Just spent half a day cataloging my records and stumbled across this classic from 1991 – Urban Shakedown’s ‘Some Justice’. I love how music is the best conduit to memories and for me this piece of vinyl carries many. Back in the day, I first heard it on the Friday PM Colin Faver (RIP) show on London’s ‘Kiss FM’ and was blown away by it as it brought together a lot of disparate elements – breakbeats, drum and bass, euphoric hardcore and all with a reggae twinge as a nod to the imminent jungle explosion. It felt like a musical paradigm shift. The track was produced by Mickey Finn – an absolute legend of a DJ who had also previously produced Bitin’ Back’s ‘She’s Breaking Up another genre defining tune – and the drum programming was way ahead of it’s time with chopped up breaks all nodding to the jungle explosion to come. After hearing It on the Friday I rushed to Black Market Records in Soho on the Monday morning to snap up a copy. I got one of the last remaining copies.

I was served by Nicky Blackmarket – a prominent DJ on the then emerging drum and bass scene. Ashley Beedle – part of X Press 2 and disco and edit don – also worked there back in the day. This was of course in the pre-internet / MP3 days – when it took time and work to procure your music and records like this would have initially been pressed in limited numbers and hence would sell out quickly. Sourcing your music wasn’t easy – it took time and effort – which was all part of the experience and perhaps gave it an extra value and significance. You had to earn your tunes. It also allows memories to be formed – I certainly wouldn’t be talking about this story if I had clicked twice and downloaded it off the internet.  

Record shopping at the specialist shops back in the day was a whole experience in itself. As a young then aspiring DJ, I would be low down the pecking order as my tune budget for each shopping trip was probably 20 quid if I was lucky – which didn’t go far, US imports were the most expensive and even in the early 90s would run at 7.99, quite a chunk of change for a teenager in 1991.  I couldn’t compete with the big dons who did it for a living and would have relationships with the guys in the stores who would save them tunes they knew would work for their respective dance floors. Special releases – one offs, test presses from record labels, new mixes etc – would often come in white label or acetate formate denoting their limited numbers and hence making them more sought after. The mechanisms of the then buzzing music scene meant that record labels Club Promotions departments would feed the right tunes to the big DJs, months, even years in advance of their full releases in order to generate a buzz on the dance floor, possible radio play and the holy grail of getting a spot in the charts. At the top of the pile was Pete Tong who could single handedly break a tune if he made it his Essential Tune of the week. Then all the big DJs in their respective genres – Fabio and Grooverider (drum and bass), Judge Jules (upfront house), Paul Oakenfold (trance) Danny Rampling (soulful house), to name a very few – would also be sent tunes by labels and producers in the hope it would break in their respective scenes. For releases record labels would often commission multiple mixes from remixers in different styles across a double pack of vinyl. You might have a US house mix, a tribal mix, a dub mix, a drum and bass mix, a downbeat mix, a soulful house treatment and a techno version all across two slabs of vinyl, in the hope one would eventually gain traction with an audience. This was of course the time when people were still buying physical music and a number one record would require hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of a single record to be sold. There was money in the game. The good old days.

 In Soho there was a specialist record shop circuit including Black Market, Quaff, Flying Records, Phonica, Reckless Records to name few. I spent most of my time in Black Market and it was always quite an intimidating experience with all the big name DJs looking mean and moody getting first pick on the best releases whilst down the hierarchy would be the young kooks such as myself scampering around for the scraps off the vinyl table. In the wonderful, halcyon pre-internet days their was a big kudos to having a one off or rare tune – an exclusive – that you and only another handful of DJs might own. People might even travel to the dances to hear the DJ drop a certain tune that would become his trademark, much like with the reggae soundclash and Northern Soul scenes. It really was all about the music and the more exclusive the better. When playing, DJs would even go so far as to cover over the label to stop trainspotters and competing DJs figuring out what they were playing. 

I have slightly gone off on a relevant tangent when originally talking about Urban Shakedown’s ‘Rough Justice’ but looking at it and hearing it again sparked some good memories. I would regularly see Mickey Finn DJ at the legendary AWOL night at the Paradise Club in Islington, a place now synonymous with the rise and evolution of the jungle sound in London. Mickey Finn would slay the dance floor. The DJ box was really high above the dance floor in the corner, a little pirates nest above the crowd from which Finn – alongside other AWOL DJs Kenny Ken, Randall, DJ Hype and MC GQ – would rinse the dance. I have a distinctive memory of Finn’s silhouette – with long hair and framed by the dry ice and lasers – as he stood motionless mixing from one dub plate to the next, his tune selection electrifying the crowd. It was quite a menacing vibe as the music had turned a bit darker and it was definitely a rough urban crowd but it all made for an intense and unforgettable experience. Here I am now, all these years later still reminiscing and talking about it. Looking back on it now and with the benefit of hindsight – as I didn’t really get it at the time –  history really was being made.