Blackdown > Southall > Back in the day > Shaka

blubeat

blubeat
Blackdowns recent blog post West goes East - a lovely rambling literary sojourn into Southall got me all misty eyed.

Southall was home to one of my early post acid clubbing venues when they moved Charlie Chester's "Passion" night (I think it was one of his nights) from a leafy suburb (Maidenhead?) to The Tudor Rose. Typical line-ups very Boys Own, Andy Weatherall, Terry Farley, Rampling, Oakenfold, Rocky & Diesel, etc. Anyone else reach this night?

I think I was last there in '89/'90 and one night we turned up after Passion had finished and walked straight into a bhangra-hip-hop-techno (think Asian Dub Foundation meets Fun-Da-Mental meets Shilpa Shetty) techno night where we were the only three white faces.

The night was amazing, the crowd were generous hosts to the lost looking white boys and I developed a life long love of Bhangra influenced music and Southall record shops. Southall in general in fact.

Imagine then, given my love of all things reggae, how big the smile on my face was when I found out that the next all night Shaka dance, on June 22nd is at The Tudor Rose, Southall!!

Big up Blackdown for the post, roll on the dance...
 

DRMHCP

Well-known member
Went to Passion a few times when it was still in Maidenhead (at Valbonnes which used to put on a lot of jazz/funk/soul nights on pre-88).
As far as I remember Judge Jules (!) was the main man at Passion I used to think it was more or less his night...when it was at Maidenhead anyway...never went to it when it was at Southall. Maidenhead area quite big at the very start of the acid scene...Johnny Walker used to do the East Arms at Hurley for a few years (playing jazz and soul) up to going out with Oakenfold etc to Ibiza in 1987 and of course Phil Perry was down the road at Full Circle on Sundays.
Then of course Sunrise (the big one...Midsummer Night) was at White Waltham airdrome (suburb of Maidenhead) with who else headlining but Judge Jules (and Carl Cox).I didn't even have a ticket for that one only time in my life ever blagged myself in anywhere!...but IMHO one of the best parties ever.

Incidentally there's an amazing video clip of that night on hardcorewillneverdie.com which as far as i'm concerned is the best bit of footage of a rave i've ever seen. I'd never seen this till a few months ago I didnt know any had been taken that night and after 18 years...well I don't think i've ever been so blown away by a bit of film...got quite emotional watching it! Even if you weren't there its well worth a look just to get a feel of the overloaded intensity of the whole thing...
 
Last edited:

blubeat

blubeat
Ah. Full Circle @ The Greyhound - that was proper Sunday business especially when followed by a Charlie Chester after party at Hammersmith Tube station...

And then there was also Yikes! @ Slough Centre - if you reached that then holla cos that was f***ing mentalness. Carl Cox, Fabio, Rampling, Weatherall all on the same community center stage long before the scene split in two.

Ohmidays Blackdown! See those platforms in the video? One of them collapsed and they all fell into the ground and stayed there, dancing, till about 11am the next morning when their shouts could be heard. As we left there was a single cop car and two officers bemusedly watching the proceedings. It was the beginning and the end. Thanks for that link!
 

Pulchritude

Active member
I was reading this article just the other day! I guess I'm far too young to have an opinion on most of the musical references in this thread but I just wanted to say that I love how the article presented Southall's vibrance and utter madness in such a fresh manner. I live near the Maidenhead/Slough side, so Southall's not too far from me and I've become accustomed to its intricacies, and this article just reminds me of how mental it can seem.
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
I gotta say one point about acid house/rave though.

When I started writing full time, which was about 1999, the dance media was just thick with these "it's not as good as it used to be" types. For someone who was both a) not there in 1988 and b) enthusiastic about new music, the weight of this constant myth creation/canonising of that era was suffocating and irritating. Hearing about someone's else's epic youth movement, that nothing now could ever touch, became too much.

After a while (which was the height of superclubs I might add) it made me react strongly against it, so that the recesses of early dark garage felt not only fresh and new but like the slate had been swept clean.
 

blubeat

blubeat
When I started writing full time, which was about 1999, the dance media was just thick with these "it's not as good as it used to be" types.
Them was whinging back in 1990 already! And 2-Step Fan will probably agree with me that the Dubstep dances over the last couple of years have been as big as acid house ever was. The difference is that the DMZ parties are as good and you dont *have* to take class a drugs ergo they are technically better! :)

@ DRMHCP - can you remember the name of the Saturday night club that ran at Valbonnes after Passion moved on? Been wracking my brains but the name just wont come...
 
Last edited:

matt b

Indexing all opinion
Them was whinging back in 1990 already! And 2-Step Fan will probably agree with me that the Dubstep dances over the last couple of years have been as big as acid house ever was.


acid house, yes. but no-where near as big as raves in summers of 1990/91, surely? unless my memory is completely fucked.
 

blubeat

blubeat
acid house, yes. but no-where near as big as raves in summers of 1990/91, surely? unless my memory is completely fucked.
I am not sure what I was saying really just in my opinion the DMZ dances and Dubstep in the last year has been comparable in sheer excitement factor. Big as in "wow" not "numbers" perhaps. Last year driving to DMZ I had to pull over and be sick I was so excited. That hasn't happened for a while!

edit:

evilofecstacy.jpg


http://www.fantazia.org.uk - timelines, press cuttings, flyers. Gosh, it really was a very long time ago eh?
 
Last edited:

DRMHCP

Well-known member
Yes had some mad ones at Slough Centre...in Farnham Road not far from that record shop which everyone used use to know as Slough Imports (forgot the real name) and which also went back into the dawn of time.
Can't help you with the name of the other night at Valbonnes I was up in town most of the time by then unless I was lost in the dark at Club X in High Wycombe (a club in a converted furniture factory which had a room so dark that it sometimes felt as though you'd never find the door again!) which was one of the only vaguely local clubs I went to by then. Went to some weird venues for less legal ones around that area though....disused football ground in Wycombe...busted before got going, one in some tunnels near the river Thames...and possibly weirdest of the lot in that it was vaguely above board an allnighter put on by some black geezers from Wycombe in a rugby club in Marlow...how the posh rugby club types allowed them to rent this place and run this party all night (well it was still going when I left at about 3) I'll never know...this was May 1989 in the full eye of the acid house horror storm too!

Yes it was all a long time ago (20 years nearly!) since to the bemusement of some the first people turned up at the Bournemouth Weekender with bandanas on etc think most of the rest of us there all still had flat tops or something then!Beer less than a pound a pint (in the south east!), come to think of it you still saw the odd pound note to pay for it and Brandon Block was just some lairy punter from Hillingdon or Hayes or somewhere ...and I sound like a 40 year old git reminiscing...
 

Pulchritude

Active member
Yes had some mad ones at Slough Centre...in Farnham Road not far from that record shop which everyone used use to know as Slough Imports (forgot the real name)
Slough Record Centre? I don't think there is actually any other independent record store in Slough. And even that seems to be closing: http://onthetrailofthegreat.blogspot.com/2007/04/rip-slough-record-centre.html

I live quite close to that area and I am actually very surprised that the Centre was a venue for any sort of notable musical events. Why was everything good before my time?! :(
 

sufi

lala
southall reminiscence...

word, sound & power at the community centre C1995:
3 sikh guys to the left, 3 dreads on my right, feeling out of place cropped & cleanshaven
 
Last edited:

DRMHCP

Well-known member
Slough Record Centre? I don't think there is actually any other independent record store in Slough. And even that seems to be closing: http://onthetrailofthegreat.blogspot.com/2007/04/rip-slough-record-centre.html

I live quite close to that area and I am actually very surprised that the Centre was a venue for any sort of notable musical events. Why was everything good before my time?! :(


Yes Slough Record Centre was the place was still using it till I came to Yorkshire sad to hear its closing down.
Before my time (and according to a couple of hoary old soul boys from our pub who used to come with us to the house do's) Slough Centre had also been the venue at turn of 70s/80s for its legendary Funk and Soul alldayers so yes it did have a bit of a history.
 
Top