Dj Huey, binni, Smokey Joe, spen, Yoz,

Liberty's in Birtley was surprisingly ahead of the curve and to see buses of people coming in from newcastle was amazing. I guess it was all down to timing. We went to the opening night in a suit and it was a classic 80s club. Then the djs, started playing this stuff.... And we were all in t-shirts and baggy jeans. Didn't last long of course, we were already avoiding it by late 89, chavs, drugs and ultimately a murder in 91 but it was brilliant for a while
 


This was more my forte, lowping about in Polo and a handful of Mr Freeze ice pops.
with Ashy, MC Turbo D Bethel :lol:.

Was at a 'event' a few months ago Bethel blitzed it much better than he's ever been.

Only went to AD2 a handful of times as I was only around 14 at the time :lol: The monkey / hangar was every other week tho from 2002 onwards, had some of the best times of my young life in those places and not one bit of bother to boot. Class times man.
 
It pains me to say it :D, but this man knows his onions ... when the music got harder the scene became a bit chavvy IMO and the cool kids bailed out for a while
Correct. I never set foot in the monkey when all the chavs took over with glowsticks and white gloves. Always preferred Chambers anyway. Quite happy chewing my lips off whilst going under the radar so to speak.
 
Was at a 'event' a few months ago Bethel blitzed it much better than he's ever been.

Only went to AD2 a handful of times as I was only around 14 at the time :lol: The monkey / hangar was every other week tho from 2002 onwards, had some of the best times of my young life in those places and not one bit of bother to boot. Class times man.
Another old mate goes to Spain with him and they lap it up, apparently. Not for me, but whatever. :)

I would've been 13/14 anarl.
 
Can anyone on here remember the week before the blue monkey changed into a rave club. Let me digress for those who may or may not have been there, but 1 or maybe 2 weeks before the blue monkey changed into a rave club there was another little known, but hugely packed out club just at the bottom of Mowbray rd called POGO. If memory serves well it had Justin Maugham, Yoz I think and Dj Spen for sure on it. The place was rammed out with a half split of the Havana folk and lots of out of towers. Well from being rammed first week, it had the blue monkey open up rave style or whatever and this POGO night just evaporated. What a shame as this had all the ingredients to be a great club. Does anyone on here remember it, or Number 13 further up the road with Nonky Norman on the decks.

You not like magic roundabout then ha

Got to be up on this

Real breakbeat for the purist


You've got your timings a bit mixed up, unfort mate. The Monkey was already a 'Rave Club', at this time.

"Pogo" (or was it Pogo Land) was at Rascals - Tatham St?. I'd say either Friday 19th or 26th 1991. Jus - E played LFO "We Are Back". 100% sure than neither Yoz nor Spen played, but Howie did. I spent most of the night, with my head, on a table. :eek::lol:. That party was a great one (aside from a good mate, saying he got a knife pulled on him, which was a first on me and obviously, something that sadly, would rear it's head elsewhere). They tried to do another party there on a Saturday night, but by this time, the Monkey was in full swing, so those who had tickets or were supposed to DJ, ended up coming along to the Monkey, instead.
Liberty's in Birtley was surprisingly ahead of the curve and to see buses of people coming in from newcastle was amazing. I guess it was all down to timing. We went to the opening night in a suit and it was a classic 80s club. Then the djs, started playing this stuff.... And we were all in t-shirts and baggy jeans. Didn't last long of course, we were already avoiding it by late 89, chavs, drugs and ultimately a murder in 91 but it was brilliant for a while

I bet it was sketchy in there, if you were an out of towner. a few pals used to go with people they'd met from walkers or rockshots, from washy. around the summer 91 time.
 
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You've got your timings a bit mixed up, unfort mate. The Monkey was already a 'Rave Club', at this time.

"Pogo" (or was it Pogo Land) was at Rascals - Tatham St?. I'd say either Friday 19th or 26th 1991. Jus - E played LFO "We Are Back". 100% sure than neither Yoz nor Spen played, but Howie did. I spent most of the night, with my head, on a table. :eek::lol:. That party was a great one (aside from a good mate, saying he got a knife pulled on him, which was a first on me and obviously, something that sadly, would rear it's head elsewhere). They tried to do another party there on a Saturday night, but by this time, the Monkey was in full swing, so those who had tickets or were supposed to DJ, ended up coming along to the Monkey, instead.


I bet it was sketchy in there, if you were an out of towner. a few pals used to go with people they'd met from walkers or rockshots, from washy. around the summer 91 time.
This all adds up , I never heard of that club as we bailed out in 91 for reasons stated
Steve Ellis was his name and he used to do the late eighties happy houses all over the town centre. Strobe light, or public works orange flashing one stolen most likely from the roads, a smoke machine and a set of belt drive cranked into a sound system or decent hi fi,,,agh bliss

Who were they as I might know them. I know pretty much everyone in and around the area who was into the owld house music.
We were dotted around sunderland , couple Barnes couple Grangetown but most of our group Thorney Close, if you were into the scene same time you’ll have known the faces
 
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Did anyone on this post go to any of the happy houses back in Sunderland circa 89. If so what do you remember from them. I just remember pile ins at random houses where there would be a room with a strobe light, smoke machine if you were lucky. Someone would be on the door taking money to get in. Just chocka blok and every now and again a bus,,,yes a bus would park up and around 50 or so people would add themselves to the party.
Another thing I would like to talk about is this one off event on toward Rd which went by the name number 13. A lad called Norman and perhaps Wardy were the Djson it. It was located in a basement and this particular night I was at the Havana where outside it was word of mouth there was a party on all nighter ( after dark no you weren’t the first ) well next thing I recall is this bus, a coach actually pulled up in boro and we all got on. Maybe 70 or more of us. We pulled up at toward rd and went downstairs into this basement and rocked our socks off. Sometimes when people talk of things like the blue monkey,after dark, venue etc they tend to forget that there was a huge scene u dergound going on already for years before these clubs even started. That’s how I remember it.
 
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House parties were the norm back then , but chambers def changed in late 1988 as was a wine bar playing mainly funk n soul n commercial stuff prior to that .
coujd be wrong but we didn’t visit Havana til late 89 and it hadn’t been open that long . Newcastle also has Walkers And club Africa
 
This all adds up , I never heard of that club as we bailed out in 91 for reasons stated

We were dotted around sunderland , couple Barnes couple Grangetown but most of our group Thorney Close, if you were into the scene same time you’ll have known the faces
To be fair with the passing of time a lot of things get mixed up, but the general point I was making was to inform some people who came onto the scene along with the blue monkey era have this opinion that this is where the scene began kind of thing, where I remember lots going on well before this. When the original raves and stuff late eighties were happening those who attended the monkey were either still at school or if a little older were going to clubs like bentleys where entry was only with restrictions on things such as having to wear a tie and dress trousers. I might get many things incorrect regards timeline, but the point remains.
House parties were the norm back then , but chambers def changed in late 1988 as was a wine bar playing mainly funk n soul n commercial stuff prior to that .
coujd be wrong but we didn’t visit Havana til late 89 and it hadn’t been open that long . Newcastle also has Walkers And club Africa
It was late 89 when I first went to Havana. To be honest when I went there it was on the back of some friends from Sunderland telling me how good it was. Jinja simma who was a very good mate of mine kept asking me for weeks to go to Havana. I was more than content going to chambers and didn’t understand why they all suggested Havana. One night I got asked and next thing I’m on a bus next to or on crow tree rd heading down to Havana. I got to Havana and had some party food, then all of a sudden the place went mental and everyone was facing the Dj booth and this lad who i later found to be MC Lee just started saying stuff on the mike. Everyone went nuts. Safe to say things changed that night and whenever I speak of those happy times I always go back to that one moment in time. Amazing. I’m pretty sure those that came after this era to clubs like the blue monkey also had this feeling, however I had my special moment in Havana and to me this is where I truly understood what this underground house movement was all about. All as one under one roof. Class.
 
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We (Peterlee pals, at the time) might have been invited to that one in toward rd, or ones that were happening, autumn / winter 90. but being 17 and having paid for a 0230 return back to Peterlee and wet behind the ears, we kindly turned the offer down. invited by norman, possibly.
 
To be fair with the passing of time a lot of things get mixed up, but the general point I was making was to inform some people who came onto the scene along with the blue monkey era have this opinion that this is where the scene began kind of thing, where I remember lots going on well before this. When the original raves and stuff late eighties were happening those who attended the monkey were either still at school or if a little older were going to clubs like bentleys where entry was only with restrictions on things such as having to wear a tie and dress trousers. I might get many things incorrect regards timeline, but the point remains.

It was late 89 when I first went to Havana. To be honest when I went there it was on the back of some friends from Sunderland telling me how good it was. Jinja simma who was a very good mate of mine kept asking me for weeks to go to Havana. I was more than content going to chambers and didn’t understand why they all suggested Havana. One night I got asked and next thing I’m on a bus next to or on crow tree rd heading down to Havana. I got to Havana and had some party food, then all of a sudden the place went mental and everyone was facing the Dj booth and this lad who i later found to be MC Lee just started saying stuff on the mike. Everyone went nuts. Safe to say things changed that night and whenever I speak of those happy times I always go back to that one moment in time. Amazing. I’m pretty sure those that came after this era to clubs like the blue monkey also had this feeling, however I had my special moment in Havana and to me this is where I truly understood what this underground house movement was all about. All as one under one roof. Class.
One of our group , Stevie Martin , often put buses on down to Boro from outside the Lesh . Lot of it changed after one of the later butterloggies when big lad called Herman got jumped and few of boros heavy lads tried it on outside , felt the love wasn’t there anymore :D
 
One of our group , Stevie Martin , often put buses on down to Boro from outside the Lesh . Lot of it changed after one of the later butterloggies when big lad called Herman got jumped and few of boros heavy lads tried it on outside , felt the love wasn’t there anymore :D
Didn’t big herman move to America or something.
 
good read threads like this about how the rave scene began. didn’t start going to raves till 2001 me, class reading how it all started tho, wish a was a few year older.
 
good read threads like this about how the rave scene began. didn’t start going to raves till 2001 me, class reading how it all started tho, wish a was a few year older.

always happy to share the knowledge and memories i have. bizarre that i can often tell you what tunes were played and by who, but ask me what i did yesterday? :lol:

one of my fondest memories was going through to sunderland during the day on a saturday and going round the clothes, record shops and the city centre. people would be hanging about, outside the bridges. you'd often see lads and lasses dressed similar to how you were and give people a smile or nod. there was a good chance that you'd then see the same people on the dancefloor that night and get talking etc.some friendships forged then, still hold strong now.
 
always happy to share the knowledge and memories i have. bizarre that i can often tell you what tunes were played and by who, but ask me what i did yesterday? :lol:

one of my fondest memories was going through to sunderland during the day on a saturday and going round the clothes, record shops and the city centre. people would be hanging about, outside the bridges. you'd often see lads and lasses dressed similar to how you were and give people a smile or nod. there was a good chance that you'd then see the same people on the dancefloor that night and get talking etc.some friendships forged then, still hold strong now.
I’m the same. Best days of my life. Alternating between Sunderland, Durham and Newcastle for records and clothes.
 

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