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
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
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