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If your waiting for the next one, you got a long wait.

The early to mid 90s. The UK underground scene would be buzzing

off the dark sounds and deep bass lines of jungle, drum and bass.

In South London the established venue known as the Ministry of Sound

would be ending its night with the last tune being played.

Party heads would have needed to find another venue

that will continue to play the music and keep up the vibes on going

down the road from the ministry was a small pub and venue called the Elephant and Castle

which hosted an event called happy days on a Sunday

within the venue, resident DJ Matt Jam Lamont will be playing house records with the tempo increased

little did we know of how much of an impact this little venue created

a genre

a genre that will grow and impact the UKs music culture….

This is the Sound of

But Let's Take it back in time…

During the Mid 80's across the Atlantic, in New York City in Kings Street, was a venue called Paradise Garage.

This venue was considered at the time to have had best sound system within the city.

A resident DJ and New York Legend, Larry Levan played New York style House records also known as garage

garage which was a style of house that focused more on Gospel riffs, Disco, R&B

vocals and groovin bass lines

Paradise Garage was always thriving, being such

a big part in New York's culture and house music, a place also known as

Saturday Mass

Unfortunately, in 1987 the venue was closed down and now has become a past icon

but little did we know of how much of an impact their

scene would influence the UKs' underground sound.

I was here and I will never forget it, it would change my life.

It was the place were, people would go to get their frustrations out...

and when you left that place, then you felt you were in Paradise

People who cared about you & people that you did'nt even know

My Sanctuary...

It meant freedom... that's what it meant to me meant freedom, to be who you wanted to be to do what

you want to do the way you wanted to do it.

House coming from the US was such a major influence in the UK music scene,

first coming into fruition during the 80's and its exposure within the UK Acid House scene

Played by such resident Clink Street DJs, Eddie Richards, Kid Bachelor and Mr C.

During the late 80s, Soul Music in the UK started to become more prominent on the charts

The fusion of these two styles of Soul and Dance would give us more of the

soulful RnB vibes within House music

During the same time back in the U.S. in the early 90s

a house and garage producer named Todd Edwards will be experimenting with the House records

Putting them on a remix with his sound experimentations allowed the creation of

that unique hi-hat shuffle sounds

In London the Happy Days event at the Elephant a Castle pub was considered as an after party for the Ministry Of Sound goers

They will usually playing a lot of US House and New York garage music

As we know the DJ's would have needed to increase the tempo to ensure and

maintain the positive vibes in order for the ravers to continue throughout the

night till day

Sunday's were lacking in music events.

Other establishments started to pop up during Sunday's creating iconic venues such as the Gass Club and

the Arches up in Charing Cross, playing US House and Garage

DJs started to get the dub mixes of the house trucks, dubs from MK,

Masters At Work, Todd Edwards and many many more without the vocals and with that were

able to sample it, creating its own unique style

By having a dub mixes of House tracks it allowed more opportunity for producers to experiment

and add their own touch to the tracks

Especially putting on a fat bassline

These new Tracks started to get released onto big old-school labels such as “Nice n Ripe”,

Swing City records and many more

During the time when UK Garage was still underground

Garage created a raving community not many people knew about and could have been

considered somewhat like a secret club, as it was truly about the music.

The Gass Club hosted an event playing US House in Garage known as the Spread Love Project

Hosted by DJ Dominic Spread Love, Norris Da Boss and Genesis Wayne

One day one of the ravers who was a regular at the Gass Club decided to pick up the mic

alongside Dominic and whith that was able to create a reaction with the crowd

His name was MC Creed aka

The Godfather

Rooting from the Junglist scene British MC culture was vital

The Junglist scene incorporated the Jamaican influences of toasting,

the rhyming over rhythms

and amping up the crowds

This Jungle influence would later become an important part within UK Garage culture

However the quick exposure of UK underground Garage will not have happened

significantly as it did without the help of the pirate radio stations.

As we know, Pirate radio had been such a big player within the UK underground scene.

Taking it back to the Acid House and Jungle, Drum & Bass stations, the support from

record stores which the same also played a crucial role within UK garage

Transmitters was set up on the council block rooftops emerging new pirate radio

stations such as London underground, Flex FM and Freak FM and many more

Promoting the sounds of UK Garage.

If your record was to be power played by the pirate DJs,

your record will be selling at the record stores

This also resulted in the similar issues had by previous Jungle and Drum n Bass stations

as running an unlicensed radio station is illegal the runners of the pirate

radios would have to constantly change locations in order to bypass Ofcom and Police

Furthermore rival radio stations would try and be the champion radio

within the area and therefore sabotage any rival transmitters

This resulted in to all-out heated clashes and threats which at the times was dangerous

all due to interferences on their frequencies

During the 90s House Music was becoming mainstream within the UK music charts

and by the mid 90s commercial clubs would enforce this type of music to be played.

The UK had our own house artists in the scene creating classics such as the

Scottish House group Nightcrawlers.

At the same time within the UK underground, UK Garage started to become more known

Creating the realisation that this was the new British sound.

DJ's record boxes would of had a load of British produced tracks

from the likes of Booker T, Grant Nelson, Jeremy Sylvester and many more

The hosting of Garage events was still considered within the sunday scene

but the buzz that was going on more Garage events were starting to pop up

besides on the standard Sundays.

Alongside Jungle, Drum and Bass raves which was usually in the main dance rooms one

Room twos would have had the DJs play UK Garage

Furthermore garage events were now being introduced at legendary venues such as

the Club Colosseum hosted by Martin Larner for his Liberty nights

The end hosting Twice as Nice.

Bagley's Warehouse and many more

The popularity of UK Garage was growing and club owners started clocking on

As we know Garage was a Sunday scene and were not able to have events on Fridays or Saturdays

but when club owners noticed its potential on its profitability

it allowed the garage promoters to have Friday and Saturday nights to be fully rammed.

Even the Sun City events, they managed to have a mad turnout during New Year's Eve

Being the biggest Garage event at the time

Major legal radio stations could'nt ignore what was going on in the UK scene.

Kiss FM, one of the UK's top radio stations were playing UK Garage and was put into the forefront by

DJ Steve Jackson taking the risk of playing the tracks to the masses,

doing interviews and so forth. Without Jackson we wouldn't believe UK garage would have

had spread as quickly as it did

By 1997 a UK Garage track finally reached a top fourty of the UK Charts

1997 will be the year demonstrating the impact of UK Garage and its potential to the masses

UK garage was evolving, the sounds were becoming more predominant

and was starting to get media attention

During UK Garage's evolution more Jungle and Drum & Bass producers started to jump in on the hype

Previously the increase upbeat tempo of UK Garage was usually associated with term Speed Garage

however as we know Drum & Bass produces incorporate a formulated

2-step beat to their D&B tracks, therefore this influence will be put

into UK Garage as well put into the style of 2-step Garage

The fashion styles of the 90s were very unique.

Within UK Garage, hoodies, caps and dirty trainers would have had bounces not allowing you to get into the events

The ravers were now making an effort

It was all about the suits loafers and champagne bottles or brandy

Serious, we're talking about Moschino, Versace and Gucci brands being worn

The lads were looking slick

and the ladies were looking stunning

By 1998 producers such as Tuff Jam, Dreem Teem & MJ Cole

were creating tracks entering the UK charts

But UK Garage was not only stuck here in Britain

it was also going across holiday clubbing destinations such as Ayia Napa in Cyprus becoming big

in competition with Ibiza

Ibiza was focused on the House scene and did not cater much for UK urban music at the time

Ayia Napa wasn't always as popular

it was a small fishing village with a few restaurants and bars however it was

until nick power took over the iconic Kool club focusing on US Garage in the

mid 90s but by 98, DJ's would bring this to their ever-growing UK sound to the

holiday clubbers

With DJ S connections from London he was able to bring artists

and DJs such as DJ Spoony from the Dreem Teem and MC Creed

for their first Pure Silk event attracting to almost 1,000 people, evidently was a success and

therefore would later result into more rammed events create Ayia Napa the

iconic destination for UK Garage for the upcoming five years

Ayia Napa's economic growth during the late nineties went up due to the

increase in tourism from the UK Garage scene

local, ethical and land development improved.

UK Garage was running Ayia Napa, creating divides and clashing with opposing clubs

the connections and family with the Napas scene was evident

George, when we running from late for the airplane and my man called and actually made the airplane wait

for us, thats how much we had Ayia Napa on lock them times, remember like

it was a different level of ting there man

Ayia Napa was iconic

Creating a culture, a sense of escape and unity

which many wish they can go back and experience again

With the rising awareness of the scene, the new 2 step sound and with a new

with a new wave of crowds getting involved,

It was just a matter of time that the scene was going to be commercial.

By 1999, British producers started getting more of the contemporary RnB tracks coming from the US

and remixing them with the UK Garage sounds.

And with that, our MCs contribution gave us more MC led legendary tracks such as the iconic

DJ Luck and MC Neat “A Little Bit of Luck” peaking at number 9 in the UK Charts.

By the new millennium it would become more regular that the UK Garage tracks would become more common.

The Artful Dodger's album “Its all about the stragglers” had 5 top tens in the UK Charts

demonstrating the success of UK Garage

And with that introduced a new artist coming in from the Garage scene

and in result, would become a big name in the music industry.

Craig David

Furthermore, other garage producers such True Steppers was bringing Pop stars into the sound

such as Victoria Beckham

having a positive response from the commercial public

and many more pop type styles started to emerge

At the same time, the UK Garage sound was changing becoming more MC led and lyrically focused

with artists such as Oxide & Neutrino

Ms Dynamite

and one group of artists in particular, a group that made a huge impact in the UK Garage and urban scene

was South Londons' 'So Solid Crew'

Originally a 19-member group consisting of 'Megaman, Asher D, Harvey and many more

becoming an iconic group representing the urban scene

This group shaped the future of UK Garage

The impact of So Solid Crew allowed for the group to win awards.

Furthermore, can be spoken on this group and its importance but we won't focus it fully in detail here

that will be for another episode

however it is important to keep in mind that this group was an influence in the development in our UK sound

As UKG has become more darker and MC focused, the lyrics by MC start to get

mass attention this included the media as they believed

it glamorised violence

not only that because of the new generation coming in