A Brief History Of The Brighton Groove Based Scene Caught On Camera

What this passage is hoping to achieve is to give an insight into the beginnings of our musical scene that occurred in Brighton around 2008 onwards

To aid things along there's some pictures, video (coming soon) and links to information on those that made things happen at that time so please take a look around if you need to find out a little more

Lets start

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR MORE IMAGES

The above link in capitals contains a small yet fairly healthy selection of first hand images that nicely capture the initial stages of The Brighton Groove Based (or Disco) Scene taking shape around the later stages of the first decade of The Naughties and into 2011

Sadly there's no documentation past 2012  so we'll have to leave that part of the story to someone else as far as documentation is concerned

There's a slightly more comprehensive visual history available via the links below if you wish to get really stuck in to looking at the places and faces connected

Follow these links below or take a look around this blog under the "Straight Outta Brighton" section where we've posted lots of information bespoke to Brighton as time has progressed onwards from 2008

Brighton Groove Based Scene on Flickr - 2008-2011
Brighton Groove Based Scene on Video - 2008-2011 (coming soon)

The pictures and videos that have been taken aren't a definitive collection by no means, however they do cover the period from 2008 onwards when things began to take shape across our city

The links provide plenty of crowd shots caught on camera depicting the events that were building around the bars throughout 2008 onwards alongside the later inclusion of images taken from various local club spaces once the producers, record labels and dj agencies that came out of this short but energetic era took things to the next level beyond 2010

I must mention that sadly there are developments which occurred before 2008 which aren't shown due to their random, infrequent or extremely niche nature however I intend to put something together or at least investigate a little deeper over the course of time to give this documentation some greater depth

From memory these developments included

Brighton's first Nu Disco club night called 100 Watt at The Hanbury Ballrooms back in 2002/3, Greg Wilson's very first Brighton visit after 23 years in 2007, Heavy Disco and Broadcast Loft Parties that were operating in Brighton in the early Naughties and The Brighton Frequency Festival that included a handful of the scenes early players that are listed lower down in this passage

Disco Diaries which was DJ Charlie Brown's night also gets a mention as do the Soft Rocks parties that were held out in a recording studio in Portslade also get special mentions as precursory nights run by early exponents of the Disco / Groove Based Brighton Scene

In 2008 this blog was set up to spread the word about the groove based sounds that were emanating across the city on a local underground level through the efforts of many local bar djs scoping their sonic landscapes outside of club land at this time

Shortly after the initial posts on this blog appeared the need to bring all the separate factions together that were combining on Brighton's early scene which were namely the bars djs and the increasing numbers of interested dancers became a reality and immediate necessity

Facilitating this need to combine both factions into something that was accessible and also very much true to the roots of electronic dance music culture that the scene pays it's respects to was achieved through 3 annual Go Bang Brighton festival months held in May each year that not only helped to cement what people listen and dance to now but also crucially acted as a meeting point for all connected (all be it very loosely in those initial 3 years from 2008-2010)

Coincidentally the formulation or want of a better word "promotion" of the scene was very much aided by the increased use of social networking for which all those driving the awareness about what was going on used to great extent

Without Facebook for example the scene itself would probably of taken far longer to grow or remained the preserve of those lucky few in the know or members of  DJ History.com

Moving forward to today, we have now seen successful club nights established, music producers gain worldwide notoriety and some great music labels that support groove based dance music set up

Additionally, major players across The UK that come to visit Brighton as DJs or stand alone club nights now find a scene here that is very much clued up on the music and has a proud history all of it's very own

However times do change and as such the focus of this blog has slightly shifted into documenting occurrences associated with Brighton's groove based scene as apposed to promoting it's long past secret attributes and the music associated with it (disco, house and boogie)

Thankfully new and exciting music still comes through alongside the unearthing of the long lost gems as well as news on what's still happening out there, so at least for now there will be an equal measure of historical and also up to date content on here

Long may the dancing and music continue and thank you for reading as always

Hope You enjoy the selection of pictures that were taken over a 4 year period in Brighton when the cities slightly more experienced dance community kept the fires burning to the sound of groove based dance music

Peace

ASSOCIATED VENUES - BARS
The Sidewinder
The Globe
The Three and Ten
The Fishbowl
Above Audio
The Thomas Kemp
The Full Moon
Riki Tiks (2011)
Om

ASSOCIATED VENUES - CLUBS
Audio
Life
Funky Buddha
Honey Club
The Ocean Rooms
The Loft
The Jazz Place

ASSOCIATED CLUB NIGHTS
Disco Libero
Maxxi Sound System
Disco Deviant
Schtummn
The Residents Association
Love Saves The Day

ASSOCIATED PARTIES
Contraband Presents Inside Out
Turned Up High
Disco Deviant
Schtummn
Go Bang Brighton
The Recess
The Music Box
Calabash at Brighton Pride
Balearic Jukebox

ASSOCIATED FESTIVALS
Brighton City Festival
Frequency Festival
Beachdown Festival
Sellindge Festival
Go Bang Brighton Festival
Brighton Pride

ASSOCIATED DJS
Soft Rocks
Charlie Brown - Disco Diaries
Affy Wajid - Labeija 
Ali Back / Slack Edits
John White - 100 Watt
Neal Lewis - Schtumm
Sam Watts - Maxxi Sound System / Schtumm
Senor Mick - Schtumm
Johnny Hartshorn - Jilted Juke Box
Rich Recess - The Recess
Johnny Recess - The Recess
Alex Webb - Music Box
Rob Fahey - Blacklodge / Alphabet City
Matthew Neal - Wolf Music
Johnny Rocks - Rounder Records
Steve Ellis - Keeping It Wheel
Tim Rivers - Kaladasa / The Acid House / Warm Sounds
Andy Greaves
Paul Budd - Disco Deviant / Unity DJ Agency
Jeff Daniels - Residents Association
Will Sumsuch - Latenight Lounging
Carl Faure - Warrior One
Stu Clark - Wolf Music
Greymatter - Wolf Music
The Nearest Far Away Place
Matt Seeney -COR
Gustav - Heavy Disco
Mickey Dukes - Mile Wide Smile Club
Rich Harmer - Black Key Recordings
Easy Jim
1Dan - Atmospheric Existence Records
Celia May Jones and Rowan Brisko - Xanadu
Neal Langman
Karl Davison
Sibel Lagerdahl
Daddy Marcus
Nick Titchener
Local Zero - Disco Deviant