The original foundersDavid Wilkinson, Matthew Wallis, Chris Millard, Headly Forest, James Bass and Kieron Bakewell.
The Early YearsShrewd Sound System was formed back in the summer of 1996 by a group of friends from Lincoln who wanted to throw out door parties in local areas during the long summer months. This was partly due to us all being free party lovers after enjoying great shindigs held by 'Smokescreen' sound system in the midland area.The combination of the music and people we experienced here and at local club nights held by Groovertarium set our minds in stone with what we wanted to do with our time. Half the collective of Shrewd Dave, Matt and Headly all enjoyed the fun that a set of 1210's and mixer can be and were soon hooked to the decks and DJing at parties. A love for quality sounds helped the whole music policy fall into place.It was not long before we decided to take our first venture into the city. A local club in Lincoln called Sugarcubes was to be our first venue. We had started to build up quite a considerable amount of sound system and debt so we needed to help the P.A pay for itself. By taking the sound system into the city we were able to bring the free party vibe into the club, provide quality sounds on a nice system and make a bit money.A good bit of promotion and a top crowd of up for it people helped our first event to be a real success. As a bonus we were able to get a friend from Smokescreen to help us kick off the tunes. Tubby was our first guest DJ of many to come which have helped to keep the sounds at Shrewd fresh over the years.We went on to do a monthly residency at Sugarcubes for two years which saw the nights get better and better and build up a really good crowd and a lot ofsupport. Some of our best nights saw 550 people all getting down in the citys only underground night club.We all loved the responce we got at all the gigs from a well good bunch of Lincoln and Nottingham party people.Unfortunatly things were to good to be true and eventually a fall out with the owner of the club due to excessive noise complaints from the sound system led to us losing our night. Whilst still putting on parties throughout the year we still needed to fund our activities. Luckily we were not venueless for long! Another local club called the Avenue asked us if we would carry on our nights there. We gladly obliged and carried on our Shrewd trate with two rooms of house and breakbeat.The next few years saw Shrewd progress through styles of house music but always on the deep and techy side. This has brought us to the unmistakable sound which you will always hear at all our events today.The sound of Shrewd now is a very deep and funky one which has been hallmarked in Lincoln as the place to hear some of the best underground house out there. A real passion for the music has helped Shrewd sustain its reputation. The added bonus of having a nice sound system was also the key in Shrewd's success. What started out with a few friends throwing parties for ourselves and our mates in local woods had grown to be something we were all proud of.A string of other events such as pubs, free parties and other venues were also ventures which we set about. As contacts grew we were able to hire our rig out to other promoters which also help to fund our activities. A good bunch of friends and a bit of hard work paved the way for what Shrewd is all about todayOur next residency came at our third Lincoln nightclub known as Po na na's. The sound of Shrewd ran on the fourth friday of the month for over three years. Unfortunatly our soundsystem didn't join us there as the club already has a good P.A. It was just our records which provide the fun on the dancefloor. Shrewd D.Js Matt, Dave, Roj and Bassy provided the beats along with a host of guest D.Js such as Rob and Steve (smokescreen), Andy and Chris (kinky movement) and Inland Knights (drop music). Our residency here along with other bars and venues kept us busy since over the years it has become alot harder to put on outside parties due to many harsh laws. This has led to the number of these kind of events falling. Never fear though as Shrewd continue to put on parties regardless.
In the summer of 2004, Shrewd spread it's wings and started a successful residency in Nottingham at the legendry Nightclub The Bomb. Here we firmly established ourselves on the deep house scene with Nottingham locals Kinky Movement. Some of the highlights at The Bomb included the UK debut of US producer and DJ Joey Youngman, Carlo Gambino from Hunky Dory, Leeds, and Lincoln's P45s who played a stunning live set in the back room. After The Bomb, Shrewd and Kinky Movement up rooted across the city to a club called Evasion where the Shrewd Soundsystem made its first outing in Nottingham, shaking the club to its very foundations. Again, booking the very best deep house DJ's from across the world, Olivier Desmet owner of the cool imprint Amenti, and Jake Childs, Uniform, made their UK Debuts. With Christmas nearly upon us, Shrewd are venturing down to Bristol to play at the Notorious Duvet Gang's Duvet Vous? night at the Black Swan on Saturday 16th December then returning to Lincoln for a much anticipated Boxing Day do with Rugkutta and Audiojak.
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