![]() “Damian and I have been writing for six years, we still will be in the future too. “I wanted to explore the breaks, the jungle, the rollers that got me here,” he explains. The first in a series of releases, it’s Ollie’s persy letter to the school he graduated from with honours. A solo endeavour, but still under the Insomniax umbrella, it launched late last month with Origin and One More Time. While his obsession with dubplate culture and consequent tune hunting would follow in due course (as would the messier Helter Skelter sessions where they decided it was probably best not to stay at his Godmother’s anymore) it’s here that cemented Ollie’s life in drum & bass… And in turn his recent single and release series concept: V7 Saxon Street. They were all being played for the first time.” We didn’t appreciate how we were hearing all the new music being broken loads of new things by Andy C and Shimon Night Flight, Quest, Recharge. Everyone was starting with Shy FX Chopper. Something I stand by to this day his selection still can’t be beaten. ![]() “Hype played one of the best sets I’ve heard in my life. Was it life changing? Maybe not, because I’d already made up my mind that was what I wanted to do for a living,” admits Ollie who’d pestered his parents for decks by the age of 12 and had already amassed two years of vinyl through saving up his daily dinner monies. “It was a magical night! It was like ‘wow this is what I’ve been waiting for years for’ Like I’d made it. Even at 14 Ollie was entirely certain he’d love it. Locked with a safe base and wise host to return to, clued up on the layout of the cavernous venue, Ollie and his two friends (one of whom is now his brother in law and runs prominent south west D&B monthly Rinse Out) dived deep into their first rave experience to a line-up that included DJ Hype, Ray Keith, Micky Finn, Ellis Dee, Dr S Gachet and hardcore DJs such as Dougal, Sy and Slipmatt. Then she gave us a tour of the Sanctuary. She said ‘were here to to see Dave the sound guy’, no one questioned her. Just blagged us in to see what the venue was like. “We went there, met Sharon and she took us down there in the daytime. “She was quite famous back in the day,” says Ollie who’d travelled from Devon for the occasion. The plot thickens a little more Sharon was a member of British ska band Amazulu and knew her way around venues. So we used an excuse to see her to go to this rave.” Sharon, my godmother, lives in Milton Keynes. “I did tell them it was an under 18s rave, mind. What were my parents thinking?” laughs Ollie, a DJ you could probably get away with introducing to your parents. He was aged just 14 at the time and this was the very rave… One half of the Viper duo Insomniax, he was in attendance at a great deal of Helter Skelters from his first one on August 10 1996. Like all the best raves, they were messy, chaotic and not shy of the odd punter, or whole crew, who you wouldn’t want to take home to your mum. The Sanctuary’s location was critical to this situated close to the middle of the UK, it attracted a wide range of ravers and captured the gurning, whistle-blowing, horn-tooting mania of the culture’s most accelerated era. Bi monthly there for a fat wedge of the 90s, while Helter Skelter is renowned for championing happy hardcore, it was pivotal in the burgeoning jungle drum & bass movement with the majority of its line-ups becoming more D&B-focused as the 90s developed as regulars Grooverider, DJ Rap, Randall, DJ Hype, Andy C would break genre-galvanising ‘golden era’ tracks en mass. The events its perhaps most famous for though, certainly within the realms of drum & bass, were Helter Skelter. ![]() Week after week it was home to everything from the notorious garage bashes Sidewinder to dayglo trance sessions Gatecrasher via Cream and Slamming Vinyl, some events taking over all three areas maxing up a near 10k crowd. A key rave location since the famous Dreamscape parties outgrew their equally iconic venue Milwaukees, from 1991 to 2004 The Sanctuary provided all shades of UK dance music a sprawling space to play. Venues like The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes. Venues and spaces that – due to their consistency, location, line ups and crowds it attracted – fed the scene, nurtured it and encourage it to develop and spread across the UK. ![]() Deep in the tomes of rave history are certain venues that transcend legendary status and serve as much stronger incubators for dance music culture. ![]()
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