In the summer of 1988 rave exploded in the UK. Youngsters across the country, one nation under a groove – and the effects of ecstasy – trance danced to the 4 / 4 kick drum of house music all night long. The eclecticism of Ibiza, the Balearic beat, which had helped spark this musical revolution moved back underground. 

Shoom and Future both closed in 1990. Many of the itinerant Brits who’d experienced Amnesia firsthand in `87 –  nicknamed  “The Amnesiacs” by ID magazine – disillusioned, simply hit the road again. Lighting out for new lives in destinations such as California, Goa and Thailand. 

Nicky Holloway took the money he’d made running events at The Astoria – Trip, then Sin and Made On Earth – and invested in his own club, The Milk Bar. Located just behind The Astoria, at 12 Sutton Row, the Milk Bar opened in April 1990. It was a small, 2-300 capacity, but bespoke venue modeled after the Korova Milk Bar in Anthony Burgess’ “A Clockwork Orange” – and Stanley Kubrick’s film of the novel. 

The club decor was the work of George Georgiou. An interior designer, Georgiou got involved in London’s club scene in the mid-1980s when he helped to produce flyers, membership cards, posters and wall-hangings for Oliver Peyton’s club, RAW – where the DJs were Dave Dorrell and Rob Milton. 

In ’86 Holloway recruited Georgiou to do the same for his Special Branch events, such as those held at Lords Cricket Ground and the Natural History Museum. Georgiou was also in charge of design for all of Holloways ventures at The Astoria: The Trip, Sin and Made On Earth (1). 

Danny Rampling had also employed Georgiou to do the designs for Shoom. Rampling lifted the club’s famous smiley face logo from renowned stylist, and Georgiou’s flyers had the co-opted circular grins raining down like a shower of ecstasy tablets.

For The Milk Bar, in a reaction against the day-glo of acid house, Georgiou produced an all-white scheme. Clean, simple lines, and billowed, harem-like drapes. The dance-floor consisted of white tiles (a little treacherous if a drink had been spilt). Managed by Chris Fanning, and later Tina Arena, the club was open most nights of the week. On Fridays you could dance to Paul Oakenfold, on Saturdays, Pete Tong and Dave Dorrell. FUBAR (Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition) rounded off the weekend, with Lisa Loud and Brandon Block DJing for the headstrong on Sunday nights. 

Interior shots of The Milk Bar taken from Cynthia Rose’s Design After Dark.

Arguably the most “Balearic” event at The Milk Bar, however, was Monday’s Recession Session. The resident DJ was initially Darren Emerson, who would a little later find worldwide fame as a member of the band Underworld. Emerson would spin sides such as the Orbital Dance Mix of The Orb’s “A Huge Ever Growing Pulsating Brain That Rules From The Centre Of The Ultraworld”.

Darren Emmerson Recession Session Smashes

(As remembered by Phil Mison)

Bassheads / Is There Anyone Out There?

Brother Beyond / The Girl I Used To Know (Red Zone Mix)

Coco, Steel & Lovebomb / Feel It

Grace Jones / Slave To The Rhythm

Leftfield / Not Forgotten (all mixes)

React 2 Rhythm / Intoxication (Leftfield Mix)

Renegade Sound Wave / Thunder

System 7 / Habibi

Thompson Twins / The Saint (Morales Red Zone Dub)

Yothu Yindi / Treaty

In September 1991, Phil Mison guested in the warm-up slot, and stayed there through `92 until the club’s closure in the spring of `93. Mison explains how he landed this, what was his first club gig: 

“I’d come home from Ibiza and decided to make a tape – after hearing Jose Padilla play his first season at the Cafe del Mar. If wasn’t for this tape I probably would never have ended up DJing at all. I had a few “Cafe” sounding records, so I went round my friend Joanne’s to do this mix. I gave a copy to another mate Tony, who was an old friend of Darren’s. Darren heard the tape in Tony’s car and asked if I wanted to play some records at his night at the Milk Bar. The first records that I remember playing that Monday were Bryan Ferry’s “Nocturne”, William Orbit’s “Riding To Rio”, Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s “Air”. After that it was a bit of a blur, fuelled by bottles of Beck’s and vodka jello shots, but I vaguely remember Hong Kong Syndikat’s “Too Much” and E.V.O.E’s “Este Amor” (2).

As Underworld and his career took off, Emerson left and was replaced by Paul Harris (3), while Holloway expanded the Milk Bar brand, opening bars in other cities, and exporting it back to Ibiza. However, the expansion proved too much and too quickly, and eventually resulted in bankruptcy. 

Ten From Phil Mison’s Recession Secession 

Blood Brothers / Transfusion

Flow / Another Time (Universal Mix)

Martine Girault / Revival

Kwanzaa Posse – Wicked Funk

Les Negresses Vertes / Sous Le Soleil de Bodega

Little Annie / I Think Of You (Part II)

William Orbit / The Last Lagoon

Piece / Free Your Soul

Sade / Love Is Stronger Than Pride (Mad Professor Mix)

Phillipe Saisse / God Son Paris

Holloway and The Milk Bar also hosted Danny and Jenni Rampling’s new Wednesday night party, Pure Sexy, which was later re-branded as Glam. Rampling describes both ventures as “rehab” – a move away from the excesses of acid house, and both were also Jenni’s idea – inspired by the jet set glamour of Ibiza’s Pacha. The playlist for these parties was largely house. A mixture of both US and European sounds – Danny, for example, championed the productions of New York’s Clivillés & Cole. Pure Sexy, however, also showcased Danny’s rock / dance crossover remixes produced for the independent label, Creation Records. 

Rampling’s Creation Remixes 

Hypnotone / Dream Beam

Love Corporation / Palatial

Miranda Sex Garden / Gush Forth My Tears

Pressure Zone / Johannesburg

Sound Of Shoom / I Hate Hate

(Rampling also crossed over with work for pop acts such as The B52s, The Beloved, Big Audio Dynamite, Electronic, and Erasure)

One of the original residents at The Rampling’s Shoom was Liverpudlian Steve Proctor – a DJ with a considerable history in his hometown, were he’d been DJing and promoting at gigs from the late 70s. Cutting his teeth through the post-punk and new romantic movements. Proctor had later been a resident at the city’s The State nightclub, alongside Andy Carroll and Mike Knowler. When the Ramplings relocated Shoom to the YMCA, however, they parted ways with Proctor, and instead hired Mark Moore. Proctor, instead, remained south of the River Thames, and at Shoom’s former home, Southwark Street’s Fitness Centre, where he hosted his own parties. Named Promised Land – after the Joe Smooth song – they took place every Saturday throughout 1989. 

Legend has it that the copy of Dan Hartman’s “Vertigo / Relight My Fire” that Rampling would use to ignite the Shoom dance floor, actually belonged to Proctor. Said Dan Hartman tune was certainly an anthem at Promised Land, with the whole club miming a rising rush of wind during the track’s climatic breakdown. It’s also highly probable that the copies of Pete Wylie’s “Sinful”, and It’s Immaterial’s “Driving Away From Home” played at Shoom, also belonged to Proctor – given both artists were fellow Liverpudlians. Proctor’s sets at Promised Land covered a lot of musical ground – combining disco, hi-nrg, house – from Italy, the UK and the US – new beat, pop B-sides, rock, techno, and plain weird shit. His “set piece” mixes were MARRS’ “Pump Up The Volume” with Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill”, The Maxx’s “Cocaine” with Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines”, and Mac Thornhill’s “Who’s Gonna Ease The Pressure” with The Latin Age’s “Esta Loca”. 

PROMISED LAND PLAYLIST 

(Promised Land featured the usual mix of house and Balearic favourites, but these are just some of the tunes that, at the time, made the party stand out)

Alan Parsons Project / Mammagamma

Animotion / Obsession

Chilly / For Your Love

Jimmy Cliff / Wonderful World

Eruption / Cant Stand The Rain (88 remix)

Figures On A Beach / You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

Frankie / Rage Hard (Young Person’s Guide To The 12”)

Marshall Hain / Dancing In The City

Holly Johnson / Love Train (Frankie Knuckles Mix)

Keyboards Affair / Tubular Bells

Mai Tai / History

NT Gang / Wam Bam

Out Of The Ordinary / Play It Again (The Los Niños Mix)

Pink Project / Another Brick In The Wall

Rofo / Rofo’s Theme

Rose Royce / RR Express

Ram Jam / Black Betty

T99 / Invisible Sensuality

Also south of the river were the parties thrown by the promotions company, Fascination. One of these was a monthly all-day event, which took over The Downham Tavern, a large 1930s pub located on the border of Bromley and Catford. Through 1989 and 1990 The Tavern’s huge – aircraft hanger-like – adjoining live venue would be plunged into darkness during the day – lit only by an extravagant laser show. The headline DJ was Tony Wilson – an original “Amnesiac”, and acquaintance of Oakenfold’s. Wilson had been organising warehouse parties out towards the east of the city, using Carl Cox’s sound system, and he was one of the DJs that Oakenfold rotated at Spectrum / Land Of Oz. 

Wilson’s playlist featured many Alfredo / Leo Mac classics, but was skewed towards English pop – catering to his predominately white working class crowd. Alongside Amnesia anthems, such as Elkin & Nelson’s “Jibaro”, favourites included chart hits by bands such as Fleetwood Mac, The Pretenders and Wang Chung. One of Wilson’s signature tunes was a piece of “classical disco”, “La Serenissima” by Rondo Veneziano. The all-dayers` attractions included  a gyroscope, and fireworks would be set off to the sound of A Spilt Second’s “Flesh”. 

Another notable “Balearic beat” DJ on the Downham Tavern bill was Andy Nicholls. Andy was a regular at Future, Shoom and Spectrum, and also spun at a weekly Fascination party held at Bonnies Bar in Bromley Hill. 

On Fridays Wilson could be found DJing further east, where he hosted a night called Adrenalin – first at Goochi’s near Victoria Park, then at Echoes, in Bow, both in Tower Hamlets. Andy Swallow presided over Saturdays at the same venue, at the more house-y, Pasha. Swallow had ties to the pirate radio station, Centreforce, and West Ham United Football Club (4). Fascination followed Millwall. Drinking in the local pubs, waiting for Echoes to open, you could expect to be visited by balaclava-wearing paramilitary men, demanding you put a few quid in their “charity” collection tin. 

Downham Tavern Playlist 

(Again, as with Promised Land, the soundtrack to the Downham Tavern all-dayers included loads of house and Balearic classics, but, to my ears at least, the sounds were skewed towards British pop)

Bangles / Walk Like An Egyptian 

Belouis Some / Imagination 

Kate Bush / Running Up That Hill 

Phil Collins / In The Air Tonight

The Cult / She Sells Sanctuary

The Cure / Why Can’t I Be You / Hot Hot Hot

Fleetwood Mac /  Big Love / Tusk

Freda / I Know There’s Something Going On

Happy Mondays / Hallelujah

Koto / Visitors

Laidback / White Horse

George Michael / Faith

Monsoon / Ever So Lonely

Pretenders / Don’t Get Me Wrong

Chris Rea / Josephine

Scarlet Fantastic / No Memory

Simple Minds / Theme For Great Cities & Don’t You Forget About Me 

A Split Second – Flesh

Talk Talk – It’s My Life

Tears For Fears / Shout & Sowing The Seeds Of Love

Then Jericho / The Motive

Thrashing Doves / Sympathy For The Devil & Jesus On The Payroll 

Wang Chung / Dancehall Days

The Waterboys / Whole Of The Moon

Woodentops / Why

Yazoo / Don’t Go

Notes

1. Holloway was also hosting a night called “IN” at Subterrania, in Ladbroke Grove. 

2. Mison would soon befriend Jose Padilla, after meeting him in London’s TAG Records, and began assisting him with his residency at Ibiza’s Cafe del Mar in the summer of 1993. Mison is a DJ who remains committed to the eclecticism of the original Balearic beat and records under the aliases Ambala and Cantoma.

3. Harris would find fame as a member of Dirty Vegas.

4. Matt Trollope recently published a book that comprehensively covers all of Centreforce’s adventures. 

References 

Conversations with Roger Beard, Elizabeth Harris,  Lisa Loud and Phil Mison.

Luke Bainbridge’s Acid House: The True Story

Cynthia Rose’s Design After Dark

Matt Trollope’s Centreforce

Several flyers and membership cards are snapshots from Rob Ford’s Members Only.