303 bring back the Bugged Out of yore

Image: Dave Clarke

For the dancefloor denizens of us out there, there's our own personal timeline of rave which charts how we became embroiled in this beautiful thing called dance music. I’d personally been partying in clubs for a good 18 months before my love affair with Bugged Out! took hold in early 2001, but this the clubnight that really began to solidify an enduring passion.

It was unlike any other club I was used to, where the music of the main rooms always existed on the spectrum of deeper progressive sounds up to the harder strains of house and trance. Here house music was at the core alongside techno, but electro, hip hop, disco and the exploding sound of breakbeat tussled alongside them for a wide ranged collage of sounds - it might seem obvious to have a variety of genres at clubnights now, but this was certainly not the norm at the turn of the century.

It felt like Bugged Out! was the centre of the universe when it came to this new way to go clubbing, a naive belief but not one without some back up. When the brand turned 20 last year there was rightfully a lot of comment on what had made them such a special institution, including a brilliant video (above). 

I remember hearing an unknown Royksopp play to a handful of people in the Annexe, the same room I saw Roots Manuva perform live to many more and Jacques Lu Cont and Erol Alkan epitomising the exploding electroclash movement.

X-Press 2 playing 'Lazy' months before it released and Slam closing many a set with Funk D'Void's 'Diabla' (below) were among the main room highlights, as the last Friday of the month at Nation became a near religious regular experience.

The Courtyard in full flow for BO! however was where things really got serious, and at the epicentre of that was Dave Clarke. His excursions through thunderous techno were monthly must sees for everyone into raving at our university, the dancefloor filled with more people you knew than the library ever was (especially the following Monday). 

He was the first DJ I saw that scratched and brought turntable skills to electronic music as opposed to hip hop, bringing an energy and an almost reckless vibe that made everything else pale into significance. The Chemcial Brothers, Carl Cox and many other big names arrived every month, but it was Clarke’s regular sets which spawned the most excitement.

Equally as well revered was Justin Robertson, who remains one of the best DJs I’ve ever seen at bridging between the start of the night and full on peak time. We’d usually all arrive around 11pm, Robertson taking over the mantle at midnight, ratcheting the atmosphere to stratospheric levels in 120 minutes of sweat soaked tribal grooves. The Robertson Clarke double whammy was a staple of so many heady and hedonistic Friday nights.

Bugged Out has since moved on musically, staying true to that original adventurous spirit in its own special way with the emergence of the Weekender championing that fearless eclecticism, something I saw first hand myself last year. Those DJs that formed the nucleus of my time have had varying degrees of success since, some disappearing into the shadows with others reaching huge heights. 

This weekend 303 manages to capture the essence of that era with a lineup which reads like a proper throwback to the Bugged Out days of the late nineties and my era. Clarke and Robertson both return, but also playing will be Andrew Weatherall and Billy Nasty, two DJs who also made regular appearances, all four potent selectors who bring the full history alongside a present day focus.

There will no doubt be a few of the old faces that used to gather in such droves when the Baron was holding court, slamming classics like his own remix of Midfield General's 'Coatnoise' (above) into the mix. Whilst all of us who were there at that point are a little wearier, the presence of plenty of fresher faces ensures clubland's pulse remains one primed on youth.

Raves always have a special allure to them when this collision of generations happens, and there's few events which will capture so much of the depth of Liverpool's party antics past and present.

Like this? Try 303 turn two with Dave Clarke, Andrew Weatherall and more.

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