Whilst going through the daily process of logging into various message accounts, work email,
Discogs,
Facebook etc - and rarely
finding much of note, it was really refreshing to find a message in my
Facebook by my Conspiracy Worldwide homeboy
Nasir Montana. A big fan, and now player in the world of pirate radio, he had very kindly upped an old tape of mine from about 1992 when I
dj-ed on Saturday night's on Sheffield Community Radio (
SCR).
What made it really special for me was that after doing something close to 400 shows between 1991 and 1999 I had virtually no documented evidence of ever being on air - no tapes, no files. So at last I will have something to play my daughter, although I doubt she'd feel the vibe ;-)SCR along with its sister station Fantasy FM was seminal in bringing unheard black and underground music to the streets and alleyways of South Yorkshire. So much were their appeal that they
regularly hosted packed out nights across the city and surrounding area.
SCR run from the 80s until the mid late 90s when it became
increasingly difficult to avoid the authorities, find decent loyal and talented
djs and compete against the growing number of legalised shows playing the same music.
SCR was
particularly important due to it's connection with the local community, and played everything from dub reggae, to lover's rock to R n B. My show
focused on what I was playing at the time, which was pretty mental listening to this recording. I was the only DJ on SCR to play rave, due to the reggae focus, my desire for overtime allowed me to cross polinate across the station, eventually slipping in my first and second loves of hip hop and house music.
Obviously I sound about 17 years younger and three stone lighter. 18 years on from my first show on Hardcore FM, before moving on for the full duration with Fantasy FM - which went on to become legendary in the rave
community across Yorkshire and East Midland.
DJs such as
Asterix and Space (
Chris Duckenfield,
Easy D and MC Rush, Mongoose, DJ Dream, Desi, and many more including later one our very own
Fatty G created a
serious buzz playing cutting edge breaks, techno, house and hardcore.
If you want to catch me now playing old school hip hop and realted genres - tune into
Conspiracy Worldwide 8-10 gmt, Friday nights. Tune in or drop out.
Hopefully there is a part two in the pipeline (it's taken from a tape).
Download it from
HERE
