My First Club takes us back to the beginning, transporting DJs and producers back into the depths of their memory, asking them to take us on a trip to those pivotal first nights in clubland. Following entries from the likes of Michael Mayer,Herve,MK, Slimzee,and Hudson Mohawke_, _we caught up with No Idea's Original house man Huxley.__I guess the first real experience I had with any sort of club culture, or whatever, was when I was 15/16 and I started going to raves at The Sanctuary in Milton Keynes. By this point I had already been sucked in by tape packs and in my head I had built up these events, like Dreamscape, Helter Skelter and Slammin' Vinyl, as being the best things I would ever experience. I started DJing 2 to 3 years before, but I really had no experience of hearing my favourite DJs in the flesh, only what I played at the small parties that we ran where I grew up.Anyway, I can't remember which event I was at actually, Helter Skelter or Slammin' Vinyl, but the first time we went, the first thing I can remember are my friends and I standing in a huge queue in Bletchley, my friends Mum had just dropped us off, and we were just shit scared the whole time, worried we weren't going to get in. We'd spent about 20/25 quid each on these tickets, which in those days was a lot of money for kids of that age to have, and looking back we all must have looked about 9 years old. Anyway, once we got to the front they didn't even bat an eyelid, we'd sorted fake ID's, but they didn't even really look at them. These days I get ID'd buying a lottery ticket. The only time I ever saw someone get knocked back was when we went later, with a bigger group of us, and some girl had left a student card or something in her purse and the bouncer literally said, "well, now I've seen that, I can't let you in, sorry".Once we got into the venue, everything seemed so big; from the shit carnival rides to the two warehouses that we went to. I remember, in the actual Sanctuary, there was drum 'n' bass, and in Rollers it was happy hardcore. Being a drum 'n' bass kid, I was keener on being in the Sanctuary. I didn't even need a drink all night. It was the first time I'd heard MC's like Fearless, Det, Skibadee; DJ's like Mickey Finn, DJ Hype or Brockie (who was my favourite at the time), and I was hooked. It was also the first time I understood the whole horn and whistler thing. It made me realise that this was what I wanted to do; I wanted to stand up there creating an energy, a buzz for a crowd to really vibe off. I carried on going for the next year or so, and as my music taste changed more towards garage and house, I gradually moved away from the raves, but I maintained exactly the same feelings I had for those events and found what I wanted from the club culture.
Huxley and J Philip's "What You Want" is out now on his new label No Idea's Original.