Many thanks to Alextronic for making his flyer collection available for download. Lots of great memories on top nights at slam, The Orb and Brain Club on there. You can find more from alextronic by clicking here.
Tag Archives: the orb
Sc0ttLaRock YouTube Channel
Recently came across the YouTube channel of DJ Scott of Tin Pan Alley “The Orb” fame. Some great tracks uploaded here:
Launch Night of Steven Sleepman club Code 6 @ Circa – 1 February 1992
Following on from the success of our europort rave in late 1991, I got a guest spot at the launch of Steven Sleepman’s night Circa. Steven was a key figure in the Glasgow scene. In early 1988 Sleepman had secured a Saturday night at Glasgow’s Tin Pan Alley which launched the careers of DJ’s Stuart MacMillan and Orde Meikle (Slam). He went on to promote legendary nights U.F.O. in 89/90 and The Orb in 90/91 at the same venue.
The venue for Circa is now long gone and used to be in a building on Customs House Quay just off Clyde Street opposite Barfly. Formerly known as Trading Post and Panama Jax, the entrance to the club was on the Clyde Walkway, which was always a bit scary at closing time as people would be full of it and sitting on the quayside barrier with a 20ft drop on the other side into the Clyde.
This night was a chance to DJ alongside two of my heroes – Boydie from The Orb and DJ Paul formerly of Warehouse fame.
My set was probably the hardest edged of the night with a focus on the new Detroit techno sound championed by +8 records. At the time there was a real buzz about an acid revival – new producers in Holland, Belgium and Detroit were re-interpreting the original acid sound with a faster techno beat. I decided to drop a few classic acid tunes into the mix to smooth things along, and started off with one of my all time favoutire artists Speedy J (Jochem Paap). Click on the mixtape below to sample my set from that night.
Trans Euro Cartel and the Europort Story: Part 1
Our wee crew of ravers turned from partying to party promoters during the course of 1991. We dubbed ourselves the Trans Euro Cartel – inspired by the musical soundscape of Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express and the rebel yell of Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.
Summer 1991
It was the summer of 1991 and the techno scene in Glasgow seemed to be stuttering to a halt. Whilst the foundations of great things were being laid in Edinburgh with the launch of Twitch and Brainstorm’s Pure night in late 1990, the Glasgow scene seemed to be facing difficulties. The demise of The Orb night and closure of Tin Pan Alley due to a mysterious fire in mid 1991 meant there was no regular techno night in the city.
The Orb DJ’s Boydie and Scott had decanted to a venue in Paisley, with a night called Network. It was a good night and carried on The Orb vibe, but raving in Paisley was never going to be ideal. Here’s an old mix tape from Network posted by Boydie.
Unders
We’d been organising under 18’s nights in and around the city from early 1991, really as a dummy run for trying to get a full club night off the ground. But it was really difficult to secure a regular night at a decent venue. The Glasgow club owners and promoters of the time seemed entrenched in a more commercial sound, rather than taking a chance on more underground DJ’s. There was also a lack of smaller venues of a decent quality in the city.
We had a lot of fun doing those early under 18 nights. We were catering for the teenie ned division in schemes around south Glagsow, charging £2 entry. I was just back from Amsterdam and had a cache of top grade Eurotechno tunes for the little teenies to dance to, and we got great experience on how to set up and run a rave. One night we overdid the lighting rig somewhat for the little scheme community centre we were in. We had hired an industrial sized stroboscope, and sat it in front of the DJ box (well the DJ table!). It stood on a stand at about head height. This thing gave you a headache every time you walked past it, and half way through the night one of my mates took an epilectic fit and decked it. The funny thing was it didn’t even occur to us to stop the music as he was being stretchered out by the ambulance crew, because the tunes were too good!
Our next step forward came when we got an under 18 night in the Mardis Gras. This was a proper nightclub (albeit a right shit hole). The Mardis Gras sat next door to The Warehouse, the infamous venue where we started our raving careers. The Mardis Gras was the first night club to have a elevated dance floor in the U.K. The entire dance floor actually moved from ground to basement level – very confusing in the middle of a rave. You would get on the dance floor for a wee jive, the smoke machine would come on, and by the time the tune finished you would go back to where your friends were standing and where you’d left your bottle of Purdy’s. Imagine the confusion when you couldn’t find said friends or bottle of Purdy’s cause you were on a different floor level.
False Start
We were keen to move away from Unders and onto a full rave night, and our chance finally came when we secured a one off booking for a Sunday night at The Mayfair on Sauchiehall Street in the summer of 1991. The venue was a large dancehall, that had fallen on hard times. It would later be resurrected in 1994 as the hugely successful Garage Nightclub catering to students of the Brit Pop variety.
There had been a one off rave there a few weeks before, and this was first time we had heard Keith of Twitch and Brainstorm fame. He was playing hard house and techno of the sort we loved, but was very unusual in that he would mix in a thrash metal tune, or something totally left field. As a DJ you have to have a good ear for a tune, work out how to progress a mood through a set of tunes, and be able to imagine how people will react at particular points. But it’s a very brave thing for a DJ to be so creative, I suppose that’s what marked him out as a musical innovator.
We marketed our rave as “Bohemia”, and secured the services of Keith for the night, along with Boydie of The Orb, and my good self. Unfortunately, we had to pull the plug on it the week before due to poor ticket sales. I suppose this was due to lacklustre marketing on our behalf, the fact it was going to be on a Sunday night – always a hard sell – and I think we were being too ambitious thinking we could fill The Mayfair on our first Glasgow night – it was huge with a capacity of 1200!
Europort
Undaunted, we could see there was definitely still a gap in the scene that we could fill, and our attention diverted onto more unorthodox venues. On our side of the city you are never very far away from the criminal underworld, and we knew one or two characters of ill repute. A friend of a friend was able to introduce us to a guy with a farm on the outskirts of the city. This guy was up for holding an all night party.
In the late summer we went to see him. The venue was basically a large concrete livestock barn attached to a collection of farmhouse buildings arranged around a courtyard. He wasn’t actually a farmer, so the barn was not really used as far as we could see. He insisted that he would be able to clear out the area of rubbish and build a scaffolding platform for the stage. Crucially he reassured us that he would be happy to take the heat if the police had anything to say.
The potential of the place was awesome. It was a large square space, with a row of columns running down the central spine. There was ample space for at least 400 or 500 ravers. At one end would be the DJ podium and a stage, at the other end doors opened onto a field. The site was at the top of a hill and you could sit on the grass and see the twinkling streetlights of the city in the distance. Out a side door was a small internal courtyard, where we could set up a chill out space. Up the central spine of columns we would hang fabric to act as screens to project visuals onto. Add a few smoke machines and lighting and bob’s yer uncle – a fully functioning raver’s paradise. The piece de resistance were two large drainage troughs which ran up the length of the building. These were recessed into the floor and designed with concrete covers with a whole series of drainage slots in them, so you could walk right over them. By putting strobe lighting into the troughs, you would get shards of coloured light thrown up onto the ceiling, as if the whole floor was a light show – awesome!
Musical Intent
We were at the early stages of establishing contact with Evil Eddie Richards and his DJ agency dy-na-mix. The idea was to link up with London DJ’s from the pirate radio scene. As with many promoters at the time, we put the details on the flyers before we actually booked anybody! As things went we were unable to book anyone for the night, but put the disappointment behind us as we had some of Scotland’s hottest DJ talent lined up.
The DJ line up would feature DJ Twitch from Pure in Edinburgh and our very own DJ Boydie from Orb. Here’s a mixtape from Twitch from around the same time. This would be my first big gig and a chance to really step up.
All was set up for a fantastic rave. All we had to do was pull it off…..
europort rave flyer
Here’s an excerpt from the flyer for our illegal rave Europort, September 1991:
“TRANS EURO CARTEL – SAT 7 SEPT.
The Rave Scene has met with several crazy phases but for many the novelty has worn a little and Ravers of the 90s are looking for something new and different. The madness may be more than enough for those fresh to the scene, but those in their third year are definitely looking for something more. We believe Europort is the answer and we know the Hardcore will enjoy it to the full.
Europort – an exclusive weekly club in a barn for 600 ravers out in the middle of nowhere. For the opening week the club will run till 8a.m. but most other weeks till 6a.m. Every week we will link up with London’s Fantasy FM featuring DJ.s such as G-Force, Krome, Tricks, Hype and Rhythm Doctor, who are currently doing London’s top weekly rave Shakedown.
Every week the Europort D.J.s will be Keith from Pure, currently Scotland’s No 1 club, Boydie (Orb) and Wuggs (Trans Euro) creating a heavy techno vibe. Europort will eventually become strictly members only, but for the first weeks tickets must be purchased – £8 inclusive of travel.
8 coaches will be laid on every week, leaving from the Rock garden (Queen Street) between 10.30p.m. and 11.30p.m. – arriving back in Glasgow at approximately 8.30a.m. Everyone must use the coaches as there is no parking spaces available at the barn. Attractions: 6k Sound, Dance Platform, Juice Bar, Fresh Fruit. Star Attractions: 600 of Scotland’s finest.
Coach Info: Coaches leaving from Rock Garden – 10.30p.m. onwards.
Tickets £8
Outlets: 23rd Precinct, Grasshopper, Virgin, Keith (Pure)”
Mix Tapes of DJ Boydie at Tin Pan Alley and Network
With thanks to Chris B for pointing me in the direction of these two Mix Tapes.
Tin Pan Alley Mix Tape March 1991
Another trawl through google comes up with this Mix Tape from here, courtesy of Shad.
“Okay, it’s labelled Tin Pan Alley but it’s probably not DJ Scott’s usual mixing for me. I have written in notes on stuff to help me remember. Here’s what I have so far:
00:00 1. Unbelievable lyrics
00:15 2. T99-Anasthasia
03:36 3. When I was young, I wanted to see Africa, dream within a dream
06:11 4. Zero Zero – sanity Clause (Insane mix)
10:22 5. Art Science Technology – AST
13:40 6. Cybersonik – Backlash
16:35 7. Hypnotist – Rainbows In The Sky
21:29 8. Katherine E I’m Alright
26:16 9. Tricky Disco – Housefly
30:39 10.Hypnotist – Death By Dub
34:48 11.Very familiar, that’s love lyric
39:18 12.Apollo 440 – Lolita (UK Hardcore Mix)
42:34 13.I am the giant man I am your enemy
00:00 1. Njoi – Phoenix
02:20 2. Zero Zero – Courting Madness
06:10 3. Hardcore Uproar – High On Hope
11:08 4. Anticapella – Everybody
15:28 5. Somebody scream song
19:23 6. Slower breakbeat with reggae vocals
22:17 7. Epic!
26:52 8. Nefertiti sample, unreal city
31:30 9. We’re here vocal
35:24 10. Church chants, opera feel, The Omen?
40:43 11.The Hypnotist – Exorcist”
DJ Boydie Mix Tape from The Orb, Glasgow – February 1991
Another Soundcloud find – this time a mix tape by DJ Boydie from 19 February 1991 – happy days!
A bit about DJ Wuggs!
Deep house, acid and techno from 1988 to 1992
Hi
My name’s dj wuggs and I was what was known as a raver in Glasgow in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I then turned my hand to a bit of dj’ing when I thought there was better music out there than I could hear in the clubs. My friends and I organised a few illegal raves and a few club nights in Glasgow under the short lived “europort” banner. All in all we didn’t conquer the world but we did our little bit in the story of the Glasgow club scene.
This blog is a tribute to Glasgow clubs The Warehouse (DJ Paul), UFO at Tin Pan Alley (DJ’s Adrian, Lars and Boydie) and Europort (my own club).
I’ve had a look about online, and there really isn’t that much out there documenting those days. At the time we were just mucking about and having a good time, but later the scene grew into something truly world class. Hence perhaps the need for this blog – an archaeological study of the Glasgow techno scene . I’ll be posting links to other blogs and webpages that I can find on the early Glasgow techno scene. I’ll also be giving my take on those days with posts from time to time on various aspects of the scene. My aim over the next few weeks and months is to record what I did, when I did it and what I was listening to at the time!
Hope you enjoy…
A Memory Lane Special : Tin Pan Alley, Glasgow, 1991
Here’s an extract from the Back to Life blog (you can read more here A memory lane special : Tin Pan Alley, Glasgow, 1991).
Now used as a venue for (ahem) diamond dancing girls, Glasgow’s Tin Pan Alley, down little old Mitchell Street lane, is a club of folklore.
djwuggs 