Pure reminiscing!

This morning I was riding into work listening an Electronic Groove M.in Podcast...... Yes I know, riding listening to music is wrong. However, I can't stay awake beyond 11pm and fortunately don't have anyone to go clubbing with anymore so I need my music fix. Anyway, riding through Audenshaw I heard the do do do do do do of Marshall Jefferson's 1986 "Move your Body" coming in.........one of the 1st introduction's I had to House music.......I was screaming Move your Body....sexy body ....set you free ....where I wanna be.....at 7.35am on a wet Manchester morning! I wanted to throw my arms in the air.... the substantia nigra area of my brain was in overdrive.... dopamine levels were crazy! I loved every white van man on earth. It reminded me of the Pure days.

House and techno music has always had that effect on me. My colleagues at work look at me strangely when I've got the Bose on and I'm grooving in my chair. Every nerve ending in my body tingles, the music hits every bit of my being. Seriously, it does and it's not one of my over dramatisations of reality either. I do feel that way.

Although I went to a few early warehouse parties in the late 80's early 90's, clubs like Buster Brown's or Cinderella's in Edinburgh were more common. I dressed like a ginger Rick Astley (this was after my obsession with the Eric B and Rakim look.....and me being a wigga) or occasionally Katch when I was feeling particularly underground indie. Once, I even went to a Hip Hop club and got a kiss from Pauline from The Chimes.

Coincidently, a new Facebook group for Pure was started today and I joined. The blip shows the only memorabilia I have from the seminal Edinburgh club....a 10th Birthday Party badge and a Richie Hawtin Plus 8 sweatshirt that I wore all the time. I think the 1st Pure Birthday Party I went to would have been in 1992, the 2nd one! I had a 4th Birthday t-shirt that regularly rubbed my nipples off until that fell apart.

My mate Bryan originally convinced me that I should go to Pure. It may not have been my first night there but I seem to recall having the most amazing night of my life when Ege Bam Yasi played. For the next four or five years I went there religiously. Jeff Mills, Derek Carter, Derek May, Claude "yeah baby" Young, Laurent Garnier, Richie Hawtin, Carl Cox, Juan Atkins.......the list of amazing DJ's just goes on and on.

I spoke to Moby before global stardom too.....he seemed upset that his set had gone down poorly. Fortunately he didn't realise what the crowd thought as "get aff yer shite" and "Moby ya big feckin bald Jessie" are hard to translate to a New Yorker.

Martin used to go on about how Alex hurricane Higgins came and spoke to him.....Every night there was the most amazing night of my life. Even waiting for the bus up to Edinburgh, I'd be excited....I could feel the bass in my body even without the Music.

Still, it wasn't the famous DJ's (relative back then) that made the club. It was Twitch and Brainstorm. They just rocked. Whether it was Joey Beltram or Jimmy Tenor that they played, they just knew the crowd and could work the dancefloor from beginning to end. I loved the start of the night.....probably me n Jonny Kane and a few jellyheids to begin with, but then the floor gradually filled up, the sweat dripped from the ceiling and the love began. In the early days, there were plenty weird Merry Prankster hippy types that smelt well bad but I loved them. I would howl when I brushed against the hairy wolfman in his dungarees (really) or jig with Susie n Tan Tan if "Take me Baby" dropped in. When it got too much, I'd go down to the skankiest bogs on earth, fill my water bottle up and listen to Dribbler and the Bill for 5 minutes. Then I had to run back up the stairs when a good tune came on and danced in a way that would have worried Ken Kasey!

The end of the night 3am most of the time, or 6am during the festival always came too soon. The last few tunes would always be amazing, I would always be on the stage at the end......occasionally the beat would come back for a few more minutes until the lights came on....everyone just looked white, sweaty and like shit but happy.

I was known still to dance in the street as the music was playing in my head. Sometimes came an afterclub party, back to a shared flat, but best when we went back to Wind-Up. I loved when Claude was about and got on the decks....he could do a spin back and catch the bass....great with Richie.....Jonny hogged the decks and always dropped an UR tune when you were just about to start chilling. I only got near the decks occasionally.... sheesh I was getting paid as a DJ in Musselburgh when I was 17...until I got the sack when I played NWA "F**k the Police" when the boys in blue entered the pub. Injustice......Injustice (Was that a BDP record).

I never once saw a fight at Pure. I never even pulled a bird at the place; that would have disrespected the music. Lothian Road was for pulling, getting drunk, getting in a fight and then having a kebab on the way home. Very uncool and very below respectability for a bunch of underground clubbers. We self-policed, looked after each other and I never recall anyone ever getting into any serious shit. Absolutely the best time ever.....It happened before dance music got overly commercial. Yeah....I think the music is as good now as it ever was....but the vibe could never be recreated.

The 10th Birthday Party would have been at the Venue. After that, it was modernised and a proper sprung dance-floor and clean toilets just wouldn't have worked. The spiritual home was gone and that was the end of Pure for me. It needed The Venue. Shortly after that I got back into my cycling and triathlon and drifted away from the scene. Sometimes I think ....just one more night of Pure for old times sake but I'm older now.....i still remember! I'm am still in touch with a few of the gang...not all though....so sad when I heard Nicki died when I was away in Australia.

PS....Keith if you read this....how about a Pure podcast with some of the best of the old tunes?