Graeme Park: Ferraris, Gangstas & A Man Called Sasha
Author: Benedetta Skrufff (Skrufff.com)
Monday, February 9, 2004
As one of the Hacienda's original resident DJs, Graeme Park deservedly fits the label 'acid house legend' though 20 years on he remains firmly at the top of the DJ tree. Still closely linked with the Manchester/ North-West scene in which he made his name, he continues to be one of the UK's leading UK radio broadcaster (he recently left Galaxy 102 for Key 103), and globally popular jocks (recently finding himself spinning to the Manchester United team in the unlikely global dance hotspot of Dubai).
Chatting to Benedetta Skrufff this week, he's as lucid about the old days as he's enthusiastic about the future.
"The media keeps on saying that dance is dead and they've been saying it for a while, but if that was the case, clubs wouldn't be full of people every weekend," he laughs.
"If dance music was really dead, then I wouldn't have any gigs and I wouldn't have such a big pile of quality records to go through after coming back from my holiday In my opinion it's all been blown out of proportion."
Skrufff (Benedetta Skrufff): What's your perception of the health of club culture-
Graeme Park: "All I can say is that for the whole of last year my diary was full, this year my diary is full till up to July, I'm DJing all over the place to great crowds and always have a great response. The media keeps on saying that dance is dead and they've been saying it for a while, but if that was the case, clubs wouldn't be full of people every weekend. What I think has happened is that people have become completely tired of big, massive clubs, and all the branding, marketing that goes with them, people have just said no. The scene has shifted instead to smaller, cooler, more underground venues, and it appears to me that the scene is very healthy. In my opinion it's all been blown out of proportion."
Skrufff: You've charted a new remix of Derrick May's Strings of Life at number 1 on your latest chart- a 15 year old song- do you see a difference in the standard of club music coming out today-
Graeme Park: "Oh, there's more variety, that's for sure and production techniques have also improved, but I think the music is just as good as it was. Don't forget that the very early house music was very raw as well as being very exciting and very new. I feel that rawness has gone, but there's still good stuff around, though of course you have to know where to look. For example, if I get sent 100 records a week, out of those there will be about 20 that I'll choose, then from those 20 probably only 10 of them will stay in my record box for any considerable length of time, but 10 new records a week is a high amount, believe me."
Skrufff: Jeff Mills said recently "We are at a turning point in the history of techno music- If the younger generation has less interest in supporting music then . . . why don't techno labels begin to create and release music targeted to an older generation- (Jockey Slut)- do you see a generation gap opening up at all-
Graeme Park: "There's always going to be late teen or early 20 year old clubbers thinking they have something no one else's had, but I'm 40 now and I still love all sorts of music as much as I did when I was 14. There was a time when, as you were reaching your 30's you'd stop being into music so much, going to clubs, dancing and having a good time and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. People come up to me in clubs to tell me 'I used to go to the Hacienda, I've been a fan of yours for years and tonight is the first time I've taken my daughter out with me', and I'm like oh, my God! That's a weird one… father and daughter or father and son in a club together.
I don't think there's much of a difference anymore, take BBC Radio Two, which makes a great ex Tags