The Happy2bHardcore DJ and Rave Legend
I have worked out a deal with a publisher to see my memoirs released in print, e-book and audio book (read by me!).
I look forward to sharing more details about what the book is and the title in the coming months.
I’m really excited about telling my story.
Check back to my website for more updates as I have them.
In 2009 I took a month and wrote all day everyday to capture my memoirs of my rave career.
I then saved the file and 10 years passed.
A few weeks ago I re-opened the file for the first time and was hit with the power of the words on the screen. No wonder it took all of this time, 10 years later and 20 years after the events portrayed in the book. There was too much trauma for me to deal with. It’s taken 20 years to be able to tell my story.
I’ve committed myself to finish my memoir project and finish it now. I’m about finished the second draft. After that it gets handed to an editor. Some time after that it will be published.
The thing that I asked myself now was the “why?”. Why did I do it? Why would someone go through everything I went through? I had the answer – you. The ravers. You inspired and motivated me at every point.
And I have an amazing tool to pull from – all of my emails dating back to the mid 1990s. I started to go through them. Your voices will now be in the book. Why what I did mattered to you, how it affected you.
I’ve often said these memoirs will be my last contribution to the scene. I’m going to be proud to share such a document. An honest review of an incredible time. No one knows what it was like to experience those intense highs and intense lows that I went through.
Please keep an eye on my page for further updates about this.
Hullabaloo’s Rush Hour in 1998 was when Hullabaloo officially became a rave juggernaut. It was the 8th Hullabaloo, and everything that had come before was distilled into 1 perfect rave. Logistical issues with crowds were handled by it being the first Hulla that sold all tickets in advance and none sold at the door (first of many sold out events). It was the first time we re-used a venue, which let us build on what we learned the first time. The fan base was growing more and more, “Hulla Ravers” were more defined. I consider Rush Hour the first perfect rave we had, with more to come.
I also reflect on how young I was then, and what I had built at such a young age. It’s pretty humbling to look back on.
I’m also reminded how “new” everything we were doing was. New types of events, new type of music, new experience. We weren’t recreating “disco” from 20 years prior. This was a brave new world.
Here is some live video from my set that night:
This is a capture from VHS of my historic set at Hullabaloo! Big Top, February 1999. Over 5000 ravers packed a sold out International Centre just outside Toronto, Canada. This was a kick off of the rave era’s “Summer of Love”, the arguable peak of the rave scene in 1999.
Something about the quality (from VHS), the washed out colors, makes it seem just as much the dream as what is in my head.
The entire audio recording of this set is available by clicking this link.
I just pulled out a tape from a box in my garage and posted it on Youtube. It was shot at the 2002 edition of the World Electronic Music Festival. It really captures the energy and magic of my sets of that time, but this recording is even more special because it captured when I proposed to Robin on stage in front of everyone. I remember someone telling me they thought the tent was going to explode from all the PLUR.
It’s special now to reflect on this. Until now, this only existed in the memories of everyone there. I’m glad I have the tape to share now.
November 21, 2018 update: I have uploaded all shows through to the end of 2003 Best Of show. That is over 156 hours of Happy Hour! Starting in 2019, I will upload 1 show a week on the 15th anniversary of the broadcast of that week’s show.
From around 2000 until 2005 I hosted a weekly hardcore radio show with DJ Silver1 called Happy Hour. It was a massive success, in a time before “podcasting” was a big thing. When the show first launched, it became the #1 show on the channel, which at the time was the #1 dance music streamer on the internet.
In around 2002 our show left the original broadcaster, and we started streaming it on our own dedicated channel and webpage. I have all the shows archived from the 2002 era onwards.
I’m pleased to say I’ve started the process of uploading the entire run of shows to SoundCloud! We’re talking hundreds of hours of music from myself and Silver1, plus tons of guest DJs.
My hope is that an entirely new audience might enjoy them, and original fans of the show can relive a great time in our lives.
All the shows are available at soundcloud.com/anabolic-frolic. I will add shows regularly until we get to the final episode.
Enjoy!
These days I like to work with new entrepreneurs and help them build the lives they want.
I remembered I can also help DJs and promoters out there that would benefit from picking my brain and pulling from my life’s experiences. Just image the value of a resource like myself. I may be retired but I’d love to help the next generation.
If you’d like to ask me a question, click here.
I still get DJ requests, even though I haven’t spun now for over a decade.
I feel fortunate that I’ve found some new and different things to pursue, things that I’m happy to be doing with my life now.
Some people ask me though, why not just spin… like… one time? For old times sake.
If I ponder this, the real answer is I feel my DJ career is fully satisfying and complete. If you look back at it, I was at the forefront of new music, new experiences, new everything. My CDs always had the latest new tracks, I had a radio show where we promoted new music, I put on events featuring new music and new experiences. For a good long time what we were doing had never been done before.
It was never about nostalgia. I believe now, if I were to play, it would be for nostalgia. I’d rather let some other people keep pushing things forward, instead of looking backwards.
Creatively, I accomplished everything I ever wanted. When we did the 10-year Hullabaloo reunion in 2007, I felt I had a few bits of unfinished business. One was to shoot a concert film to capture what it was all about. The other was I really wanted to rave with everyone on the dance floor one time. I got to do those things. It was great. And it was OK to just move on after that.
Thank you for your continued interest in me by visiting this page. As I come across historical stuff, like sets and videos, I will post them, but I think that will be it for me, and not to get on stage again.
It was a pleasure and an honor to be involved with the scene as I was back in the day and I will always cherish it.
Keep Smiling.
StealthSeminar, a webinar software company I co-founded in 2010, just celebrated its users generating over 1 billion dollars (USD) using the platform. What’s more amazing is that the software that I created and has been used by over 20 million people owes its existence to my DJ past, and specifically technology I created to host the Happy Hour Radio show.
One of the early keys to my success both as Anabolic Frolic and the promoter of Hullabaloo was that I was on top of technology. I was an early internet user, an early e-commerce site (selling Happy Hardcore records imported from the UK was one of the first things I ever did), the Anabolic Frolic website was the very first happy hardcore site ever indexed in Yahoo (the biggest search of the 90s, many years ahead of Google), and Hullabaloo was one of the very first rave communities on the net.
Being “first on the ground” during this time made all the difference. The deal to create Happy2bHardcore happened just because I was one of the first names and had a web presence (not unlike today when people chase after Likes and Followers while building their names). Hullabaloo created a huge diehard following not only because of the quality of the events, but because people had a place to discuss them – the HullaBoard.
Going back to my teenage years, I was always a computer nerd. Prior to the internet, I ran a traditional “BBS” for 4 years. I was always familiar with the technology and then used it in new ways as the net started to open up.
I had a knack for creating solutions to problems I had. My high school computer programming experience allowed me to learn some of the new internet languages. I did everything myself. Later I would take advantage of these skills by augmenting Hullabaloo with its own merch store and direct ticket sales, cutting out middlemen like Ticketmaster. I did a lot of custom work on my various websites.
In 2000 I was hired by an early internet streaming station to create a Happy Hardcore radio show. We called it Happy Hour. It was a huge success and became the #1 show on the channel which was the #1 dance music station on the internet at the time.
The channel was caught up in the dot com bubble and restructured in 2002 and the show ended there. But since the show was so popular, I wanted to continue it and set it up on its own dedicated server. This was all in a time before podcasts, YouTube, Soundcloud, or any easy delivery methods. This took real work and technology mastery to set up as all the streaming technology had to be taken care of by myself.
The show ran successfully for another few years until we decided to wrap up Hullabaloo. We found sometimes doing the live show was an inconvenience, so I developed a way to pre-record it, but then stream it as if it was live. This was different than just posting a download, and was a key innovation that I would draw from later.
We also experimented with pay streaming for high quality. Fans could pay more if they wanted a better quality version of the show. Again, I would figure all of this out on my own.
Fast forward to 2009, when I was retired from DJing and working in corporate speaking. I had a mentor at the time, Geoff Ronning, who would eventually become my business partner. He knew I had a knack for creating technology solutions for problems I faced. He had an idea for streaming webinar content that was recorded previously, as if it was live. Ideas are only as valuable as the execution of them so he wondered if I could do something with it.
Well, I happened to have specific experience doing something very close to this, based on my radio show. I also had a lot of other relevant skills from past rave-related projects creating other facets of what would be needed. Much of the first code was recycled straight off of my Happy Hour code base.
Summer of 2009 I built by hand a working concept of what would eventually become StealthSeminar. By March of 2010 we opened for business.
Just recently we marked over 20 million people have used the system, and over 1 billion dollars generated.
None of this would have happened if not for the specific skills and experiences I had creating technology from my rave years. Nor would it have happened if it wasn’t for the chain of events that took me from those days to the days when StealthSeminar was created. Besides my tech knowledge, it also required me to be an entrepreneur, be creative and working on things on my own. It also required that I had the spare time to work on it. It also required that I had moved on from DJing and was looking for new opportunities. It also required Geoff and I coming together and collaborating the way we did.
But I can state with absolute certainty that these billion dollars would never have been generated without the story of the happy hardcore chapter of my life. That then created the ripple effect of all the businesses that use my creation and have built their businesses around it.
Pretty wild if you think about it.
I’ve begun the process of uploading every live DJ set I have to soundcloud. As far as my DJ work goes, these live sets are what I’m most proud of. In the end, the music I played was created and made for raves. And then throw into the mix that these weren’t just recorded at any rave, but most captured at Hullabaloo, which to this day is debated as the greatest of rave experiences. The energy, love and appreciation from the crowd that is captured on these live sets make them a completely unique listening experience.
As the years passed, we got better and better at doing the live capture, and making the crowd just as important as anything that was happening on the stage.
Considering how little of rave was captured live, before the era of Youtube and Facebook, I’m glad we made the effort to capture as much as we did.
Enjoy.
I just uploaded what ended up being the last ever time I spun a set anywhere. It was WEMF 2008. This was not planned as my final retirement set, but I ended up focusing on other parts of my life and new opportunities.
There is something beautifully poetic though in this being my final set. Here’s the story.
I had gotten involved early with Desiny and the World Electronic Music Festival (WEMF), with Hullabaloo bringing a hardcore stage to the event starting in 1998. That Hulla stage ended up being a full-on feature attraction as the dedicated hardcore fanbase of Hulla came out in big numbers.
We were involved for 5 years, from 1998 until 2002. I proposed to Robin on the stage of my set at the 2002 WEMF. That was how involved we were.
I’m going to spare the bad blood story about why we weren’t involved past 2002, but like most things, it was over money.
So Hulla was never involved again, nor most of the Hullabaloo DJs.
Years pass, I guess 6 exactly, and I catch wind about that upcoming WEMF being billed as “The Final” one. I guess it’s true when they say time heals all (most) wounds, as I felt inspired to reach out to Ryan at Destiny for old times sake.
Fortunately he was of the mind set of also moving on positively. I offered to forgive all past debts, and basically all I asked was to be booked under my normal headlining conditions. He agreed, and the peace was made.
It felt good to be back there after so many years. Robin came out, and it was a bit like old times.
Then on Saturday night on the main stage as the sky became dark I played what would end up being my final set of my entire DJ career. I like that this set had meaning, about peace and forgiveness. It was good to be there. I feel good that this was my last booking.
This set is uploaded to SoundCloud, so I welcome you to share in what is the final Anabolic Frolic set.
Enjoy.
Here’s an update for those curious enough to look me up on this page. The year is 2016, over 20 years from when I embarked on my DJ career. Happy2bHardcore Chapter 1 would be released early 1997, and the first Hullabaloo rave would happen later that year. We wrapped up Hullabaloo in 2005, with a 10-year reunion party in 2007. My last DJ appearance was at WEMF 2008. I never officially retired as a DJ, but I’m a product of 90’s rave, and proud of it.
I was able to look at the writing on the wall during that time, and knew it was a good time to move on and wrap things up. I had had huge success, and felt like my mountain had been conquered and felt no desire to try and recapture past successes. Seems weird now with the big “EDM” resurgence, but I’m from a time before “EDM” was even a term, and I’m good with that.
I followed my passion of entrepreneurship, and have started multiple successful businesses since then. The skills I developed from my rave days I used for the rest of my life. My biggest success has been co-founding a webinar platform that has been used by over 20 million people and generated almost a Billion dollars for its users. I literally parlayed my experiences developing e-commerce solutions for my rave business and the skills from being an early online radio streamer into a whole new opportunity.
Today I use my business success to mentor and invest in the next generation of entrepreneurs. Ones hungry like I had once been, and hopefully with a bit of my guidance I can help them navigate their own success.
I reside in Toronto with my wife, Robin, and our 2 boys, Gavin & Connor. I’ve hung up my headphones, and for fun these days I’ve built a pinball arcade in my home. As someone who grew up in the 80s, it’s fun to be able to recreate a bit of my childhood. The illicit appeal of it being a “secret” and the hardcore light show is a tribute to my rave days. Visitors who know me from back then usually respond with a “Yeah, this seems about right from you”.
I still get DJ inquiries, but I’m content with the past staying in the past. We accomplished great things, and I’m good with letting those memories live on as memories. I do appreciate the comments that I receive from people after all these years, it is very touching.
I do have one piece of unfinished business, and that is my long gestating memoirs of my rave days. That book is actually written and I hope to see it published as the definitive account of that era by someone who was in the middle of it.
Thanks for your interest in looking me up.
Keep smiling!
-Chris (Anabolic) Frolic
I just turned 38 years old. Not a big milestone birthday, spent quiet at home with my family. It did make me think about a past birthday however. Exactly 16 years ago on my 22nd birthday I moved into a new office I had rented to launch my Happy Hardcore record business.
I had been renting a room from a family to live previously, but they sold their house and I had to find a new place to live. I had started importing and selling happy hardcore vinyl out of my bedroom, and was so passionate about my music, I made a calculated gamble that I could make a real go of it. Worst-case-scenario I ended up being unsuccessful. I was young, had time to burn, so why not go for it.
The office was about 10 x 12 feet with no windows. I had a couch. That night, my birthday, I was alone in a pitch black room. I never felt so alone in my life.
I had a web page set up, and was the very first happy hardcore website ever indexed by Yahoo, which at the time was the dominant search engine. I started making contact with other aspiring happy hardcore DJs, and before long was selling vinyl to most of them. It was a very small business, but it did pay the rent, but I could not afford anything more than that. I lived in that office.
There was a shower in the building which I used, and once or twice a month I’d visit my aunt’s for the weekend to do laundry and recharge my batteries.
I spent my spare time making copies of my first widely distributed mixtape, called The Frolic Files. One at a time I would copy them, and bring boxes with me to every rave I attended and handed them out to anyone that looked like they were having fun.
I also started mailing them to record labels, and after being in my office for only a few weeks I got a call from Moonshine in Los Angeles. They were thinking of doing a happy hardcore compilation and I seemed like the right guy for them. Happy2bHardcore Chapter 1 was released a few months later.
Also a few weeks into my stay at the office I got a call from a promoter from a new Toronto rave company called Not The End. They got my tape. They wanted me to play at their first event. After playing at their party, and then getting deeply involved with them for their second event, planted the bug in me to promote my own parties if I wanted to see the music that I loved get the exposure it needed.
Hullabaloo had it’s first event 7 months after moving into my office. Happy2bHardcore chapter 2 came out around that time, and I started getting regular DJ bookings all over. From that point on it was like riding a rocket ship.
I guess as I look back at all this, none of that would have been possible without some sacrifice from myself. I decided to take a shot, and it worked out better than I could have ever imagined. It’s also a little overwhelming how much of a difference one guy can make if they set their mind on something. My advice to anyone reading this is to take their own shots. If it doesn’t work, it’s not the end of the world. But you can never reach the stars if you never attempt it.
2012 marks the 15th Anniversary of Hullabaloo (1997). To celebrate, we’ve posted the entire concert film from our 10-year reunion party on youtube!! Check out this rave history!! Time flies, but at least we will never forget.
You can buy the DVD WITH the entire night of recordings for only $9.99!! official Anabolic Frolic store.
There’s a new clip online from my concert DVD.
It’s still available through Amazon.com and the official Anabolic Frolic store.