but we won’t go there so let’s um let’s uh Jeff Jefferson says hi to you both as well Jeff someone that we all we all know and love very much so I’ll put some context on the conversation uh the UK garage scene uh is highly contested as to when it actually began what year it came into existence uh what records are and are not clusters UK garage we’re not going down that route we are here to talk about the back end of the 90s and how Birmingham exploded on the scene uh Jedi uh AKA Jay harms is a gentleman responsible for some of the biggest UK garage parties in the Second City and nitrate uh one of the guys who has been around from the the beginning of the scene we’re here to get their perspective on it in a few weeks time I’ll be discussing the early 90s and how we led up to this moment in time but right now we’re focusing on the the leaders of the new school as I like to call them so uh first of all let me come to nitrate because he’s a gentleman that I knew first of all uh when we were doing the sound check on uh online earlier I stated that back in the day in the early days you were the younger of the crew and back then those few years did make a difference so tell us about um tell us about life for you growing up uh what year you were born and the kind of environment you brought up uh you were brought up in in the music scene um I was born 1977 um like um both my parents have mixed race so I was raised in that kind of um like it was a it said like a a mixing part of music you know like a lot of Reggae influenced um like um and so forth but like um moving forward I kind of was like into the hip-hop thing so like I started rapping at age five and started doing doing little shows through like youth clubs we used to go to and so forth and um that probably led that that led into the logical progression of being a DJ I wanted to kind of like we were part of a crucial pure Badness me and um a guy called um Wester Brown who um DLT was there and and another guy called uh Jerome Thompson who’s who’s known as sarasi and he’s basically uh used to do a lot with uh Butler t on radio one and so forth so we all we like we grew up doing this hip-hop thing and I decided I wanted to add the live mixing elements to um what we were doing so what happened is I went out there we used to get records and so forth and but I kind of got carried away with the racing so like things seems like um food away got a guy called Gerald and all that and the Electoral kind of like acid house sounds like uh that was literally where we kind of kind of I kind of was leaning to everybody like I was saying like the you like being from the UK we can’t we can’t just push this American sound we just got to get behind this UK things and um like everybody wanted to pull that way you know like starter caps they’re avoics jackets they you know like anything along that along that lines you know the the the USG U.S culture uh the NFL NBA National Hockey League everybody everyone’s wearing that baggy stuff and then but like uh the Rave scene just kind of had that Vibe you know like and it just kind of just swept me away and as a young kid like um like like sneaking down to where he was at a young age because it was never really never really an age limit for an illegal Rave so we kind of so you’re going to Raves you must have been going to raise 12 13 14. yeah we say we would say we’re going to like um like my um my mom’s cousin lived in Stratford East East London so like that was a we’d say we’re going down that way and then uh and it would end up at some Rave instead and like in gold and sleep in a uh chill out in a train station to the chain started running again and so forth we we went to some illegal rays in Wales where they um when they got a bus and uh let all the air out of the tires and put it alongside the track that the police couldn’t come down and like it was like three miles down to where the Rave was so the police were about to track it into the rain would last all night so once you were in you were in and like well and like people just looked like looked after us and like because the older crowd weren’t weren’t um intimidated by the youngest then uh they kind of um like as DJs they were like they didn’t like they they like you do showing as much sun as them but as as ravers they would kind of take you under a week ago they go like where you find my girl from Birmingham go ah might make some Wolverhampton you know that’s not far for you come here mate hang on with us you know like you lose your mate but you make four more wicked fantastic that was that was really it a snapshot of the late 80s uh for nitrate and Jedi uh some does that sound familiar for you or did you take a different path oh God yeah I’ve kind of kind of kind of similar but um yeah I’m familiar should I say but yeah I I grew up like in a small Leaf area and my my uh upbringing was like Mom 10 kids on her own um mixed race family uh my brothers and that was heavily into the sound system thing so every heavily into like around with her and love injection and and then them um big Ricky sounds back in the day they started a movement called the Big W which was big Watson which is my second name um and I ended up being a speaker box carrier for for most of that um most of the reggae days journeyed um they used to play on a solo Road and and um and some derelict houses I always remember going to this Blues party in some derelict houses over the acot screen area anyway that materialized I think I went to my first Rave um in the Island Club Island in uh ilford Essex and that was a one nation reef and uh that’s where the Rave scene really kind of like gripped me then um I progressed into mcing for drama mace okay um and the cooler family members and then in Midland School FM movement so I jumped on there um with a DJ called Ellis the Menace uh-huh so is the medicine mcj show um and uh that’s when I’d say a three about three years and then I heard the sound it kind of got me was in it was in a um a back of back of a drum and bass Rave in London actually um and that’s where the garage sound really started to kick off you know it was it was a roomy too so probably a year around this for me I’d say 1990 1997. okay I would say 1997. that’s when I really um when a garage sound really clicked with me um yeah and then we I went to the first raving in Birmingham which was Jam exposure chap called Niger Reese um good friend of ours um yeah and and that’s when it kind of gripped me then um I end up having a baby around that side movie through the neutrals area um I met a guy called C General c um one of the MC’s on a drum on base scene he only was a garage Embassy as well and we decided to put on um a radio station called Silk City but just before that obviously I’ve met you and um Patrick smooth and a couple of the guys already embedded in the garage seat um I started the harmony movement um I always remember your show um let’s get give give away the massive push and I can’t I can’t thank you enough of that um and give it the exposure that I needed alongside me running around the country bolstering and fly me like Maddie every wave possible but yeah he took off big time in the queue Club um everybody knows at the queue Club once you get it right in that club there the atmosphere is just a second to none well let me put let me put a pause in that there you mentioned uh Niger Rich you mentioned gem exposure Nigel is a guy that um I’ve cited on many occasions has been there at the beginning of the UK garage movement and we are going to be talking to Nigel in a few weeks um before we actually get into you doing the parties because you it was like there was no Harmony and then Harmony just took over Birmingham uh tell me about your earliest memories you very kindly uh gave props to my radio show because it was like the flagship garage show in the Midlands tell me some of your memories of Birmingham around that time and maybe nitrate you might also be able to give us some input on this because you would have remembered uh the the garage scene um a little earlier than that as well right of course um Okay so is it really kind so no we’re here so from the Rave movement you would have moved into the nightclubs money pennies steering wheel things like that well what happened is um like I started I started DJ when I was 13 at my first radio show like two weeks after I started decided I wanted to play a guy called uh Ruben irie from Premier um was it was my um my mum’s friend’s son he can introduced me to Chicken George who just literally um just finished on pcrl and um and I can obviously set up Premier FM I started I started playing um I was playing jungle but I like I had bits of garage they won’t get that house here sound again like the house here us garage that was one in freeway through like um so we’re getting some imports and um so what happened by the time I got to like I decided that the cool FM had asked me to play and uh I decided I didn’t want to do call FM because I want to concentrate on garage so I went on Chris FM and I was actually doing a radio show uh that finished just before your show started with um on Chris FM like every Friday um which um which was a garage it back back in 97 or whatever it was like a um or however long ago 19 yeah it was nine I started 96 on choice yeah so it was literally a probably about roughly the same time because we um we were we were doing um uh we were doing that we were doing that show so it’s bird obviously Generation X the cruise so it was uh me Tomic David and curious which somebody curious of my brothers and tummy kids stomach is a one of my lifetime lifetime friends and uh we literally um like so as such when we used to hear your show afterwards they said it was about like probably about an hour between us uh so we do where you wanna was it nine two nine ten eleven yeah so we finished at eight do we were doing today no yeah so we were doing uh seven till nine and on Chris FM and like so we were finishing in Warsaw and when we by the time we got back we would be tuning into you tuning into you and all would hear it under if we were driving like because we would don’t always have a lift or whatever like that we didn’t drive them that’s how that’s how long it was so like moving on to the like um sorry I’ve I’ve digressed with the question the exact question okay bro yeah I was just saying I wanted to hear about your Earl I think you’ve answered the question quite well you painted the scene about what you were doing on the early days of the UK garage uh but you would have been out and about in the parties around the same time as Jedi so Jedi uh you mentioned gem exposure uh other any other part is that you can remember that you went to in your phone yeah you can do this better the Buns was alive but funds was funds was always kicking on on a Friday and Saturday night and it had that it kind of that kind of like um UK garage stroke us sound you know so you’d hear the UK Gary busy you you know you need some tough gems and you need some Matt jams but you know somebody the turreted woods and the type Todd Terry’s mixing up so I quite I can’t I kind of like enjoyed that um about the garage scene at that time because there was a lot there was a lot of four four sound in the background second rooms second rooms equal except for Crest very questions Chris was absolutely a very I’m brilliant Rave brilliant race as well yeah like so we had them they would like they were so they so forward thinking in their in their in the way they were moving but they just didn’t have they didn’t have the you know for some reason it just didn’t you know it’s like a dead firework you expecting it to go off like like massive but then it just didn’t it just didn’t it just kept as a small kind of close like uh where if you got like when you went to the Q Club you um it would have been in that second room at the back I’ve never seen like um Daniel Ward there and he played like uh some other things I mean but well before that W.J Barrett and then guys like they were all like get a nice they had a nice little Vibe about them that you know I mean it was a very um it was a very friend orientated rave because like everybody you know like where like some waves like they’re booking everybody and it’s a whole bunch of egos but for them it looked like it looked like like they had it was like they were friends family like they all like even though they were like a mixed match of their backgrounds it just happened to be that they all see they all seem to um thinkers one well let me just say that was a slightly I think that was a slightly older generation the mid the meeting and the crest the crest um promoters was a slightly older generation more over over 25s kind of thing when we when we got into it we was like between 80 18 and 21 years old like I just stopped so let me just stop here sorry one second because we got a lot of people watching and I want to make them feel part of this conversation first of all shouts out to Adam Turner uh Mr Daz Norman is locked on he says yes yes well uh how are you my friend nice to nice yes Joanne plank is uh commenting about some of the garage Knights also talking about Quest talking about um a party that Nigel used to do in the boxing rink that would have been at Western Road and we’ll talk about that yeah when I talk with Nigel in a few weeks and different lips as well Martin Bailey everybody else passing through so guys I say it time and time again I’ll see you names I will give you a share tag allow us to find a break in the conversation and I will get around to saying hello and the legend Patrick’s move is what was with us as well so yes all right then Jay sorry the floor is yours do carry on yeah so much I was just mentioning that there wasn’t that explosion in in the crest of the minted Rays where you thought it was it was going to go to another level so that’s where I kind of like I kind of like gripped that then I I took that that concept further further and pushed it further because you start the crest and the minted raves in in the chapel of the queue Club um and there used to be a door that used to walk through and you used to be on the back of like an atomic Jam Rave so Atomic gem was massive back then although Chris would be in the the other side of the club with no access to the atomic gem Ray but I used to have access to it so I used to have this vision of this massive garage raid being in the main Arena all of this for you know I’m gonna go for it and that’s when I met Caprice Caprice Royal um um and that’s when I really felt deep in love with the garage garage scene because he had all the tunes he he just kind of like knew the Gary team in and out you know and even the way you used to move mix dance it was just like it was just a full-on full-on garage that garage was running through his blood and um yeah he he helped me massively in understanding what was going on with the scene and promoting the first Harmony race um so yeah we I just I just jumped at it and flared the hell out the place I was up and down the country it was a lot of hard graft and I remember um finding the punt Wreckers the pump wreckers in the back uh in the back of the queue Club hiding somewhere they used to do the atomic Jam dress dressed Arena dress and um I give them this garage concept and it says yeah well we we can do something with that so all the Deco that you used to see in there was all designed by the point Ruckus um and they used to do like these do mad things like switch off all the lights and have the sea effect to dolphins jumping out this this sea effect and I tell you what um I just now forget about it because I missed a lot of this but I knew that ax was was going on I was thinking about it now she was a raver it wasn’t a promoter I think I missed a lively but yeah um Joanne Joanna comes on and she says I remember we all get to this and a little while she says I remember seeing Craig David live there he was only 16. I think it was New Year I don’t think it was new year but before we get to that uh you held up a club sorry Dean one second you were you held up a club Kudos flyer there um that I used to do so Club Kudos preceded Harmony and we were the first people to bring Craig David to Birmingham am I correct isn’t it because you put no but that yeah no but what what what Jedi uh what what Andy’s talking about is Andy brought up public demand and he bought up um pray David Robbie Craig and Lady spirit and then all three of them did did they uh did Pas and I remember I remember that it was the up it was the upstairs before they did before they don’t like they were allowed they were doing the downstairs am I am I right there andy that’s right yeah because uh Liam was a friend of a very good friend of mine who asked me would I help him set it up so we got in there and I’ve said it before happy to say you know we did like 50 of really putting on some great you well there were great parties but Harmony surpassed it but our good friend uh fever MC who actually is watching uh fever Soul he says uh a big shout out um hi Matt he sent me a flyer quite a while ago that I had completely forgot about that public demand night and we had a lot of the more Underground names on who weren’t smashing it uh really on the larger scale of things so this is why I wanted to talk to you Jedi to um correct me or to back up what I’m saying because it’s all it’s all a bit of a blur for me so you saying that Harmony it was on and then we started doing Club Kudos because I don’t remember it that way around yeah because we when Club could us um first open we remember we had we had the club Harmony Knight was one of the first nights in um in club kudas um I don’t I genuinely don’t remember I always remember because the sound system the sound system on that the opening night one of the Amsterdam and the sound system um and it sounds absolutely terrible in there um I kind of lost after the car of the week after um and it just went the club crew last thing just went downhill from there I’m sorry to say thank you now but I think we had quite a good few successful parties in club Kudos like on the Underground scene yeah you did you smashed it after you smashed after that because um I think you teamed up with um Simon Schoolboy Phillips um which is on the back of his flare actually I think wow that’s that’s see that’s all a blur to me complete blurry that was that was well that was well after because what happened is I remember like when when Andy Andy did downstairs that killed us sometimes and I played I did play there a few times and there was one night when he actually bought um Matt jam up and Matt Jambo Xavier and uh Xavier Xavier went into the middle of the dancer with the mic and he literally did what like b-boys would do like pushing everybody back everybody back like making a big circle and then he stood there and he goes um what’s he calls um was it um how did he start um you’re scared but I I gonna need some time start singing with no no no firm no vocals uh just gets better with and obviously um that kind of kind of I don’t know if he scratched it in all kind of like um like doing like literally hit it and it just dropped to him said uh dropped into the tube and then halfway through yeah out of nowhere the Music Stops and uh MC Xavier goes oh what can’t you win you for I’m burning down and the crowd the crowd just went nuts I mean literally like it was like um it was like a hip-hop battle in a way like the way this guy is just like he’s flown some like the hottest lyrics ever and this this car would just go Madden I remember that day that was like just I think it was like with the harmony it was like there was that wobbly maybe slightly before or just um in sync at the same time because it was like um so I always thought that we were doing things before it was all Rafferty’s before it was cudos you remember like it was Tim tins they’re not Rafferty’s and then it became qdos oh see I don’t I don’t remember our Rafferty’s I remember I remember yeah but when it was all Rafferty’s I used to play for uh Vaz from on you yeah and he and uh and um obviously I played there for some all their things and like I being a guy that don’t drink because I don’t smoke my mind my mind’s still quite clear and they’re like so like obviously I remember playing there for that and storm the girls who did storm they did a garage storm thing when they used to being funky eyeing up a Smith up and all that but Andy was the probably the most consistent of the promoters in there as in like you did like weeking week out for a very long time and sometimes not all of them were hit no no not at all like you just can’t carried on but you had obviously you had um the advantage of being obviously being a name being on radio you were like you had guests on the radio so which was quite good because you could you could showcase them before and they’d come down to play and then you know I mean which was a very great model which works Works hand in hand online that’s crazy so that’s so like I said that sort of literally it is genuinely all jumbled in my mind I I thought we were trying to think Kudos was okay for a while and it fell by the wayside I completely forgot that you were in there Jedi so okay let so let me hear your your your take on it all because I don’t dispute any of it because I don’t remember it so I’m happy for you guys to put me right on this as follow the club Kudos was going like it says that sound system let me know massively on on the launch I’ll tell you that now massively sabotage sabotage we family [Laughter] they weren’t paid silence Simon so we kind of like Jason case weekends through these dream teams um and then that kind of died down I think I’m sure that you use that um say took it over after and no doubt the club was practiced week in week out on the back of the radio show as well again so um yeah I carried on with the harmony moved running in the queue Club on uh like the young lady just says brought him bringing Craig David and and um guy simones and yeah all the public demand artists and and uh Richie Dunns and that’s oh they’re just everybody I could really um Lindsay Moore’s so you had to you had to have gone into some investment to get these lineups right you had to stick your neck on your line oh yeah definitely there was winners there were winners back then it was always there was always gonna be winners because I put the Graft in I put the entertainment on the decor was brilliant the dancers was brilliant you know they’re giving away horns whistles throwing off tip tops off stages and you know I used to walk around the queue club and just line up bottles of shelf handles put literally just put them on the seats around the venue so when the brave has walked in they’re just bump into a Bottle Shop do you put your hard work sorry do you put your hard work down to the success of Harmony because it was like that amazing blew up yeah definitely definitely it was all about widening in a promotion um and crunchy wide really crunchy wide nobody had done that in Birmingham um I know that you had your Birmingham garage garage nights your regular garage lights some wobble buns and you know the yakuda seasons a couple of us dated around Redwood club and nosy Park this was a brilliant brilliant little gig you had to go in there for quite a while Andy but nobody actually like outside nobody actually took it outside and says you know what we’re going to promote this UK white so that’s the credits I’m gone with it you know simple as that on the road 20 sometimes sometimes seven days seven days a week 24 hours a day if there was a party I’d be there flowing you know or or networking inside that party and that’s how Harmony came about ready to you on that one Jay there was a point where there was a point where you um where if Harmony had a lineup had a rave on no other big Rave would do that that would do that weekend because they were because a lot of them were heavily reliant on the North coming down and the Midlands coming down and to be fair why would you drive packs like a club The Legend a club that’s a legendary as Q club with a rave that was so big you know I mean with a lineup That was just as special you know I mean like oh if not better you know I mean because like there were certain things you’d get out of Harmony that you didn’t get other waves you know like and so forth and they’re like and so like I know for a fact that there was a point where Sidewinder wouldn’t do a rave garage Nation wouldn’t do a rave you know I mean you name it stopping them before they even got the hiccos like I played for all of them and I get a null for a fact from certain like whether it was whether it was tours or whether it was like um just like the main main Rave and I know for a fact that when you would speak to him and about their lineups they would say they would say well I can’t I’m not doing that one there because I’ve got like because I don’t want to clash you harming or this and that and that and that was that was the power of like ghetto was like a dog with a bone you know I mean he was not going he was not going to fail for lack of trying you’d wake up you’d go like if Jenna got bought yeah on Friday night you’d wake up Saturday morning and the whole of the hold of Birmingham was was littered with them they were around every roundabout they were on every um that every railing they were on every Motorway Junction and I mean like this guy this guy was running on pure adrenaline because like he must have he must have gone out about six o’clock and got back in at the same time in the morning because like you just [Music] 1998 Harmony started um and then we uh yeah once once we launched the harmony thing that’s when I met General c um moved to neutrals um I’m at General seeing he come with the concept like to put on a radio station um so I agreed with him our Silk City started was he wanted to call his second City I wanted to call it silk and it was actually his General C’s mother who goes well why don’t you just take out the second so that’s how Silk City started so it became Silk City um yeah I flew up on Victor taba in neutrals to one of the tallest blacks in in Birmingham um plugged in plugged in the transmitter and away we go that just added to the explosion in Birmingham um I blew up a lot of names uh you know um and Anthony stay did he stay we’ve got people putting on Raves we want to spawn up from the Salt City movement um give us some of them names we love some of them names you’ve got um all the Baseline DJs the all their careers were really based on unassault movements you got johans Jones is one of the um names in Birmingham now who’s kind of like who’s grasped the garage scene his movement is brilliant it’s it’s a clean concept um and it’s getting bigger and bigger it’s going so all fair respect to Joe for um taking over from from where we we where we started um yeah um GE GT Continental stuff yeah you’ve got Continental GT as well who’s that who’s now he’s he’s uh scene um yeah which I’m about to launch launch again next year okay um silk he went on to um be an apt uh one of the biggest breaks um they won more rewards in the breaks polls than any any other independent acts um let me ask nitrate you’ll remember this um I used to have a Friday night residency at Key Largo um and uh I round about this time and for me you know in love with the garage movements I love the the way it progressed we we helped to make it grow the music was incredible then the onset of the the two-step and I’m probably getting a little ahead of myself here but then the music changed the cruise started to come in get involved but then uh tell us about the uh the graveyard shift nitrate because I that that’s always sticks in my head for Mosley and uh graveyard shifts are from Boston Heath uh Mike’s man is basically the it was Mike’s friends was brainchild um I used to play I was a resident at redwoods so like well if it was open it doesn’t matter what day of the week he was open I’d go there after playing somewhere else and try and leave before the last DJ left because they were trying to make you play to the end but um what would happen is Mike would come in from wherever and um and it would be half around about half past four he’d go and take the mic because he like and that was his theme so it was basically was it wasn’t actually a crew it was actually when he started the shift okay like like he’s considered as work so he turned up and like and to be fine I mean like um um Mike’s mics had been Mike’s consumer sound kind of background himself but then obviously um he was um he loved jungle and everything else a bit like a lot of um a lot of velocity kids and I mean we see we’ve seen a lot of escapism through our music and like not not different to the guys now you know I mean but there was um there was no social media so you had to turn up you have to perform you had to you had to really hit it where the mouth it was he is it was you were bigger back then because it was it was harder to please people and that because people were taught people would talk they would say did you hear that set by Andy did you hear that set by Jedi you hear that set by nitrate and like whether good or bad they would be talking about you for the whole week until you got a chance to kind of redeem yourself next week so you had to be on points otherwise you were like you know I mean like you you had seven days of slander so miles would turn up and you might have I know that you know I didn’t get slanted I would never I wouldn’t have it but but the point is here is that like you don’t mean you knew you knew that the crowd knew what they were talking about you know I mean These Guys these guys aren’t just looking at looking online like some guys was looking online now and getting behind the next hype oh this week it’s afrobeat next week it’s after I’m a piano yeah now I’m into garage now I’m into this and I’m like like they they like their summertime garage heads winter time during race heads is the odd house house um rainfall put in between you know what I mean that then you were of something you could tell how they dressed you knew exactly what they were into you know what they liked you know I mean you could you could stereotype them without even worrying you know I mean like it’s like like it’s like walking someone and assuming their gender you know I mean you knew exactly you and exactly what they were into from the kind of style so if they if they were kind of like if they’re wearing like like a certain loud like a versatile match you’re more more likely you were more likely another girl yo you’re together so while you’re talking about that talking about the uniform uh let that will take us neatly back to the to the harmony Rave in the queue Club you had your vision you realized it Jedi um you prided yourself on the crowd you prided yourself on the quality of the people who attended everyone made an effort uh young youngans middle age a little older but they were all there I mean shops always sold out yeah I had the pleasure of playing once or twice for you on the main stage um but definitely the here’s the proof he’s the proof I’m the new one yeah uh everything started to take it around to Wolverhampton and then we prefer the Manchester Temple Bolton um we’ve done a Temple London we’re doing um collaboration uh Terry Stone Tony Zoo’s he said he passed away I don’t know if you remember him um earlier earlier last year last year yeah um actually he was the one who actually put me up for the award that I won and I’m sure that he was up for an award as well but you didn’t attend um so but I’m sure that yeah your your name was mentioned down in uh Camden Palace and he wasn’t there to pick up your your award I’m sure you couldn’t make it or something like that but you was definitely up for an award there but he he was he was brilliant Tony was brilliant in um bringing the Birmingham helping to bring the Birmingham vibe to London and he kind of pushed down anything in London we had we had one of the biggest sellout raves in in Camden Palace um I just remember Stafford Staffing stuff in EZ set um and asking I’m asking the crowd where’s all the London ravers and then we’ve done the Leicester and Wes of the North Hampton rivers and then you come to Birmingham and a place just went mad absolutely crazy because you see that he’s in I guess Birmingham London’s yours tonight it was absolutely brilliant but yeah it was yeah so we had some brilliant race or some massive Rave some major Raves and and the ravers was always tough on my agenda and it’s always done for them so it wasn’t it wasn’t so much the cost and it was he was making sure that we had a top class entertainment we had ever ever big name in the scene alongside um any anybody that was doing it in in the Midlands as well um sometimes I used to get a little bit of slander for promoting the londoners up in Birmingham so much but at the end of the day the garage guaranteeing origin originated down there um they were too concentrated and just under it just being London Centric where where it wasn’t you know I mean where it wasn’t needed you know like like honestly like um if you think about it some of the Raves I played that and someone might play I played a few harmonies and like you know I mean I’m very proud I even played on the day my son was born and I wasn’t even meant to be in the main room and what had happened is um I think so solid hadn’t turned up or somebody hadn’t turned up and I had to go I went on I went on before EZ and um totally smashed it and like because I remember just I’ve come straight from the hospital gone home my mates picked me up but like I’ve got changed I’ve drawn to Harmony Jenna’s gone yo you got it like uh yeah like I said yeah where are you going I said I’m going to maybe no no no you’re gonna go in the main room the thing hasn’t turned up anyway so I walked in there and um and like there was 2 000 people plus and I put on like and then you know the infamous Sam from uh dot plate and it just went mental and I can imagine like and I remember the best feeling in the world like and Jenna will take that like even though Jenna could be hey it could be funny sometimes I mean yeah so I’m laughing you know I mean like but as I said like there’s always a strange sense of humor with some people I like it either saying something he understands that you missed some kind of sometimes didn’t jail you know I mean like um but but Jenna knew what was right for his rave you know I mean alike and they can like and and I went and played in like in like to two like to two and a half thousand people at the mess it was the mezzanine which was formerly Club um uh Club UK yeah UK Midlands or whatever yeah Wolverhampton because obviously that’s where like um we moved to a little bit later on like um and like and that was when it was like working with the Ascension lot you know Bob and coffee and and those guys but um like I remember putting on a dub plate which was made by myself and a guy called Carl Grimm but you like with uh volkis and Savage and curious and this was well before so Maxwell D Richard off that’s really that way straight up the bat off the bat and I mean he went okay He was in prison list of the guys and then away and they heard our tune and went out and bought to put out seriously if you hear serious yeah that’s that’s the tune from from The Anthem you know like and even the guy the guys the guy who produced his son he won the label the other Relentless which got done by the soul solid Relentless for copying even admitted to me that Maxwell came out and did it but and I played this tune and it went off Birmingham knew it you know I mean because of the radio because of like tape packs because of like how it was and like and it just went like played the two and a half other people my own tune my son had just been born I’ve got the tape back over there with the recording afterwards as well and it kind of like she had monster boy on the bill and London was leaving a monster a monster boy they they remember Master steps came into the Record Shop the depot um that we had at the time and um asking me the next day watch this monster boy tune can you get me a copy you know like and that’s how things like Silk and so forth and you’ve got to remember like yourself and Dean I mean you would you would you were driving tunes into people like because like you like every week you like you must have had like your Postman must have hated you because there’s no none of this free download MP3 someone’s going to send you a link yeah the keys at the physical important guy used to physically have to carry these things to your house I remember [Music] um just segue into it I remember having to sleep downstairs on a Saturday morning because you know post office closed at about 12 in a sorting office the guy would think he was smart and try and put the the paper thing through the door saying I missed it you weren’t there I try and win up the road I jump out the guy I was like where are you going you know what I mean he was like you know it’s like um have you ever seen like things like Chuck point and go you know like Indigo you guys want to go get shanked yeah yeah where’s my records funny so listen let me let me let me put a pause let’s have a refresh because I could see how you see the energy the emotions this all brings back because there are incredible times let me just draw some uh reference to some of the comments uh Jeff is talking about the residency at Carl Key Largo I had a residency for quite a long time at Key Largo from 97 onwards until one night I just got sick to death of playing actually you mentioned monster boy an absolutely huge tune love it to Pieces responsible for helping to break it but it got to the point where the Raves for me went from playing real good underground music to people stood there like this with their arms folded like when’s he gonna play Monster boy when’s he gonna play whatever boo when’s he gonna play Rewind and for me as an underground DJ that was the beginning of the end for the UK garage but it was still a thriving thriving scene and this is where Harmony we’re still classes underground and it continued to thrive so more people commenting here Reggie uh DJ purple from uh uh sorry my brain just went blank then from Chicago he’s saying he was stationed in the UK he didn’t get out as much um to all the happening cities shout out to Birmingham for building a scene nice one Reggie thanks for passing through Adam Turner uh commenting on the pre-ready Showcase my Friday Night Show and um Joanne also commenting about some fun times at Camden so uh yeah that was the that you know it was an exciting movement uh we talked about the crowd we talked about the success of Harmony um and then the answer and choices well I remember like uh yeah yeah B15 project uh famously helped to break girls like us uh then of course the you know the Birmingham Anthem I’m actually talk Fashion top I play I I actually played that I’ve done played at Harmony um and it ripped the place apart so Jay uh I’m I’m conscious I’m uh I would like to hear more about the progression of Harmony into 99s 2000s I fell out of love with the scene I had I enjoyed a really good summer in ayanappa did you do anything in ayanappa 99 2000. I I I did do so I did do something you know Apple unfortunately I wasn’t there so it was kind of like um it was a club Ice Ice Cube they kind of like hired the harmony concept of me um Foreigner actually he was running the harmony finger over there for me so uh but I never actually got to experience I end up at all it was way too busy back back here so I didn’t actually get to jump on a plane and go on experience uh the garage scene over there because it was it was absolutely massive over there so so it hurt I wasn’t there every single Club was it was playing garage and every single promotion and and the dog was out there so more more than if you guys some people will try and fight me uh gjs who’s uh who I believe uh if I’ve got this wrong he can probably you can see me later I believe he’s a Greek secret and he went obviously went over there I ended up uh before before Spritz went out there and um and destroyed destroyed it um was a historic fishing town and as such yeah like um they had they had a few clubs and that and that’s it nitrate I’m gonna pause you we’re not interested about the history of iron Apple we can find that from other places if we can get that from other places I’m just saying that the thing with the thing with that and that’s how that’s how Napa blew up anyway sorry um s was one of the first guys with clubs with yourself and so forth went out and did it and then and then obviously it became it became the months that that it did because everybody latched on it wasn’t ibf it wasn’t it wasn’t as expensive as I beef and it wasn’t and like and a lot of a lot of Birmingham a lot of the Midlands went over there religiously regardless they’re like you you like asking where they’ve been like for the three months and I can see it was a three-month scene or maybe nearly four month scene at one point castle ice uh Abyss you know like I’m still talking about I don’t know stop talking about that I’m putting it I’m putting the black on this I’m putting the black people like a lot of them guys because they would come back they come back and then and like what they heard over the summer like this is what I’m getting back to what you’re on about what did her over the summer that was played because remember you could only take a limited amount of tunes because you would get you flying over there it wasn’t again it wasn’t like thinking so there was limited there was limited record shops out there so yeah what we did here was like the same set of 20 tunes so by the time so when you were when you were playing on um like on a Key Largo on a Friday night they were standing there because some of them they’d only just got into garage over the summer so they actually didn’t know any other Tunes so they were waiting for tunes that they could get down to because they wanted they just wanted to actually release on that finger because they had that one dance move and they can’t walk they could they could run up to girls and they’re like you know I mean and if I’m gonna get sweaty I’m gonna get sweaty to a tune that I know every lyric to or every word to and that’s why and that’s why after a while like because like with any music that gets big but any means that it gets big you’re going to get a load of new people that latch on yeah I remember when uh I remember when garage when garage was underground like um and I heard it from certain guys like um like they’d say um what are you doing I said and you’re still into that into that uh into that gay music into that game they were calling the game music because they didn’t they didn’t understand it you know me like so everything back then you like and I would go I said I don’t care if you don’t mean like I look I love the music I love the people you know I mean like me me here I’m a little bit kind of guy so you know I mean like I could I could be standing there everybody could be getting away playing care I mean as long as they’re having a great time and everything else but what would happen is these guys after a while they realize there was girls there it was good I can go to record like where can I do guys I think and what I think or what I think personally happened around 2000 2000 to 2003.50 you’re right a little bit for me Jay Jay move to your right a little bit when the reggae element coming to it obviously your skin out the Birmingham crew it attracted he attracted a young the young black crowd yeah and and that’s when the Moody Vibe started to to turn he started to turn a little bit moody in the Rays um as far as Harmony was concerned we had two we had so many people in there the people was fighting to get in the building so he he kind of like it kind of had it had a bit of a negative effect on what we was doing I think that was the same up and down the country though it was the size that’s the same up and down the country definitely definitely that’s because that was because of the influences and they were only also because certain people only knew a certain of attitudes the problem with something people when they get bored they get frustrated and when they get frustrated they’re looking for something to do something else to do you know I mean and that’s that’s the problem some people they’re not they’re not like they they they’re not open to like new things like even now they’re still in the day so when when you like um so they would have to wait like even like would you like before you drop on YouTube the nutrient of people would respect that after a while you’re playing new tunes of people going oh he’s playing for himself but then three weeks later four weeks later that like it would be a hit on the head I remember I remember the first time boo was played in a Harmony like Jason K played it and it did okay but but it wasn’t until like a three like a couple of weeks later that everybody was like yes that was that’s a that’s a much of a tune it take it just it did take a while a lot longer to prostitute back then than it did originally where like you could move like you play something like bad boy moves in silence like which like instant hits like but then when you play you like or like or tear it up or something like that or um any anything like that lines or Worm but then when you play it later on like it was very rare that a tune would really just go like he like come through like a freight training that go whoa I think that’s always going to be the way with an underground scene and as you say people yes uh people are playing catch up you’ve got you’re kind of serious who know music who helped build us in and then people pick it back on pick it back up to it right so I’m Keen to hear some more from Jedi relax a little bit nites right now because I know you’ve got a hell of a lot of energy you’ve got a hell of a lot of information and I think you and I are gonna have to do a two-hour conversation because you’ve said already you didn’t drink you didn’t smoke you didn’t do anything else you’ve got a hell of a lot of information I need to get out of your brain right so I’m going to get that from you at some point what I want to hear is some of Jedi’s uh finer moments that he can relate to back to Harmony what he sees as some of his crowning these crowning moments what he’s most passionate about what he achieved I’m just passionate about the Lexus the Ravens he was he was bringing that whole massive concept and and then just looking after that stage and and seeing the way the crowd used to react to the whole concept and we’re not talking about just the MCS or the DJs or a single tune we’re talking about the whole night uh from start to finish you know and people just and people walking at that venue just wanting more and more and more you know um and I was yeah yeah I put my oil into it and uh and and even even to this day I mean I can’t wait to bring back Harmony again um and every time I do bring it back I mean we had if we had a Harmony raving Wolverhampton which was uh four years ago and again it was just the sheer amount of people once it’s up the kind of thing it’s just it’s just one of these things that people like I remember I remember that actually I remember that yeah I remember that I’m saying that the star works and like again it was like 4 000 people landed there I mean what I mean what can you do you just like the venues I’m a promoted I can’t I can’t secure a whole venue like that and yeah I’m bringing the security and I have this deal with the clubs that that they’re gonna have XYZ amount of security and it just don’t happen and you can’t seem to get it right and most people want to be aware sorry mate I didn’t mean to talk over you most people here will be aware watching this and watch it back there were there was a point and I’ll say again we are framing this whole conversation on a positive this is an inspirational conversation but there was a there was a moment where there were certain acts you couldn’t book because of they knew the they couldn’t control the night right back back in the day well that’s well that’s totally right and and I suppose in all fairness that’s where the the guarantee turned from that 404 American type um um bubbly Lively sound to that Mom the more two-step deep dark um emcee kind of the cruise urban sound yeah and that’s what turned and that’s what kind of turn turn the scene it’s up at that time you know um at that time that um gangs in in Birmingham up and down the country was just starting starting to be Rife kind of thing you start just starting to um uh like how can I how can I explain this try try to like The Offspring of of the bigger gangs um from from back in the day was growing up was growing up and they kind of had a point to prove and that was proving it on unseason towns and in clubs and and things like that and you know we we couldn’t stop them we can’t we We Can’t Stop people coming that was only a tiny that was only a tiny part of a huge scene so much had gone on before that so paint the paint the picture of the scene for me from 2000 on well because I stepped away from the scene it wasn’t anything to do with issues I just fell out of love with playing music to people who didn’t understand it and and nitrates already um touched on that um how long did you continue for and and did you progress continuing during the Raves as the grime then blew up I I kind of stepped stepped away from it myself when it turned to to Graeme I wasn’t too big on the ground as he as it started to turn into Grime that was that was me stepping back from from the garage scene on a whole really uh I’ve done a couple of raves since since 2010 after 2004 2005 I’ve also forget Air um I’ve done a couple of jams in London and Manchester um but as soon as it turned into the grime the into the grime scene I kind of fell out a lot of it as well it was it was as simple as that and that’s when leg the kids as as we was called the kids took over the garage scene back then yeah the kids kind of took over the guarantee then turned it into Grime um did you find any animosity did you find any animals because I I can recall you know you passed the Baton on and it got to the point from you know us beginning the garage scene you guys coming along you could feel the energy of the younger DJs uh I never really witnessed any disrespect or anything like that but you could tell some people are like move over man it’s our turn now did it get like that for you as well um yeah you could say you could say that you know in a way um there’s there was other radio stations and other DJs jumping on jumping onto the to the garage the garage scene apart from the Silk City movement and apart from our the harmony movement you had heart FM they they had their garage DJs just stepping in and wanting a piece of the action and it was kind of like it was kind of it was kind of the Young Generation was just was all one in a piece of this action kind of thing and eventually you just turned into the into the grime scene um but yeah I’ve kind of Gone full circle now because um what’s happening these are right these are raping and right garage scene in Birmingham now I mean it’s it’s really open I mean you’ve got the nice thing and you got the pure garage ring you’ve got um Double Impact they do they do some brilliant garage nights and you got I mean and nearly every Club in Birmingham is doing some some sort of garage night uh my friend was doing the only way it’s garage the only way is some great parties guys and uh Jason is so nitrate let me sorry I will come back to you Jay um you are still prolific you’re still smashing at the Sands you’ve got your live streams tell us about life for yourself around the the 2000s I mean it’s crazy to think that’s 22 23 years ago right it’s nuts in it it’s like um when you really you kind of think you know what you know like you don’t either you don’t when you’re in the music scene you like you’re at the beginning of something you don’t you’d only imagine it kind of ending or transcending or changing or morphing you just think you know what I’ll take you one wave at a time and before you know it yeah you’re doing so many ways you forget that you forget what day it is and you know like and you live for the weekend and uh you kind of like you just gotta make sure you make sure that you um give it a shave your haircut and got some fresh Garns because you’re getting seen a lot you know I mean but like as well as as well as like the hours you spend in record shops like um like obviously Tempest Depot hard to find um dick sense you know you name it there was a record there was a record shop in every area at one point I mean Don Christie’s you know like you name it you know Summit you know me like every single one of them had had like bits of garage and I mean like uh like if it wasn’t for like labels like towel style which are regular regular you wouldn’t have had Richie Dan uh like over here because that was that was Percy who um who made sure that bumper and got uh bump and grind sorry bumper plate bumper Flex is um is uh uh that other guy uh Grant Nelson but um like uh you would like so you you had to go around and hunt for tunes and like so in in this Hunter platoon’s uh you’d um you know there was some gems to go remember like um I remember actually playing uh I actually probably the first guy to play um over here at your Rave uh like at cudas like obviously um like I remember playing like I was playing the one percent out like playing um and one of the last Tunes was like obviously because over here originally was that that four four bumpy thing but on the flip was obviously the Iron Mike remix which is obviously Richard and you know Emperor Richie Dan and obviously uh what a lot of people don’t realize is that that M dubs itself was a collaboration with Dennis mdubs and whereas Kwame obviously was Kwame one extra now um Galaxy I believe or whatever wherever he is now you know I mean so like well like the scene itself is um like has has all these Trends are gone we’re moving onto the lake if you want to go around like uh the crew started coming in I was obviously from a crew and when we first started they were saying to us that like we were kids and like every time it’s even younger than me and like uh so like I also Tomic as my little brother you know like that like and then like and he’s like um being hot like he’s like half polish half a year so we used to say our crew was like and we’re like I’m I’m mixed black Chinese and English and all that so we always just say we were like the United Colors of venison because every single one of us had something had something that we brought in so we’d say like if you were being racist to one of us you were being racist to all of us because like at some point you were insulting a family member So like um so we we’d have this quick like so we were quite clicky like that so we we kept it tight and we kept it in and we started when we started moving like with Chris obviously and started doing like doing doing our sound and moving forward like um like people were saying to us that we couldn’t like the MC’s and DJs working together as a as a click because like I could probably go as far to say if if we weren’t the first we were one of the first to actually identified as as as a crew like uh because before that like there was there was Cruiser DJs like you had the Dream Team you had the the bubbling crew you had these guys he had like the back-to-backs obviously the Ramsay and fans but there were never anybody that was really like an MC that was attached to him like uh PSG you would say Loosely to um to dream team but that’s only because he he he he kind of bullied them into letting him do the track for Buddy X he will tell you that story so like and then probably Pi Pi power obviously with good rhymes like you know me but they they were it was never seen it was never seen as a click he would do a tune with them and then just go off and do his other things and everything else and like um and like so um I think the crews really started with the heartless thing that’s when when the cruise really started to kick because heartless was absolutely slaughtering permission um back in the day yeah and that’s kind of ooh like unleashed the crew thingless once Atlas uh Unleashed their their talents upon the London scene then incredible genius crucial song etc etc these Crews were there but they weren’t like but when heartless kind of for them showed them a route but you know it wasn’t it wasn’t if it wasn’t for uh Tony McMahon drinks from exposure uh what would happen I remember the pack because we sold we sold more packs of that than any of exposure pack ever and it had a heartless crew tape on it and they jammed it in as a as a bonus tape and that tape picture you did so much so it was like literally like um it was like the town crier it did there’s a guy who raised that that tape with the bell ringer for them everywhere you go everybody had a copy of that tape and I mean whoever they bought it or copied it or whatever and then obviously I remember um I remember being in the silk meeting and um uh Continental GT uh GT as you know and then but saying we came up to you and he told you it’s hard as good because he was he was you got you got to know him as well and then obviously that’s how heartless movements let me pause let me pause because this is turning into an encyclopedic A to Z of the UK garage scene and that’s not what we’re trying to do here fever MC uh says yes 1997 you had heartless and mentioning fever again it puts it into my mind gotta give a shout out uh very briefly nitrate hold your information together now right hold your information together I’m just going to throw a couple of names out there that we mentioned before Jedi um we can’t not mention uh all the the parties and all the other cities up and down the country outside the London fever was regular DJ for um erotic right and then so some of the other some of the other clubs that you would go to fly in that you you give representation to as being foundations of the UK garage movement Jedi you wanna you are definitely Sidewinder 100 um you had to catch the feeling yeah it was big you had an essential Muslim Wolverhampton now that was Bob and cold free that was uh two students actually met from um there was there was a shooting something uh Wolverhampton University and they kind of heard about the harmony movement um and uh they actually booked me and then since they wanted to do some promotion work with me so that’s when we went to the mezzanine okay and we had some brilliant brilliant Rays at the mezzanine mid Ascension you’ve got um brown sugar brown sugar is easy Manchester outfit um you’ve got the Huddersfield Lads which is a certain wonders yeah they’re definitely they’re definitely shout out to mate shout out to McDonald’s all the Raves that was in the club Coliseum was was always energetic Lively and a massive in in every way um the temp the temple in in Tottenham the garage Nations absolutely smashing um yeah so you know the garage scene all all the promoters on the whole world they’ve done a brilliant job in holding up the scene and bringing it to what it is today and I’m bringing it around full circle and like it says you now we’ve got the UK garage Orchestra I’m spinning off from the garage and things like that’s on there they’re playing them Tunes live up on the stage and and the artists are really are still still really having their their fun with the whole Joanne’s really enough some great names here she says the grazing the temple stush uh Matt says Groove City early on the garage 70 and then bring up them yeah so okay so let’s let’s again let’s take a pause I want to say a shout out to everyone that has been watching this because it has been thoroughly uh enlightening uh I feel uh I mean we’re not wrapping up just yet but I do feel we broke the the back of what I was trying to achieve by uh painting a picture of Birmingham in the late 90s into the early 2000s um can I say something of course my I was going to give you free free reign in a second I just I just wanted to give some um perhaps and praise really to Birmingham because I’m very passionate about it I I’m not ashamed to say uh I do like to consider myself you know to have been there from the very beginning alongside one or two other people because it was a group effort nobody can claim to be the the true uh Trailblazer no one can claim to create a scene by themselves um and you know we got it to a certain level you guys took the Baton and you ran with it uh nitrate you’ve been in the music scene in Birmingham for a long time I mean back rooms main rooms working in the record store uh you know a really influential and important figure so uh you know tell us about some of the the re you know the important things that you feel Birmingham has given us okay well um okay well you got you gotta look at it like Birmingham has an amazing way of adapting to to new things like we um so when garage turned up like we like waves like yourself like yours like um and they and your ways that you go because it’s hard for you to say about yourself like uh they were very they were influential for what for what you did you know I mean like and like and they were like every you can’t build a house without laying bricks and like and and what you did like obviously you had so many things going on you like you obviously you did have Key Largo like you did have obviously um dudas you had um you had nosy Parkers that was basically the whole weekend you could go out and listen to you couldn’t stand the wood and I mean playing like playing a lot a lot of like garage orientated music you did have like the Jedis you had the Seas you had um you had various different promoters like that that came through you had money pennies it was always always willing to pay like put yourself or myself I mean that like in a room too to play play a different sound now you like you weren’t necessarily a room to DJ at money pedis but um but if they wanted they they like so you Birmingham Birmingham bought a lot of influences and they weren’t scared to do the second to do to do that second room thing and take a chance where other places were kind of um a bit more a bit more scared about like introducing something new I mean because like obviously we’re a city of like 1.8 million people and I mean you’ve got to find you’re going to find a few people that like that likely likely love what you’re into like you go to where you could go to Century which was a Institute in um in digbeth like uh you could obviously go to the Q Club um you’d um like uh you could you could be a few bars unfortunately because back then it was a it was a mile of it was a mile of clubs um part of me um at clubs and bars so you have like Ministry of Sound Bar you had um you know a whole bunch of other stuff so you there was always someone that was willing to get behind something new because there wasn’t a Prejudice behind it and um and as the DJs as more DJs came through like there was there was there was a lot of DJ there was more DJs than you would have thought to start with like um that’s how how big how silk was able to um to get a roster of talent like it did but I mean so you did get like obviously the Caprices you had the the Andy Chambers you had obviously w.g Barrett’s you had um the Everton’s rip the um um read the Nigel Reese you had you had ourselves like myself nitrate Savage keywords get LG Wiki comic Jerry um and I mean you had the ZD I’m gonna forget some people they’re gonna get mad at me um yeah she got me Chucky you had you had GG right now [Music] um like like and I didn’t I don’t even know Scandal I didn’t know Scandal for Adam for the first time we put they put us together as a uh as a as a click and he came straight into Generation X because of it you know I mean like and um people wanted to be in Birmingham as well like um you had guys I would speak to guys in London I’d speak to guys up North and then they would say ah can you get me a hook up for that can you get me a hookup for this and they’re like like because they wanted to play at the race because to be fair there was a vibe that didn’t happen anywhere else then I wouldn’t say anywhere else like um like Carly’s had a great Vibe down by the docks he had like Raves like pumpkin Marvin and so forth you know I mean but like um but there was something about when you got just that little bit out of the capital there’s no there’s no coincidence why Milton Keynes did so well as a rave as a rave Capital no like with the century and so forth you know I mean because because people like people in London like and I can say this because my dad’s my dad’s from London who need like and uh they live most of them live in East and stay in East the same with north west or south they’re never really they never really venture out they they talk about everywhere being country but they’ve never they’ve never a lot of them have never been out of London to know any difference let me and there’s no difference no slides on them if you’ve got everything on your doorstep where are you going to go where are you gonna work yeah one of the biggest things with Q Club is that that was the only Club who had the who really had the sheer capacity to hold the harmony race you know but also famous to hold the Rave of of any sort of major capacity in Birmingham I mean anything else anything else anywhere else where I went we with Harmony was was pretty much Jam wall to wall one and leaving five 600 people outside and all the time you know well you’re fine with you you were standing on the shoulders of great a great race remember like that punk did their live album from there no I mean like you had you had amazing you had amazing promoters that did so everybody knew everybody knew that was like that space like some spaces like you go into a club and it feels like um as um as the Americans used to say it was it felt like it was built on the Indian burial ground so when they used to take a like it like you know like um like Poltergeist it just felt wrong being in that Rave it didn’t work but Q Club when you walked in there there was something about something about the ambience the vibe the way the light came through the stained glass windows we used to call it more the sound system was one of the best team of country because because it was formerly a um it was a church meeting Hall where like um for all the churches and all this um it had amazing Acoustics because it was designed it was designed so that you could actually speak on the stage and you could be heard at the back and that’s what um that’s why the sound worked when you got the right sound in there that’s why it worked so well you know I mean like um you like you’d hear you you could be outside like you’d be walking remember walking them stairs you know [Music] you do I mean and the sound would be like it would just be amazing like this this Vibe and you’d walk in and you know you you could have been in a bad Vibe on those stairs but you were happy the moment you walked in because there was something about it it held Heat like let me say let me just say hi to a couple of people who have been loving loving listening to your Bobby noodles at some point said facts Sharon Kavanagh says good evening uh nitrate and I think she’s tagged a couple of your other friends as well to come and watch it Chris Holmes says big up nitrate fuel was also always a pleasure with Andy nice one Chris I enjoyed uh several years of a residency for fuel um and they’re Reggie Davenport says he’s been to Milton Keynes and Emily’s with us hi Emily I’m not sure how long you’ve been there uh listening all all night intently uh Dean I’m gonna come back to you give me a second Jay have we missed have we missed anything is there anything that you thought we were going to talk about that we’ve kind of skipped over um well well no that’s not really I think we’ve we’ve got we’ve pretty much covered it we’ve pretty much covered the Birmingham scene and all um yeah no it’s it’s been it’s been a brilliant Journey for me through the garage scene and I’ve loved every single every last bit of it you know I mean um I’m glad that he’s still continuing out there in Birmingham today like says there’s a lot of raves um and there’s a lot more there’s a lot more clubs to hold a lot more Raves I mean there’s dig death areas absolutely buzzing in Birmingham at the moment um and I’m see I’m still seeing your pure garages and um you got your nices and you you got um the UK garage orchestras around and you got a lot of different a lot of different things happening down in that deep breath area you spoke to me you spoke to me about something that you’re involved with uh with Nigel do you want to tell us about that yeah yeah gem exposure will be returning um next year um to fifth sector 57 so um become exposure is obviously one of the foundation raised from um 1996 I believe it started um so that is coming back around so we got a massive Lodge party at sector 57 on the 11th of April so yeah that’s good that’s gonna that’s gonna come back on the scene in a big way we’ve got a massive lineup for that um Jason K Scott Garcia um Lindsay Moore um and then we’ve got the pure silk movement um next year which is a spinner from the Silk City the original Silk City format format by Breakaway so it’s it’s going to be puresuit radio.net so that’s about to um drop back on the air next next year um leave it legally strive okay um the pirate theme has had to take a back seat um obviously I’m a bit I’m a bit too I’m a bit too old to be jumping on roofs in them areas anything else before we go to nitrate no that pretty pretty much wraps it up for me and um thank you for having me on you show me now well we haven’t finished yet let me come back to you uh I want to hand over the floor tonight right I have loved sitting watching your energy listening to your Recollections of all of this nitrate thank you for your expertise thank you for your knowledge your energy and your enthusiasm continues on a regular basis with your live streams tell us all about that well I’ve never really start playing garage-based music even if there was like I’d always buy I would always buy garage and so forth and anything that would be that would sound like it some guys would say oh that’s a that’s a house Junior you’re listening going no that’s not a game that’s not a house you you can pay to you compare the horse brown but you can’t tell me it’s a cow you know he did like some tunes they just you know some music some tunes just are what they are you may try and try and think it’s that well you may you know you may have gone out there to make a car but if two wheels fall off it’s a motorbike you know like you know my point is so what I was started doing was like um like I was hearing music and I was like um like you hear like um Latch by um disclosure for me that’s a garage tune you know I mean has everything to Value that’s a garage tune you know like uh the way the vocal drops the way the bass is you know the way the beat is I mean it’s always like saying to people yo that’s garage you know like that and I was sort of pointing out to a lot of people like even before then that there’s this kind of resurgence and like there’s a lot of young cats a lot of guys who were there before that never really blew up but they still like the music and they were they were toiling away put like putting in the work like so I was like I’m reaching out to guys and saying well you know like why don’t you send me that let me send me that and I was buying a lot of stuff and like I like the support because the end of the day you know I mean we no you don’t survive on Fresh Air you know and so I was buying all the stuff and I was thinking and then so originally um so like it like probably about 2008 or like I was saying like this there’s got to be a point where we call it we we kind of like because everybody kept you know there’s a point where we call it garage but a lot of people call It Old School Garage you know even like even some of the new stuff that go on at least I was going to say it’s not old school if it’s new you know so so I started saying well you know I mean there has to be a pin so I decided that there’s going to be a pin from 2010 so we started calling it NSG I said they need to call it something different so because everybody’s got a ukg I said oh let’s call it NSG new school Carriage so um so I searched like um like obviously NSG stands for energy you know like I thought like that they kind of had that rhyme so that’s that really became a kind of Catchphrase and I started doing like I was doing like when still came back on in 2010 I was doing I was doing new schools garage sets on there and people were like they were just looking at me like all dumbfounded like oh no no no no where’s flower again like where’s flowers where’s um yeah where’s like a little man wears um triplets where something something something and he like I said nah but you know what teams don’t move forward yeah unless unless you you hear new stuff and they can it’s very easy to buckle under the weight of pressure like everybody going play this play that play this and play that and if I got played to play an old school Rave or something along that lines here I’ll go and play that and that’s and I’ll give you exactly what you want if the remit is you but I like your email isn’t going to play a set like that I’m going to come and do the best version of that set that I can possibly do and then but I thought someone has to like just pick up the bat and then who better to pick up the Baton that somebody was he was there and I’ve been saying to other guys just come along do this do this because one man don’t make a scene like one Rave doesn’t you know like you kind of you can’t you like no man’s an island you need other people you also need another DJ that’s on your caliber so that you have somebody to bat off the like so when they’re doing good you do the next level and things get better things always get better when you’ve got two great DJs do going go in hammer and tongue and not not Hasting each other but just go ahead he played that set let me do this the bar raises like every like like a great when you watch great football matches when you watch the the Olympics like say like super Saturday the same thing these guys saw other people winning and they just spared a month to win and then they can and that’s what you do and that’s how that’s how scenes move forward that’s how positivity works and um so and that’s another thing why I think garage tailed off at the end because there was lack of Ingenuity coming through everybody was just like you know like they were stuck in a um they were stuck in like a um in a rut going around in a circle and before you know it the hole was so big it was so hard to climb out and they were again they were scared that they’re gonna lose money so they decided they still do the same thing and then like when they did try and do like sex like other people it just didn’t work because they weren’t they weren’t feeling the same thing and it was just like and it lost its Vibe and I thought well there’s a lot of music right now that has has a Vibe has an energy and that’s why the new Danish G kind of thing came along and during lockdown I did a lot I I did I started doing a lot more a lot of streams I did a ton of streams I’ve probably done more more hours on on Facebook than a lot of guys you can never get me off especially the second lockdown I’d say when we were in the second lockdown I said I do but every day we’re in lockdown I’ll do a stream and I ended up we were locked down for 30 days and I did 32 streams and that was over to and there were minimum of course that was a set I was sick of listening to your music my wife would be watching you sat on the city nitrate son again nitrates and again I was like turn him off do you remember I I I would have turned me off because I was I was there every day it was like I was in people’s houses like the thing is I had friends I had friends saying like you know I mean like I’m on the widescreen in the house yeah like you know I mean like I’m thinking in their house when I’m not there well a lot of people a lot of people have been saying that your uh live streams kept them sane through kovid through lockdown so big up uh smoothie is still here uh he drops in the ton of grooves uh uh early uh tape packs moved on to CDs we’re going to be talking about that at some point so look guys we’ve been talking for 19 minutes I think uh what about your night was it nightlife nightlife yes The Nightlife CDs take packs into CDs allegedly allegedly because we all know that you weren’t meant to sell them so listen guys it really has been a pleasure talking to you both it’s been a pleasure catching up getting the low down from the horse’s mouths because there aren’t many people who can give me the information who can put me right on things that I have muddled up in my brain and I think you’ve done just that so big up to yourselves thank you for putting Birmingham on the map and the respect and and may your hard work continue to uh bear fruit for you both thank you no thank you that’s been great we’re continuing to get a lot of love um I will leave you to the rest of your Wednesday I’m just going to say a couple of words to everybody and uh Jedi let’s keep in touch bro yeah don’t be a stranger Night Train we’ll cat I’ll send you both a message tomorrow respect guys yeah you take care soon Andy you got no chance now when I’m in Birmingham mate we’ll get a coffee for sure [Music] let’s see you later thank you Wicked well there you go I absolutely love that uh nitrate and Jedi Jay harms uh thank you bro thank you very much I know you’ll come back and check out this let me just read some of these uh replies Ben uh thank you for your comments criticize nice on Emily Sharon as well Adam is still with us easy mate I know your time is very valuable so I appreciate you being locked on um in a couple of weeks you may have missed at the beginning we are going to be talking about the early 90s through to the um beginnings of the harmony movements and Adam Turner is a DJ that will get mentioned in that uh plane for us at Club Kudos actually Adam you’ll be able to also update me on some of those dates because I’m thinking of the uh Ministry of Soundbar and Club Cuda so I think it must have been Kudos first right anyway that’s by the by Richard Perry says big up to your wall uh Reggie and Davenport I’m glad you enjoyed that uh history lesson my friend uh Michael Lasky watching all the way from Margate and uh Sharon Kavanagh so it gives me some emojis um you can see here a few people on the left hand side have all subscribed to my YouTube Channel DJ Andy Ward I’ve got a load of uh interviews along the brahmers fox series that’s just as in depth we talked to the promoters of money pennies we talk to the promoters of wobble we go back even further talk to DJ Dickie I’ll tell you about the rum runner days we talk about the birth of the PowerHouse so much information youtube.com forward slash DJ Andy Ward um do check that out really there’s a wealth of knowledge there I see it I keep my gobs shut and I let the experts real off the information um some information on the screen here I’m gonna be online next on boxing day uh with a quiz night to uh couples who are part of the vocal booth family Janie and Katrina and Debs and Jeff four guys who I’ve just been in Iceland with and you may have seen on the news uh Iceland was hit with some crazy crazy weather crazy storms the whole of the country got shut down we got away just in time on Sunday night yeah we got away Sunday night they locked off the airport just after we left and uh there’s a world of people just finally getting out of Iceland um but uh yeah we’ll be talking about that our Boxing Day live quiz that’s it from me thank you so much uh where are we it’s Wednesday I’m not doing anything now until boxing night so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas don’t forget if you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen please do leave a comment leave a reply whichever page you’re watching this on whether it’s on my YouTube my own profile or the Inspire and be inspired page um I have a very very Merry Christmas and don’t forget to subscribe to me on YouTube guys I’m out of here be good now foreign [Music]