Page 16 - DemoZone Magazine Issue 003

When it comes to the dance music scene, no other era rivals the early days, the ‘old skool’ days, the Acid House days, the loved up days, the ‘What’s your name, where ya from, what ya on?’ days, the 72 hour party days and the pushing up daisy’s days, for the absolute euphoric hedonistic era that it represented, a musical and creative revolution which hasn’t been surpassed, so as you would expect, some of the crazy days would be represented by the drugs, the massive crowds of nutters going mental in fields and warehouses, the boozed up DJ’s and Promotors, and you’d be right!
So one day Alan Lumley and Mike Moggi Mannix from Zone Mag threw themselves into the lion’s den with one such individual named.... MikeC....
DJ & promoter starting out in 1990, influenced by the harder side of dance, Mike C was one of the pioneers of euro house, in the north of Scotland. Not only did he DJ & promote several famous clubs in Scotland, but he owned a chain of “Equinox” record shops, one of which was based in Magaluf.
Under the guise of “THC”, Mike also released his only 12” to date, ”Skunkrock”.
Mike C has been associated with some big event organisations, not least, Fantazia (Scotland) and is currently renegotiating a return to the world’s biggest dance organisation. He was also involved in the first “rave on the waves” in the Middle East, Hype in Dubai.
Renowned for his up-tempo, old-school style raw mixing sets and outrageous behaviour behind the decks, Mike C never fails, to deliver.
Voted DJ of the 12 DJ’s of the month, When he was in the ‘Hype Collective’ in 1994 by M8 Magazine.
Clubs review writer for the ‘Clubscene’ magazine in the early nineties.
Mike C is making his long awaited return to the decks on July 25th at Ubik (Reading Rooms, Dundee)
Current style- progressive/tech house and techno.
Hey Mike nice to see you are still looking fresh as ever, however let us start by introducing yourself to our readers, how did it all begin?
Fresh? Well at least the collagens holding up. I am Mike Cooper, aka DJ MikeC, aka D7MKC, DJ & Promoter of the dance scene in the North East of Scotland since 1991. M8 Magazine DJ of the Month (09/94), Releases to date “DOMINATRIX” Fantazia Records, “SKUNKWROK” THC. Residencies include Fantazia, Equinox, Judgement Day and UBIK. My style varies but predominantly techno and Old School in my techniques.
It all began 8th Sept 1990, Slam 2 in the Park in Glasgow, after being convinced by my best friend Flem to attend one of these events where people pulled Gurning Faces, put their arms in the air and screamed "Aciiiiiiiiiiiiiid!" By 7am I was one of them.
House music took me by storm; I was playing rugby and cycling at a high standard, but within weeks of discovering the rave scene, I knew my destiny didn’t lie in the mud on a cold wet Saturday afternoon in St. Andrews, but behind the Ones and Twos at clubs everywhere all weekend.
It started with the notorious "RHUMBA" club parties (UKs No.1 club at time as voted by DJ magazine). I soon got my way and started doing gigs and in no time my Business partner Darren Brechin and I were making pots of money, we then opened our first of three Equinox Records shops. Within two years we were taking on Scotland’s biggest clubs, culminating in our infamous Equinox@Fubar nights. We expanded our shop base to Magalluf, Mallorca (the place to be pre-Ibiza, 93) playing at then Europe’s
biggest club-BCM.
Over the Decades I have promoted and co- promoted top nights in Scotland from Hype, Sexo, Fire, Equinox, Fantazia, Eclipse and most recently UBIK.
We have heard some hairy rumours about your antics in the early nineties, what was the craziest event you played at?
There is a few LOL. One that sticks in my mind was on a boat in Edinburgh, which I thought was remaining anchored. This boat was an old “had its day” fishing trawler. The boat remained in port for the first two hours then started to sail, as I went on the ones and twos. It started to get real choppy, I finished my set and Steve Bicknell (Lost) took over. This boat was rocking side to side and there was a door at side of the decks that went onto main deck. Water was coming in due to choppiness and it started to get slippy. One minute Bicknell’s in the mix and this boat was packed and rocking from side to side, the next he’s swept of his feet and thrown out the door. I ran out trying to keep my footing and here’s Bicker’s grabbing the side of the boat for dear life soaked head to toe, amazingly he was not electrocuted to.
1993 We were hosting the house room of “MYPHOLOGY” (Fantazia). What Fantazia didn’t know was that we always took our own sound engineer. The main room was hardcore techno, we were in the second venue. They had limited our PA so that the majority of the 1500 revellers would be in the Fantazia main arena. When we (Deebs and MikeC) went on in the house arena our legendary sound engineer,
16 ZONE-MAGAZINE.IE
FEATURE INTERVIEW