Some Brixton Nights - 1994/95

A few flyers and memories from my many nights out in Brixton, 1994/95:

The Duke of Edinbugh on Ferndale Road SW9, with its large garden, was often the starting point for a Saturday night as it was here that we would gather to find out where parties were happening and then head off afterwards to some bus garage in Hackney or wherever. In the age before mobile phones this involved people running down to the phone box and calling a free party phone line where they would leave a message saying where to go.  Sometimes there was dancing in the pub itself too - this flyer for a 'Warmin' Up Mix' with 'deep underground house and garage' from DJs Zeki Lin, Igor and Brian.

 

There were loads of club nights at the Fridge on Brixton Hill at this time - gay club Love Muscle and various trance nights (Return to Source etc.) as that emerged as a separate sub genre. X-ClaimNation Co-op was I believe a split away from Megatripolis, the Thursday night psychedelic/techno/trance club held at Heaven. Not sure they lasted too long in that form but I went to the opening night at the Fridge at the end of May 1995. Like Megatripolis the music was supplemented with stalls offering massage, face painting, smart drinks etc. Bit too much flute playing for my taste at the time, but hey.

Club 414 at Coldharbour Lane was a longstanding Brixton nightspot, run I think by Louise Barron and Tony Pommell from the 1980s through to 2019. Nuclear Free Zone was associated with the Liberator DJs so very London acid techno sound, that club night itself was still going  15 years later (2009).   This flyer is from November 1994, 'future-techno-trance' from Liberators, Cloggi, Phidget etc.

Chris Liberator and Cloggi again at this Rub Harder night along with Chiba City Sound System, a December 1994 benefit for Crisis at Christmas. Venue was Taco Joe's, a two-roomed railway arch (no.15) on Atlantic Road. This was a great little venue, basically a Mexican restaurant that turned into a club until it lost its licence. Basement Jaxx started out there, with their first night in October 1994.

Shambhala Sound System also put on nights at Taco Joe's, this one in January 1995

The former dole office on Coldharbour Lane closed in 1992 and was soon squatted for parties. The original crew who occupied it were evicted but then it was resquatted by the Cooltan collective. Think this party was in August 1995: 'rave in your face and all over the place with Offshore, Megabitch (all 3 of them), Erase, Medeema, Apple B, Foetal, Ian (disorganisation). Cold taps turned on. Rave on. Hardhouse, techno, jungle'. Unusual for people in this scene to still be using the word 'rave' by this time. 'Cold taps turned on' is a reference to the dubious practice in some commercial clubs of turning off cold water taps in bathrooms so that people had to buy overpriced water from the bar. Bar proceeds were often down as people on other 'refreshments' weren't that interested in drinking alcohol.

See also:

1987: Dancing in Brixton and Beyond

Dead by Dawn, Brixton 1994-6

Summer Rites 1997: Lesbian and Gay free festival in Brockwell Park

Reclaim the Streets Party, Brixton 1998