RIGHT HERE’S WHERE IT ALL STARTED...
THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS GO BACK TO THEIR MANCHESTER ROOTS
FROM DJing at student nights in the Owens Park pub in Fallowfield to becoming one of the biggest and most influential dance acts of the modern era - it’s been quite the evolution for The Chemical Brothers over the past 30 years.
Friends Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands met while students at Manchester University back in 1989 and went on to DJ “pretty much every night” at bars and clubs across the city.
But by 1995 they were The Chemical Brothers - creating the big beats dance music that would go on to define the club sound of the era, while massive tracks like Block Rocking Beats, Setting Sun and Hey Boy, Hey Girl slipped seamlessly into the mainstream selling millions of records across the world.
However, they’ve never forgotten their roots here in Manchester, which makes their eagerly-anticipated headlining DJ set at The Warehouse Project this month a particularly special one for Tom and Ed.
Ed, speaking to CityLife exclusively ahead of the gig, says: “It always means a lot to us to go and DJ in Manchester because it’s where we started.
“Some of our best ever nights have been in Manchester.
“We’ve had quite a while off over lockdown, so it’s just exciting to be back out and doing something. We were asked to do it at the end of the year, as a way of imagining people coming out of the darkness and blinking into the light almost.”
Ed, 50, says he and Tom have had a busy start to 2021 in spite of the lockdown restrictions.
He says: “We did put a single out this year, we’ve been making music, and then when restrictions allowed, DJing has given us a chance to play new songs. We like doing things, we’ve been going such a long time that we haven’t really had a period where we don’t do things.”
Ed points to the “national reconvening” since lockdown restrictions were fully lifted in the summer that has made he and Tom desperate to get back in to clubs.
He says: “People coming together again, it’s been a kind of national reconvening. There was just a sense of relief, it felt pretty moving, dancing together was something that was happening again.
“Even Tom and I were wondering might we get back in to going to nightclubs all the time like we used to?
He laughs: “We’ll be like the old guys going back to nightclubs.”
The friends spent their university years in and out of Manchester’s club scene - which from 1989-92 was of course dominated by iconic superclub the Hacienda.
Ed recalls: “It was like a religion going out to the Hacienda, and that was actually where we played our first gig.
“We used to go out every Friday night when Mike Pickering would be DJing, it was just the best nights, it was a complete education, the way it sounded there, the building, it was something incredible about the way it looked.
“I can still picture it in my mind now, vibey, sweaty, it’s a difficult one to recreate but to have that music still celebrated today is great really.”
Ed and Tom were also DJing at a time of the Free Party movement in the 90s, when warehouse parties would spring up in abandoned churches and factories.
It’s what Ed loves now about the Warehouse Project, which keeps that warehouse style vibe, but with somewhat more sophisticated lighting and sound systems than those heady days of Acid House.
Fans heading along to their Warehouse Project gig, on Friday, December 10, can expect a “broad, adventurous journey through sound” from straight techno to hip hop and disco, with The Chemical Brothers headlining a full DJ roster including James Holroyd, Paul Woolford, The Blessed Madonna and Mella Dee.
Ed says: “With the Warehouse Project, it’s spectacular, it’s got character and it’s amazing what they’ve done with the sound of music in a warehouse with a good system. We will play quite hard and it will sound epic.
“I think this time round we’ve got a lot of new Chemical Brothers stuff to play, DJing is a spur for me to focus on the dancefloor. We are buying lots of music, we’ll get together and see how it all works.”
And what will Ed also be doing when he heads back to Manchester next week?
He says: “What I love about Manchester is that people here are really into music. We used to do the tour of Piccadily Records and Vinyl Exchange, because you’d get the same people there talking about records. And it’s still like that now, that real enthusiasm for music. So I always head back there when I’m in the city.
“I’m also a big fan of The Refuge and just the changing architecture in Manchester.”
● WHP presents Chemical Brothers DJ set at Depot Mayfield on Friday, December 10 from 7pm to 4am. Tickets from £38.50 via Ticketmaster.co.uk.
Some of our best ever nights have been in Manchester.
Ed Simons