1990 was a great year because I opened the Lizard Lounge, and music was going through this amazing phase where indie, alternative and dance music all seemed to come together. Madchester was on everyone’s lips as we grooved to the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. This was a single off their Pills ’n’ Thrills and Bellyaches album, which got high rotation both on the home turntable and at the club. Just a fantastic groove. It also had a very groovy video, with all these beautiful model types dancing around the grotty-looking Mondays. Magic.
Because I had opened a club that seemed to be doing all right, I started getting invited around to record companies to collect masses of new records. I used to love going to places like Festival Records and coming out with a bunch of new vinyl. They would also throw in videos of the bands, which was how I first saw the video for Kinky Afro. Some of the record companies were a little more uptight and wanted you to come to DJ meetings where they sold the merits of particular songs. Never went to those. For me, if it wasn’t hello and thank you, I wasn’t there. I could buy my own.
When CDs came along, it all went slightly weird and gradually became too hard because they didn’t really want to part with CDs. But they would give me tons of vinyl. Eventually it became a little too painful, and I just bought my own stuff.
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