Start the dance
Lower East's Lee Brinx remembers his first time raving...
Lee Brinx, one of the heads of Lower East records alongside Cozzy D and Ed Kane, remembers his first taste of raving. 'Inner Circles Vol.2', Lower East's second compilation, which features the likes of Viadrina, Alexis Raphael and Tom Dudden, alongside Lee himself, is out now with a wide spread of sounds from late night house to bumping 2-step...
“It was United Dance at Stevenage Arts & Leisure Center on 16th June 1995 and I was 13-years-old. I had about three part time jobs and I’d been saving hard. A week before the party I bunked off school to go get my ticket. I remember it costing £17.50, crazy that it's still similar money now to get into a big party and that was 17 years ago!
“I told my mum I was going to a birthday sleepover - this added an additional touch as she gave me a fiver to put in the card, extra spends to add to my hard earned cash. I got dropped off at my mates, waited for my mum to pull away and we walked to the train station. Once there, I climbed the fence and found an appropriate stash for my overnight bag. I had to grab this in the morning after getting the first train home as I was being picked up from my mates at 7am in the morning to do my paper round. Bag stashed, we boarded the train to Stevenage. Once there, the station was already buzzing with ravers and it was only just 9pm. We walked round to the entrance and the queue was already round the block. My heart was pounding, would I get in? My saving grace was that my ID was in fact a United Dance membership card including my (doctored) date of birth claiming I was in fact nearly 19. I got to the front and walked straight through – I was in!
“It was easily the best moment of my life until that point. I danced to the likes of Randall, Hype, DJ Sy and Slipmatt– it was when hardcore and jungle still shared the main room before the split – and I was well and truly hooked. One Rhubarb and Custard later, I was buzzing my nut off in the chill out area outside. Then, mid rave chat with an unknown random, I checked my watch and realized the time, my train was in 20 minutes! I jumped up, ran to the station and just made the train. Once off, I grabbed my bag from the bush and ran flat out back to my mates. One slight flaw was that he lived about two miles from the station so I got there literally as my mother pulled up!
“Morning”
“Morning mum!’’
“Cor, you look hot son.”
“Yeah it was really hot in his room mum, their heating is broken!”
“We got home and I hurried upstairs to change for my paper round, avoiding eye contact with anyone. By now I was starting to come down and my stomach was starting to turn. I finished my round and returned home claiming to be ill which was always more realistic on the weekend and not trying to blag a day off school. I was ushered off to bed and nursed through my very first come down by my seriously misled mother – Welcome to the dance!”