Features I by I 07.03.14

“Now you can’t move for fucking mango sticks”: Bugged Out’s Johnno Burgess charts 20 years of running clubnights

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"Now you can’t move for fucking mango sticks": Bugged Out!'s Johnno Burgess charts 20 years of running clubnights

UK clubnight Bugged Out turns 20 this year, and will be celebrating by taking its annual Weekender back up North to a new location – Pontins, Southport.

With the multi-room event sporting the likes of Carl Craig, Andrew Weatherall, Dixon and Jackmaster, it’s going to be great. But you already knew that. They’ve been doing this thing a while now.

Ahead of 2014’s Bugged Out Weekender, which takes place this weekend (March 7-9), we got the party’s co-founder Johnno Burgess – a dab hand as a writer too, when he gets the chance – to run down the key changes that that he’s witnessed in two decades of running club nights, accompanied by a selection of photos from 20 years of Bugged Out.

Make sure to also check last year’s feature on Bugged Out’s best and worst moments, from Daft Punk to dwarf fellatio. Oh, and this Summer we’ll be co-hosting a stage with Bugged Out at Field Day – for more on that, head here.

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BOF-johnno

Johnno Burgess

Promotion

In the ’90s it was still very much about the club flyer,  advertising in magazines (that no longer exist) or street posters. I used to go round Manchester after midnight with a bag full of paste always keeping an eye out for any flashing blue lights. It’s much easier now to connect with your audience by sending a tweet to alert them to a line up. Daft Punk once played an impromptu set at Nation in Liverpool, giving us only three days notice. If Twitter and Facebook had existed in 1998 we could have sold the club out several times. Instead the punters that turned up were surprised by the news via hastily scrawled posters outside the venue.

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BOF-RESIDENT JAMES HOLROYD

James Holroyd

Agents

Back in the mid 90s DJs were usually looked after by friends who worked from their bedroom with a diary and a phone and – due to the lack of internet – a world atlas so they could try and work out whether sending him to Burnley the night before a gig in Rio was a good idea. At least they left us to decide what order the DJ would appear on the flyer, who they would play with and what time they would play.

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BOF-MISS KITTIN

Miss Kitten

Internet

We didn’t have a website until 2000. If you wanted to see who was appearing at the next event, you’d better make yourself a cuppa while each page painfully revealed itself at the pace of a snail. We’d check our e-mails every Tuesday to see if we’d ‘got mail’.

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BOF-FELIX DA HOUSECAT

Felix da Housecat

Riders

We spent the first few years asking whoever turned up to play, ‘Do you want a beer from the bar while you’re on?’  It took a while for us to encounter our first high maintenance DJ rider. It was for an American DJ who wanted a Mercedes to pick him up at a certain temperature. I remember some outrage in Manchester when a ‘superstar DJ’ had the tenacity to ask for a bowl of fruit backstage. Now you can’t move for fucking mango sticks.

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BOF-CARL COX

Carl Cox

Photography

While researching a feature for our 20th year we realised we only have a couple of dozen decent photos from the ’90s. The Chemical Brothers first live show at Sankeys? No record of it. Daft Punk playing at Nation in 1998? Well, Mixmag were there but they only took pictures of the crowd and blokes in devil horns. Snapping the DJ was just not the done thing back then.

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BOF-DJ HELL & TIGA

DJ Hell

Festivals

In the ’90s there was Glastonbury, Reading and towards the end of the decade the V festival (back when Daft Punk and the Chemical Brothers would be top of their dance bill). Tribal Gathering trail-blazed the dance fest but reached their peak in 1996 and then Creamfields began in 1998 with Bugged Out part of their early years (we also held our first Weekender in 2000 with SJM). So there were about four festivals to choose from each summer. Now there are hundreds, there’s even one devoted to chutney. Probably with Utah Saints on the bill.

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BOF-Erol Alkan_3027614398_o

Erol Alkan

Formats

I still smart when I remember having to lug a DJs full record box aloft through a packed Sankeys. Exciting for the crowd to see the box bobbing through the heads towards the booth but not so good for my back. At the turn of the millennium CDs started to become more popular, primarily with American DJs with the Pioneer decks more prevalent. There’s a dichotomy now as vinyl is on the rise at the same time as the USB stick. The latter is the life saver for the travelling DJ who can budget less for oesteopaths. It still seems weird when I pick up a DJ to take them to the club and they exit the hotel with their hands in their pockets. ‘Where are your tunes dude?’ Another difference due to the USB stick is that DJs don’t have to turn around anymore to dig in their crates. It’s eyes front all night.

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BOF-Hawtin at Field Day

Richie Hawtin

Ibiza

In 1999 we took Jeff Mills to Ibiza for the first time, when the Island was awash with the sound of ATB and trance cheese. ‘Jeff Mills in Ibiza? Who cares?’ said an unsupportive Muzik magazine of the booking. The night sold out and it was the first time I heard ‘Knights of the Jaguar’ in a set. People cared alright. Ibiza is more known for techno now than anything else.

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