Until 1986 the club was financially troubled; the crowds only started to grow when the resident DJs (Pickering, Park and Da Silva) started to play house music.
Many underground venues and DJ nights also took place across the UK like for instance the private parties hosted by an early Miss Moneypenny's contingent in Birmingham and many London venues. House was boosted in the UK by the tour in the same year of Knuckles, Jefferson, Fingers Inc. (Heard) and Adonis as the DJ International Tour.
One of the early anthemic tunes, "Promised Land" by Joe Smooth, was covered and charted within a week by the Style Council. The first English House tune came out in 1986 - "Carino" by T-Coy. Europeans embraced house music, and began booking legendary American House DJs to play at the big clubs, such as Ministry of Sound, whose resident, DJ Harvey brought in Larry Levan.
The underground house scene in cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and London were also provided with many underground Pirate Radio stations and DJs alike which helped bolster an already contagious, but otherwise ignored by the mainstream, music genre.
One of the earliest and most influential UK house and techno record labels was Network Records (otherwise known as Kool Kat records) who helped introduce Italian and US dance music to Britain as well as promoting select UK dance music acts.
But house was also developing on Ibiza. In the 1970s Ibiza was a hippie stop-over for the rich party crowd. By the mid-1980s a distinct Balearic mix of house was discernible. Several clubs like Amnesia with DJ Alfredo were playing a mix of rock, pop, disco and house. These clubs fueled by their distinctive sound and Ecstasy began to have an influence on the British scene. By late 1987 DJs like Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling were bringing the Ibiza sound to UK clubs like Shoom in Southwark (London), Heaven, Future, Spectrum and Purple Raines in Birmingham. But the "Summer of Love" needed an added ingredient that would again come from America.
In America the music was being developed to create a more sophisticated sound, moving beyond just drum loops and short samples. New York saw this maturity evidenced in the slick production of disco house crossover tracks from artists such as Mateo & Matos and Blaze. In Chicago, Marshall Jefferson had formed the house 'super group' Ten City (from intensity), demonstrating the developments in "That's the Way Love Is". In Detroit there were the beginnings of what would be called techno, with the emergence of Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.
Atkins had already scored in 1982 with Cybotron and in 1985 he released Model 500 "No UFOs" which became a big regional hit, followed by dozens of tracks on Transmat, Metroplex and Fragile. One of the most unusual was "Strings of Life" by Derrick May, who described his sound as "George Clinton and Kraftwerk jamming together in an elevator". It was a darker, more intellectual strain of house that followed its own trajectory. "Techno-Scratch" was released by the Knights Of The Turntable in 1984 which had a similar techno sound to Cybotron and is possibly where the term techno originated, although this is generally credited to Atkins, who borrowed the term from the phrase "techno rebels" in Cybotron's 1984 hit 'Techno City', which appeared in writer Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock (see Sicko 1998).
The records were completely independent of the major record labels and the parties at which the tracks were played avoided commercial music. The combination of house and techno came to Britain and gave House a phenomenal boost. A few clubs began to feature specialist House nights - the Hacienda had "Hot" on Wednesday from July 1988, 2,500 people could enjoy the British take on the Ibiza scene, the classic "Voodoo Ray" by A Guy Called Gerald (Gerald Simpson) was designed for the Hacienda and Madchester.
Factory boss Tony Wilson also promoted acid house culture on his weekly TV show. The Midlands also embraced the late 80s House scene with many underground venues such as multi storey car parks and more legal dance stations such as the Digbeth Institute (now the 'Sanctuary' and home to Sundissential).
In 1990 Electribe 101's debut album Electribal Memories hit the racks (it had been preceded by the single "Talking With Myself"), the groups music combined the slick techno-jazz of Larry Heard with hints of the Detroit sound, added avant garde lyrics sung by a deep soulful voice (Billie Ray Martin) and garnished it all with dollops of hip-hop beats and a dreamy soundscape reminiscent of "Dusty In Memphis". The group were immediately and vastly influential on everything from House to Downtempo and the earliest examples of Drum and Bass.
House in the new millennium
Dance music arguably hit its peak at the turn of the millennium, especially in the US and UK. A number of reasons are seen for its decline in mainstream popularity during the 2000s:Many people felt that club promoters had gone too far in what they were asking people to pay on a weekly basis to enter clubs. A prime example was on New Year's Eve at the turn of the Millennium. Some promoters had been asking upwards of £100 ($180) to attend clubs and various event venues across the country. A large number of club goers instead decided to stay away all together or go to local parties. Many in general grew tired with paying up to £20 ($35) on a weekly basis for poor quality club nights which had little variation from week to week and venue to venue. Older people that had been with the scene from the beginning started to move away. Many in their 30s started having families and settling down. Many younger people viewed Dance music as becoming increasingly outmoded with the same set of DJs playing in Clubs and on the Radio year after year. This led to the term "Dad House" being applied.
The democratization and mainstreaming of electronic music composing through ever-cheaper computer software made electronic music as a whole less novel and more commonplace. This also affected its marketability, since most music marketing requires a high degree of novelty to drive sales and cultural interest.
Many older clubbers who did have families remained active in the scene, and small-scale events organisers, invariably not tied to a venue, began to appear to cater to a group that was increasingly ostracised by younger clubbers, and unable to go clubbing more than once or twice a month. This scene subsequently has expanded and about half of those involved are under 30.
A lot of the same music was being played on commercial dance shows, and in bars, supermarkets, and television advertisements. This along with a lack of invention in the mainstream left many people feeling increasingly bored with the music. This has inevitably led to the music being forced back underground to its roots.
Ecstasy, the drug of choice for many on the Dance scene during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, started to lose its popularity to Cocaine and Ketamine. Both these drugs changed the nature and the atmosphere of the scene. In part this was due to the decreasing proportion of MDMA in Ecstasy, which was increasingly being cut with Amphetamines, Ketamine as well as a generally greater amount of inert 'bulk' substances.
The global rise of hip hop during the late 1990s as well as the re-emergence in the UK of a strong Rock and Indie scene drew many away from Dance Music.
The Glade, the UK's largest electronic dance festival, began in 2004 as an offshoot of the Glastonbury Festival, featuring the UK's only dedicated Psytrance stage.HISTORY OF SOULSHAKER
A small preview of the award winning website created by Ollie Blackmore. Click on link below for the full site experience!
The Good Old Days - The very early 1990's
Soulshaker’s roots can be traced back to the late 80’s and early 90’s. Dance music was in it’s infancy and promoter Andy Bunn et al started to put on parties in the region to cater for demand.
The Cow Club was launched in 1991 at the Loft Norwich as the first ever Friday night house club event in Norwich with the best local DJs plus national names such as Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan, Dean Thatcher and Pascals Bongo Massive (all big names in the early 90’s). The Cow Club ran successfully for over 2 years. Other events were spawned from the success of the Cow Club such as ‘Dance Like Yer Dad’ at the Ocean Rooms, Gt Yarmouth, and Ibiza Foam parties at the Winter Gardens in Gorleston.
Having outgrown the Loft, the newly opened Waterfront called looking for good dance music promoters. The Cow Club obliged and lent it’s name to the night for the first ever night with supporting dance act the Fluke and brought along a DJ of it’s own choice – John Digweed. The Cow Club sold out the venue on a Wednesday night (and only paid Diggers £300).
The Waterfront had appetite for more and a regular fortnightly club was born. Andy assembled a team consisting of Jay Patel and Dan Cunningham and the Milky Lunch club was born and featured national DJs such as; Al Mackenzie, the Flying Records boys, Rocky, Diesel, Ashley Beedle (now of X-Press2 fame) and Mark Wilkinson (Problem Kid). Milky Lunch was the first in the region to showcase global dance acts such as Moby!
The Mid-1990's
In 1994, The Cow Club and Milky Lunch presented ‘Late Lunch’ – the first ever all night parties in Norwich at the Waterfront. The launch party featured a mystery guest DJ – who was only announced on the night - Sasha (to this day Milky Lunch are the only club to have Sasha play in this region!).
The talent just kept coming, with big name DJs from the time such as Tony De Vit, John Digweed, Boy George, Smokin Jo, Jon Marsh (The Beloved), Farley Jackmaster Funk, Billy Nasty, Ian Ossia, Alistair Whitehead, Dave Seaman, Princess Julia, Phil Asher and Mark Moore (S-Express) to name a few.
The success of Milky Lunch at the Waterfront saw spin-off events and tours at Tiffany’s Gt Yarmouth, The Whitehouse, Newmarket, Club UK Ipswich and Milky Lunch hosted a room at the recently opened Ministry of Sound.
The Cow Club/Milky Lunch continued to grow with a new night ‘Love Bomb Baby’ at Zoom (now part of Mercy Nightclub!!), the first ever weekly Saturday house night in Norwich which ran for 2 years.
By the late 90’s the demand grew, Andy and Jay needed a bigger venue. Milky Lunch Promotions present the first ever UEA dance events and the first ever club tours in East Anglia. These consisted of Miss Moneypennys bi-monthly featuring residents and guest such as Tony De Vit, Lisa Pin-Up, Lisa Loud.
Cream tours arrived at the UEA featuring Darren Emerson, K-klass etc. Ministry of Sound tour nights with big name residents on rotation.
Milky Lunch were also renowned for being the first in the region to hold bi-yearly boat parties on the Norfolk Broads. Djs from tour nights such as Miss Moneypennys and Cream would stay an extra night to play on the exclusive boat parties for free!
New Years Eve parties were the talk of the region months into the new year. Glitterball’s at Manor houses and exclusive country hotels where the first of their kind in the area.
A new millenium, Soulshaker is launched
In early 2000, Soulshaker was born! Soulshaker started the first ever all-night after party at Devils Advocate running 2am-7am every Saturday morning. Norwich lacked any after party venue for events at the UEA, Soulshaker would play host to Steve Lawler and many more top UK djs and then keep the party going for the die hard house heads!
Soulshaker took up it’s residency with Po Na Na in 2001 and has been a pioneer in the Norwich scene maintaining an esoteric music policy. Keeping true to their roots, Soulshaker went back to basics with posh illegal raves at the Manor House near Norwich.
Over the past few years the Soulshaker brand has become one of the UK’s flagship club nights, daring enough to be the first to try new things, yet established enough to go back to basics.
Soulshaker has worked with some of the biggest names in the industry and continues to do so. Summerfest, Pams House, Egg, Somewhere, Pacha, Bar Mission, The Cross to name a few.
CLICK HERE .. ENTER SOULSHAKER WEBSITE!
Pam's House & PHunky!
Taken from the Pam's House Myspace Profile
CLICK HERE .. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/PAMSHOUSE
'Pams House', the commonly known club night & brand name in the East of England are now over TEN years old and celebrated a decade in clubland with an amazing 10 th Birthday Bash at the UEA in Norwich on January 28th, 2006. 'Pams House' has put East Anglian clubbing onto the International stage, but many are unaware of its humble (and accidental) beginnings.
The unusual name for a club night originated from a top floor flat housing the two original promoters. The flat, a shrine to Baywatch and its most famous & voluptuous star was known to its regular visitors as 'Pamela's Penthouse'. It was soon shortened, aptly, to ' Pams House' – an obvious move because of their love of House Music...
'Pams House Promotions' was formed to front a clubbing coach trip to the Big Smoke for a group of close friends – a trip that went disastrously wrong !??!!
The destination, Club UK in Wandsworth, was raided and shut down by police only 30 minutes after the coach's arrival. Undeterred, the 'Pamela's Penthouse' boys conjured up 15 taxi's to move the party onto another club in Vauxhall as the coach driver had disappeared and was set to sleep for the next 6 hours.
After jumping this first hurdle and enjoying a very eventful night out the 'Pams House' coach excursion was well and truly tripped when the coach broke down in Chelmsford for 4 hours on the way home!!??!!
The calamity ridden coach trip followed an inspirational holiday in Ibiza and combined to inspire the boys to move on to create the biggest club phenomenon that East Anglia has ever seen.
A 'Boys on Tour' / 'Club 18-30' holiday to the White Isle which included an eye opening evening at the worlds biggest club night 'Manumission' was enough to prompt the young entrepreneurs to bring a bit of the Balearics to the East Coast.
'Pams House - The Party' was born but had to be disguised as two friends Birthday Parties at a private members club called the 'Attic' in January 1996. Promoters Danny Banthorpe & Keith Tilley were joined by close friend & bedroom DJ Pete Walkden to host a fun night for a small gathering of like minded friends.
A memorable night was followed by another a couple of months later, then a cult monthly event formed to create the formula of ' Pams House'.
A close knit (some say crazy) group of friends were the key to the success of the early days of Pams. Antics, Manumission inspired, such as costumed dancers, entertainers & club freaks with crowd interaction were never seen in clubs outside of London.
The party become the talk of the town and soon attracted interest from the bigger venues and promoters of the time – Within a year of existence Pams House were offered a monthly Saturday at UK Ipswich – The biggest Dance event in the East Anglia.
The bigger stage gave ideal opportunity to express imaginations and create some of the craziest theme nights courtesy of a team of entertainers that have built the foundations of Pams House as we know it today. The event was attracting the most colourful & extrovert characters to the fold while the theme nights and crowd interaction became the main reason why clubbers flocked in every month – the atmosphere was unrivalled. Pams House never relied on guest DJ's but built their reputation around the crazy entertainment. Characters such as ' Norman the Tunespotter' became as famous as the DJ's and entertainers such as Gareth Beck, still involved today, were a key part of the organisation.
The musical backdrop provided by Pete Walkden and new resident Macca D was classed at the time as 'Handbag House' – It has since been split into many sub divided genres.
Pams House has also been split into two – Moving with the times – ' Pams House' now offers uplifting Harder edged House & Trance while 'PHunky' caters for lovers of Funky Vocal House though to Electro & Tech House.
Pams House & Phunky can now be found hosting regular parties at the University of East Anglia while PHunky goes solo with monthly events at Norwich's home of House Music - PoNaNa on Bank Plain.
In between those unique beginnings & todays established Norwich residencies Pams House have had an amazing journey playing some of the biggest venues in our Region, across the UK – London, Birmingham & Brighton - and the rest of the World - hosting parties in Thailand, Northern Ireland, Greece & Ibiza, where the seeds were planted many moons ago.
The love affair with Ibiza hit an all time high in 2003 when offered a Summer residency.
The East Anglians co-hosted a weekly event with Tonic in San Antonio's super club Eden, every Thursday night and followed every Friday morning with an all day party on the terrace at Space.
Space has, on many occasions, been voted by clubbers all over the globe as the worlds favourite clubbing destination. Situated in Playa D'en Bossa next to the AquaPark. The terrace was created by a good friend of Pams House - Alex P - so it was an honour to host the weekly event with Brandon Block & Alex P as residents.
Some of the Worlds favourite DJ's graced the Pams House decks in Ibiza while Pams House have also been responsible for bringing some of the biggest names in Dance Music to Norwich City. To name but a few, Erick Morillo, Judge Jules, Boy George, Jeremy Healy, Tidy Boys, Lisa Lashes, Lisa Pin Up have all featured for Pams in Norwich.
Pams House were also heavily involved with the very ambitious 'Summerfest' dance event in September 2004 when over 7000 clubbers invaded the Norfolk Showground from all over the UK for an all night event in 4 arenas.
Danny Banthorpe has been ever present over the ten years while partners Keith Tilley and Pete Walkden have since moved onto pastures new.
New partners have got involved & many team but on a whole the ethos has remained intact – Pams House offers a playground for like minded & adventurous clubbers from all over the Region, a non pretentious, fun filled night which oozes atmosphere. The UEA venue offers a perfect platform to perform the production that clubbers have come to expect but one promise that should always stick in your mind with ' Pams House' is to 'expect the unexpected'.
Pams House is here to stay – so why not, 'Come Taste Pams '
CLICK HERE .. ENTER PAM'S HOUSE WEBSITE!