Vinylgroover & The Red Hed: From Pompey to Top of the Pops!
Reported by Ed Real
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Submitted 17-10-05 15:51
One hardly expects Portsmouth to be a dance music hotbed, but over the years the hard dance scene has been fuelled by kicking tunes coming from the South Coast and its surrounds; whether this is because of the legacy of the lunatic hardcore days of raves at Sterns, Central Park or Fusion or the close connection to London only an hour up the road via the A3, Pompey town has brought us: Nick Sentience, Justin Bourne, Ed Real, Hixxy and the mighty Vinylgroover & The Red Hed.
In the last two years, Scott (Vinylgroover) and Jim (The Red Hed) have crafted a unique sound that straddles trance, hard house and techno and found themselves in the enviable position of writing banging anthems that sound as great on Judge Jules’ show on Radio One as they do at the hands of BK blasting out of the speakers to 15,000 loons at Dance Valley or Global Gathering.
Now, having spent the last 5 years signing off their masterpieces to heavyweight labels Nukleuz, Tidy and Split, the dynamic duo have their own Traffic Records, which in a short space of time has become one of the most talked about labels in our scene. Traffic has been unafraid to try new sounds and has taken pride of place in CD wallets of all the top players with a seal of approval that only comes by delivering the goods time and time again...
Why is Portsmouth such a great place to be based?
VG: It’s not too bad being down here on the coast, I mean we are only a short drive from London and the dance scene as a whole is quite vibrant. Like you say, Jim and I grew up at clubs like Sterns and Central Park and everything tough in the south really grew from there.
Personally I had worked in Portsmouth record shops when I first started out, which is how I met Jim back in the rave days of 93. Music and dance music in particular have always had a special place here and in the surrounding areas, plus we have those awesome stony beaches!
RH: A few years ago there was a definite advantage to being in London if you were in the music industry, but with the advent of the internet and particularly broadband, it means you can get heard all over the world, even if you knock up a tune on your lap top in Outer Mongolia!
Discogs.com has 30 collaborations listed from you guys and counting. I know that there's been tonnes more stuff over the years under different pseudonyms, meaning that you've been making tunes together longer than Lennon and McCartney did! What's the secret of a long-term creative partnership and where do all the ideas keep coming from?
VG: I knew it was a long time we have worked together but that’s mad, true though! I think we have just always got on well and when we get in the studio we really enjoy it. We both just love music in all forms too, if a track is good, it’s good, simple as. We also have fun just trying new things and get really excited when we come across new sounds and stuff or get crazy effects going on things, we can just get a groove going with some wicked drums and be like “how wicked is that” for ages! We still get that buzz for it and I think that’s why we have worked together so long. We also do other types of music too, which is great for developing different ideas and learning more about programming and different types of arrangements.
Separately and collectively you've both had quite a lot of commercial success over the years — what have been the musical highs for you both?
VG: There have been so many highlights, reaching the Top 20 with ‘Show Me A Sign’ was a good feeling, then the first track played on Radio 1, it’s all been brilliant. I hope the best is yet to come.
RH: Yeah working under pseudonyms certainly has its perks. One week we had a No. 4, a No. 5 and a No. 15 in the national charts all under different names. I might be wrong but I think that’s a Guinness record! At one point we had 8 tracks/remixes in the Top 40 dance charts. As a result we ended up doing Top of the Pops. We had a dressing room next to Mystique and tried climbing up through the sunken ceiling to cadge a peek, but a dry lining wall thwarted our efforts!
The latest Traffic release is in the process of being licensed to Ferry Corsten’s Tsunami label, how did this come about and what other big names have been supporting the VG&RH sound?
VG: We were really pleased to get the call from Tsunami. They’re an excellent label and for them to pick up on what we have been doing is amazing. We are tying things up at the moment for this and hope to do more projects with them in the future. To have Ferry Corsten recognise our sound is great as it opens more up for us. To have also had Paul Van Dyke and Tiesto play our tracks as well as plays on pretty much everything from Marco V, Scot Project, Anne Savage, BK & Jules has meant that it has been an excellent year for us to be honest.
Both Anne Savage and Rob Tissera are regular collaborators — what’s it like to work with these two legends?
VG: Anne & Rob are great to work with, like us they are very passionate about their music and know what they want to hear so it’s no problem at all when we get together in the studio. We have completed two releases with each of them at the moment, ‘Stay’ and ‘Beautiful Like You’ with Rob and ‘Intoxicating Rhythm’ and ‘Pay Attention’ with Anne. Also we did our first collaboration with BK this year and that went great too.
Your first few releases on the label were cover versions (Felix ‘Don't You Want Me’ and Josh Wink ‘Higher State’) but since then it’s been one excellent original production after another — was that a ploy to get our attention? Do you think that the rash of cover versions and ‘bootleg’ mixes over the last few years have affected the scene and its creativity?
VG: To be honest we love having a go at older tracks and like to put our own mark on them to just give them a nice update. We have a lot of respect for the original tracks and try not to go off on one with them. You are right to say that we did look at this also to establish Traffic records a little bit, seeing as it’s a very difficult time to start a label and we wanted to set the tone a little.
The original stuff has gone just as well though and we have had good reactions on all the releases so we’re very happy with how the first year has gone. We are really excited about ‘Live For The Weekend’, which has been going down a storm and we’re just waiting on a BK remix of this to finish the package and it’ll be released early next year.
There have been a lot of bootlegs and covers the past year but most have been pretty strong and still rip it up in the clubs, which is good. Also there have been excellent original releases from a lot of producers & labels too so it’s a nice balance.
Scott, obviously you've been going out on the road to spread the gospel according to Traffic, where have been your favourite spots this year?
VG: It’s been an awesome year and I love playing pretty much everywhere, my favourite gigs this year have been; Tranzaction, Goodgreef, Dance Academy, Contact, Koolwaters and of course I can’t wait to go back to Riot at the End this month. I’m really looking forward to it.
What new material can we look forward to hearing at Riot! on the 30th?
VG: We have just remixed ‘Red Snapper’ for K90 and it’s been going down a storm everywhere for me lately so will definitely be playing it. Also our new tracks ‘Live For The Weekend’, ‘Touch Me’ and ‘Pay Attention’ too alongside some new tracks we have been working on that I will spin. Can’t wait to hear how they sound on that rig!
It’s Halloween — what costume can we expect to see you wearing?
VG: Not sure yet, there is a costume shop at the bottom of the road so I may go now and put aside the biggest Pumpkin outfit they have!
Vinylgroover joins Andy Farley, Ed Real and Oliver Lang at Riot! Halloween Spectacular on 30th October. www.riotinlondon.com
To listen to all the Traffic Records releases check out: http://www.trackitdown.net/recordlabel/441.html
All photos courtesy of Vinylgroover & The Red Hed.
RIOT! HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR!
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On:
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Sunday 30th October 2005
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At:
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The End [map]
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From:
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1500-2200HRS
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Cost:
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£7 on paying guestlist before 1800hrs/ Membs & £9 on the door
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Website:
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www.riotinlondon.com
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Ticket Info:
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e-mail full names to guestlist@riotinlondon.com for £7 paying guestlist
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More:
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Darkness falls across the land, the midnight hour is close at hand. Creatures crawl in search of blood, to terrorize your neighbourhood. And whosoever shall be found, without the soul for getting down. Come join us this Halloween for an evening of trick and treating as the UK's finest hard and funky DJ's get down with the devil!
To get you in the mood we'll be giving away Riot! goodies to everyone who gets dressed up and gets into the SPIRIT!
The legendary Andy Farley returns to the main room hot on the heals on the release of his latest mix CD ‘Hard Dance Update’ on DMC to show us why he’s leader of the pack. Ed Real is celebrating his birthday on the 30th and will be throwing down an exclusive set whilst Traffic Records top dog Vinylgroover shows us why his label and Riot! Recordings are leading from the front in 2005!
On the flipside, we’re given an audience with Bora Bora and Dusted resident Oliver Lang who is one of the UK’s fastest rising funky house DJ’s. He’s just remixed Jamiroquai and DJ’s worldwide as part of the Serious roster that includes Judge Jules and Norman Jay.
He’s joined by the ever-groovy Ben Dela Pena, Alex Parsons (Kurruption) and Richard Launch (Groove Factory). Tom Real will be performing a one-off Bar Riot! anthems set so mail in your requests for favourite tunes of the last 5 years to requests@riotinlondon.com
AS THE NIGHTS GROW LONGER SO THE VIBES GET STRONGER!
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Flyer:
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 - 
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Region:
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London
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Music:
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Trance. Acid Trance. Euro Trance. Hard Trance. Tech Trance. Psy Trance. Nu NRG. Hi NRG. HardStyle. House. Bouncy House. Deep House. Funky House. Hard House. Prog House. Tribal House. US House. Vocal House. Acid Techno. Deep Techno. Funky Techno. Techno. Breaks.
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DJ's:
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DANCE WITH THE DEVIL!
Andy Farley
Ed Real (Birthday Set!)
Scott Attrill (Traffic Records showcase)
Type 1
FEARSOME FUNK!
Oliver Lang (Bora Bora/ Dusted)
Tom Real
Ben Dela-Peña
Alex Parsons
Richard Launch
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The views and opinions expressed in this review are strictly those of the author only for which HarderFaster will not be held responsible or liable.
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