Going Postal

Shuffling through some old files lately a couple of ten year old fanzines popped out of a pile of stuff marked ‘best bits’. ‘Going postal’ was a photocopied 2 page manifesto that was available in Irish urban centres in the mid 90s. Run primarily by hiphop heads, it spat venom on the nascent ‘trip hop’ and commercial dance scenes at the time, largely in Dublin. This grainy paper delivered the goods. Dj mek barred from the dmc turntable throwdown? read the behind the scenes drama inside, cause it ain't gonna make the daily papers.

What struck me today was the passion contained in the couple of stapled pages. I was reminded of the desperate post rave politics that belched into the atmosphere in the mid to late 90s.The idea that easy money was available in venues desperately needing to organise ‘hip’ events fast tracked more than one Djs negotiating skills over their commitment to the sound of the streets. This was the era where Beer companies vomited money against promoters outside toilets. Ambient Drum and Bass with a warm up Dj from Ninja Tunes? Heineken can finance Galways chance to musically re tool itself, get negotiating !!! The cloth is well draped over those taps now.

The Scenes lowdown also initiated pre net ‘Irish style’ Magazines (or should that be Magazine?) in the shape of D side. This funky distillation of The Face and Id in an ‘Oirish stylee’ funnelled critical beat attitude from the capital to the sticks (sometimes with a free snickers bar on the cover! Brand liaison, all the rage in London at the time).

Shaking my head now I also have to realise that the fluky bookings I got then as a DJ in those times was not as a recognised guy who was into all genre solid black music but as the last guy on the bill making up numbers, which was ok, I bought some records and was lucky enough to meet people like DJ Claire Maloney and  Dj Fergus Murphy who sorted me out for the long haul.

The big memories of those times was the introduction to this country of a lot of progressive music going mainstream in tandem with its commodification and the idea of the progressive Dj as ‘essential’ in a venue, rapid times. Going Postal slammed the breaks on the celtic tigers musical love train, naming and shaming careerist promoters and Djs, many who still resurface at peak times in what ever is left of the countrys ‘dance trail’. Nature of the Game of course, but a matter of critical importance in postals home pasted polemic.

Reading these back issues I didn't regret swapping my Drum and Bass collection for a lift to Limerick with the rest of my records, what I did register was the current absence of any gritty perspective on a social tip (as loose as it was then at least the effort was in effect), in respect to platforming the relevance of letting a culture develop in tandem to the speed of the mechanics of a time.

Now I squint when I think of those days, and miss them. Looking back at slow times, long conversations about music in bars and clubs, following producers work in the magazine rack in easons, waiting for records in the post, respecting the work that went into getting a club night together and the black and whiteness of it all. I cant accept that in an Irish context that the adoption of a european model of the popular musical delivery that insinuated itself into our post rural society on the back of English developments in late 80s should be relegated as a precursor to the turbo capitalist conception of choice that passes for Download culture today.

Paul Tarpey (who for all his notions is eternally grateful for a beer company's sponsorship of the Renegade Soundwave gig in Galway in the late 90s. It was brilliant.)

(note 1- one of the going postal writers still writes here)

(note 2- this is an intro to an extended piece by Paul "THE REVOLUTIONARY RHYTHM AS ECHO")

Comments

[Shane]

Remember (back in 98) using work photocopier on a Friday evening to run off 50 copies of issue 4 to hand around costellos that night. Lots of people had heard about it and were delighted to get it.

[Phil Wade]

Memories come flooding back..top class..
Will have a look on the net to see if there are any copies of the slate being hosted..(not as guerrilla as going postal but definitly went after a few sacred cows in the Dublin media and promotion circles..