OH710 Interview with Ian Dark (Bristol Wild Dayz)
I’m Ian Dark and I ended up in Bristol moving back with my mum when I was about 7 or 8 she was from Bristol whatever year that was 70 something. I don’t know, the 80’s were so long there’s 10 years of it! The beginning of the 80’s was so different from the end of the 80’s, it was completely different and I guess apart of it was being younger. There was nowhere to go, no clubs, or at least decent clubs to go to, playing decent music. Also it was the end of the Post Punk, New Rave era of 1980. There was Jazz Funk nights I seem to remember at the Dug Out that was it. When I first went to the Dug Out I was about 14 maybe 15. I can’t really remember it was so long ago, then I didn’t go for a while till about 18 then went there quite a lot till 1982.
I started painting in 82, I think I saw the wild style and then started doing it or I was already doing it a bit and then…I can’t remember! I can’t remember which way around it was but it was 82/83 did the first piece on a skate park in Bedminster if that means anything but it was our first piece and that was 83. I was painting as the Z-Boys with my friend Alan who lives in Australia now. Z-Boys came from, because we were skate boarders that’s why we did it at a skate park and there’s a bunch of guys in America who everyone knows about now called the Z-Boys, Dogtown; that was the LA California crew and we got the name from that but at the time no one knew who that was but now there’s movies about it and everything. But then after that I got into music. I was already into music buying tunes Grand Master Flash and really early Rap stuff there wasn’t that much of it but by the end of the 80’s I was doing Def Con down at Thekla, it was a funny little theatre and not a club like it is now it was completely different. I think we went in there and we didn’t even have to pay any rent first time we went in there. I think the second time it was 30 quid which is incredible when you think about it now, I don’t know what it is now probably loads more. But they were some of the best nights - people just jumping up and down, hands in the air to tunes that I bought because I liked them. That was just wicked, you can’t beat that.
Def Con was really good. Looking back at it again is a bit weird because I was just having a party. A lot of people still talk about the Soul2soul nights we put them on and then there was a queue outside till midnight then when they turned up they said they had a whole band down and they didn’t and they were miming it practically, oh good lord, and everyone queuing out for hours. The queue was often a big part of Def Con because there was always a queue to get in, as I remember anyway. People used to get mugged in the queue and everything apparently. The best thing I remember is people cheering at the end and not wanting to go home which I don’t think you get anymore, because it had to end early then it was different that was apart of the 80s thing, it ended at 2 o clock and everyone would have a good time that was the point of doing it everyone having a good time and I got paid which was a luxury.
I remember everything being a lot sparser then, nowadays everything is like saturation, a club on every corner, every tune in the charts is a Hip Hop tune or based on something to do with your beats, but then it was hard to come by, you couldn’t go on eBay and buy it, you couldn’t Google it. There was none of that, you had to go and find it in record shops if you knew what you were looking for but even then I don’t even remember there was no specialist record shop there was nothing back then…. let me think… Revolver actually! It wasn’t like a dance shop like you get nowadays, it was just an independent record shop I use to go in there and buy my Punk records, bought my Clash albums in there. Grace Jones was really interesting and a lot of early Funk they call Boogie now. All those tunes in the early 80’s that was all really good.
I think I brought my first sampler in 1990, I think or 91. I kind of stopped painting and got more into DJing and I’ve always been into music from being a little kid I’ve liked the music. Again it was sparse there weren’t that many people into it not many people wanted to go out and listen to those sorts of tunes at the time. I think there were about 500 in the whole of Bristol in the early 80’s, but nowadays there are thousands and thousands of people into it, that’s the big difference it was all very, very sparse, very underground, very independent, everyone doing their own thing over the beginning of the 80’s more people came together realising someone else over the other side of town was doing it, someone else was doing a reggae night. Dug out on a Wednesday night was the Wild Bunch night, Granty use to do that and it became the Wild Bunch night and it was the funkiest night of the week even though I was probably there every night of the week, student night not being quite so good clearly! But Wednesday night was a good one. Then there was St Paul’s Carnival in the summer that was always good, Saturday night on Campbell Street. There were a lot of warehouse parties I cant remember any of them really! They sort of melt into one, it was all one big experience; I think we were just having a good time and I didn’t know what we were doing at the time. It’s nice to look back at everything but I think its better to look forward really in my opinion.
I started painting in 82, I think I saw the wild style and then started doing it or I was already doing it a bit and then…I can’t remember! I can’t remember which way around it was but it was 82/83 did the first piece on a skate park in Bedminster if that means anything but it was our first piece and that was 83. I was painting as the Z-Boys with my friend Alan who lives in Australia now. Z-Boys came from, because we were skate boarders that’s why we did it at a skate park and there’s a bunch of guys in America who everyone knows about now called the Z-Boys, Dogtown; that was the LA California crew and we got the name from that but at the time no one knew who that was but now there’s movies about it and everything. But then after that I got into music. I was already into music buying tunes Grand Master Flash and really early Rap stuff there wasn’t that much of it but by the end of the 80’s I was doing Def Con down at Thekla, it was a funny little theatre and not a club like it is now it was completely different. I think we went in there and we didn’t even have to pay any rent first time we went in there. I think the second time it was 30 quid which is incredible when you think about it now, I don’t know what it is now probably loads more. But they were some of the best nights - people just jumping up and down, hands in the air to tunes that I bought because I liked them. That was just wicked, you can’t beat that.
Def Con was really good. Looking back at it again is a bit weird because I was just having a party. A lot of people still talk about the Soul2soul nights we put them on and then there was a queue outside till midnight then when they turned up they said they had a whole band down and they didn’t and they were miming it practically, oh good lord, and everyone queuing out for hours. The queue was often a big part of Def Con because there was always a queue to get in, as I remember anyway. People used to get mugged in the queue and everything apparently. The best thing I remember is people cheering at the end and not wanting to go home which I don’t think you get anymore, because it had to end early then it was different that was apart of the 80s thing, it ended at 2 o clock and everyone would have a good time that was the point of doing it everyone having a good time and I got paid which was a luxury.
I remember everything being a lot sparser then, nowadays everything is like saturation, a club on every corner, every tune in the charts is a Hip Hop tune or based on something to do with your beats, but then it was hard to come by, you couldn’t go on eBay and buy it, you couldn’t Google it. There was none of that, you had to go and find it in record shops if you knew what you were looking for but even then I don’t even remember there was no specialist record shop there was nothing back then…. let me think… Revolver actually! It wasn’t like a dance shop like you get nowadays, it was just an independent record shop I use to go in there and buy my Punk records, bought my Clash albums in there. Grace Jones was really interesting and a lot of early Funk they call Boogie now. All those tunes in the early 80’s that was all really good.
I think I brought my first sampler in 1990, I think or 91. I kind of stopped painting and got more into DJing and I’ve always been into music from being a little kid I’ve liked the music. Again it was sparse there weren’t that many people into it not many people wanted to go out and listen to those sorts of tunes at the time. I think there were about 500 in the whole of Bristol in the early 80’s, but nowadays there are thousands and thousands of people into it, that’s the big difference it was all very, very sparse, very underground, very independent, everyone doing their own thing over the beginning of the 80’s more people came together realising someone else over the other side of town was doing it, someone else was doing a reggae night. Dug out on a Wednesday night was the Wild Bunch night, Granty use to do that and it became the Wild Bunch night and it was the funkiest night of the week even though I was probably there every night of the week, student night not being quite so good clearly! But Wednesday night was a good one. Then there was St Paul’s Carnival in the summer that was always good, Saturday night on Campbell Street. There were a lot of warehouse parties I cant remember any of them really! They sort of melt into one, it was all one big experience; I think we were just having a good time and I didn’t know what we were doing at the time. It’s nice to look back at everything but I think its better to look forward really in my opinion.
