About Me
Starfish - roots and ethosStarfish, (a corruption of the Portuguese (es)tá fixe = it's cool) came to be as the result of our family's love of dance music.Only three names (apart from the family) get a mention as founding influences:Ben Edwards, who's mixes we heard in the early nineties, introducing us to the new musical phenomenon. These cassettes baffled me- where the hell was he getting 45 minute vinyls that kept morphing into different tunes- out here in the sticks we hadn't seen decks and mixers. We loved the new sound.Then Martin and Sue arrived in our valley with a 6K rig and introduced us to the alchemy of pitch-controllers, cross-faders and throbbing bass bins- they showed me how it was done.For the next year, with their help we organized a string of parties playing `hut music' - we didn't have houses! I was taught a standard of excellence in both acoustics and atmosphere that laid the foundation for our future parties. Sue and Martin- where are you? Your work was well done.Then on a day I will never forget in February 1996 they left- amps, decks, speakers and all. My new love had been taken away- I lay down and wept. Out of my grief was born the resolve to carry on doing parties. If there is a moment when Starfish was born, this was it.We struggled on with 12 volt batteries and cheap kit that kept falling apart- the vinyl we had was barely worth playing. A committed group of the infected kept putting in their energy- I can't name you all, you know who you are. We celebrated each full moon, birthday, Christmas, New Year and any other excuse we could find. Hardly a weekend went by without this raggle- taggle group 'avin it somewhere... .. ..At this point I should tip my hat to Total Resistance- an edgy crew who walked their acid-techno talk and no mistake. I will never forget their gig in Ericeira (summer '97 I think) complete with 4 meter alien. Mark kept spinning for 6 hours after taking far too much of something. The cops tried to close the show but it errupted a bit to the left- I can still see Rachel on top of the bins miming to the Pistols- ' pretty vaaay cunt 'This anarchic techno inspired me -as the T-shirt said "Make some f---ing noise".And we did.Some people loved it, others were antagonized, (I'm not surprised).A tangible bond developed between the party-goers. Music, dance and all night madness were uniting and healing us.There was a shared secret if we met in the super-market or passed on the road. Brothers and sisters were reforming their tribe. For an old coldger like me it was 1967 and flower power all over again;Love, Love. Love.Years passed, equipment improved, flyers flew, the word spread, more people came. The core members were always there to set up and take down -without you it would not have happened. The result was a continuum of parties that flowed one to another rather like a seamless mix.And now I'll quote a piece I wrote about us for another site: It's tongue-in-cheek, but absolutely true!' Starfish is a group of friends that have been putting on parties mainly in the Algarve since 1995. Our emphasis is on high quality sound with plenty of clean bass to keep your body moving. We enjoy all styles of dance music -and we like djs who understand their ego is less important than the party. Our rig includes 6 Mackie stations (1KW each) and another 4 KW of bass. Our equipment also includes a dj booth that PeteTha Zouk once played in, some carpet that was on the floor of a Carl Cox gig and a record deck and mixer that Adam Freeland looked at! Now that's quality!'Our vibe is of the equal kind - a dj is no greater than a dancer, a toilet cleaner or a queen.Either we are all special or no one is -easy really.So that's the starfish ethos.Thanks to everyone who came to our parties and enjoyed themselves -it was our privilege to share the time and space with you.And a special thank you to the girl who asked me to play a Boney M track when we were full 'avin it at five o'clock one morning.Such innocence is rare and should be treasured.If anything can unite us and defeat the darkness it is:MUSIC DANCEorDANCE MUSIC.Steve.. .. .... .. ..
