This week, John Digweed’s legendary Bedrock night down on the south coast…
Dan Prince talks Pier talk…
When I was Clubs Editor for Mixmag it was great jetting off to Miami, New York, Ibiza and Brazil to cover parties. It was fucking fabulous. Sipping champers on a plane, dancing on exotic stages in nightclubs, waking up with a girl who you had no idea who her name was. So when your Editor at the magazine says one day, “Dan, new trip for you this weekend, you are off to Hastings in Sussex to cover a party on a pier. Hastings…this is a place like Eastbourne where people go to die. Admittedly Emma Bunton comes from there who I’ve always wanted a bunk up with, Suggs from Madness is from this dreary town as is Simon Fuller – he hasn’t done too badly for himself eh? Oh and Jo Brand, but she’s as funny as a car crash. So off we go driving into a town that resembled a graveyard. As much going on as there is in Cliff Richard’s pants. Freezing cold, pissing down with rain and a pier. But then…wowzer, walking into this warehouse style room with thousands of people going apeshit to this geezer called John Digweed spinning the most beautiful house music – this was when clubbing was just getting going in the UK and John’s career was at day one basically. People outside on the pier throwing shapes, smoking spliff, getting off with each other, exchanging numbers, whist cool and I mean REALLY cool house monsters blared out behind you. As dawn crept in clubbers stripped and jumped from the pier into the sea. Bedrock is an institution and today… albums, worldwide recognition, nights everywhere… John Digweed, I salute you pal.
Miranda Cook reminisces about dancing out at sea and going to A&E
“The Crypt was the local under-age dive in Hastings, on the south coast. It was famous for its punk nights and disgusting ankle-deep black sludge, which was never helped by the men’s toilets overflowing every week. The Crypt was where I had my first experience of house music at John Digweed’s ‘Bedrock’ night. I remmeber Danny Howells dropped Cola Boy’s ‘7 Ways To Love’ and every space on the bar, tables and stage was overtaken with arm-waving goons in sweaty t-shirts. The crappy sound system creaked under the weight of the basslines, and so did my ears – eventually, I was in so much pain I left, stopped off at my bedsit, and then made the pilgrimage to A&E. I apparently had a perforated eardrum – thanks for that Diggers! It’s incredible that I ever went back, but of course, I was still there at Bedrock’s 10th birthday and beyond…”
