Doing It for Yourself
DJ Magazine 10-31 December 1992
From their inaugural party (Harry’s birthday) just over three years ago DIY have
grown from a core of three or four into an extended posse that numbers over 100.
The 30 or so people who are actively involved include DJs, decor and
graphic designers, lighting wizards and crew members. They’ve networks of
loyal followers from south to north and a dedicated contingent of travellers. Not
only has their following grown but so have their resources. Starting with just a
couple of turntables they now have their own vans, PA, studio, record label,
radio shows and could soon be the owners of a pressing machine. If the set up
sounds like a multi conglomerate from America the attitude is a million miles
from there. From the flat and now an office in Nottingham DiY organise all their
events with a laid back and easy-going attitude that ensures their posse of
friends keeps on growing daily.
The evening before as they set up the all nighter that we were later to fall victim
to, a party for Time Recordings and their own Strictly 4 Groovers label, | had a
chat with three of the main members of DIY, Harry, Rick and Damien, in their
studio.
Harry: Our main intention from the start was really to be able to do our own
thing… rather than having to pander to club owners, record labels, managers or
who-ever. Half the time we do pretty stupid things really, like tonight we’re
going to throw a big party and loose lots of money on it probably. Free parties
are the reason DIY exists as it does today. They’ve been regularly organising
them for a number of years, two Summers ago their almost weekly gatherings
near Derby attracted hundreds of people. As their name grew and grew they
began to get offers of club nights but it is to the idea of free parties to which
they remain loyal. Having been involved before the tabloids discovered a cheap
headline they’re in a position to know the in’s and out’s of what goes on behind
the scenes.
Harry describes free parties as being ‘‘a creature of the south’, the first ones
occurring in the West Country around Bath and Bristol, where the scene is still
strong. Of course, free parties are always linked to travellers in the press and for
all the snobbery that gets directed towards them, if it weren’t for them the scene
might not be as alive as it is, Harry: ‘Travellers were the first sort of people who
had the approach that they were into putting in a lot of effort for no (financial)
reward really, most people aren’t.’ Damien, “And they already had the knowl-
edge to find the sites where you could actually hold a party.”’
They also had a supply of tarpaulins and the essential generators. The other
advantage was that police would be more reticent in storming into a party on a
site where people were actually living. Indeed parties without the travellers —
‘cover’ had got nasty, with police steaming into marquees in the name of ‘safe-
ty’ and causing uncontrolled stampedes. So free parties with travellers involved
were the most likely to come off. That was, until Castle Morton. Although a
number of sound systems there had their equipment confiscated and held for
six months DIY were lucky to hold on to theirs. But the after effects of Castle
Morton are still being felt. Harry: ‘Castle Morton nearly killed parties but it’s
made it impossible to be a traveller, which isn’t anyone’s fault. But you can’t
beat the police force at the end of the day and if you want to keep doing parties —
sometimes you’ve got to be a bit crafty. You’ve not got to go somewhere where —
they think you’re going to be.” Thanks to a number of sympathetic landlords
who are coming forward with offers of sites, free parties look set to continue, for
a while anyway.
DIY parties are renowned for offering not only the best in dance music but also
for paying attention to decor and visuals, they like to ‘‘keep it fairly state-of-the-
art, our video projections are by Project Love E, even though it’s free it doesn’t
have to equal crap.” The free parties are what DiY are all about, their other ven-
tures pay for them, Harry: ‘The organisation is self perpetuating, some parts we
make money and some parts we loose it. We don’t mind making money but it’s
not our prime concern.” If you haven’t seen a flyer with a DiY Du on in the last
month then you can’t have been out much. Their home town night Bounce
(Fridays, fortnightly at the Dance Factory) has been supplemented by no less
than eight other regular Bounce’s across the country, from Liverpool to Exeter,
taking in Bristol, Bath and Birmingham along the way. Bounce in the three sto-
ried Dance Factory has an atmosphere, like all DiY events unmatched any-
where |’ve been. The crowd are a very mixed bunch, dressed up, dressed down
but all with a happy, friendly attitude. Surrounded by plaster fish, miles of trans-
parent netting and a huge furry heart you can trance out downstairs or chill out
with Pezz and co upstairs, but get your tickets early as it always sells out
beforehand.
DiY have also just started co-running a monthly all nighter in Leicester with
Beef. Held in the aptly named Starlite 2001, a Slightly tacky, rough around the
edges venue, Sponge runs from 10pm to 6am and features guest DJs chosen
for interest and attitude rather than simply star rating (first two were Darren
Emmerson and Andy Weatherall) along with DiY regulars. Their ever loyal fol-
lowers flock from everywhere to the club, the last one saw a mass exodus from
Liverpool. Taking you up in all the right places, they know exactly when to start
bringing you down with Digs (Rick) and Woosh (Pete) rounding the morning off
with an absolutely perfectly timed set of house and garage with a hint of disco.
After three ‘last tunes’ the crowd still refused to go home and while the bounc-
ers actually stood in front of the decks to ensure they got a bit of kip that day
everyone still stood for nearly half an hour on the dancefloor without budging!
A DIY contingent also visited Ibiza this summer, playing as guests of Summum
and Cafe Del Mar and have been invited back by ‘‘Ibiza’s mellowest man who’s
going to sort us out’. Rather than running expensive trios people managed to
make their own way there “‘turning up off their own back and managing to find
us somehow. It was more of a loose gathering than a promoted venture.” says
Rick.
High up in the club charts lately has been the track ‘I Shall Be Released’ from
Alabama 3, it’s the first release from the Strictly 4 Groovers label, a project
which has been in the pipeline for some time as Rick explains: “Our longest
standing idea was to set up a record label, because you can carry on doing
club nights and free parties for so long but the record label can go on forever.”
It’s something they’d been meaning to do for over 18 months but it took a
friend who demo’d a song they liked to kick start them into action. ‘‘Also it’s like
loads of things have sort of fallen into place.” chips in Harry, “‘As if by accident.
This studio had been here, quarter of a mile round the corner fromm where we
live, with this bit in.” ‘This bit’ being a portakabin type room in the basement of
Square Dance studios, which they bought and are constantly adding pieces of
equipment to (they’re currently on the look out for old analogue synths). As with
their other arms, instead of hiring out the studio they let friends in to ‘mess
about for hours”’ at no cost. If they come up with a good track Strictly 4
Groovers is there to put it out. ‘We let them come in here and come up with
something without the pressure of having to fork out 3 or 400 pounds out of
their own pocket. £35 an hour isn’t the best way to make you relax, especially if
you’re trying to make something different. We’ve got 15 DJs in all and it’s our
intention over the months to get organised and get all of them in making a record.”
At present there are three DiY related records around, the aforementioned
Alabama 3, a Dreaming |n Yellow track ‘Excommunicate’ on Time Recordings
0992 and soon out on Warp their dub mix of ‘I Shall Be Released’ along with
three other DiY mixes. ‘‘We learnt so much on the first record. Like don’t take a
tune you think is alright and try to remix it so it’s good, you’re better off starting
from scratch, if you’re remixing someones tune beware of eclipsing the original
as they might get upset when your version does better, and that old adage, ‘‘as
soon as you start to get into that music business side of things there’s so many
sharks about… and there’s so many strange chaps from London!”’
As if the hours in the day weren’t already filled DiY DJs also have around 30
hours of airtime on local pirate radio station Touch FM (107.3). This includes a
Serve Chilled show for six hours on a Monday night.
As well as the upcoming nights below DIY are currently on the look out for a
venue to house a multimedia installation. They plan three floors of interactive
video and music to create ‘‘a total environment” and a “room within a room”
effect. They’ll be doing PAs along with guest DJ spots in the new year as well.
For a bunch of people who’ve been described as hippies (they’re not) they cer-
tainly get things done. That description probably arose from the fact that they
don’t actually run round acting like they’ve got ‘important things to do’. You’re
more likely to see them sitting chatting with their extended family. It just goes to
show what you can accomplish with the right attitude. |’ll leave the last word to
Harry: “We’re into people getting along with each other, we’re not into preach-
ing a message to be anarchistic or whatever. A sense of humour at the end of
the day is the one. We’re into having a laugh with as many people as possi-
ble… where there’s no-one around telling you when to stop, how many people
you can let in, stamps on hands, all that crap. You’re just having a few hours at
the weekend, occasionally, when you can get away from it all and just have a
laugh in a field somewhere.”
Pictures : Alan Lodge
