When did dance music find you?

motherfunker

My first experience of raving or to be more accurate, dancing to music was in 1992, about 8 of us went up to the basketball court in the local convent at about 10 o clock one night in the summer with a tape recorder and a few small squares of paper. We all stood there, trying to dance, nobody knowing just what we were meant to be doing, loads of that boxes boxes stuff, hands doing all sorts of strange movements, hardcore acid house/rave tunes blasting. If the cops had caught us that night I dont think they would have had a clue what was going on, it was a while after that that they got a bit more clued up.
I went from a rave hater to a raver that night and have never looked back since, it has shaped my life and my personality into the fairly decent person that I am today. I owe my life today to dance music, my only regret is that I missed the first 5 or 6 years.

lt_cmdr_worf

2 Unlimited, Culture Beat etc on the radio around 1993 but it was the Prodigy, Scooter, Ultra-Sonic, and in general Mickey Mac's Essential Dance Show in '95 that got me in full time

shane86

*banned Kildare music thing* 2004, 17 years old, summer I left school, first time completely off my biscuit to the sounds of Darren Emerson, the chems, Faithless, Felix da Housecat, and, an experience that had me floating about on a mad one like it was 1989 in the Hacienda, a tribute band and DJ called the Madchester Experience playing a load of Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and various rave from way back in the ocksygin dance arena. They were all brilliant. Felix tore the place apart on the Sunday IIRC. Still remember Faithless played outdoors during the only 2 hours of sunshine the whole weekend, Sunday I think. Middle of Mass Destruction, Jazz askin everyone to send a message to Bush and Blair about what the world thinks of them, the whole crowd start booing, mad craic :P

Mad, mad weekend in a mad mad summer. Orbital played that weekend, regret not having seen them. Cant recall who I went to instead (though I remember being scolded by some 30something rave vets on the bus home for skipping them )


Before that the only dance I liked was Scooter :eek: :pac:


Dont get to much of the above type of thing now. Alot of the crowd are gone abroad, grown up or just lost contact from living a distance away.

francois

motherfunker:I went from a rave hater to a raver that night and have never looked back since, it has shaped my life and my personality into the fairly decent person that I am today. I owe my life today to dance music

Couldn't have put it better myself! Took a pill in '88 with a friend and listened to nitro delux's "lets get brutal" while rubbing my head on the carpet for about 6 hours lol!
Made me a person less narrow minded, and opened me up to a whole world i dont think i would have ever experienced-loved the fact that people of different backgrounds, race, sexuality could all get together and have a good time.Forged lifelong friends from that time, and occasionally we still get together, whack on the tunes and get on 1.:p

jonny68

francois wrote: »

motherfunker:I went from a rave hater to a raver that night and have never looked back since, it has shaped my life and my personality into the fairly decent person that I am today. I owe my life today to dance music

Couldn't have put it better myself! Took a pill in '88 with a friend and listened to nitro delux's "lets get brutal" while rubbing my head on the carpet for about 6 hours lol!
Made me a person less narrow minded, and opened me up to a whole world i dont think i would have ever experienced-loved the fact that people of different backgrounds, race, sexuality could all get together and have a good time.Forged lifelong friends from that time, and occasionally we still get together, whack on the tunes and get on 1.:p

;);)

manfist

id say 2unlimited led me to the likes of other mainstream acts like prodigy , chemical bros , daft punk , bassment jacks and the likes of them
only new windowlicker and come to daddy up until abiyt 4 years ago and now im obsesd with richard d james , anything on warp(not maximo park) rephlex and planet mu among other labels and artists i never new 4 years ago.
electronic music is now everywere i look,
its amazing.

The first time I heard 808 State's 'Pacific' in 1989.

Always liked electronic music, Depeche Mode, lots of Simple Minds etc. etc. But that was the tune that really did it for me. While I loved Hardcastle and hits like Pump Up the Volume, I can still remember the first time I heard Pacific, it was like knowing that this was it, dance music just would not go away, it wasn't some passing trend like New Romantic or New Wave, it was just ood to lose.

RaverRo808

Think I was born to like Dance music,remember being really small listening to pump up the jam and jumping around the place like mad,but it was in primary school when was about 7 or 8 that I got really deep into it,was in Peters in Phibsboro,and in the yard all the older lads had a Ghetto Blaster,and were pumping out The Prodigy,Sykick,Altern 8,shades of Rythem,etc and loads of real hardcore Old Rave,they would be doing all dance moves and I thought was best craic ever(still do).all us dancing round like thicks,tryna be Leeroy outta Prodigy:D

One the lads gave me a tape of a old mix of real hard rave beats,incredible,
First album I bought was tape of Prodigy-Experience,bought it on Liffey Street of one the blokes that used to sell all the pirate tapes for a fiver,

Also remember my Uncle,Cousins and their friends,always gearing up to out the Harp and to Sides,and when in the Car with them,blaring out the real Housey and hard trance tunes of the day,all their heads bobbing like mad:D

So just grew up around it,some the new stuff today is good,but offers nowhere the buzz,atmosphere or excitement of the tunes back in the day

keevita

Mickey Mac's show, nostalgia.... Wonder what he's doing now?

Cray92

When Altern8 came out there music just grabbed me by the balls and i just went with it.That was around 91ish and loved all the hardcore stuff at that time aswell.Then when i was old enough to start clubbing my love for the music was cemented by the love for the underground Dublin dance scene.That was the golden era of Dublin clubbing,starting with sides,Asylum,UFO,Ormond and cant forget raving in the olympic summer of 92.The scene was special,you felt part of something unique.At the time it was still very underground and you used look down on people who were out gettin pissed,killin each other at the end of the nite and didnt have a clue about what they missing.

tman

Was mostly from my older bro listening to early prodigy stuff and a bit of "jungle", moved on to stuff like Carl Cox then (still love his Fantasia cd) and a bit of Mickey Mack (larging it up in the shower!)
Mark Kavanagh's Clubmix show on Radio Ireland was what really turned me on to the harder edge of dance music (back when Nu NRG was just becoming known as hard house)... Got a few trade cds then and was absolutely hooked on the stuff.

It's a bit strange though, I was kind of into it before my brother, I remember getting the Shamen's En-tact album when it first came out, I'm still not sure what posessed me to spend my pocket money on that! (must've been 8 at the time:p)
Really liked the Utah Saints as well

motherfunker

Ahhh, looking down on the pissheads, I remember that. Thing is now all the pissheads are all pilled up on crap and still beating the **** out of each other. Guys taking 15 e's a night, what a load of ****, back when I started 15 e's would have done me for 15 nights.

franklyshocked

motherfunker wrote: »

Ahhh, looking down on the pissheads, I remember that. Thing is now all the pissheads are all pilled up on crap and still beating the **** out of each other. Guys taking 15 e's a night, what a load of ****, back when I started 15 e's would have done me for 15 nights.

Thats so true.

I'm from the west of Ireland, yes lads a culchie, First dance Album I ever bought was Prodigy Experience on tape, I played it so much by the end of the summer I had to buy another copy.
I was into the music long before I was into the scene if you know what I'm saying.
All the cool lads were into AC/DC and that sort of stuff and it was difficult to get the music in the local record shops. I used to order stuff in. The owner used to hate seeing me coming in the door.
My dad got Sky in for us in 95 when there was shag all except foreign stations and we could watch MTV back when they actually showed music. Couple of savage german dance channels too.
Those were the days

Prefabsprouter

Well I'm a positive aul fella (37) probably compared to 90% of this board but have had a love of Dance music since 87 and still love it. Two songs started it for me : D-Mob featuring Gary Haismans "Acieed" and Inner city's "Big fun". That started my curiousity. At the same time a mate got his hands on a video called "Jack the Video" which had loads of House music videos on it. Still can recall that stuff. From there I entered the world of Dance. Before this I had been listening to Disco (no, its not a dirty word) and Funk and whats ironic is that a lot of the Dance tunes were sampled from the original genres I had been listening to!!!!

Lately two things have reminded me of the stuff I started out listening to, the first being the Ministry of sound's "Original Sound of Ibiza" mixed by DJ Alfredo. A lot of original house tunes on it.

The second was the video to Shapeshifter's version of "chime". Yes, I know its utterly cheesy but look at the video showing footage from the 80's. Brings back so many good memories, queing up outside "Sides" etc. Love it!!!

tman

tman wrote: »

It's a bit strange though, I was kind of into it before my brother, I remember getting the Shamen's En-tact album when it first came out, I'm still not sure what posessed me to spend my pocket money on that! (must've been 8 at the time:p)

Said above that 808 State in '89 got me hooked.

I should also give kudos to the Shamen and 'Possible Worlds' from En Tact. Didn't have the album, but had that song on some compilation. And used to just listen to it again and again, it was one of the tunes that showed me just how limitless the boundaries were in dance. I loved the whole house and rave thing, but this one came totally out of nowehere for me, kinda like the first time I heard FSOL 'Papua New Guinea' or the Orb's 'Blue Room' and knew I couldn't describe what the artists were doing or label it but it was just mesmerising.

ve

I'd say '92 was the year that I started getting my hands on tunes. At the start I used to collect underground mix tapes, primarily from warehouse raves in the uk. Then I had mixes by Micky Finn, Carl Cox, Dave Angel etc @ the likes of Dance Planet, Planet Love, X-Mix etc. I also had this mix tape, I probably still have it if I dig. I don't know where I managed to get my hands on it, but on black cover it said "Gravity - Dublin's longest running underground club". I don't know how accurate the title was, but at the time I couldn't have cared less, as it was decent. The recording quality wasn't great, but there were some crackin tunes on it (that would be about '92/93). I would love to know more about this club in Dublin, and if there is any more mixes floating about from that place/era.

Anyway by the time Carl Cox released FACT, I was well hooked. Used to love watching Party Zone on MTV on a Friday night I think it was. They used to play X-Mixes, and had a thing for Westbam - "Celebration Generation", and Members of Mayday - "Enter the Arena". They were always on IIRC. LOL

My earliest memory of a proper nights clubbing was around '96 with DJ Sy. He was the soundest DJ too, I badgered him for the names of every other tune and in the end he let me root through his records while he played. I didn't have a pen or paper so committed as much as I could to memory. This was a great help as I came away with a load of new names to broaden my horizons.

In '99 got my first set of decks and was primarily playing Trance, then Progressive and Tribal followed by Techno. I'm not from Dublin but was up to Abbey Discs on Liffey St. every other week to get what I could. That all lasted for about 5 years and then I just sort of trailed away. I still like the tunes (amongst many other types of music) and am personally proud to say that in my entire connection with dance music I have never taken a single pill or amphetamine of any sort. I used to go clubbing on just water, and had a great night. Had the DS come up to me on several occasions asking me to step outside to be searched or simply asking if I was on anything. I never was, and never carried anything, etc. They just couldn't understand how someone with so much energy at these events was sober as a judge.

I don't know if it's because I'm older now, but there just doesn't seem to be the same quality of tunes out there, especially events. It's like over the last 10 years someone left the door open and now all of a sudden all this crap rushed in and took the place over. I think a lot of the clubbing generation today have no idea what they were missing, unless they had an older sibling or something. I don't know, maybe it's still alive and well, and that I've just changed, but there is a certain type of dance music from back in the day, that tickles my spine and sends me on a frenzy to find more. Those grubby copied mix tapes that travelled the world and were passed from hand to hand or stolen from house parties. I'll take them anyday.