DJ Smurf @ Walkers Nightclub. Newcastle, England - 31/12/1991

Here’s a mix of what I think I played the first time I played in a club and in front of an audience. Back in 1991/2, the rave scene in the UK was at its peek. It was a whole new generation and a movement of kids from all backgrounds, races and nationality’s, who came together at weekends to dance in clubs, fields and warehouses. The music was brand new, super fresh and exciting. 1991 was a big historic year for the rave scene in Newcastle. The mighty Rezerection party’s started and were a monthly occurrence in the Mayfair club. The Nocturnal outdoor all-nighters also were occurring in Cramlington. During this time, a weekly rave night was held in a club called Walkers in the heart of Newcastle. I was there almost every weekend, sometimes on a Friday & Saturday. I had a pair of Soundlab belt drive turntables and every Saturday I would visit Trax Records on High Bridge Street in Newcastle to spend my weekly YTS money on new tunes ... all £35 of it ! One of the resident DJ’s from Walkers (Mikey Roots) worked in the shop. He later went on to have a top ten hit with ’Negasaki’ under the name Ken Doh: Anyway - back to Walkers. On New Years Eve 1991 I was there with the usual crowd of mates and Mikey Roots was DJ’ing. The other resident DJ hadn’t turned up, so Mikey ask me and one of my mates, Olly, to play. Zoiks! Rob (The Robot from Rezerection) drove me home to pick up some records and we also stopped off at Olly’s house to pick up a box - It took some convincing his Mam that I had come to collect records for him to play in a club, as I didn’t know her ! Back at the club, I turned up with a red plastic Curver box with a selection of tunes. I’d never used Technics before and never DJ’d outside of my bedroom. I was terrified. My hands were shaking getting the first record out the sleeve and putting the needle on it. The mixing was terrible and I might of played something on 33 instead of 45. I can’t remember the exact tunes I played, but it was something like what I’ve put together in this mix. Trigger’s Stratosphere track remains one of my favourite tunes of all time. I sampled the rumbling bass in the first track I ever made ’Cockrot’: The set went down pretty well and one or two people who were there at the time still go on about hearing Everything Starts With An E. Enjoy .... E-Zee Possee - Everything Starts With An E Joey Beltram - Energy Flash Trigger - Stratosphere Destroyer - Senses Neon - Don’t Mess With This Beat (Instrumental) The R - Groove The Planet