Throughout the country in the last couple of years, the rise in the number of club nights and DJs making their own music has been phenomenal. Irish clubs and DJs are falling under the international spotlight and are more than holding their own; there s hardly a month goes by without some UK dance magazine making an Irish event its club of the month .
Releases on labels like Spring, Influx, Little Fluffy and Baby Doll have been regular fixtures on the all-important UK club charts, and rave reviews from all sections of the European press are becoming the order of the day.
And with Ireland s first open-air dance festival just around the corner, not to mention the prospect of legal dance radio and a change to our ludicrous licensing laws, it seems that things can only get better.
Over the next nine pages you ll see that there are plenty of great reasons to celebrate. So, c mon everybody, let s dance!
It s not that long ago when Cork, Galway and Waterford provided the only regular weekly dance events outside the capital. Things have changed so dramatically in the last three years, however, that you d now be hard pressed finding a major Irish town or city that doesn t run some form of weekly club or pub night for its ardent clubbers and hardcore dance fanatics.
Irish clubs are not always as well designed as venues elsewhere in Europe, but you can t beat Irish clubbers for generating atmosphere, as almost every international DJ who s played here will agree. The unlikely location of Brannagans in Ennis is a great example of the impression we are making internationally: of late, DJs from the legendary London club Trade have been telling the world that it s one of their favourite places to play.
The flourishing scene in Ennis, like many in rural Ireland, grew quickly out of nothing. A couple of years ago, the resident DJ at Brannagans, Chucky, persuaded new manager Gerry Calanan to try out a weekly dance night on Fridays. Chucky was used to playing sixties music three or four nights a week, but knew there was a potentially big local market for his burning passion, hard house. Within months, Chucky had quit all his nights except Friday, because his untitled and unadvertised hard house bash was attracting a regular crowd of 300. It s now quite common for over eight hundred people to pack out Brannagans for Trade DJs like Ian M.
The hot and sweaty Wiseguys in Tullamore illustrates how many old fashioned discos in rural Ireland are being forced to adapt to the new club culture sweeping the nation. Last summer, with average crowds of only fifty at his Saturday night disco, manager Sylvester Hughes was forced to play a new hand. As he explained: I was getting in six hundred on the other nights when the town s older crowd were out looking for sixties and chart music. On a Saturday night the younger crowd were staying away, until we changed the music policy and started bringing dance DJs down from Dublin.
A year later, and six hundred full-on, whistle-blowing, lightstick-waving aficionados regularly pack his Saturday nights out, jumping around like loons all night to the likes of the relatively unknown Alan Pullen spinning hard house and pumping trance. Similar stories are told all over the country.
Although the harder house sound dominates the musical landscape outside Dublin clubs, like Privilege at Horan s in Tralee, providing more downbeat alternatives can be hugely successful too. Resident DJ Paudie Cronin is the unsung hero responsible for The Kingdom s growing legion of Technics-wielding fanatics. He told us: Privilege shows that there s a market for all styles of dance. On Fridays, we play everything from rare groove to drum n bass, and on Saturdays we go for a house tempo without getting too hard.
In Waterford, dance fans have been starved for a number of years, but all that has now changed with the launch of Choons at Preachers, and in particular the new Area 51 night at a club with many hedonistic memories, The Roxy. Every Friday night, local turntable technicians Paul Flynn and Robert De Niro fan Travis Bickle mix up the biggest beats with Dublin stars like Billy Scurry and Johnny Moy.
The country s first open-air dance festival, Homelands Ireland (running from 1pm to 1am on September 25th at Mosney Holiday Centre), offers a timely opportunity for a meeting of the tribes. With six arenas covering every genre and sub-genre of dance imaginable, it s a chance for (at least some of) the Irish dance nation to converge on Mosney and celebrate what has been achieved so far.
The recent growth in rural areas can only be sustained, however, if there is an immediate change to our club licensing laws. You only have to look at Dublin to see why. Hailed as the clubbing capital of Europe back in the enthusiastic days of 94 and 95, Dublin has since been unable to fulfil its immense potential, thanks largely to our restrictive and archaic licensing laws. As one of the leading campaigners for a change in the law, PoD owner John Reynolds, told Hot Press earlier this year: the Dublin club scene has been virtually strangled to death.
The same fate could await the rest of the country unless we see all-night clubbing and legal dance radio sooner rather than later. The healthier our national club scene becomes, the more new records, remixers, producers, and thrilling live acts we ll see. We ve already produced some of the best DJs in Europe, so imagine what we could achieve if our club scene was allowed to realise its full potential? The time to fight for your right to party is now.
Rocking Residencies
Ten Great Irish Club Nightas

1. Full-On, Sundays at Brannagans, Ennis.
The best hard house night in the country, with residents Chucky and Buck, and guests like Ian M, Pete Wardman, Steve Thomas and Mark Kavanagh.
2. Phunk City, Fridays at The Funnel, Dublin.
The most adventurous booking policy in the country, some of the most musically astute clubbers around, and two great resident DJs, Alan O Boyle and Denis McNulty.
3. Charged, Thursdays at The Kitchen, Dublin.
Billy Scurry leads the latest Influx charge, with regular guests like DJ Q, Richie Hawtin, Johnny Moy and Justin Robertson.
4. H.A.M, Fridays at PoD, Dublin.
The most prominent gay night recently made the front pages for other reasons, but it s the hi-octane beats of Tonie Walsh and Martin McCann that keep bringing the crowds back.
5. Saturdays at Wiseguys, Tullamore.
Regular Dublin guests like Alan Pullen and a crowd you ll find hard to beat.
6. Privilege, Fridays at Horan s, Tralee.
Paudie Cronin mans the wheels of steel alongside guests spinning everything from hip-hop to drum n bass.
7. Genius, Tuesdays at The Kitchen, Dublin.
A midweek techno bash that s often one of The Kitchen s busiest nights.
8. Sweat, Saturdays at Sir Henrys, Cork
Now in its eleventh year, Greg Dowling and Shane Johnson s residency has been hailed by the UK dance magazines as one of the best nights in Europe.
9. Blue, Thursdays at Temple Of Sound,
Limerick.
The leading night in Limerick with Fintan Moloney, Jimmy K plus guests.
10. Delicious, Saturdays at The Clarence
Hotel, Sligo.
It might be one of the smallest clubs in the country, but Roger Brennan s long running residency is still one of the best.Mr Spring aka Tim Hannigan
Tim Hannigan is one of Ireland s most acclaimed and busy DJs who has played everywhere from The Ministry of Sound to Ibiza to Longford. Hannigan currently runs two record labels, DT and Spring. DT has pressed over 20 white label releases, while Spring has handled three releases and is about to be signed and distributed by Tommy Boy. Hannigan has been pioneering Irish house music for nearly a decade through his current projects and as a former member of Sound Crowd.
As for his views on the current state of the Irish dance scene, Hannigan is astonished it s still there! I actually can t believe that right now in 1999 we are still talking about a dance music underground. I would have thought that by now it would have been completely absorbed by the majors. The fact that now there is less of a tendency to be producing polished shite for major label consumption is refreshing.
While well in favour of the principles, Spring is pessimistic about the chances of lobbying for extended club opening hours.
Unless we get a flood of happy policemen willing to look after us it just won t happen. The police just don t want to deal with any more bollox, it s bad enough as it is. People are going oh look at Europe . Sure in some countries you can t even buy a drink!

Paul Davis Influx
For over three years, Influx have been Ireland s leading promoters of freestyle dance music from house to hip-hop, electro to big beat, techno to trip-hop. While believing that the club scene has stagnated slightly, Davis reckons that it s never been so good for young artists doing live PAs or their own releases, projects Influx are heavily involved in with artistes such as DJ Wool, Johnny Moy, Romin, Decadence and their latest protigis, Prism.
Influx are also part of a strong consortium bidding for the coveted Holy Grail Ireland s first official dance music license.
The IRTC have broadened the remit of the license to be basically a youth-orientated, cutting-edge station with a broad-based music and programming policy, Paul observes. If it does end up being us, it would be an integral part of the development of not just new producers but labels, DJs and the entire scene.
Davis has also attended some of the preliminary meetings of the recently founded Association of Music Promoters who are lobbying for an overhaul of current club licensing legislation.
Sure, it s not going to happen in the immediate short term, but I m confident it will eventually, he says. There are a lot of problems to be sorted out, but when you look at all other European capitals, none of them has a problem with all night clubs so we shouldn t either.
In general terms, Paul believes that there should be a stronger support structure for dance artists in a similar vein to how the Arts Council has assisted rock music ventures. Influx are one of the promoters involved in Homelands this September, which Davis believes will be a landmark in Irish club culture.

Eamon Doyle D1 Records
D1 Records are keeping Ireland safe for innovative, indigenous techno. D1 are a collective who run regular techno nights, release recordings and run a shop which has just moved to 32 Wicklow Street, Dublin 2, selling the best range of techno, house and hip-hop in Dublin.
My angle is mainly musical as opposed to club promotion, so in my mind things are only slowly going places, says Eamon Doyle. It s still in the early stages. It s a matter of building a platform and reputation abroad. However, I must say that I believe that Dublin is better than most other cities for techno, even the likes of London and New York.
Doyle is hoping that the scene will benefit from Dublin Distribution, a distribution company D1 is establishing to handle six Irish dance labels.
We do see the current licensing laws as the biggest single threat to things really happening. It is the only obstacle which we can t change directly, in the sense that we felt there wasn t a sufficient outlet for techno so we started running club nights. There was nowhere to buy the stuff we were into, so we started a shop. We couldn t get distribution so we set up a Distribution Company and so on. The licensing laws we can t directly change in the same way.
Doyle believes that currently the lobby isn t strong enough but maintains that D1 can do our own little thing in our own little way.

Naphta Bassbin
Naphta has been at the helm of nurturing quality drum n bass in Ireland through the promoters and producers Bassbin who run club nights in The Funnel and are gearing up to release their first vinyl album in the Autumn.
While enthusiastic about the current state of play, Naphtha believes there is still a long way to go.
The bubble has burst for a serious super club invasion here which is only a good thing, he believes. It is essential that we have more homegrown producers.
Naphta wholeheartedly supports a push to get longer opening hours, but believes that the dance scene s main problem is a lot more fundamental.
There are a lot of people who don t give a shit about music who are in it for the cash and possibly a bit of kudos. It s about time that they re-invested their resources in the music itself. People should stop the bitchiness and stop trying to be a big fish in a little pond. It s time to start talking to each other and sharing resources. It is almost impossible for young talent to break through in the current climate. Everyone needs to relax a little.

Alan O Boyle Ultramack, dEcal, Phunk City
Alan O Boyle is one half of dEcal, one third of Ultramack and sole owner of Trama Recordings.
On a club level, I think things have got a bit stagnant, but on a production level it s never been healthier, he believes. The larger promoters must realise that you can t have a strong corporate scene without a strong underground scene. The history of any dance breakthrough proves that. There would never be a Fatboy Slim or big beat if there weren t a Chemical Brothers originally throwing out all these white labels in the undergound.
While I would fully support the licensing laws campaign, club owners and promoters are bleating about no-one coming to the clubs, but remember why people ever went clubbing in the first place it was fresh and didn t even need flyers or billboard ads. With our own club, Phunk City, we are having one of the most consistent Friday night attendances in town because it is weird shit that you don t hear anywhere else.
When you see articles about promoters rather than the DJs at their clubs, and profiles of people who run labels rather than the music on the label you know something is wrong. Promoters becoming stars is indicative of a lack of imagination and co-operation. I d rather read an article about the guy who designs the flyers.

Robbie Nelson Agnelli and Nelson
Robbie Nelson is one half of Belfast duo Agnelli and Nelson who scored a huge club hit with El Nino last summer.
The scene has certainly improved and got far more professional and organised, Robbie opines. We are definitely heading in the general direction of international successes and hit records being made in Ireland. For us, it s been a case of persistence and sheer hard work. We ve spent the last seven or eight years in the studio and now it s fantastic to get stuff out and to be getting such an amazing reaction.
As for improvements to the scene, Nelson points to the more considerable problems our clubbing friends in the North have to put up with. The licensing is even more ludicrous than down here with the largest dance club, The Met in Armagh, having to close at 1.30am.
Also, unlike Dublin where there are offices for most of the major record labels, Belfast suffers from lack of a similar business infrastructure for all music, including dance.
But despite the odds, Agnelli and Nelson have proved that Irish artists can achieve commercial success in dance music. The duo are have just returned from Ibiza shooting the video for Everyday which is tipped to be this summer s dancefloor scorcher.The upsurge in regional clubbing in the last three years has had a telling effect on the Irish dance scene as a whole. There are thriving local networks emerging throughout the country, brimming with fresh talent, as every new club night gives birth to the hopes of dozens of aspiring DJs and producers. Visiting DJs are now just as likely to be handed demos of home studio productions as they are the more traditional bedroom DJ mix tapes.
In Limerick, the enterprising Joe Clarke this month launches Blue Records with dancefloor-aimed remixes of the debut single by local four-piece The Radars, whom Clarke describes as an Irish Sneaker Pimps. The remixes come from two new names on the ever-growing list of Irish dance producers, Belfast s Mana and local DJ Fintan Moloney. Mana are signed to Belfast s RGB label (which brought the world Agnelli & Nelson s El Nino ), while Fintan is a great example of a local DJ with a home studio crying out to be heard.
Having promoted club nights and tours all over the country, Joe Clarke s travels lead him to believe that the number of new Irish dance labels will start spiralling soon.
The kids are making stuff at home and realising that the quickest way to get something out and heard in a club is to put it out yourself, he observes. It s all very well giving your tapes to DJs and label owners, but a lot of the time you ll find they already have so many projects of their own on the go, and unless it s a potential hit it s not going to get signed too easily.
Like many dance labels, Joe Clarke s Blue was born at a club night, one of the same name at Limerick s Temple Of Sound. In Dublin recently, drum n bass club Bassbin gave us an incredible compilation produced by the club s residents and regulars, while Decal s Phunk City has just given birth to an electro imprint, Trama Industries. The Kitchen is perhaps the best example of how a healthy club scene leads to fresh and exciting musical creativity. Apart from its own label, Kitchen Records (run by Reggie Manuel for Bono and The Edge), three of The Kitchen s regular promoters, JDP, Quadraphonic and Influx now release records, often produced by their own club s resident DJs.
Gael Linn are one of the independent Irish companies offering dance labels effective Irish distribution that gets results. Some Irish labels (like JDP, Baby Doll, D1, DT and Spring) have opted for UK distributors, but many of these specialise only in vinyl and deal with just a handful of Dublin shops. Gael Linn are on hand to either replace or complement existing deals and deliver product effectively throughout the country. The results can often be astonishing, with a recent home-grown EP on Dublin label Abbey Discs spending more weeks on the Irish charts than Fatboy Slim and outselling singles by three of the biggest names in dance music, Underworld, Faithless and Paul Van Dyk.
Ireland s capacity to produce club tracks that can become huge pop hits was proved last year when Agnelli & Nelson s El Nino became one of the biggest selling tracks of the year. They are about to repeat the feat with this year s Ibiza anthem , Everyday .
It s not just hits that we are exporting either. Mister Spring has had innumerable tracks licensed by international labels, and most of the six superb singles on Belfast s Little Fluffy Records were licensed for European compilation albums after being heavily playlisted by DJs like Sasha and Paul Van Dyk. Belfast s DJ Modelle has had four singles signed to London labels, and his production partner Paul Masterson has become one of the UK s most in-demand remixers since he moved to London. Another Belfast producer, Graemel, is widely regarded as one of the best progressive house producers in Europe.
Almost every major DJ in the country is involved in some form of recording project, and the standards in production just keep on rising. The Irish club scene offers a greater musical diversity than most other European countries. A quick listen to the current or imminent releases from Glen Brady, Razor, Invisible Armies, Chris Cargo, Mister Spring and Tony Dexter (to name but a few) and you ll see how we are now more than a match for the rest in every style of music we make. The future looks very bright indeed. n