It’s strange how, as we get older, our enthusiasm for things we long since forgot about returns. Like anal sex in happily married couples, or sniffing glue on the train. No ?
The club scene is awash with reunions now. If you aren’t part of the target audience then you scoff at them with distain and jeer at the bunch of old farts trying to re-live their youths on the dance floor, throwing their arms in the air and pulling faces like they wished they were bang off their tits on a killer Dennis the Menace. Some of the people ARE actually bang off their tits and it isn’t a pretty sight.

I helped organise a Marco Polo’s reunion a few years ago and what a great occasion it was. Not only because of the music but mainly because of the people that were out in force. Many stayed in touch since those crazy days in China Town but there were a few faces that came crawling out of the woodwork and it was just brilliant to see them all.
They do Tin Tins reunions now as well. There’s NO WAY you could recreate that place although I do hear the parties are really good. One of the best success stories in recent times is the Heroes of House event that has some great parties with wonderful music, as does the Wobble Reunions.
I have a feeling the same will be said for the Amnesia House Reunion on Sat 27th June in Birmingham.

As if it was meant to be, originally there was a VB Reunion (a different kind of reunion, seeing as our parties are current) planned in Birmingham for this day but circumstances meant I decided to cancel it until a later date. Flights are booked anyway for this weekend so I cannot wait to reach for the lasers beneath the altar of Amnesia house for one final time.
I’m sure we’ve all got so many stories from Amnesia. I hate saying it but I always do about things like this… if you weren’t there, you just won’t understand.
I can picture the night of my first ever Amnesia rave. I don’t remember the year, maybe 88 ? Possibly ’89.
We sat in 49ers. Myself, Brad, Paul Moran, Baz, Ade, Adam & Jamie (Ok, I lie, I only remember being in 49ers but that was our crew of the time). It’s funny now to think how wet-behind-the-ears I was, at just 18 years old.

I’m not sure what I was wearing although I know 100% it included a pair of brand new Nike boots, with the velcro that went over the top of the foot. I’m sure I had white dungarees on. In my sports bag I had a change of clothes for mid way through the night. We talked about what to expect and how amazing it was going to be. Like all stories you hear of this era, we planned the timings of all we expected to be “doing” like a military exercise.
I don’t remember how we got there, I don’t remember any of the night, I don’t remember how we got home. I know it changed my life. We had been raving to house music for a few years before this point but I know that Amnesia was something special for us all. I could go on and on. I won’t bother.
Highlights of every Amnesia would have been seeing my mate “Check” lording it on the stage with all my heroes, waiting for Micky Finn to come on and finally, checking my watch for the right time to finish ‘whatever was in my pockets’ so I was “ready” for Carl Cox’s ending sets. “The lasers, the lasers, the lasers”.
Thanks to the lads, I have many, many tapes, recordings of legendary Amnesia House live sets. Jam MCs, Carl Cox, Keith Suckling, Top Buzz etc etc. Years after I became friends with many of these ‘Gods’. I’ve always been a fan. Always will be.

The best days for me where at the Sports Connection Centre (or whatever it was called, I’m still none the wiser) in Coventry. Fond memories of sitting outside with Michelle (we worked together back then but weren’t a couple, who’d have thought how our lives would change !Come to think of it, I think it must have been ’89). **Edit – Years after writing this blog piece, I realise and learn it was the Summer of 1990. Watching a girl known as “The Mad Cow” bark at the moon for about 2 hours, geezers struggling to stop their heads from exploding, weird creatures crawling all over my jeans. My mate Ray “kicking up a storm” with his gold teeth shining like beacons through the crowd. And so on and so on.
At the end of one night some idiots decided to do hand brake turns all over the playing fields, destroying the surface. Maybe that’s why it moved ?
When they the eventually moved to the Eclipse I still had some great nights (I remember none of them) although I do recall it seemed a lot ‘moodier’ towards the back end of them stopping.
Back in those days I had no desire (or ability) to be a DJ. I left that to the likes of Paul Moran, Steve Warner, Daz Thompson and of course the rest of the B’ham legends (too many to mention).

As you may be able to tell, I buzz from the memories those days gave me.
If these words resonate with you, I hope to see you in Birmingham on the night and I invite you to check out this mix I occasionally point people to, that will sum up this period to a Tee. PLEASE listen to it !

Listen here:

Andy Ward – Warehouse Days