fabric, london Marc Vedo’s homecoming AAA ACCESS ALL AREAS Cut from a different cloth As London’s fabric celebrated 10 years of doing things on their own terms recently, we delve into the key cornerstones of its continually evolving legacy as the premier club in the country... t’s impossible to understate the effect fabric has Yet while Home inevitably fl opped as a credible venue signifi cant, and oft-unsung, artists of its era on one of had on the last 10 years of UK club culture. When and sunk without trace, fabric’s 1700-capacity venue the best soundsystems you will ever hear. the Farringdon venue fi rst swung open its doors has thrived on an aural diet of only the most honest No single genre or innovative sub-strain has evaded its on Friday 25th October 1999, it did so within electronic sounds. It has remained packed to the ceaselessly diverse programming and no venue in the weeks of Darren Hughes’ vastly ambitious Home rafters most weeks, ever since. country, possibly the world, comes close. But how did a Ion Leicester Square — a hugely publicised, hyper- dreamer’s dream built on underground values become a branded and archetypal superclub venture with then These days, fabric is pretty much the global standard- globally renowned institution? We celebrate 10 key superstars Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling as bearer of cutting-edge, underground music — played facets of the club’s carefully tended make-up that residents. from the heart and without concession by the most might go some way to explaining the enigma. Big room clubbing brought back to 1 acid house basics It was 1990 when fabric chief Keith Reilly fi rst chased his dream of owning his isn’t — any décor, just big dark warehouse rooms rocking out to cutting-edge own acid house inspired venue. By the time he found the dank, disused, starkly sounds and one of the best soundsystems in the country. industrial meat-packing warehouse labyrinth that would become fabric it was Yet it wasn’t without its early detractors. Or doubters. 1997. The commercial era of the superclub had corrupted the UK dance scene “I had the whole world telling me I was completely bonkers and it would never with clubs more interested in global domination than decent parties in their work,” remembers Keith. “And when I say the whole world I also mean the vast own backyard. Supposed ‘superstar DJs’ with egos to match their wages were majority of agents who came down and said there is no way they would want to plying glam house to the masses. Not good. With fabric, Reilly sought to place do anything with us. the focus back where it belonged — the music. And proper music at that. “One classic comment was ‘It’s not very West End is it?’” jokes Keith. “You’re Only the scale and size of his three-roomed 1700-capacity venture had kind of missing the point mate, that’s exactly the fuckin’ point of it — to not be anything in common with the idea of the superclub. There wasn’t — and still West End.” 180 www.djmag.com DJ479.AAA_fabric.indd 180 19/10/09 15:36:57 Serious Given the booming cult of the superstar DJ, 2 attention to it was a bold move when fabric announced their Saturday night residents as the the science of understated, relatively unsung duo of Terry sound Francis and Craig Richards — both voracious consumers/conduits of the most cutting- In Reilly’s own words “the single edge grooves. objective of the club has always been All the same, short-sighted sections of the to find new and interesting music media asked, ‘Who are they?’, and even the and play it on a really hot more informed tastemakers questioned if soundsytem. It really couldn’t be any their modest stature would help fill a venue simpler”. of fabric’s colossal size. And that’s about the beauty of it.But But it was a decision that helped define the fabric’s meticulously attentive club’s stance as a whole — substance before approach to sound is anything but style, honesty over ego and integrity above simple. A perfectly set Martyn Audio hype. After all, the underground pedigree of system that literally wraps tracks neither DJ was in question thanks to right around you rather than Francis’s role in shaping the London thrusting them in your face, is tech-house sound with Wiggle and Richards’ backed up by a team of dedicated involvement in the electronic odysseys that engineers that flat EQ the system for were the Tyrant nights, alongside Sasha and the individual frequencies of every Lee Burridge. night. Not only that, they’re on hand Their sets across the years have provided the to tweak the template to the musical bedrocks of the club’s sound and optimum right ’til the last beat. highlighted just how important a decent “The secret is having engineers that resident really is. care around all night and having DJs “It was a big deal when Keith made us that work with them,” believes head residents and I hope we paid back that trust sound engineer Sanjeev Bhardwaj. by delivering the goods,” says Richards. “We “A lot of clubs think it’s okay to have Belief in the true role and weren’t just warm-ups, but asked to play one person doing the sound and art of the resident peak-time sets most weeks.” lights, but you need people doing 3 their specific jobs all night long.” The hedonism, the No one individual has done more to break rebellious, experimental music to British 5 freedom and the youth than the late John Peel. But despite legendary room three after- the fact that Peel’s nightly Radio 1 shows made him the first UK DJ to champion the parties original visceral acid house and techno sounds that emerged from Chicago and You probably don’t need telling that fabric Saturdays come into their Detroit, he hadn’t properly connected with hedonistic, warped best from 5am onwards. The inevitable tourists the sweat-licked UK dancefloors that they and clubbing casuals have scarpered, the regulars and music lovers helped spawn. Until fabric stepped in and got lock in and an invisible mist of debauchery floods the venue’s caverns. him to play room three in 2002, that is. The times when Ricardo Villalobos’ or Richie Hawtin’s epic sets have “We had many long conversations trying to unravelled deep into Sunday morning have provided some of our convince John to come and do it,” remembers favourite clubbing moments, while the sporadic room three Keith. “Every club he’d done before they’d after-parties are the stuff of legend. almost had to call the police to get him out of M-Nus’s Magda recalls the time room three became an unrestrained there because it had gone that badly — abyss of Sunday daytime experimentation for the first time, back in people just didn’t get it. I was absolutely 2004. adamant that it would be totally different “I had been playing in Germany and took the morning flight out so I down here. People love their music and would could join Richie, Ricardo and the fabric gang,” she remembers. respect what he has given to music.” “When I finally arrived When Peel found out that Reilly had recorded I joined everyone in and archived just about every Peel session the dark warped he’d ever listened to, the Radio 1 enigma atmosphere of room agreed and his ensuing, appropriately three. Everyone had eclectic set of punk, techno, hip-hop, already played for hardcore gabba and leftfield weirdness went hours and wanted a down as one of club’s classic moments. break so they just told Peel went on to compile his only compilation me to play. I ended up CD in his distinguished history for the playing for hours and ‘fabriclive’ series. twisted it out into “He finished up with ‘Teenage Kicks’ and we really weird tracks, Celebrating the art couldn’t even get him out of the room even broken beat of musical because the whole room was singing it for 15 leftfield rhythms, but 4 minutes after,” recalls Keith. the crowd just didn’t rebellion stop.” www.djmag.com 181 DJ479.AAA_fabric.indd 181 19/10/09 15:37:06 fabric, London Presenting quite possibly the fi nest ACCESS ALL AREAS AAA 7 CD series ever Matching the essential role of the ’90s rave mixtapes with all the sleek, effortlessly stylish design and futuristic experimentation you’d want from a taste-making noughties clubbing institution, fabric’s CD series have had one singular aim — to offer an honest, unrestricted representation of all the mind-blowing music that gets played down there. Dropping each month like clockwork and at just £6 for subscribers, every fabric clubber has their own favourites. Swayzak’s disco-edged 2004 odyssey, Andrew Weatherall’s rousing electro and techno contribution in 2004 and Tayo’s dot-joining dubwise selection in 2007 are three of ours, and we’ve got no problem saying the Commix CD earlier this year was the best drum & bass mix we’ve heard in nearly a decade — period. Not being afraid to step into 6 the unknown From the future bass growl of dubstep (fabric fi rst hosted a FWD room back in 2001) to the trippy percussive odysseys of Ricardo Villalobos, fabric has never been afraid of venturing into unknown, untested musical territory and placing their fi ndings on one of the biggest platforms in the country.