Gatecrasher's
Sheffield story grew out of the ashes of the
glam-house club boom of the early-to-mid-Nineties. In summer 1995, 'Crasher was resident at
The Arches, a club built into the
viaduct crossing the East End of Sheffield town centre heading out of the city. The
venue was small and basic, and the entire club night was a watered-down version of
Rise - the
Steel City's attempt to outdo
Cream and the
Ministry Of Sound.
Losing money rapidly, Gatecrasher moved to the
Adelphi nightclub in the redeveloping industrial wasteland of
Attercliffe. A much better venue, The Adelphi saw 'Crasher continue to ape Cream and Rise in its choice of playlist - including
Annie Nightingale in the chill-out tent.
As the
glam house scene imploded and Rise died a painful and drawn-out death, Gatecrasher escaped much of the
flak - for a start, it was a smaller operation. But more importantly, 'Crasher had begun to evolve. The move to the then-in-receivership
Republic nightclub had given the event the perfect venue - and the new
DJs playing there were showcasing edgier,
progressive trance tunes.
To those inside the imposing surroundings of the Republic on a Saturday night, Gatecrasher's stock was visibly rising by the week. By the time
Paul Van Dyk ripped up the
dancefloor on the first of what would become the most
euphoric nights in club history, Gatecrasher was rammed with what would become known as '
Crasher kids', increasingly dressed in outlandish, techno clothes and borrowing heavily from
rave fashion, with
lightsticks,
flouro facepaint and silver
hairspray all staples of the Gatecrasher look.
The summer of 1999 saw Gatecrasher cross over as
trance swept all before it. The explosion had been brewing for some time, with 'Crasher anthems such as
Paul Van Dyk's '
For An Angel' and
Energy 52's '
Café Del Mar' having some pop chart success. But it was
the tune of Gatecrasher's Spring '99 that burst the floodgates.
ATB's '
9pm (Till I Come' reached Number One in the
pop charts, and even though
hardcore clubbers abandoned the tune wholesale as soon as it was
caned to death on the
radio, the rest of 1999 saw trance rule the music world - and Gatecrasher was the byword for the entire scene, releasing 4 massive compilation CDs of the tunes that mattered.
Inevitably the heightened consciousness of Gatecrasher and everything it stood for led to a diluting of its power and attraction for those who had been there at the start. Gatecrasher is now a global brand, and like Cream and Ministry Of Sound, the orignal message has been lost somewhat. Still, when I put on Disc One of
Gatecrasher Wet and hear
Lost Tribe's '
Gamemaster' drop, it's as close as anyone can get to the weekly
euphoria that Gatecrasher provoked between April 1998 and September 1999.