Dance Paradise @ Great Yarmouth Seafront, Great Yarmouth 25/11/1995

 

Druid

One of the eye openers of 1995 which I'm sure I've mentioned before is how often we come to the end of an era, or the end of the era is in sight. In the case of this particular event it's the penultimate Dance Paradise event as we knew it.

There would be another Dance Paradise in early 1996 before it would disappear until the end of 1997. At the end of 1997 they would make a brief return which lasted into 1998, but had changed their music policy to club music with a dress code to match.

One thing I did read about this event was that police search a large number of people which in turn lead to a large number of arrests and was covered by BBC and ITV TV crews. This may have influenced their decision to change their direction, obviously people would be just as likely to do drugs at these future events but raves had bigger reputations for that sort of thing than clubs.

There were multiple arenas at this event, but just the hardcore sets that made it onto tape. Not the first time this had happened at an event but I understand there was more pressure to pay royalties to drum & bass producers who's tunes appeared on tapes so some promoters thought it wasn't worth the hassle.

I've gone with the Druid set for the simple fact it was the first tape I listened to and deemed it good enough to post plus the fact I don't think I've posted a Druid set yet.

The 2nd half of the set is very much geared towards Dutch and Scottish tunes, but interestingly around half way through the set he opts for "Juicy Cuts Vol.1" by Juicy Cuts rather than "Love U More" by Paul Elstak i.e. the English version which is more or less the same.

These are the new for 1995 tunes:

D.J. Mix It - Just Take Your Time

Uranus - Flowed On A Vibe

DJ Ham - Is Anybody Out There

Scott Brown with Bass-D & King Matthew - The People Love It

DJ Force & The Evolution - Simply Electric

Sonicdriver - Standing On Top

2 Left Feet - Reggy's Nightmare

Billy "Daniel" Bunter - Voyage

The Vampire - Clap 2 This

Juicy Cuts - Vol.2

I don't ever recall hearing "Flowed On A Vibe" by Uranus before. It's a Dutch record on the Druid set and I like it. Another record of note is "Simply Electric" by Force & the Evolution. To my knowledge it was the final Force & the Evolution record and there was a new mix in 1996 which was credited to Force & Styles.

Elsewhere we have HMS and Clarkee playing back to back which is as mad as it sounds. Also a Dougal and Vibes back to back set which would no doubt have been the first set I would have listened to back in the day. 

Also a Mastervibe set where he features a few drum & bass tunes. I would say proof the 2 genres could still mix together at the time, but I've read in an interview that Mastervibe always wanted to play drum & bass but resorted to hardcore sets because he struggled to get drum & bass bookings so this was clearly a statement of intent.

Dance Paradise @ Tiffanys, Great Yarmouth 22/04/1995

  

Brisk

This week sees us go to the East Coast with Dance Paradise in Great Yarmouth. They started off at a place just south of Great Yarmouth called Gorleston On Sea in 1990. They another event in Gorleston On Sea in 1991 but wouldn't have another event until 1993 which was at Tiffanys in Great Yarmouth.

Throughout their existence the bulk of their events were held in Great Yarmouth with the remaining ones held in nearby Lowestoft. In 1993 and 1994 they held events regularly, every week at times. By 1995 they became much more occasional.

This was the 2nd of 4 events in 1995. They had a further event in 1996 before stopping for over 18 months. When they returned in 1997 they became a house music promotor with a dress code but finally called it a day in 1998.

An 8 pack was released from this event which included both happy hardcore and drum & bass and also included 2 sets from Clarkee, one in the main arena and one in the techno room. 

Also included in the tape pack is a HMS tape which was before he started doing more extreme gabber music and still had it's overlaps with happy hardcore.

What does set the Clarkee and HMS sets apart though is their leaning towards Dutch and Scottish music. Both are mainly Dutch which I guess is appropriate given we're at one of the closest points of England to Holland. The HMS set contains no English records at all.

Elsewhere the Brisk set has more of an even split with the first half being Scottish and Dutch and the second half being English and this is why I've decided to post his set.

The rest of the happy hardcore set's are mostly English with the Seduction and Billy Bunter sets being 100% English.

After last weeks Helter Skelter only brought us 4 new for 1995 records, this event brought us a whopping 27:

E-Rick & Tactic - Move Dammit

Search & Destroy - Work It

Stingray & Sonicdriver – As Cold As Ice

El Bruto – Hypnotizing

Too Fast For Mellow - M.F. Bass In Your Face

Bertocucci Feranzano - Ravers Movement

Bass D & King Matthew ft. DJ XD - Hard As Hell

Stunned Guys - Fuck All

Stunned Guys - Country Crash

Psy-Quest - Sky High

Ultra-Sonic - 1,2,3,4

DJ Demand - Jump' In Pump' In

Sub Source - Cyber Source

DJ E-Rick & Tactic - It's Showtime

Dysector - Tempo Head

Marc Smith & Dave Murray - Over Me

Stingray & Sonicdriver - Power Of Darkness

Stingray & Sonicdriver - In The Name Of God

Smile - A Good Time

Simon C - Fuck You

Omar Santana - Phat Beats

Mass Hypnosis - Mind Controlling

Overlord vs Prince Of Darkness - Acid Thunder

DJ Edge - Bb6

Mercurial - I Get Lifted

Menace II Society - Get Down

DJ Pooch - Generator

The happy hardcore tune which got the most plays this night was "Happy Vibes" by The Scotchman which was played in 4 of the sets. This was one of the early new for 1995 tunes which made its debut at Tazzmania back in January.

With the drum & bass sets we go 1 better with 28 new for 1995 records:

Fallen Angels - Frequency

The Committee - Final Conflict

DJ Krust - Represent

Mask - Reese

DJ Krust - Poison

Stakka & K-Tee - After Hours

Source Direct - Fabric Of Space

Source Direct - Approach & Identify

JMJ & Richie - Universal Horn

Photek - The Seven Samurai

X-Files - Intensity

Ils & Solo - In The Area

Oblivion - Night Windows

PFM - One & Only

The Sentinel - Awakening

Lion Man - Wheel Up

DJ Shock C & DJ Ellis The Menace - On The Level

Rude & Deadly - Mash Dem Down

B-Jam - Gunshot Me Head

Redrose - Hotter Junglematical Style

Dr S Gachet & Audio Maze - The Dreamer

3 Thieves & A Liar - Feel So Good

B-Jam - Rukus

Easy Life - Untitled

Big Bud - Faceless

DJ Phantasy - Knowledge & Wisdom

R.N.M. - Jazzy Groove

Outcast - Protocol Roll

The most played record though is "Hearing Is Believing" by MA2 which appears in 3 sets. That's not the first time that's happened.

Despite there being so much new drum & bass at the time being played, the impression I get is this event leans a bit more towards happy hardcore given the line up.

For a start we have Phantasy and Swane on the tapes but not the flyer. They presumably replaced Randall and DJ Rap who were on the flyers but not the tapes. Whilst the remaining drum & bass DJs Ratty, Mastervibe, LTJ Bukem, Dr S Gatchet and GE Real were all pretty big, I feel it does lack a Hype or Grooverider to bring your drum & bass fan all the way to Great Yarmouth.

Funnily enough they did include drum & bass in the line up at their final event in 1998, but not happy hardcore.

I would say this event alone demonstrates just how quickly dance music was moving in the 90s. Even with the benefit of 27 years passing and the possibility of listening to sets from almost every week on the internet I'm finding just the new tunes from this event a lot to take in.