REZERECTION
Do you believe in Rezerection?
The two main people are Paul Ludford and Beccy
White, both from Newcastle. Paul, however was
the founder member of Rez and for many years has
had a good knowledge of the music industry, with
his company Kitchen Ware Productions. No, they
don’t make tea towels and spatulas, but organise
dance orientated shows.
Back in 1980, Paul and a guy called Keith
Armstrong, were in a band together at
university. After a short break from the band
Keith asked Paul if he would like to get
involved in promoting local bands. Paul agreed,
so they set up a club night called ‘Soul
Kitchen’ once a week in Newcastle. Here they
would put on a live guitar band many of which
were from Scotland. On the first night they had
a band called ‘The Fire Engines’ which although
weren’t very big, they were very talented. The
first show went down well, so they carried on
their regular weekly night at the club, and
after a few years were booking names like ‘New
Order’. This night then made them a lot of
money, which they put into starting a record
label called ‘Kitchenware Records’. They were
managing people like ‘Prefab Sprout’ and a soul
band called ‘The Cane Gang’, who were huge in
America.
Although Paul enjoyed managing bands, he much
preferred the promotions side of things, like
setting up venues and putting the bands on
tours. After promoting pop bands for a while,
Paul was asked for help in setting up a rave in
Newcastle by a guy who was having problems. With
the contacts that Paul had with the police and
local authorities, it made it easier for him to
lay on an event of this nature. At the time Paul
wasn’t into rave, and was more used to guitar
based music.
“The one thing I remember most from that first
event was the attitude the people had that went
there. They were there to have a good time no
matter what. I was used to people standing there
going, ‘entertain me!’ and comments like, ‘that
guitar break wasn’t very good’, or, ‘the band
last week were a lot better’ – but the rave’s
attitude was brilliant, a breath of fresh air to
me!”.
After that first event, which they called ‘Rezerection’,
Paul decided to do more and Keith carried on
with the record label, which was doing well.
Regular events were held in Newcastle and
Rezerection grew bigger and bigger boasting
better DJ’s every time. But still not satisfied,
Paul wanted a bigger venue, and came up with the
Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh.
He had been looking for a large venue for a
while, and with nothing in the North east, plus
the fact that there was some serious hassles
with the police, Edinburgh seems the next best
choice. After several meetings with a reluctant
council, Paul eventually persuaded them for an
all night licence.
“We had a hell of a lot of meetings up in
Scotland. The people who owned the centre took a
lot of persuading, but that was only the first
hurdle. We still had local authorities to get
round. They are very big on noise control in
Scotland, if you fart outside the noise limit,
they’ll be up your arse with the sound meter”.
There were many times in this meeting where one
thing has been said by the council in private,
then when the press is there at an alternative
meeting, something else has been said purely so
they get re-elected. Paul describes this as
being, “very political”, but has been used to
some advantage on many occasions.
This first event attracted 11,000 people and was
held in February 1992. The DJ’s were all
English, as were the P.A’s, which was something
different for Scotland. Paul describes the going
from there, not much easier, and he still has to
go to countless meetings before a licence is
granted, which like the last event, can go in
favour by only one vote. Paul has to overcome
problems such as litter, noise, safety
regulations and local inhabitants.
“People think that the centre is in the middle
of nowhere, but people live round there, some
only about 50 metres away. I tried all sorts to
limit the noise and even asked one occupant to
move away for the night while the event was on.
It took two years of pleading with this guy,
that we would look after his house and caravan
park while he was away. Eventually he did go,
and does so at every event, and he’s fine about
it now”.
After this first success, Paul held many more
events there, each one bigger and better than
the last, with more people coming from all over.
About this time, Beccy started to get involved.
She didn’t really know anything about the scene,
but says she’s got into it very quickly. It
wasn’t until about two years ago that Beccy
became heavily involved.
From just doing small administration, to
actually running the show, was a big step. At
present she does all the bookings for the DJ’s,
P.A.’s and MC’s, as well as the publicity and
stage organisation. If people start getting out
of line, Beccy will make sure they get back in
line. She has had full control of the show. Paul
will back her one hundred percent in anything
she says or does.
The time soon came round for the Event 2, which
was held in July 1994 at the Showground rather
than the centre. This event boasted two massive
marquees, twenty of the world’s finest DJ’s,
seven of the best P.A.’s, as well as the usual
Rez attractions, from fairground rides, to
fire-eaters and bungee jumping to jugglers. This
was an 8pm until 8am all nighter as usual, and
proved to be a massive success with an amazing
13,000 people attending. People were pleased to
see that everything advertised was actually
there, and the authorities were pleased that
there was no trouble or complaints.
Over the past six months, Paul thinks that the
licences have become harder to get with the bad
press on the rave scene, and also the death at
‘Hanger 13’. Even so, he has managed to come up
with a twenty hour licence for the event ‘The
Equinox’, another massive outdoor event, with a
staggering forty four artist line up from the
USA, Europe and the UK. ‘The Equinox’ plans to
be very different from the rest of the events.
“We have tried to put emphasis on the
carnival/festival type event rather than just a
few raves. The council were quite shocked when I
asked for a twenty hour licence. They had got
used to me asking for twelve hours, but again,
after many meetings we got it”.
This event runs from 12 noon, until 8am the next
day, and includes two marquees (The Eclipse and
The Sunset), a massive fairground and an indoor
cinema. There is also outdoor entertainment with
the Scottish Pipe and Drum band (och-I-that-nooo!!),
parachute display team, BMX display team and
much more.
The artists include Lenny Dee, Paul Elstak, Jeff
Mills, Dougal & Vibes, Ramos & Supreme and MC
Marley. The list is endless. P.A.’s strutting
their stuff include DYE Witness, Dwarf and
Babyboom records, Q-Tex, Ruffneck Alliance as
well as Bass X, The Rhythmic State and QFX. MC’s
include Sneaky Eye, XXX, Cyclone, MC G and
Marley.
This event will hopefully be a sell out, with
tickets selling at over a thousand a week. So,
if you haven’t got one yet, I suggest you hurry
or miss out on a stomping night.
Rezerections’ plans for the future are to try
and expand on the twenty hour carnival/festival
idea, and carry on the usual twelve hour events.
As Paul told me “All night parties are here to
stay”. Back to top
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