As the new millennium rolled in, so did a new wave of rock’n’roll DJs who helped reboot an eccentric new wave of dance music, from Miss Kittin to Erol Alkan and 2manydjs
- Also in this series...
- Bugged Out at 20: How the superclub era nearly finished us
- Bugged Out at 20: ‘The spirit of acid house had a strong hold’
In the first two years of the millennium, the dance scene at large had become overblown and was stagnating. There was unavoidable evidence in the summer of 2002 when superclub Cream announced they were shutting their doors in Liverpool, and Ministry of Sound closed their magazine, triggering a spate of “dance music is dead” articles in the press. It wasn’t hard to see why 18-year-olds were looking elsewhere for their kicks. They found the Strokes’ Is This It and the White Stripes’ White Blood Cells a more exciting proposition than hearing their older brother’s tales of having it large in Ibiza.
The singles from these two albums were certainly featuring heavily in a Monday club I had started to attend: Erol Alkan’s Trash at The End in London. Erol’s club attracted girls and boys sartorially inspired by Peaches and Julian Casablancas – it immediately felt new and fresh. I had gone to the club to interview Erol for Jockey Slut about his singular approach to DJing; he’d play electro-pop by the likes of Tiga, Felix Da Housecat and Ladytron alongside his own bootlegs and unlikely mixes (Fischerspooner segued into the Smiths). Though Bugged Out was still very much about straight-up house and techno, we decided to try Erol out at our monthly night at the recently opened Fabric, slotting him into the smaller third room. He was an instant hit – in fact, the reaction was incendiary. He also didn’t look like a regular DJ. Where most seemed to opt for a V-neck jumper or plain T-shirt, Erol looked like one of the Ramones. We gave him a monthly residency on the spot and took him to our nights in Manchester and Liverpool, where he had a similar effect on an audience who hadn’t a clue who he was. By the end of his sets, people were clamouring to find out his name. Up to this point I hadn’t seen anything like it in a club, such fervour for something new. It proved that a big change was needed to shake up the old guard – ourselves included.
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by John Burgess via Electronic music | The Guardian
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