Category: Hullabaloo

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Rush Hour 1998 live video

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:

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Hullabaloo! Big Top 1999 footage

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.

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When Chris proposed to Robin

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.

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Featured Live Mix: Anabolic Frolic Vs Vinylgroover 1999

This was a special event. It came on the heels of the rave scene simultaneously experiencing its peak and also terrible tragedy with 3 separate drug related rave deaths at Toronto events during the last half of 1999.

It didn’t feel right to me at the time to just proceed business as usual and pretend none of this had happened. It was a hard time for me, personally. Only decades later do I recognize my own trauma of having to deal with all of that at the time.

I felt the scene was too important to just give up on and I knew I didn’t want to quit because this was bigger than me and meant so much to so many people. I was committed to staying strong even though I was dealing with my own unchecked stress of the weight of all of it.

My idea was to do our next event on a more low profile. To this end we did not print any flyers to promote it, which was unprecedented at the time for a large event, early into the internet and a decade ahead of social media. It was called “For Those Who Know“. In addition, $1 from every ticket would be donated to the local harm reduction outfit (TRIP – Toronto Raver Info Project), which received a cheque for $2200.

Even with no flyer, the event immediately sold out the capacity of the venue.

I wanted to do something special and different in light of this and came up with the concept of having our most frequent headliner, Vinylgroover, and I do an unprecedented back2back set we called “UK Vs Canada” with the addition of MCs Magika and E-by-gum.

The atmosphere was like no other that night. The same importance that our scene was worth saving weighed on everyone in attendance.

I present this set in all its glory, all 2 hours and 20 minutes of late 1990s happy hardcore spun by 2 of the biggest names of that era. Enjoy.

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Anabolic Frolic Live DJ Set Collection

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.

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Reflections on my birthday

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.

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More oldschool vid fun

This is footage from the Hullabaloo 2-year event June of 1999. This is as classic a rave as it gets. A sold out crowd of 5000 in a gutted old bingo hall in the middle of nowhere, and no one had any idea what we were up to. I refer to the summer of ’99 as our “Summer of Love”, the peak of the rave scene before it fell in on itself. We honestly thought we might change the world.

It’s kind of crazy to see the size of this crowd and compare it with the other vid I posted below, in less than 3 years time we had blown up from next to nothing to a huge juggernaut. Our string of Hullabaloo events from the end of ’98 until summer of ’99 I consider the best raves in the history of the planet, just perfectly executed, huge budgets for production, a fresh audience with no “krusty raver” element that didn’t exist yet, and the dark side of the scene had not crept in yet. It was some good times.