For... With... Of... With... For... The Vocal Booth Weekender is an event that brings together like-minded, open hearted music lovers from around the globe. The diversity of the crowd matches For... the diversity of the music, yet there’s one thing that connects it all: soul. This community was started 10 years ago and has With... grown by word of mouth, creating an inclusive and intimate atmosphere that has people returning year- The Story Of on-year. Of... The vibe is reminiscent of clubbing back in the day, yet the broad range of DJs keeps the music fresh and current. The love of music is the glue that bonds this family together and the shared memories keep people Booth Weekender Vocal coming back for more. ANDY WARD The Story Of The Vocal Booth Cover photos: Andy Ward & Martin Clark Cover design: Andy Ward Weekender For... With... Of... With... For... The Vocal Booth Weekender is an event that brings together like-minded, open hearted music lovers from around the globe. The diversity of the crowd matches For... the diversity of the music, yet there’s one thing that connects it all: soul. This community was started 10 years ago and has With... grown by word of mouth, creating an inclusive and intimate atmosphere that has people returning year- The Story Of on-year. Of... The vibe is reminiscent of clubbing back in the day, yet the broad range of DJs keeps the music fresh and current. The love of music is the glue that bonds this family together and the shared memories keep people Booth Weekender Vocal coming back for more. ANDY WARD The Story Of The Vocal Booth Cover photos: Andy Ward & Martin Clark Cover design: Andy Ward Weekender Keywords: Community, like-minded, diversity, inclusive, supportive, openhearted, intimate. The Vocal Booth Weekender is an event that brings together like-minded, open hearted music lovers from around the globe. The diversity of the crowd matches the diversity of the music, yet there’s one thing that connects it all: soul. This community was started 10 years ago and has grown by word of mouth, creating an inclusive and intimate atmosphere that has people returning year-on-year. The vibe is reminiscent of clubbing back in the day, yet the broad range of DJs keeps the music fresh and current. The love of music is the glue that bonds this family together and the shared memories keep people coming back for more. Whether you want to relax by the pool, chill on the beach or rock the club till dawn, there will be people to connect, dance and laugh with and the friendships formed will be for life. Sam Welsby This is a first edition print published in 2018 All rights reserved © Vicious Entertainment Andy Ward asserts his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner If you spot any errors or omissions, please send an email to make changes for any subsequent prints [email protected] www.vocalboothweekender.com www.djandyward.net www.wardswebsites.com Design by Andy Ward You are about to read a copy of this book, formatted specifically for reading on a device. If you would like to purchase a copy of the book itself, please visit this link to see if any remain in stock. PURCHASE BOOK HERE. Feel free to share this with anyone you think would appreciate it, preferably by asking them to download the VBW App and reading it there. You may benefit by turning your phone on it’s side and zooming in a little for a better reading experience. For Michelle, Drew and Mikey With love to Joan and Paul To ‘The Boys’ listed in these pages who I never say “Thank You” to enough, all this because of you! In loving memory of Sylvia, John & Big Den For... With... Of... The Story of The Vocal Booth Weekender Andy Ward Birmingham Evening Mail feature, April 1997 Andy Ward was born in June 1970. Brought up in Birmingham, England, music had always been a big part of his life. It’s how he met many of his friends from an early age, through their mutual love for Funk, Soul, Hip Hop and everything in between. He left Grammar School after one year of A Levels at the age of 17 to be an Office Junior on a YTS for £40 per week. The academic life was not for him. He attended legendary All-dayers in various cities up and down the country as well as your typical Ritzy style clubs here and there and Soul Weekenders at the start of the Acid House movement. After learning stock control, accounts, making tea & coffee and all the ropes of office work, he found a second, more interesting career choice. Around 1988 he began work as an office-based Commercial Investigator, chasing bad debtors. It was here he met Michelle and eventually, in 1991, they became an item. In 1992 he purchased some decks and a small record collection off a friend and started to play at events in Birmingham, the most important being The Marco Polo Bar (Marco’s). A strong scene for quality House Music in the second city was already in place, Patrick Smoove being just one of a handful of amazing DJs flying the flag. Over time, the more soulful side of House emerged with Andy one of the leading lights. A 30 minute mix slot on Choice FM in ‘96 began his love for the radio. When he was given a presenter’s role it unearthed a love for the sound of his own voice. This never went away. It was around this time he became a ‘Professional DJ’, leaving his 9-5 and working full-time on promoting himself and Marco’s. Andy met Simon Phillips aka Schooly at Choice. Schooly had a REAL voice for radio as well as being a Soul/Hip Hop DJ with proper skills on toast. Schooly’s love for House blossomed alongside Andy’s radio shows and an unbreakable bond was forged. Andy started The Sunday Lockdown with Simon beside him in 1998 at a dodgy venue in Digbeth, Birmingham, called Nosey Parker’s. Despite happily talking on air, Andy was way too shy to talk on the mic in public. Simon was the man for that job from the very beginning. The two enjoyed playing deep, vocal house music and bumpy UK Garage to a very underground crowd. Vocal Booth parties began the following year in 1999. Chapters Jump to any page by tapping it below. Introduction 9 VB2012 - Year Four 1 The Birth of The Booth 10 VB2013 - Year Five 2 Pressure Radio 11 Clash of the Titans 3 Ten Years of The Booth 12 VB2014 - Year Six 3a The Fact Sheet 13 VB2015 - Year Seven 3b The Class of 09 14 VB2016 - Year Eight 4 The Booth on the Move 15 Financing The Booth 5 VB2010 - Year Two 16 VB2017 - Year Nine 6 The Family 17 The Man Like Snoopy 7 Vocal Booth DJs 18 VB2018 - Year Ten 8 VB2011 - Year Three 19 VB Memoirs 8a Free Gifts 20 Vocal Booth Changed My Life 8b Gillman Audio 21 The End of The Booth? 22 The End of The Book Introduction Introduction Monday 28th May, 2018. I had an idea to see how much it would cost to get 100 books printed. It wasn’t that expensive. So here we are, many hours later with this bad boy in your sweaty little hands. My intention was to convey and share the many emotions and thoughts that the sheer mention of Vocal Booth brings. I wanted to try and capture in words and photos just how Vocal Booth has changed my life and the lives of those around me. I had no intention of making this about me... Vocal Booth is and will always be about us, and when I say ‘us’ I mean The Family. In these pages I hope to explain what The Family is, how it came about and everything in between. We’ve seen relationships blossom within The Family, marriages come and go as well as the odd controversy here and there. We’ve lost loved ones along the way and welcomed new bundles of joy into The Family, I don’t expect to cover all of that but I’ll give it a go. Two days into the first draft I sat at my computer and looked through all my folders, year by year, to remind myself of who played and when. It dawned on me that I had years’ worth of 11 Introduction content already written so I should utilise it, even if it did mean a lot of it was from my personal point of view and there was a lot of reference from others to myself. That kind of makes me feel uncomfortable but there’s no escaping it. I began by trying to condense too much information into too few words. It was at that point I realised, if I was going to do this, I may as well do it properly. I decided to leave all the photos and flyers for a separate publication to accompany this paperback... Keep the smiling faces for the glossy pages and the dirt and gossip for these. If I say so myself, that hardback photo book came out pretty special...