
Music / Clubs
Interview: DJ Vinyl Junkie
DJ, label owner, keeper of the oldskool flame – DJ Vinyl Junkie has been a rave scene stalwart for 25 years. This month he celebrates that milestone at Blue Mountain with Nicky Blackmarket, Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter, DJ Faydz and DJ Sy, not to mention his fellow Bristol rave survivor Bunjy. Real name John Woods, he’s played some of the biggest festivals and free parties ever to take place in the UK and is still as enthusiastic about the music as ever. We caught up with him to discuss Ibiza, Castlemorton and Fairways in Shirehampton.
How did you first get involved in the rave scene? Were you a raver before you were a DJ?
My very first involvement with the rave scene came in April 1989 when I went to the Ku Club in Ibiza and took my first ecstasy pill. So yeah, I was defo a raver before I even clapped eyes on a set of turntables. That night changed my life forever. We were out there on a two week holiday and that was our last night before we were due to fly home. Me and my mate Dave went to the Ku Club; the other twelve of our mates stayed in as they had all run out of money by then. Anyway, Dave and me never got on our flight the next day. We stayed out in Spain for the rest of the summer. In fact we never returned home until October. I came home two stone lighter wearing a psychedelic coloured hoody, pink Ellesse tracksuit bottoms and a pair of Timberland boots. Everyone thought I had gone mad!
is needed now More than ever
Your career started at the peak of hardcore. It must have been a special time.
Yes they were magical times and it’s really hard to explain to people who weren’t there just how special it was. It was the birth of a new era: the music, the fashion, the people and the vibe. It was a movement. It incorporated people of all ages from all walks of life, all dancing together in unity in a time of struggle and it spawned a generation of musicians and producers that would change the course of British music forever.
From around ’93 there was a split between hardcore and jungle but you’re associated with both. Did you feel any pressure to go one way or the other?
When everything started to split I initially went down the jungle route because that’s where my heart was and I was just following my passion for the music I loved. I was on all the big promo lists like Moving Shadow, Reinforced, Suburban Base and Formation (to name just a few). I was a junglist. Then around ‘94/’95 some friends of mine from Burnham started running a night called Sketch at the Pawlett Manor down by Bridgwater and they invited me down to play a set. On my first appearance I played jungle and it went down like a lead balloon.
Luckily for me they had me back two weeks later and I decided to change my approach. I’d been getting sent a lot of the happier stuff – you know, happy hardcore when it still had breakbeats and proper bass in it. I realised that I actually liked a lot of it so that’s what I played on my second appearance and everyone loved it. They gave me a fortnightly residency which lasted a couple of years and which lead to lots more gigs all around the country playing hardcore. I was still playing jungle at some of my other gigs but I was getting booked more and more to play the happier sound and so that kind of took over. Before I knew it I had been labelled as a hardcore DJ and so that’s the way my career went, but behind the scenes I have always been a keen junglist and have continued to buy the music and go out to nights whenever I get the chance.
Did the Criminal Justice Act change things for you? Did you find yourself playing more at clubs and licensed events?
I did my stint playing at free parties in 1991-1992. By the time the Criminal Justice bullshit started in 1993 I had already made the transition into clubs and licensed events so to be fair it didn’t really affect me. The last big free party I played at was Castlemorton in 1992. I have done the odd one here and there over the years but nothing on that scale.
Was Bristol a good place to be if you were involved in the rave scene?
I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. Bristol was then, and still is, an amazing city for music. The place just has a vibe. I lived in Canterbury for three years when I was doing my degree in Music Tech and every time I came back to Bristol I could literally feel that vibe as I drove back down the M32. When I finished studying I couldn’t wait to get back here. Bristol rocks baby!
Were you involved in pirate radio? It was so important in those days.
Yes I was involved in pirate radio. I played on Power FM for ages and then did a little stint on Passion as well. The annoying thing about the pirates back then was they didn’t have Technics decks. It was too risky because if the DTI came in they would confiscate everything and nobody wanted their Technics getting taken, so they would have these shitty belt drive decks that were really difficult to mix on. So you would be clanging mixes all over the place [laughs]. In the end they gave me a slot from 4am – 6am on a Thursday morning or something like that, and after doing that for a few months I knocked it on the head as I thought nobody was listening. Turns out I was wrong though because over the years I have had nuff people say to me that they used to listen to my show and some have even pulled out tapes.
When did you start producing your own tracks? Can’t Forget was huge!
The first time I ever set foot in a recording studio was in 1994. It was Jody Wisternoff’s studio. We spent about four days working and the result was two tunes. One called ‘My Time Is Now’ and the other called ‘Harp Dreams’. They were never really finished as Jody blew up with his Way Out West project soon after and therefore didn’t have time to finish them. But that really gave me the bug and not long after that I bought myself an Akai S3000 sampler and began my journey into the world of production.
You’re best known as a pioneer of ‘oldskool’. When did that become a scene in its own right, and why did it need to happen?
In 1999 I started getting asked to play at old skool nights. I think the first was a night at the depot called Now & Then, which was put on by Mike Ind – who is now the promotions manager at the Blue Mountain Club and Sam Brooke who does the sound system there. I was told it was strictly ‘89-‘93 and nothing later. Then we started Absolute Old Skool at the Lakota not long after that. That was me and Mike and two other guys, Dan & Matt Avery. We did an event with Rat Pack headlining and it was a huge success. Then we did another with Altern-8 doing their first live performance in nine years. That was massive. We had 1200 people in Lakota, which was unheard of at that time. That was when it all started to kick off again I think!
We were just in the right place at the right time. There had been a lot of press about oldskool recently and then a week before our event, one of the big magazines, can’t remember which one, possibly FACE or ID, did an interview with Altern-8 and our ticket sales went through the roof. For me, that’s when old skool became a thing again and we carried on doing Absolute Oldskool regularly for the next few years. That led to me getting bookings all over the country and that’s what established me as an oldskool DJ. I think it needed to happen because at that time the music had gone a bit stale and for me personally it gave me direction again after a few years in the wilderness, not really knowing what I wanted to do.
Vinyl Junkie – Absolute Old Skool by Bass Beats & Bleeps on Mixcloud
Your label Warehouse Wax isn’t just an oldskool label though is it? Where’s your head at musically these days?
I started Warehouse Wax with a guy called Darkus in 2003 because I was starting to get bored with playing old tunes all the time. Although I still loved the music I just needed to have new tunes. It’s part of the whole DJ thing for me: dropping new tunes that nobody had heard before… So the obvious answer was to start producing tunes that I could play in an oldskool set and they wouldn’t sound out of place. So that’s what I did and Warehouse Wax was born. I wouldn’t really call WW an oldskool label – although it does have an oldskool vibe. I guess its more of a breaks label really, and more recently it’s been known as one of the pioneering labels on the 140 jungle (also called future jungle or jungle breaks) scene.
Jungle is really fuckin’ good at the moment…and that’s what I am pushing hard. I’ve never really been one for sticking to one thing though. In the last year alone I have played ‘92 sets, ‘93 sets, acid house sets, techno sets, jungle, d&b and even a bassy house set. So when people say to me “What do you play?” I say, “I’m a DJ mate. I play music”.
You have recently set up a new label called Ghetto Dub. Tell me more about that.
I set up Ghetto Dub with my partner, Rachael EC. Rachael is like me in that she is influenced by lots of different styles of music so that’s what the label is all about really. We are interested in releasing and pushing all kinds of urban music whether it be d&b, dub, reggae, whatever, regardless of the tempo. Just as long as it’s got a phat beat and a heavy bassline, it’s all good.
Does the rave scene still excite you after all these years?
Of course. DJing to a crowd of people when there is a good atmosphere and everyone is enjoying themselves – that’s the ultimate buzz for me. Nothing beats it. It’s the reason I am still doing it twenty-five years later. Whether there is fifty people or five thousand. It doesn’t really matter as long as there’s a good vibe.
When you started out did you imagine you’d still be DJing and putting out tunes twenty-five years later?
No not at all. I didn’t think that vinyl would become obsolete either and that I would be playing with CDs and more recently memory sticks [laughs]. I would have probably chose a different name had I known that.
You must have played some amazing parties in your life. Any idea how many? Which are the ones you’ll never forget?
Yeah I have defo played at some mint parties in my time. God knows how many…hundreds! Some of the ones that really stand out for me are Tribal Gathering 1993 where I played in the main arena in what was then the biggest marquee tent in Europe. I believe it held in the region of 18,000 people. That was an epic and iconic event and I am so proud and grateful to have been a part of that. Tribal Gathering ‘97 was also a good one. Vinyl Groover snapped his car key off in his petrol cap about ten miles down the road so I got to play a second set and the tent was full…so that was a result.
Finally, can you tell us a bit about the night you’ve got coming up at Blue Mountain?
Well I got the idea from Billy ‘Daniel’ Bunter really who released quite a few CDs last year: twenty-five years of this, twenty-five years of that…and then he did an event in London to celebrate his own twenty-five year anniversary. I spoke to him on the phone about it and he said, “you should do one, I will come and play for you!” Me and Rachael had already been talking about starting our own night to run side by side with Ghetto Dub and decided that my twenty-fifth anniversary would be a perfect way to launch the night which we’ve named Ghettoblast. That got me to thinking about where I had come from and where it all started for me – Fairways!
Fairways?
Fairways was a social club in Shirehampton. We hired it and put on a rave there. That was the first time I ever played out…it was the beginning of March 1991 so it is almost twenty-five years to the day! That’s when I decided that this should also be a reunion party for all the people that used to go to Fairways and then jump in their cars after and we’d all head off to the free travellers parties…hence the Fairways / Circus Warp takeover in Room Two where I have dragged most of the fairways DJs & MCs out of retirement to come and play a set.
The response to the night has been massive. Tickets are absolutely flying out the door and everyone is jumping up and down about it. It will be a night to remember with a broad music policy covering all manner of oldskool as well as some upfront jungle and d&b. It’s a killer lineup for real, and all for a fiver. I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the artists that are coming out to play and have some fun with us, and to everyone that has ever known me or shocked out to one of my sets in the last twenty-five years. I look forward to seeing you all on the dancefloor – big upz!
Ghettoblast present Vinyl Junkie – 25 Years in the Game, Blue Mountain, Saturday, February 20. For more information visit www.djvinyljunkie.co.uk