DJ Leo reminisces about 14 of the best nights as the old skool champions see in their 14th Birthday
The capital’s old skool trailblazers Back To 95 have hosted parties in various legendary nightclubs over the last 14 years, including Ministry of Sound, Club Colosseum, Aquarium, Heaven, Fire & Light Box, Pulse, Proud 02, Legends and the Emporium as well as heading up a sound system at Notting Hill Carnival. Bringing together and entertaining tens of thousands of discerning connoisseurs every year to celebrate the Old Skool era of House and Garage music, Back To 95 hits the right chord with clubbers with its original DJs, hosts and special appearances from House music ground breakers such as Barbara Tucker, Arnold Jarvis, Kathy Woods, Kim English, Elizabeth Troy, Robbie Craig, Crystal Waters and DaJae. And on Saturday 7th of March Back To 95 are getting ready to blow out the candles at their hotly anticipated 14th Birthday party at London’s best underground venue, Great Suffolk Street Warehouse with a tantalising line up of DJ’s and hosts from past to present, set to take you back to the original Old Skool vibe and party atmosphere, this is an unmissable diary date for new and old skool party people.
Here Nicky Trax shares a glass of bubbly with DJ Leo, one of the founders of the night as he reminisces about 14 of the greatest nights Back To 95 has seen…
Photos by : butterflyphotos.co.uk
Back To 95 Boxing Day – 1st ever event at Club Aquarium, Old Street, EC1 (2000)
Putting on our first ever party at Club Aquarium was totally nerve-wracking but went on to be an incredible launch pad. It was a full house with people queuing outside and with Mikee B from the Dreem Team on the decks and Ramsey & Fen and Hermit also on the line up, the atmosphere was electric.
2. Back To 95 Easter Special @ Legends, Old Burlington Street, W1 (2001)
Our second party was 3 months later at the legendary West End nightclub, Legends. Another full house and fantastic atmosphere with original DJ/Producers Dominic Spreadlove, Danny Foster, Jason Kaye rocking the house.
3. Back To 95 @ Emporium, Kingly Street, W1 ( August 2001)
After a second successful party at Legends we then moved to another legendary nightclub in the West End, Emporium. Our fourth party continued to build our reputation with another buzzing night, great atmosphere and enthusiastic crowd and queues round the block again.
4. Back To 95 1st Birthday at Club Aquarium, Old Street, EC1 (Boxing Day, 2001)
After an amazingly successful first year, we hosted our 1st Birthday party back at the Aquarium on Boxing Day 2001. It was a great achievement to have thrown 5 successful parties in our first year, and another incredible night with smiles all round:-)
5. Back To 95 2nd Birthday on New Years Eve at Wild Club, Holborn (2002)
The following year later we held our 2nd Birthday party at the Wild club in Holborn on NYE, adding another legendary club in central London to the Back To 95 story. Matt Jam’ Lamont played his first date for us and the music was off the hook.
6. Back To 95 3rd Birthday at Elysium. Regents Street, W1 (2003)
Our 3rd birthday party ignited Elysium with its usual celebration balloons, banners, shakers and more as we added a fourth West End club to the flourishing underground success story of Back To 95 parties.
7. Back To 95 at Heaven, Under The Arches, Villiers Street, Charing Cross, WC1 (April 2004)
This was our 1st party at a larger club but the demand for our events by then was very high and it was a complete roadblock. Back To 95 also had the pleasure of hosting one of Karl ‘Tuff Nuff’ Brown (Tuff Jam)’s last gigs before his retirement from DJ-ing.
8. Back To 95 Easter Special at Ministry of Sound, Gaunt Street, Elephant & Castle, SE1 (April 2005)
Easter 2005 we hosted our 1st party at our favourite nightclub, Ministry Of Sound, whose different rooms really suits our events and crowd. Special Guest DJs were Tuff Jam who spun an incredible 2 hour set with a Live P.A of their ‘Xperience’ anthem from Jacqui Bennett and it was a complete sell-out with over 2,000 clubbers and hundreds outside trying to get in.
9. Back To 95 10th Birthday at Fire and Lightbox, Albert Embankment, Vauxhall, SW8 ((2011)
A decade of parties is a big achievement and we are very proud that every party has been successful. For our 10th Birthday party we hosted the legendary Masters At Work singer, India, who set a new standard for Live shows singing anthems like ‘I Can’t Get No Sleep’ and “To Be In Love’. She is such an underground icon and I bought along my original 12” of ‘I Can’t Get No Sleep’ for her to sign and I still get goosebumps thinking of that special night. Another great line up with DJ EZ making his 95 debut.
10. Back To 95 at Proud 2 (02), Millennium Dome, Greenwich, SE10 (2012)
Easter 2012 saw us host our first party at Proud 02 inside the Millennium Dome, and flying in for us Exclusively was the Grammy winner and legendary ! Records pioneer, Todd Edwards. He claims this amazing night helped him revive his DJ-ing career and is coming to celebrate our 14th Birthday with us on March 7th. Our other coup that night was featuring the incredible New York singer, Barbara Tucker Live singing her anthems ‘Beautiful People’ , ‘Deep Down Inside’ and ‘I Get Lifted’.
11. Back To 95 Boxing Day Special at Club Colosseum, Vauxhall Road, Vauxhall, SW8. (2012)
It’s not easy to have so many concurrent and slamming parties in a row over 10 years but our 50th party in the UK was a special night. It was our 1st event held at the legendary garage venue, Club Colosseum, and DJ Spoony made his 95 debut with a great live P.A. from Bizzi with his ‘Bizzi’s Party’ anthem.
12. Back To 95’s 7 events at Club Collosseum, Vauxhall Road, Vauxhall, SW8 (2013-2014)
A great run of events for us where we introduced the Jungle Arena to the existing 3 rooms of Old Skool Garage & House, 90’s Soul & R n’ B, Bashment and HouseFM.net’s house room. Jungle dons like Nicky Blackmarket, Jumping Jack Frost, DJ Phantasy, Top Buzz and MC Dett are a few of the guests who played for us rocking the crowd in jump up rewind style. The club has since closed and and its former site has been demolished to build a high rise apartment block, which is another sad loss in London’s incredible clubbing heritage.
13. Back To 95 at Notting Hill Carnival, Ladbroke Grove, W9 (August 2012)
A hugely memorable moment in the Back To 95 story when we hosted a sound system throughout Carnival with many of our headliners passing through to play including DJ Spoony, Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont, Ramsey & Fen, Micky Simms and the MC’s DT, Creed, PSG, CKP really getting the crowds going on the mike. An incredible sight to see thousands of people raving to classic house and garage music all day in the sun at West London’s famous annual gathering.
14. Back To 95 at Great Suffolk Street Warehouse, Southwark, SE1 (October 2014)
Last year we hosted our 1st Warehouse Party in October at Great Suffolk Street and had 2,500 people raving till 6am in the morning. It was our biggest crowd to date and introduced a new concept in our 13th year of hosting Back To 95 parties as we hit the warehouse scene. EZ, Norris ‘Da Boss’ Windross, and a great cast on the decks with Special Live guests, New York’s Barbara Tucker flying in and UK talent, Donaeo performing his ‘Party Hard’/’Devil In A Blue Dress’/’I’m Fly’ and ‘Gone In The Morning’ anthems.
DJ Leo is one of the founders of Back To 95, who celebrate their 14th Birthday with DJs Todd Edwards, Matt ‘Jam’ Lamont, Mikee B (Dreem Team), Norris ‘The Boss’ Windross, Ramsey & Fen, Hermit & Daniel Ward on Saturday March 7th at Great Suffolk Street Warehouse, London. With additional Live Performances from Robbie Craig, Lifford & Denise Babe Fantastic + 3 more rooms including Jungle/Dn’B with Ratpack, Uncle Dugs, Nicky Blackmarket etc, HouseFM.net and classic 90’s soul n R’n B.
ONLINE TICKETS :
www.backto95.com
www.skiddle.com
www.ticketweb.co.uk
www.residentadvisor.net
www.theticketsellers.co.uk
