I was born in 1974 and raised by parents that were a pair of hippies; the psychedelic variety rather than tree hugger! I lived in a country village until I was 18. Right from my early childhood my memories are filled with music. My Dad playing acoustic guitar; my Mum and I singing along to the likes of Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton & Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Small Faces and many more.

Then came the 1980’s, my Mum and Dad drifted apart, our family split down the middle. My Mum embraced anarchy and became a punk, taking me to night long parties. Although I was but a young bystander, watching and learning from the sidelines, this set the wheels in motion for me to not only be entertained by music at home via a radio, a record player or driving along in my Mums car but to dance to with other people, to listen to really loud. Music became something that was shared with like-minded people and took on a new meaning as I not only heard it but felt it through my body.

I suppose most people start liking music of their own choice once their age hits double figures, this was definitely the case for me. I would regularly visit my cousins in Croydon, South London they introduced me to completely different music. They liked disco, mowtown and in the mid 80’s; break-dance and old skool hip-hop. I loved the beats, they made me happy, made me want to dance and so my own personal journey of discovering music began.

In the late 80’s the illegal warehouse raves started up. Some of them were put on around the area that I grew up in; in barns on farms, in fields, at Racton Ruins up on the hill. I was not really old enough to go myself but some of my older friends went along. I did have a couple of experiences of seeing the parties first hand. The first time, I was walking home late at night, I could feel the bassline throbbing through the earth under my feet (I was quite a few miles away from the rave, so this was some serious badboi bass!) and I could see the green lasers flashing in the sky up at Racton Ruins on a hill in the distance. The second time I was riding my bicycle to work, to start my 8am shift at a nursing home and I could see literally thousands of colourful people across a field and some of them were close to the road shouting good morning to me, blowing on whistles and horns, everyone was so happy and I was fascinated.

Ritzys/Central Park (Portsmouth), Sterns (Worthing), The Empire Club (Bognor Regis) all started hosting raves indoors. I knew I wanted to go out raving as soon as I had the chance but in the meantime I had to settle for copies of cassette tapes (Grooverider, Dr S Gachet, Jumpin Jack Frost, Carl Cox, Top Buzz and many, many more) listening to friends experiences and going to the make-shift raves my friends put on at the local youth club, my friend Ambrose was an up and coming DJ, it was an opportunity for him to play to a crowd, he went on to be very successful. At age 17 I started going out to events at the Empire Club, Toppers and White Sugar all in Bognor Regis. I then started going to Portsmouth, Aldershot and London and did not look back, I have been raving ever since.

I have been out to events from most genres of the dance scene but I fell in love with DnB and Jungle in 1998. I had been to a couple of jungle raves in the mid 90’s but found them quite moody and unfriendly compared to the luved up scene I was used to. I then heard some liquid drum and bass CD’s at house parties and really enjoyed chilling out to the sound, i managed to purchase a 2nd hand copy of Goldie's Timeless album, it is still one of my favourite albums. In early 98 when I was pregnant with my son, I went to a house party in an old vicarage. There were a lot of rooms set up with decks and sound systems. As I was pregnant I could not drink alcohol and to be quite honest once we were in the early hours of the morning and everyone was smashed except me, the party got pretty boring but then I wandered in to a room where a guy was playing some playing drum n bass, Aphrodite and Mickey Finns style of jump-up, it made me want to dance and was so bouncy. After this other genres of dance music just did not do it for me, they did not have enough energy. On Halloween night 98 I went out to a funky house event for my hen night. At home after the club night had finished a friend introduced me to the sounds of LTJ Bukem. LTJ Bukem presents Earth Volume One and Progression Sessions. I found that the music took me on a whole new journey.

 Drum n Bass never ceases to amaze me with the fact that there are so many genres within the heading Drum n Bass. The music is so fluid and versatile. This is why I am so passionate about it. Over the last decade within the DnB industry I have been a raver, a dancer on stage, a promoter for both my own event and other peoples, hosted 2 regular, weekly internet radio shows from my house, promoted my dear friend DJJD from bedroom DJ to club DJ and am now proud to be a member of The Goodlooking Organisation Street Team promoting LTJ Bukem and the organisation.

Thank you for reading.

Circe