Sven Vath @ The Omen 1992.

Oh go on then.


Another banging Sven Vath mix.


Enjoy.


http://www.mediafire.com/?4d4z9bqk111d7q4

Sven Vath @ The Omen 1991.

Continuing on the present Techno tip.  Here is a 40 mix from Sven Vath at one of the most famous Techno clubs ever.


Enjoy.


http://www.mediafire.com/?hzo3n7yxwbumb6a

69 - Desire

One of the greatest Techno / breakbeat records ever. Totally influenced Josh Winxs higher state years before that was made.

To anyone who has ever said that Techno has no emotion. Listen to this and weep.

Enjoy.

Daz Saund Mayday 1995.

Here is another banging Techno mix by the mighty Trade / Troll legend Daz Saund.  By 1995 Daz had left his residencies at at Trade, Troll and Garage.  He was pretty playing solely on the straight techno scene by this stage.


He was revered highly in countries like Germany and Holland.  


Enjoy.


http://www.mediafire.com/?9e1om1jrm87ij8i

Daz Saund @ Trade 1992.

Its feels like ages since I posted anything Trade related on here.  So in honour of the Queen of clubs I have a cracking mix for you all.


Its a full on hardcore / techno fest by one of the original residents Daz Saund.  This is a really rare set so I'm pleased as to have got it to post.  Thanks again to Brian for sorting this one out.


This mix is 20 years old.  What a piece of history?


http://www.mediafire.com/?2o0op7f34hpec7c


Enjoy.

Trannies with Attitude @ Vague 1993.

Its the final day on the Vague tribute week.  Here is a very rare live set from T.W.A.  Its not the best recording quality due to its age.  


Part A
http://www.mediafire.com/?o195zq6159d6aoy


Part B
http://www.mediafire.com/?n7sv3ebdqgrgrry


Enjoy

Paul Fryer Interview Part 3.

Please explain a bit about Vagues music policy. Although some seem to associate it with the 90s Handbag scene. Especially towards the end it was more aligned with the likes of the FF and Trade Techno / Nu Energy scene. And of course the anything goes attitude upstairs.

Well we started off playing disco and house. Then we discovered the more vocal handbaggy stuff. then we found more 'out there' things. Then it went a bit American. Then we went hard as fuck.


There was about a 3 / 4 year period when TWA were massive in the 90s. Guest slots at massive clubs like the Zap in Brighton and CD compilations (Tesco on React Records my own favourite). Then TWA seemed to disappear. What happened?

We stopped. Stopped DJing, stopped remixing, stopped it all. Nick's job was very demanding of his time. I could have found a new partner for TWA but I couldn't be bothered anymore. It was old. I'd had enough. We'd played everywhere, twice. I'd done it all. The life was wearing me out. It's an incredibly unstable lifestyle. And I didn't like the music biz, I'd been in there before and had no desire to return.
I was always an artist, and I wanted to be an artist. But in fact it was 9 more years from the end of vague til I finally did what I wanted to do.

What are you doing nowadays?

I make art all the time. Sculptures, paintings, prints, whatever. I try to make beautiful, meaningful things. The world is full of ugliness and sadness and I'm trying to make something worthwhile. In that respect, nothings changed.

What would be your ultimate night. Please name DJs, live acts, venue etc.

The freefall disco I booked Princess Julia to do, one morning in the hotel after the club. We just need a space station, a huge sound system and the vaguerants. As we were then, please.

Vague was such a unique club. The upstairs and downstairs rooms had their own identities. How did this come about and did you ever DJ upstairs?

I did, many times. The upstairs was a development of the Kit Kat Club.

Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7mpgKs82Rw

Any regrets?

Yes, but too few to mention. We all make mistakes, and we were no exception at vague. The club ended badly, it was a sad end to an amazing meteor of a journey, but what else could a meteor do but crash and burn? It's a kind of regret, but I did my best, and as the song says, noone can do more. I miss the people, and the good times, but my life is different now, and amazing in a different way. Sometimes I wonder what might have happened if Suzy and I had carried on, but it's only curiosity. I expect in a parallel universe they are still together, that couple, and they have a whole different set of problems, trials and memories. It was an amazing privilege to be where I was for that time, and with those amazing, crazy, beautiful people. I still know many of them and my overwhelming memory of all of them now is one of love.

I'll finish with a poem I wrote when vague fell apart. It was published in a book I made in 2002 called "Don't Be So". Appropriately I transcribe it here from memory, because I don't have a copy.


A MEMORY OF LOVE

Some feelings are short and always in transit
they strobe, flimsy and automatic
the tin can light of a flickering fluorescent
we greet them as truths, and find out too late

others, more like background radiation
contain the codes of origins
the after image of the flash
that showed our lonesome bones
in one ghostly x-ray instant

do you see what I mean?
do you know what a long ball love plays?
arcing over the grand empty stadia of our lives
and waiting to fall; like little boy, or fat man
or the way we fell, when it all began
before the fat lady sang.

I don't always know what to say
but I do know how to say it
softly at first, rising gently to lilt and sway
folding back into our welling hearts
warming, rosy, reliable as a daybreak

Just think of all the times we've had
that are now only ours
and all the memories amassed
that we cannot change
and when you do, I'll be there
and so will you
And we always, always will be.

Paul Fryer

Curtis Zack @ Vague Leeds.

Here we have a rare live recording from Vague in Leeds.


Enjoy.


http://www.mediafire.com/?cha4jqai2a71bpe

Paul Fryer Interview part 2.

Favourite 90s tunes?

Too many, too confusing. Arrgh.


Favourite Vague tunes?

Neuromancer, Read My Lips, Big Time Sensuality


How did TWA come about?

We (Suzy and I) had a club called the Kit Kat, and a number of gay men (and women) had started to come to the club because it was very cool and friendly. The management didn't like it and warned us off 'running a gay bar in their venue' I think they thought it might put off the footballers they wanted to bring in. So we all dressed up one week as a protest. Nick and I DJ'd in drag as part of the event. We'd been to Flesh and Kinky Gerlinky so we loved the whole drag thing and the glamour of those nights; as such is wasn't alien to us. But the managemt were not amused and we were kicked out of the venue as a result. After that Nick and I were offered a gig as TWA at Venus by James Baillie, so we did it. The rest is history.


Who were your your favourite guest DJs at Vague?

I loved Phil Faversham, but he was a resident really. He was as good as anyone, technically, in every way really. As I said though most of the guests were great DJs and were able to adapt to the vague crowd. this meant pushing it a bit, up and down, not just playing a ramp or flat with a few peaks. They liked it bumpy. We loved Eric Powell. Someone like Smokin Jo was amazing to look at as well as dance to. Tim Lennox, great. Chris and James, Luvdup, Sister Bliss, Fat Tony...I feel bad mentioning any cos there really were so many great turns.


What DJs did you want to play at Vague but never got?

Jimmy Saville and Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel (seriously, we tried)


Any standout Vague nights / moments?

Well if you have a look at the vague leeds warehouse page on facebook you'll see there were alot of standout nights. But Vera's Garden Party was a memorable one...we erected a marquee above the dancefloor and turfed the inside of the club...vera duckworth came and sand a medley of stevie wonder songs from a small cardboard boat whilst nick and I moved waves on sticks. We were dressed as flies.
Also the beach party. We put 11 tonnes of moroccan beach sand on the dancefloor. You couldnt dance but it was fun. We didnt tell anyone we were doing it. We just said "bring your swimwear next week". I think people thought we were going to do a foam party. haha. how wrong they were.


What made Vague so special?

Firstly vague was created by artists. I met Suzy at art college. Three of the visual staff were artists. vague really came out of art. The Kit Kat Club was an art orientated environment, and vague was born from that. people can say "oh that arty stuff it's meaningless" but it isn't ; art is in some ways the engine of human perception. Just as we rely on electricity for light, art is what lights our spirit, and it has done since we lived in caves. Artists first showed the human race that we have a history and a narrative; before cave drawings noone understood this. So in a way that's what we tried to do. We helped the people who came to the club realise that they had a story, and a role to play in life. That they were not worthless, despite what people might have said to them. That they had a right to be there. Practically this meant attention to detail, and a very visual as well as sonic ethos. And an attitude of "how can we improve" rather than "how can we make more money". And so the club was centred around the people that attended rather than the people that ran it.
The second thing was the door policy and the idea of a mixed club that was a safe environment for gay men and single women. Every great club I'd ever been in had a tolerant attitude to 'different' people and we wanted to enshrine that in vague's constitution. In fact, it was our policy to attract people who felt themselves to be or were in fact different. Artists know what it's like to be on the outside. It can be a lonely and dangerous place.
So in the end, believe it or not, vague was an intellectual club as much as it was a physical one. It was born of specific ideas, and the implementation of those ideas. Not that we knew what the outcome would be, we didn't. In retrospect it was an experiment. And we ourselves were some of the subjects of that experiment.

Trannies With Attitude Essential Mix 1994.

As part of Vague tribute week I am posting a link to one of the best Essential Mixes ever.  




Tracklist.

TWA - "The Tongy Chair Fracas" (Charlie Girl)

Disco Biscuit - "Disco Biscuit" (Higher State)

Johnny Vicious Vs MSFB - "Theme From Soul Train '94" (Network)

Deadly Sins - "We Are Going Down" (ffrr)

DJ Breaks Sampler - "1 Uear Anniversary Issue" (Bust A Groove)

Lisa B - "You & Me" (ffrr)

The Residents - "Kaw-Liga" (Torso)

TWA - "Trainspotter Scarface Death" (Charlie Girl)

Madam JoJo - "Airplane 666" (Charlie Girl)

TWA - "TWA Theme" (React)

Tinman - "18 Strings" (white Label)

Massimo Alberti - "Say It Again" (white Label)

The Flavour - "Superfly" (U-Bahn)

Hed Boys - "Boys & Girls" (Seka)

The Flavour - "Get Your Hands Off My Man" (U-Bahn)

Patra - "Workerman" (Epic)

Dave & Ansil Collins - "Double Barrel" (Trojan)

Air Liquid - "If There Was No Gravity" (Rising High)

Biosphere - "Phantasm" (R&S)

Airscape - "Cruising" (Save The Vinyl)

X-Press 2 - "London X-Press" (Junior Boys Own)

The Flavour - "E.P." (U-Bahn)

Chris & James - "Calm Down" (Stress)

Subliminal Cuts - "Le Voie Le Soliel" (XL)

The Muppets - "The Muppet Show" (Pye)

Bobby & Betty - "Go To The Moon" (Happy House)

Vague - "Nothing Is Enough" (Drum)

Chapter 9 - "Roller Coater" (Ouch)

Soundsation - "Peace & Joy" (ffrr)

Bjork - "Big Time Sensuality" (One Little Indian)

New Order - "True Faith" (Factory)

Michael Jackson - "Billie Jean" (Swemix)

TWA - "Money" (Charlie Girl)


http://www.mediafire.com/?l21bjt4181h07ng

Enjoy.

TWA - Nasty Girls (Sonic Conditioning Mix)

Another cool mix of this track.

Paul Fryer (T.W.A) interview part 1.

This week its all about one of the most ground breaking nights ever.  Vague in Leeds.  Paul Fryer who was one half of Trannies With Attitude (residents and co promoters of the club) has kindly agreed to be interviewed.

Paul Fryer interview part 1.

What clubs did you play at?

We had been at one time or another residents at The Zap (Brighton), Golden (Stoke), Sankey Soap (Manchester), Nice (Newcastle), Tall Trees (Middlesboro), Passion (Leicester) The Ministry of Sound (London), Trash (Sheffield), Paradise Factory (mcr), Lakota (Bristol), Venus (Notts) and many others...it was a long time ago so I forget...and we played just about every other significant club in the UK between 1993-1997.

What were your favourite clubs to visit?

Venus, nice, golden was always mental, the zap, trash...actually there were very few we didn't enjoy.

Favourite DJs?

The late Sir James Saville OBE, Ralph Lawson, David Jacobs, Nickelle, Gaz Mayall, John Peel. Of the house DJs we played with I would have to say again that they were mostly fucking brilliant.

Favourite remixers?

...from back in the day Skylab, Arthur Baker, Armand V H, Rollo, Hardfloor...but these days I have to be honest and say that i haven't got a clue.

Favourite producers?

George Martin, Norman Smith, Martin Hannet, Eno, David Byrne, Shep Petitbone, Youth, Rupert Hine...too many to list really. I also really respect musicians who produce themselves. Unless it sounds poo.

Favourite own productions / remix?

Disco Biscuit, Nasty Girls Sonic Conditioning Mix, some of the Bazooka Joe records, some of the stuff I did when I worked for Fendi (1999-2004)

Favourite record labels?

Harvest, Decca, Parlophone. They are just so evocative.

Disco Biscuit - TWA Remix - 1993 - Vague CLASSIC !

One, if not the biggest tunes played at Vague.

The Kit Kat Club: Leeds 1992

Next week I will be dedicating the blog to all things Vague. There will be a fantastic interview with Paul Fryer. Along with an amazing poem and some rare mixes from the club.

Here is a little bit of pre-Vague history to wet your appetite.