I wasn't there for 92 and so on (too young!) but I did attend Metalheadz at the Blue Note a number of times from late 1996 through to the summer of 1997 - I was only 16 at the time so was not a regular by any means (hard to go clubbing on a Sunday night when you have school the next day!), but I did go maybe 10 times over that time period. Given how baby-faced I was at the time, it's a minor miracle I was let in at all (our strategy was to go early before it filled up). It's a night that has become quite famous over time, and the subject of many gauzy reminiscences (
see here, for example). By the time I went it was already into the mythology period, that this was the place to go to hear the freshest dubplates and the most forward-thinking music.
A few of my memories:
Hoxton on a Sunday night in the mid-90's was
dead. You'd get off the tube at Old Street and there was no one around - this was years before the area became hipster central, let alone before it became its current incarnation of the natural roosting ground for hooting meatheads.
The experience was intensely physical in so many respects. The dancefloor was super tiny, so as soon as it was busy you were more or less compressed into a dancing meatloaf with everyone else. The speakers were massive and, given the size of the room, they were right there. You didn't just hear the music, you experienced it. Your sternum shook and your nostrils flapped as if in a bass hurricane. Yet the sound was also clear and crisp. As a 16 year old, it was an incredible thing to experience music where you could hear every element clearly, even at brain-altering volume. Previously I had been dragged by friends to the odd indie or metal gig where the sound would be loud but usually also very muddy. By this point I was also very big into dnb, buying tape packs regularly and listening to pirate radio, and I heard stuff at Metalheadz that I didn't hear elsewhere for months to come, if ever. Every time I went my mind would be blown by the selections, which got harder and more intense as the night went on. I am pretty sure it was usually Grooverider playing last when I went (I think Doc Scott was last at least once when I was there), and his sets were always a journey into sheer robotic madness.
I know that 96 techstep is not as iconic these days as 92-94, but I still feel really privileged that I got to experience Metalheadz at the Blue Note.