#or when I asked at the hatch at a petrol station shop do they have any purple snack bars | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

normalforglastonbury · 7 years ago

Text

A Tranquil Oasis in the Heart of the Somerset Countryside.

James and Tara White got in touch to ask me to write about Old Oaks Touring and Glamping Park. I was curious, although the Park is at the foot of the Tor and less than 2.5 miles from Glastonbury Town centre, I had never visited.

While Old Oaks wasn’t quite what I expected, having only experienced ‘glamping’ in a festival context and is certainly not what I’d think of as ‘Normal for Glastonbury’, I was to discover that those things are precisely what recommends it to thousands of visitors, who enjoy its tranquil surroundings and luxurious accommodation. Plus, it’s one of the most eco-friendly businesses in town, driven by James’s obvious passion for biodiversity, wildlife and the natural environment.

I asked James and Tara what they wanted from a post about Old Oaks, they knew that I don’t write straightforward advertorials for the blog, but I am interested in sharing pieces about people’s relationship with Glastonbury Town. It quickly became apparent that their main aim is to forge closer ties with businesses and creative people in Glastonbury. James said “We’ve got customers here, we want to maximise the benefit for the whole local economy”

A Short History of Old Oaks Touring Park

One of the Cedar Lodges at Old Oaks

James’s family have been in the area for “7 or 8 generations”. His grandad bought the 90 acre farm in 1918, and his mum and dad started the park in 1981, with pitches for just 5 vans. In 1987 they were granted a license for 40 pitches. It was a family park for 15 years, but children were often left unsupervised by their parents and would investigate the working farm, putting themselves in danger of falling in the slurry pit, or worse!

In view of this, and the lack of specific activities for children locally, it was decided to make the park a quiet, adults only site. At the same time, campervans and caravans were beginning to replace tents in popularity, so the grass camping pitches, which rapidly became muddy due to the heavy clay soil and frequent rain, were replaced with areas of hardstanding surrounded by generous swathes of lawn.

The Park covers 15 acres and has 100 pitches including 6 camping pods, 4 cedar lodges and 2 shepherd’s huts, with splendid views towards Wells Cathedral and the Mendip Hills. Nowadays, it is managed by James and Tara, although James’s Dad still helps out. James’s Mum and Dad still live next door and his brother Dan runs the farm, which supplies ethically reared beef and lamb to the likes of Stephens Butchers and the park’s own shop.

Years ago I’d heard grumbles from hippies in home-built campers that they’d had a less than friendly welcome from the owner (James’s Dad), so I was interested to discover how James, coming from such a long established local family, feels about the changes in the town.

He tells me that he and his brothers have grown up in (for want of a better word) ‘multicultural’ Glastonbury and he’s seen how many of the more ‘alternative’ in-comers have become part of the local economy. He praises Glastonbury’s wide choice of music, with gigs every night, the different coloured shops and the vibrancy of the town. He feels we don’t make enough of being a year-round destination, despite the fact that many people now take their holidays in every season, particularly loves the Frost Fair and thinks the Carnival should have activities going on all weekend, though he’s embarrassed by the town’s lacklustre Christmas decorations. He tells me their daughter loves Glastonbury and feels really lucky to have been bought up here.

I wonder what it was like for James growing up on a campsite, Tara tells me that when he was a young teenager, and the park still hosted families, he would inevitably check out the girl visitors of a similar age to him, but he’d also check their booking to see if they were staying around for long enough “to make it worth putting in the groundwork”. I can’t help thinking that this sort of forward planning put him in good stead to run a large and successful business. Nowadays James comes across as a very respectable, hardworking chap, but Tara also revealed that he was well known in his twenties, before he started working for the family business, for occasionally “getting naked in the Rifleman’s Arms”.

James and Tara outside one of the Cedar Lodges

In her twenties, Tara would visit her sister who’d already moved to Glastonbury. on most weekends, drinking in the Rifleman’s Arms and finding Glastonbury a refreshing change from ‘Conservative, straight, boring Sussex’, Eventually she realised she was spending most of her earnings as a PA on petrol to travel to and from the town, so decided to move here. She married James 13 years ago, but initially worked outside the family business, including a stint as a waitress in Nick Cottle’s ‘Monarch’ cafe, and then as a PA for Mendip District Council. She hadn’t wanted to get involved in the Park, but got pulled in after realising that PA work was ‘mind-numbingly boring’. She now loves her job, except for the endless paperwork, and shows clear delight in finding ways to offer guests unexpected special touches to make their stay more enjoyable.

James is the Head Gardener on site (as well as all his other jobs) and he proudly pointed out the razor-sharp neatness of the many hedges. I couldn’t help but ask if he was a Virgo, to which he replied: “It’s all a load of nonsense!”. He then had to admit that he is a Virgo and that I was the second person within a week to correctly guess his sun sign. Other people might attribute the success of the park to its being crossed by ley lines, but James leaves me in no doubt that, in his opinion, “there’s no such thing as leylines!” and besides, the park is clearly a product of many long hours of hard graft. Later, when I suggest that I am obviously more ‘cosmic’ than him he surprises me by revealing an interest in Chinese Medicine, because “it actually works!”

A Passion for Biodiversity

James and Tara take me for a walk around the site, the camping areas are in beautifully manicured gardens. I’m not keen on tamed nature as a rule, but there’s a great variety of shrubs, trees and flowers, and there’s a cider apple orchard at the centre of the park, it’s all rather lovely. James points out the plants that have been put in to benefit bees and birds as much as human visitors. Next, we walk through a field which James, true to his commitment to biodiversity and wildlife, is determined to turn into a wildflower meadow. He sowed it last year but wasn’t satisfied with the result, so he’ll be trying different plant varieties this time. Far be it for me to suggest that only a Virgo would demand perfection of a meadow.

Fisher-woman at Old Oaks Pond

There’s a lovely woodland walk through mature trees to the fishing pond, where several people sit quietly and happily casting their lines for tench, carp, roach and chub. Massed lily pads form circles in the centre of the pond, I imagine James wading in and nudging them into these perfect curves, Tara tells me they occurred naturally, but then mentions that James ‘tidies things up a bit’. Emerging from the calm stillness of the pond we come to the large chicken enclosure which provides the Park’s shop with fresh eggs, alongside the old apple orchard, kept to provide a home to wildlife.

Inevitably the subject of the planned bypass to the North of the Tor comes up. James told me he’s not concerned about the bypass affecting business, but he’s been walking the fields that the bypass would cross for his whole life and he’s horrified at the idea of this massive block of beautiful, unspoilt land being destroyed. He says “It will be a fox, badger, deer massacre!” He isn’t too worried, however, as the bypass has been talked about for his whole life, and nothing has happened yet.

You definitely can’t describe James as laid back, he’s clearly got tons of drive and energy and likes to see things done as well as possible. As he says “I don’t do mediocrity”. He’s particularly damning of the flower displays on Glastonbury’s roundabouts, with their single-use tulip bulbs and unimaginative bedding plants that are of no use to butterflies or bees, he has considered sponsoring a roundabout, as long as he gets to design the display with his choice of sustainable and bee friendly plants.

Keen to power the park with as much renewable energy as possible, James designed the beautiful and huge new shower block, with underfloor heating powered by renewable heat pump technology and a massive bank of solar water heaters on the roof. It may be super Green, but it’s also hotel quality. Unlike most campsites I’ve come across you’ll neither get splinters from bare wood or be looking at a whitewashed breezeblock wall while you wash, this place, like the rest of the park, is seriously plush. There are LED light mirror surrounds, hairdryers and high stools, I feel like I’ve wandered into an expensive hair stylist’s studio.

Sustainably powered shower block

Plush showers

Hotel quality facilities

A very hi-tech addition to the park is an emptying and cleaning station for chemical toilets, it’s the size and shape of a vending machine, but definitely doesn’t dispense chocolate bars. Campers drop their toilet cassette into a hatch and it is returned emptied, clean and topped up with eco-friendly toilet fluids. Unlike old-fashioned camping toilet chemicals, the waste can be processed on site, rather than having to be transported to the chemical waste treatment plant in Avonmouth. Their site sewage is processed through their on-site treatment system, before further treatment in the natural Victorian style reed bed system. The next plan is for a compost loo by the fishing lake.

Engaging with the Community and Local Businesses

A walk around the pond

Tara and James’s passion for sustainability doesn’t end with the Green initiatives in the park itself, they want to contribute to the financial sustainability of the town too. It grieves the couple that campsites are often seen as the ‘poor man’s B&B’ as they are supplying a 5-star service and know their visitors make a very significant contribution to the local economy. The average age of their customers is 55, they are towing £25k caravans, or paying equivalent rates to those charged by hotels to stay in the park’s glamping cabins and shepherd’s huts. These are not people packing their own sandwiches and looking for a cheap holiday. The glamping options are proving popular with younger couples looking for something luxurious but a bit different – proving the Old Oaks isn’t just for old folks.

They want to partner with as many local businesses as they can, they have lots of ideas for services that would be of benefit to their visitors. They’d love to work with someone offering bike hire and bike tours of the local area for instance. Tara runs a ‘Glastonbury Tours’ side business providing their campers with minibus transport to local events like the Glastonbury and Bridgwater Carnivals. the Extravaganza and Glastonbury Festival, as well as coaches for locals to events such as Pilton Party and West Fest. This creates a great opportunity for others to offer talks and walks to the campsite guests – like birdwatching on the Nature Reserves of the Avalon Marshes.

The Old Oaks Camping Shop

They often work with Mary from the Abbey Tea Rooms who makes the cakes they sell in their shop. On carnival night they book 3 coaches who ferry campers to and from the town (saving 100 cars from having to drive into and park in the town). Campers go to the Abbey Tea Rooms for a buffet and can stay and watch the carnival from there too.

Another of their initiatives is the ‘Good Food Club’ offering special deals at recommended local eateries to their campers. Also, rather than having their own restaurant on site they chose to partner up with local takeaways who deliver to the site, while I’m there a wood-fired pizza oven is being set up in the courtyard. Their modern and well-stocked shop sells essential supplies, camping goods and a wide variety of local produce – Orchard Pig ciders, Rose Farm preserves, meat from Steve the Butcher on the marketplace and beef, lamb and eggs from the family farm, White’s of Wick, you can’t get more local than that!.

Supporting Local Artists and Craftspeople

Anthony Rogers Sculpture

Local carpenter John Tucker made their first wooden glamping pods, with all the materials being locally sourced. When they found out an old oak tree on the drive was diseased and would have to be cut down they called in Anthony Rogers from Frome to carve it into a beautiful organic, spiralling form.

The first thing you see when you enter the park’s shop is a photograph of the Tor taken by Kev Pearson on two walls and Phil Holly’s locally made stained glass is for sale here too – check out his website Lost in Glass. The shop will soon be stocking Tara’s sister Donna’s beautiful ceramics.

Elsewhere on site, faced with what was a hideous concrete block wall, they commissioned local artist Jon Minshull to paint a huge mural of a Somerset landscape, featuring the Tor and an abundance of local wildlife. I’m blown away by it, it’s spectacular.

Jon also painted the mural on the wall of the Glastonbury Experience Courtyard alleyway, it features Tara’s sister’s naked bottom, painted slightly larger than life.

A Tranquil Retreat in Nature

Walking to the Tor from the Old Oaks

So who stays at the Old Oaks Touring Park? It’s popular with visitors who appreciate quiet, it’s part of ‘Tranquil Parks’, there are no big events, no screaming children and no big groups (as “even the Goddesses make loads of noise”). They don’t offer one night stays before or after Glastonbury festival, as before the event festival goers are hyped up and overexcited, while afterwards they are really just looking for somewhere to wash off the mud. As they explain “it’s not snobbery, it’s just business” they are giving their guests what they want – luxury facilities, glamping and peace and quiet in nature. They must be doing a lot right as they are the overall winners of the AA Campsite of the Year for England 2018 award.

Interior of an Old Oaks Shepherd’s Hut

The facilities are a far cry from my experience of campsites. The glamping options – shepherd’s huts, lodges and cabins, are quirky but luxurious, two even offer a tastefully screened wood-fired outdoor hot tub. The cedar lodges are beautiful and offer wonderful views, plus all that cedarwood smells amazing. For those whose accommodation doesn’t include fitted bathrooms, the park’s original shower block has been refurbished to create individual shower and changing rooms, so you won’t have an audience when you are hoiking your knickers up.

Unusually everything really is as immaculate as the photos in the brochure. I can’t imagine the amount of work that it takes to keep everything so spotlessly clean, tidy and well maintained, an army of elves with invisible brooms is the only logical explanation. Or it could be down to the hard work of the 6 wardens who work in pairs, the 3 cleaners and the apprentice gardener, altogether a staff of ten, plus James and Tara.

Doggie Shower

Tara tells me that the park is very popular with people who want to take their canine friends on holiday. It’s very dog-friendly, with a dog walking area and a fully featured, split level, dog shower, with doggie shampoo. Tara tells me they are getting a dog hairdryer next, I assumed she was joking, but then I saw all the other facilities and decided she probably wasn’t. I imagine a walk through affair, like the final stage of a drive-thru car wash, from which the pampered pooches will emerge with magnificent bouffants.

With the Somerset Levels on the doorstep, it’s an ideal spot for cycle touring. I’d cycled to the Park myself from Benedict Street. I’m not fit enough to tackle the most direct, but very hilly, route up Wellhouse and Stone Down Lanes, so I chose the cycle path along the bypass to West Mendip Hospital and then Brindham Lane and Wick Lane to the Old Oaks. I was surprised at how quick and easy this (virtually) flat route was. For walkers, there are the 15 acres of the park itself, the Tor and many walks into Glastonbury Town and across the Levels.

James and Tara doing the sort of camping they enjoy – at a festival

James and Tara tell me that they are the kind of people who would get into trouble if they were guests in their own park – they like camping with big groups of mates, drinking, partying and festivals. When they go to Glastonbury festival they take their caravan to stay with friends in a backstage camping area. But Tara says “It makes for an easier life when the customers aren’t running around drunk”

I ask them if they have any ‘Normal for Glastonbury’ stories where the peace and quiet were disrupted. James describes an incident with a young guy, probably on magic mushrooms, who alarmed the other campers by running around naked shouting “I am God” and “I’ve seen the light!”. A few years ago another young man, just wearing pants, emerged onto the park scratched and bleeding, having forced his way through the thorny hedgerow, he explained he was “following the leyline”. James remarks wryly “that’s worse than following a sat nav”.

James and his family clearly derive some dry amusement at the antics of some visitors. He tells me they once had a customer who checked out early “because the energy of the earth on the site was too strong”, Another wanted him to wash the pitch as “the previous campers had left negative energy”. James’s dad’s most oft-repeated comment on Glastonbury’s High Street is “We’ve got one butcher, one baker and ever so many candlestick makers”

Tara tells me they want to do something different, exceed expectations, make people go ‘Wow!’. She says “We’re constantly being complimented on our park, how can that not be a nice thing, knowing we’ve provided people with a really memorable holiday?”

If you provide a local service that might be of interest to the users of the park then do get in touch with Tara at [email protected], she’d love to hear from you.

If you are visiting the town and want a truly tranquil experience in nature then I’m sure you will be well looked after, if you are attending a retreat in the town Old Oaks Touring Park would be ideal. Those of us that live here might want to recommend the park to their visiting relatives who love nature but not mud, especially those who’d like to visit Glastonbury but might find some of the quirkier aspects of staying in the town a little alarming!

This post was kindly commissioned and sponsored by James and Tara White of Old Oaks Touring and Glamping Park, but the opinions are all mine! Would you like to commission me to write an article about what you do, for Normal For Glastonbury? You’d be reaching thousands of readers who love the Town. Please click here for more information. Would you like to write a piece for Normal For Glastonbury about your experience of the town? Please get in touch.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this blog please subscribe by email, ‘like’ the Normal for Glastonbury facebook page and contribute your own stories and comments, and share my blog and facebook posts (this is really important – it’s how I reach more readers!). See my ’Hire Me’ page if you’d like to pay me to help you with your own projects, you can also check out how to support this blog,

All photographs copyright Old Oaks Touring Park. Text copyright Vicki Steward.

Old Oaks Touring and Glamping Park A Tranquil Oasis in the Heart of the Somerset Countryside. James and Tara White got in touch to ask me to write about

#Accommodation #Biodiversity #Business #Camping #Campsites #Commissioned Post #Cycling #Eco-Friendly #Environment #Glastonbury #Glastonbury Business #Glastonbury Carnival #Glastonbury Town #Landscapes #Somerset #Somerset Levels #Tourism

1 note · View note

enchantedrhythms · 7 years ago

Text

Interview with Mark “Turbo” Turner

Former Eastern Bloc records employee and resident DJ at the legendary northern techno club The Orbit has kindly taken the time to answer some questions and provide a mix for Enchanted Rhythms. Read the interview below and check out the mix on our Soundcloud.

So let’s start at the beginning of your musical quest, what was your entry into deejaying and music?

Breakdancing was my entry into music. In the 80s when breakdancing kicked off I was a popper and had a little crew. You’d hear the music whenever you went out, whenever you’d go out meeting other crews someone would have a mixtape. Hearing this music you’d be like, “Oh my god. This is amazing”, and you’d be like, “where do you buy this shit?” People go, “you can just buy it in like Virgin or HMV,” so I’d get my pocket money and get on the bus or train and go to Leeds.

Where were you based then?

Featherstone which is in West Yorkshire, just some little mining village. Like I say I’d get my pocket money, get on the bus or train, get to Leeds and I’d have enough money to buy a record.

What were the tunes you were dancing to?

Stuff like Egyptian Lover, people like Knights of the Turntables, loads of stuff on a label called Vintertainment, then GrandMixer D.ST, Celluloid, which was more arty New York-style stuff, always interwoven with people like Keith Le Blanc who did more of the big beaty dub stuff in the early days. Tackhead, people like that from the UK...just really industrial sounding drum shit with early repeat style sampling stuff. You could tell they’ve just got a sampler and are hitting the key going “ah-ah-ah-ah-ah”. Early roots shit like that, rough, not quantized. In that period it didn’t mean shit, it sounded like future music anyway. Labels like Music Specialist, Pretty Tony, the roots of electro, obviously things like Cybertron’s Clear. We were more into the West Coast stuff like I say, Egyptian Lover, all the Crew Cuts records, World Class Wreckin’ Cru which is obviously Dr Dre’s possy before NWA. All the Crew Cuts was fucking badass, stuff like Clientele Yella. In Straight Outta Compton (the movie) they don’t even touch on that vibe.

So how old were you then?

A teenager. I think I got a set of decks when I was about 14. I’m 46 now, so a long time ago. My first turntables were two identical belt driven Pioneer hi-fi turntables with no pitch and some crap Tandy mixer from Radioshack. What I would do is get Jocks magazine, which was a forerunner to DJ Mag, where they used to review records and include the BPM. I’d roll into a record shop like Crash Records in Leeds and give them a random list of things that were similar in BPM. The style didn’t really matter, just because I knew I could mix them on my set-up. After a while I got some Technics rip-off Soundlab decks, and after those it was just a matter of saving up and buying the real thing. After having belt-driven Soundlab turntables getting a pair of Technics is one of the highlights of your life. These solid pieces of kit where you can actually mix records night and day.

How did you get into House music?

My friends were getting into the early Chicago stuff and one of them had been buying all the old Trax Records and had started a little night in Wakefield. I went to this night and after starting hearing that I was like “what is this shit?”, Chicago, this 4x4 shit, this is the next phase. I mean there was a period where you’re like “I’m not into that”. It can be like you’re a little tunnel blind to what you’re into, no matter what it is. I had that thing where it had to be electro or hip hop, everything else was shit. But then going out and hearing one of my mates playing me this stuff I was like, this is even better than what I’m already into. From there on it was just house shit and hip-hop/electro on the back-burner.

From that things progressed, and the rave period came. We used to go to illegal parties, loads of little raves in warehouses. Discovered gear, speed, acid, party fuel. This music sounds wicked but with this shit it sounds even better. The whole rave period of the early 90’s, we did illegal parties. I got busted at one in Leeds at this big Guilderson Rave (The Love Decade) in 1990. I think it was the biggest mass arrest ever in the UK with like 800 and something people arrested. I was locked up for 9 hours totally wired in a police cell with some mad scouse guy in the cell next door banging on the wall going ‘Hey, Macca, where are you Macca’. After getting out the cell I had to get on the bus and go back to my Mum’s house and she is like “where you been”, and I’m like “err, nowhere”.

At this party were you playing or just raving?

Nah, it was a guy called Rob Tissera who was playing and he actually got a 6 month prison sentence. He wasn’t the organiser of the party but as the DJ everything got put on his shoulders. Those little parties were the intro to the Criminal Justice Act. After that party they really booted in strong with that but we did another under a motorway bridge in Wakefield called Finger In A Matchbox. It was just two parts under the M1. We got a rig under there, played one record and all of a sudden the wires were cut and the police were there with a roadblock.

So they were waiting for you?

Yes, this was before social media but the word had got out. What we had done was created a escape route. On a lot of motorway bridges there is a route from one side to another, like a hatch, and we had all these candles down there. When the police came we banged the turntables into these bags and legged it down this tunnel where we laid low for 4 or 5 hours, whilst everyone else on the other side of the bridge were getting arrested. When everybody left we got back down to the car and then fucked off.

youtube

The aftermath of Finger In A Matchbox.

How did The Orbit start?

There weren’t any raves in West Yorkshire, you always had to travel. There were the Guilderson parties but everything was really was elsewhere, Blackburn, down south, Stoke, or Liverpool’s Quadrant Park, places like that. When the Orbit came along it was like there is a club where you can listen to all your favourite music and it’s 10 miles away. First night going there, I think it was Grooverider and Evil Eddie Richards. It was wicked, there were all the people you went out with everywhere else all over the country but you could just go to this party and go back to peoples houses afterwards. With the illegal raves it was just service stations afterwards, wired with a little bag with a change of clothes because you had sweated that much and you would stay there till about 11am. People were getting flats around the Orbit around this time, so we could go to the Orbit and then afterwards go to someone's flat.

Sounds better than service stations.

Well the thing with service stations is everyone got banned once they started getting wise to where all these people were coming from. At the service station they would have a roof that came all the way down to floor level and people would climb up on them and start dancing like crazy fools. They started closing the stations so you could get some petrol but you couldn’t go in.

How did you get involved playing at the Orbit?

The Orbit got so popular that they opened another club, so they had Osset and they opened After Dark in Morley. Some of my mates knew the guys that were running the Orbit so I gave them a mixtape and they let me have a set. I can’t remember who else was playing, DJ Sy or something, it was the hardcore period with Grooverider, Fabio, etc, people dressing up mental with Persil boxes on their head. We didn’t know but in After Dark there were loads of these little rooms and me and my friend Nidge, who I had hooked up with wandered up into one on a Saturday night and there was a DJ playing in there. We were like, what’s this? Nobody's ever told us about this. So we told Sean who ran the club that we would like to DJ in the backroom instead. So they chucked out the guy who was in there and I would bring two massive speakers and amp from a friend and some decks and we started doing the back room at the Orbit. It was hardcore and techno in the main room and we would play house shit in the backroom. As the backroom started getting popular we moved up into another room at the top of the club. That is where we started playing the more purist techno sound, it wasn’t really a chillout room. Downstairs, you would be getting the hardcore shit and upstairs we were smashing out early techno like Underground Resistance and all the Belgian stuff.

After a period Sean had gotten unhappy with all the happy hardcore clientele. So he approached a few people, for example Dave Angel, saying they want to take the club in a more techno orientated field. They asked for a list of names from someone already on the scene. Dave gave them loads of names like Sven Vath, all the Harthouse guys, Jeff Mills, Tanith, IQ, Westbam, Marco Zaffarano, we’d start getting the American guys like Mike Dearborn, DJ Skull all the Toronto boys, like Hawtin would be on a Plus 8 night, John Acquaviva, Mark Gauge as Vapourspace. With the UK lot, we had Sims, Oliver Ho, Ruskin, Surgeon, British Murder Boys, Mills played there loads of times, Laurent Garnier, everybody who's still on the techno scene today. We also started doing Reflex stuff, so we had Aphex Twin playing live and even on his Soundcloud page there is a track he did for the Orbit. It was wicked, but not everyone got it...some crazy long haired ginger guy lying down on an Amiga computer with a TV screen, smashing out Didgeridoo and shit like that.

Orbit flyer from 1995.

We had Wishmountain (Matthew Herbert), who used get dressed up in a suit and mime along to his tracks. He’d get on top of the speakers and get a trumpet out of his suitcase and do a crazy live set with shitty harmonicas. He did one thing with radios where he just sampled little bits of radio recordings and make tracks with it, it was wicked but not everybody got it. A lot of people were quite straight with what they want; repetitiveness, kick drums. We had a full Reflex night once with DMX crew, Cylob, and Aphex Twin deejaying. That night turned into a riot with the crowd throwing shit at DMX, we switched off the music and he was shouting back offering out the crowd. The crowd thought it’s gonna be Aphex Twin, it’s gonna be the shit. When he came on at the end he was playing Drum n Bass + 8 style, and people were going crazy, booing. I talked to DMX about it later on and he was like man, that night, one of the worst nights ever. It’s a night that always sticks out, not that it was shit music, just that the crowd weren’t ready for it.

What was the vibe like in there?

Atmosphere wise I’ve never been to a club anywhere like Quadrant Park in Liverpool in the early 90’s. It’s totally electric, hairs up on the back of your arms, everyone just dancing with their hands in the air all night long. It was the same with the Orbit, I think it might have just been a Northern thing. The more north you get the more people party hard. If you ever went to the Arches in Scotland, more north, more nutty, more hardcore, more up for it, more party! I’ve always found London more subdued, not pretentious but just always a bit tame, the North's always had it for me.

youtube

Liverpools Quadrant Park.

How often were you playing there?

Every week we had the back room which was originally the foyer where you came into the club. There were a lot of nights where I missed the big guests because I loved playing in the back so much. We’d just turn up and be like let's have a hip hop night and play hip hop all night or be like let's have a electro night and just play electro all night. There was no control in that room, you could play whatever. You’d get your friends to come along and get them deejaying. It got to the point where people just wanted to come to play the backroom. You’d get people who played the back room and you’d see next to their name on flyers “The Orbit”,and they should have put in brackets “The Backroom”. A lot of close friends say it was always about the backroom for them as well. We used to come in there, all night sitting in the corner smoking reefers, listening to you play whatever basic channel till whenever. We did book people in the back room as well, we had the Orb, Fat Cat and we used to get these guys if Sven (Vaeth) did a night called Aural Float, really good electronic artists who did stuff on his label. The backroom was my Nirvana.

Did you ever play in the mainroom?

I didn’t really, although when one of the guys Nigel left, they asked me to play in there. Thing is I didn’t buy that much techno, I’d buy UR and Mills stuff and that but obviously working in the shop (Eastern Bloc) I had a massive run on promos. I got a name for being the guy getting asked what I’m playing and it’s some white label promo that I can’t even remember the name of. The main room was mad. It opened at 8pm because it finished at 2am. So you’d start the night with some electro, some dubby Basic Channel shit and then it would just fill up so at 21.00 and you’d have techno skinheads on the dancefloor going “Come on, Come on”. I’d be like fuck it, and stick something on with a kick drum and they’d all be like “Yeaaaaaaa”. You couldn’t really take it as a warm up, you couldn’t really progress. You could do a hour of what you wanted but then all of a sudden it would change gear because you had such a short period of going out. Nowadays you can go out for days but at that period in time you only had till 2am so people just wanted to go out and have it. That’s where I got my name, but it was never my thing. I was into it but what I was playing wasn’t my true love, if you know what I mean. The backroom was me, the backroom was about how I expressed myself in what I played, in the electro shit or the house shit. I love techno but I’ll always go back to house and if you came and saw my records it would be mostly house or old electro shit. I’ve got techno but a lot of the techno from the period of the Orbit I found it a bit throw-away. So when the Orbit finished I saw those records as just tools to pay the man and got rid of alot of them. I’ve had a few deejay jobs where I’ve just bought things, you do, you buy shit and years later I look at it like what is that shit and I’m sure there are records that I’ve got rid of and I’m thinking shit, that is £100, £200. It’s not the fact that I still like it, just that I sold that for 1p or job lots for 100 records for £100.

What sort of size were the rooms?

1200 capacity in the main room and on a busy night that would be full. The backroom was about 100. One of the problems with my room was that we didn’t even have proper speakers. I used to bring some little speakers every week in the back of the car, proper DIY style. I had to plead with the club to get some big speakers and when they finally got them, they just gave me a stack of gear and were like, there you go. I had to wire everything up and figure out crossovers myself. When I installed them it was the best thing ever. The club didn’t see the backroom as a financial thing until a bit later. Unfortunately the speakers didn’t last long, we rinsed them out and blew them up!

What happened to the Orbit?

It wound down because the minimal thing came along and people got into different things. The clientele were shrinking and the new audience weren’t going for the 135-140 BPM techno stuff. So in 2003 the Orbit closed. The last night we had Ruskin and Surgeon. We didn’t even announce it was going to close we just had the last night and it just ended, and that was it.

Tell me about Player.

When the Orbit was still going it had a studio upstairs and Sean who ran the club was thinking about starting a label and asked us if we wanted to get involved. It was me, Jon Nuccle and Mike Humphries who put stuff out on a techno label called Red Seal, and another guy called Ignition Technician. It was just a little collective. We named each release Player 1,2,3 and so on, it was never about who had made each one. That was a hard thing to push because it had no identity, it was just a label. We just had some fun making tunes, cut and paste shit, sample whatever, just put it out. That mentality, just fun, no seriousness to it, we just wanted to do something different. We styled Player on UR 003 and just that UR way of doing things. We didn’t wear masks because we didn’t have press shots but the records were just a track, no info, maybe just a email address on it and that was the way if anybody would get in touch with us for licensing etc. A lot of people liked the Player stuff at the time. I think it was because it was different and we didn’t push the fact who we were. We were invited down to Radio 1 to do a mix by DJ Fergie. The thing with the Player stuff is it was fast but it still had that cheeky house vibe to it. One of the best ones was Ignition Technician did Player 3 that starts with the Jeru The Damaja bit from Playing Yourself. The first two releases had been kinda back-burners but when that came out, that just smashed the label into another level.

youtube

We did Player 8 called Zilcho which is one of my favourite Player records because it’s just a house cut-up of Rick James’ Give It To Me Baby, it’s a Beltram remix. We asked Joey to do a remix of Player 8 and he said you know what I’ve just done a version of that track (Give It To Me Baby) without even hearing yours, so he sent that back and we put it out. It was a lot of money, about £3000 for this remix but at the time the label was paying for itself and we all thought Joey Beltram was a god. Joey Beltram putting out a release on our label, you can’t get better than some stuff.

We did a remix for Billy Nasty but he never put it out, one of Gaetek old tracks. We did quite a few things that never got released. What happened was people heard certain tracks of ours and they wanted us to recreate it for their remix, but then we’d do a remix and it would be like this hip-hop, cut-up, pumped-up, big shearing 909 thing, and they’d be like we don’t really want that. They’d email back saying ‘we don’t like that’. Well, we’re not going to do another. We’ve just spent days doing that, that’s it. We’d just put it out ourselves, what you gonna do about it? We’re from Yorkshire and you’re from Italy or whatever. I think we fell out with some people. There were some stories going around that it was going to kick off if they came to play the Orbit. Not sure where it all came from but we had this backstory going on that we were all bad boys and that it would all kick off if you messed with the Player squad. Well it wasn’t true, we were just pussycats just putting out records.

What Happened To Player?

We had 28 releases as well as remix EPs, so about 35 releases in total. We were distributed through Intergroove, who were a massive distributor. As well as Beltram we had Adam Beyer, Mark Broom, Ben Sims all doing remixes for us and people like Derrick May and everybody playing it. The label for a while was massive, but it was that period you could sell shit, loads of records. People now press 300 records, back then we’d sell out of 1200-1500 copies in a week. Thing was with all these distribution companies everybody had these P+D deals, you never had pay any money out. You sent them your new tracks, they pressed it for you and then they recouped the costs back from your sales. But what happened was all these companies were taking on so many labels that they couldn’t recoup the costs back and then all these distros started going bankrupt. We started moving the label from distro to distro but they kept going bankrupt. We’d put a record out with one, it’d go bankrupt and we wouldn’t see any money, move to another, same thing. So we thought, we’re not putting anymore records out. The label finished in 2003 when the club shut.

Check out the Player Bandcamp where you can find vinyl, digital and merch.

Eastern Bloc Records former location on Oldham Street.

How did you end up working at Eastern Bloc?

Eastern Bloc opened a shop in Leeds in 1995. This guy Pete Waterman wanted to make a little entity to rival HMV and he bought-out a lot of underground shops. He bought Flying, Scott and Scooby’s shop, Shindig up in Newcastle, Unity Records in Liverpool and he bought Eastern Bloc Records. I was originally just buying records. I used to visit Eastern Bloc in Manchester from the early 90s, once a month, wazin a full month’s wage and be skint until the next month. I’d say to Jon Berry who still runs Eastern Bloc now, “If you ever have a job going, I’ll pack my job in and I’ll come and do it any time” and so when the Leeds shop opened I was in there doing the House buying. Nidge who DJ’d at the Orbit did the techno buying.

That was the period when Relief had just kicked off, Ron Trent's Prescription records, all that shit, so musically wise it was amazing time. When deliveries would turn up it would be like ‘Have you heard this fucking Paul Johnson shit?’ or this new Chez Damier shit or this new thing on Strictly Rhythm, you would just be buzzin’. Now everything has been invented, and it’s a case of re-inventing things, just changing it, say slightly changing the production style of it, then there were still things to come, so when things turned up I’d be like, I’ve not heard this shit before, this is the future shit. Obviously the Dance Mania shit and some of the UK stuff like early Pepe Braddock coming out, people like Motorbass and the good French stuff, obviously Daft Punk coming out, when the Daft Punk Homework album came out I’d be like fuck me, I’d play the album in the backroom of the Orbit all night. Same with a lot of shit like Basement Jaxx, when they first dropped they were totally different to anything. It wasn’t ghetto but that Atlantic Jaxx shit they used to do with a dub influences with big wobbly sub bases. Man, I’ve got a crazy Bassment Jaxx collection, so big. Never got rid of them because I love that vibe. They're not very good these days, same with Daft Punk... but back in the day.

Mark in Eastern Bloc, Manchester December 2016.

UK garage also started arriving in the late 90’s. With UK garage there was a lot of shit and there was a lot of good shit. I used to be a quiet lover of it, just take the odd ones like all the Ice Cream stuff and Social Circles. Most people that worked in the shop hated it, but I think they hated it because of the clientele. There wasn’t really a garage scene in Manchester, that was always about London, so you’d have Garage Nation, Sun City, all these nights down there. You’d get countless bad boys rolling into the shop as we’d stock all the tape packs and do tickets for the events. Some were cool as fuck but a lot of bad people used to roll through the shop. It was one of the most hardcore environments to work in for a while, in a good way but also it could be in a bad way. We used to get a lot of garage nicked. You’d give piles to people on a busy saturday and you’d be like where has that pile gone! We also had threats of violence, threats of getting shot up. There was this time where some guy asked us to save some tickets for Garage Nation but they had accidently been sold. This guy is coming in going “do you know who I am, I’m gonna come back and shoot this place up, I’m gonna get my knife.” So he’s there threatening one of my mates in the shop whilst I’m on the phone to one of the promoters from Garage Nation asking if they can sort out some guest lists for the guy. I’m like to the guy chill I’ve got the guy from Garage Nation on the phone here you can have a word with him. We evaded some kick-off moments but it could have become quite hairy in the shop.

You can be a bit of a nobhead working in a record shop and I’m sure a lot of people thought that I was a nobhead working in a record shop. Thing is, working in a record shop it’s got a persona sometimes and when people come into the shop they know there is a persona so they act with a persona as well. It’s gets to that point where it’s just people trying to outsmart each other, “have you got this”, “have you got that”, “have you heard this shit”. Just because you work in a record shop doesn’t mean you hear everything. Someone will roll up and be like have you heard that, and you go no, then they would be like what do you mean you haven’t heard that. I ain’t heard but I’ll look into it. I could just say I’ve got 1000 records down there that you haven’t heard. In the record shop it’s like a mates thing, you become like this little gang, and you have private jokes with each other. You try not to get the customers wowed up but sometimes it used to happen. I’m not saying we were nasty, not nasty, but funny nasty, just banter. We had cheeky slogans and little one liners like “Have you had a taste bypass?” or “Did you leave your taste at home today?”. It was always banter, just tongue in cheek. Thing is after working in a record shop I really don’t like going in record shops anymore, just because I can’t handle that me being there. Phonica is one of the worst ones, I just want to go in and look at the records behind the counter and the guy in there is going “what you into mate” and I’m like “I’m just having a look mate”, I’ll say, “I’ll have that, that, that and that” and then he’s like “Are you sure you don’t want me to play you some more stuff?”. Even though they might be doing their job, pulling shit out for people and turning me onto something new. That is a good thing about working in a record shop, you always wanted to turn somebody on to something that you loved in the shop. Sometimes everybody in the shop would love something and then this guy would go “oh I don’t like it”, everyone would be like “what you talking about mate, it’s fucking brilliant, what's your problem.”

What is your show on KMAH?

It’s called WERD. With the show, KMAH were after different genres to cover and someone put my name forward for electro. I really like that kind of outlet, because it’s not about mixing records it’s about playing records. On some of my shows the flow works perfectly and the tracks aren’t even mixed together. I don’t even like talking on the radio, sometimes I’ll say hello. I usually get people writing me asking me the name of the records so I just put some voice overs telling people what they are. The show has been really good, like I say, it’s been a outlet for something that I don’t really get chance to play. As we were discussing before, electro is like the new techno, people over the last year have got more into the show than when it first started. When I was living in Berlin for a bit I was in the Record Loft and some guy overheard me talking to Ben Williams who used to work in there about KMAH and he came over and went “oh yeah KMAH that’s a fucking wicked radio have you heard that Mark Turner guy he plays some wicked electro”. I was like “oh yeah man it’s a good show”. I didn’t say like, that’s me. It was nice to hear some random guy who was into it. You know it’s not a massively listened to show compared to some others on the station but that doesn’t matter to me, so long as people appreciate it. Same with my soundcloud page. I don’t advertise the fact that I do mixes and shit. My friend Will (Arnaldo) will be like I’m going to share that mix for you. Obviously because he has a big following that opens it up and it gets some more people listening to it. With the DJ thing I’ve never really seen it as a career. I’m sure with the Orbit I could have pushed it and took it as proper career but I never did it for that reason. You know you meet people who are so focused on becoming this DJ and deejaying here and there. It puzzles me sometimes how much these people want to go down that path. I mean I’ve done it, I’ve travelled places and deejayed in other countries. I liked playing in the club but you’re basically by yourself, you’re not with your friends, you’ll be in a hotel room by yourself usually waiting another day for the plane to come and I was like I’m not into this shit. I’d rather work in a record shop and go to the club on weekend to play some tunes, just do that. I’d get people coming in the shop who you can see in their eyes the hunger was there, and I’d watch them develop into these career hungry deejays, but that were never my thing. People say I could have taken it that way, but it never interested me whatsoever. I’d rather just have a chilled life on the back-burner, just buying records and doing the odd mix here and there.

How big is your collection?

Thousands, thousands, thousands, thousands and thousands. I ain’t counted them. 10,000? 8,000? I don’t know. The thing is with record collections it doesn’t matter how big they are. Anyone can have a big collection, it’s about having the quality within that collection. You can buy a job lot of 10,000 records but it’s only gonna look good on your shelf. As soon as you start pulling things out and playing people shit it’s going to be 15 rachmaninoff albums. The records that I have kept I don’t have in any sort of order. People go “why don’t you have them in sections”, and I don’t, I just like doing it where you pull a record out and think “that’s a tune, I’ll just put that on”. When you pull it out maybe it’s not going to go physically, it’s not the correct BPM or anything, but that is me and that is my record collection. Maybe one day I will put it in order but, but maybe just favourite labels, that way i’ll know where to go to get them for example Dance Mania. That is one of those labels that I absolutely just adore. I’ve got a lot of Dance Mania records I have a thing where I buy one a week and if I miss a week then I have to buy two, and so on. If I went a month I’d have to buy 5.

Is that just dance mania?

Yes I’ve always got to buy a Dance Mania record a week.

How many do you have then?

Couple of hundred. I’m getting close but I don’t think I want all of them because some of them are forgettable. The crazy thing is the really expensive ones are not the best ones. It’s one of them labels, I know because I buy them, that it’s so overpriced for what it is. I like the fact they reissue them. It doesn’t piss me off if something gets reissued that I have already got because it’s another copy, I’ll buy the reissues because they are 7 quid. Some of them aren’t very good pressings, some of them are good pressing but just pulled off the original vinyl, which isn’t such a good pressing. That is the beauty of Dance Mania when you play it out, it’s raw shit. There is going to be a crackle, there might be a jump in the background there might be a “schrich-schrich-schrich” sound but that doesn’t really bother me. I just love Dance Mania. Same with Relief and all that Chicago vibe. I just like the ghetto vibe. I don’t know what it is, maybe it ties in with a working class background. I wont say I was under deprived but where I grew up it was a bit ghetto. I find it the same with garage and bassline, it’s music from the suburbs, it’s working class shit. You listen to that Chicago shit and you know it’s just kids of the street on their little tape decks and their cheap little 909. DJ funk and all them kinda guys, from the hoods or wherever. I just love the rawness. It’s not done on a Neve desk it’s done on a fucking Tascam 4 track tape recorder. I just love the raw shit but I also love the really expensive sounding Dance Mania, the older ones that sound more classy. Obviously it changed from being a hip house kinda label, Chicago house, nice vocal shit, then merged into this wo-down ghetto sound with Slugo and D-man. From the old classic shit to the newer stuff, I love it. I’d love to own them all but I won’t cry if I can’t get some overpriced anthems. Well it’s not even anthems, the crazy priced ones seem to be ones that they didn’t sell fuck all of so they probably just destroyed them and they are really bad pressed.

You mentioned before you’re working on some production stuff, run us through that.

I’ve been working on some stuff over the last few years, it’s only recently started taking shape. The style is just like my record collection. When I make music I don’t just switch the computer on and be like this is going to be a 4x4 track at 120 BPM. I’ll start with something, maybe a drum pattern and decide it’s not 120 so turn that into 110 BPM, so whatever comes from that. I’ve been working with a guy called Heinz Kammler in Rotterdam who’s originally from Greece. Hopefully something will come out in the next year but we’re in no rush to put stuff out. What we have been doing is timeless so if it comes out in 2 years time it’s still gonna sound fresh. When I play it to people they say, that’s different, people say it’s garagey but it’s, I dunno, you can’t blow trumpets about your own music. I make music and I think it’s ok but I’ll play it to someone and they think it’s brilliant. That’s the thing a lot of people when they make music they think it’s alright, then they send it to someone and that person things, wow this is the shit.

I’ve got a little ambient project as well called Ecodintun that’s more kinda soundtracky. I can’t really say what sort of style it is, it’s over processed, moody stuff. There is a track already out on soundcloud. It’s like a big 10 minute epic. One of my friends grandma died and he was really depressed, I did this music and was thinking this is really depressing but I sent it him anyway and he was like “oh man, that just uplifted me and made me feel loads better”, so I just put it out there. I’m just plodding away taking things easy. Music is my love number 1 but I’m not a producer. I’m a DJ / record collector or record collector / guy who plays records. I’ve never considered myself a DJ. I’m a guy who buys records and plays records to people. If 1 person appreciates something that I’ve played on a night then I’m happy. If the full crowd is appreciative then that’s even better. If I’ve changed someone's way about thinking about things musically or if I’ve turned them onto something new that is great. Miles out of Hate, he said to me once he came into the backroom of the Orbit and someone was mixing Basic Channel’s Phylyps Trak II with Kraftwerk’s Tour De France and he said from that night onward my music taste just changed. He asked if that was that Jon playing that and I was like, nah that was me. Just that little thing can change someone. It’s not boasting, but if you can steer someone towards something musical through your influence or turn them onto another route and then they have then taken that on to a career that it’s a very nice thing to think that you have influenced people, even if no one said thank you. If you were to die tomorrow it’s nice to think that you have influenced people and given something to the world, a bit philosophical but you know I don’t go out there for me to make money or be this trademark DJ, I just go out to play good music to people. I’m a music appreciator and I hope that people I play music to are appreciators. Sometimes you go to a night and people are there just to get smashed but there is a group of people there for the love of the music. A lot of people go out, it’s just a part of growing up. Might be at uni going out in a collective, or into this for so long it’s just a thing. Some people are like I’m into Dubstep then 2 years later you talk to them and they're into guitars or whatever, that was just a fad. You see with a lot of people, music is just a fad for them. There’s a lot of people as soon as they discover music that is it for the rest of their life. Which is nice when you meet younger people and you talk to them and they have that same vibe what you had, 20 or what years ago. Buzzing about things or buzzing about old things coming up to you going like “aw man have you heard this shit by whatever” or old electro shit by Egyptian Lover, or anything like that and I’m like “yeah I’ve got it mate”, and they're like “brilliant”. There is nothing better than that.

To accompany the interview Mark has also mixed the latest Fruitcast, listen below.