THE BIRTH, DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF BASSLINE
Sidney Street, Sheffield
On any given weekend in the early to mid-2000s, black hot pants, Nike Air Max 90s and gun fingers lined the edges of Sidney Street in Sheffield city centre. It was home to one of the most influential clubs in underground music at the time: Niche. Niche was special, not only in the way it guaranteed a good night out, but in the way that it survived years of police raids and threats of being shut down. Niche found itself in the eye of the storm when it came to scandals and it wasn’t uncommon that its name was plastered across local newspapers. But still, this isn’t really what gave Niche its legendary status. Amongst those who were in-the-know, Niche was the playground for one of the most influential genres of the decade: Bassline. Bassline developed in Yorkshire and the Midlands as a response to London’s UKG and speed garage. Its most prominent feature, which also gave the genre its name, is the use of a wompy wet bass. Bassline came out of nowhere and although its birthplace was Niche, it exploded like a nuclear bomb across the Yorkshire and Midlands and into small town clubs and raves. These places soon became the only places where Bassline could be heard which meant people had to speed up and down the motorway just to get their bassline abstinence sorted out. Soon, Bassline was everywhere: national radio stations, in the back of local buses, on TV and in university halls kitchen speakers. For a while it seemed to command the British public’s attention more than any other genre. But similarly to its predecessor UKG, the genre wouldn’t survive very long with a clean record. Bassline would soon be stigmatised into a comatose state, finding itself associated with drugs, gang-related activity and at some point even murder. Out of nowhere, Bassline had vanished as quickly as it came. There’s just one thing – over a decade has passed since Bassline’s fifteen minutes of fame but its impact and influence can still be heard today. Is it bold to suggest that Bassline is back? Regardless, with the global rise of UKG, drum’n’bass and jungle, why isn’t anyone talking about Bassline?
UKG AND SPEED GARAGE
The UK music scene has long been a melting pot of underground sounds, constantly evolving and reinventing itself. It is no secret that the UK’s history in colonialism has impacted various aspects of British culture throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and music isn’t exempt from that fact. But among the many genres that have emerged from the British clubbing scene, Bassline stands out as a uniquely Northern answer to UKG. To fully understand Bassline’s origins, it’s essential to first understand the rise of UKG and later speed garage which laid the groundwork for what would become Bassline.
In the 90’s, drum’n’bass and jungle was everywhere. Well, at least if London was considered the epicentre of everywhere. With a five pound note and an over-18s ID, south London venue Ministry of Sound would let you into its doors. At the time, the venue held some of the most notorious events in house music, gaining a legendary reputation across Europe. One of the residents at Ministry of Sound was New Jersey house producer Tony Humphries. Party goers would come from all over the UK to get in on the action; probably meeting God on the dance floor before being blinded by the lights at closing time around 9am. Leaving with enough energy to fuel every house in the council, they wouldn’t need to search far and wide for the perfect after party. Originally held as a breakfast club on Sundays, The Elephant and Castle Pub would host a popular Sunday party called Happy Days which would run from 10am to 2pm. This meant that if you had left the Ministry of Sound at 9am, it was only an hour's wait around the corner until you would get let in. The pub only had a permit to host 200 people, so if you were lucky enough to get in, you stayed in. Resident DJ Matt Jam Lemont would, similarly to what was played at Ministry of Sound, play house records but the most notable difference was that at Happy Days these were played with much higher beats per minute. Matt thought that this was needed in order to keep the crowd going given the fact that most of them had been out for 12 hours straight by this point. The music that filled Elephant & Castle reflected a growing sentiment across the UK rave scene at the time – if there was music, it was pushing 160 bpm. Playing these sped-up house records would soon evolve into a genre which would impact the UK music scene for decades to come. This was the beginning of UKG.
The Elephant and Castle Pub became the unofficial place for the Ministry of Sound after party but this was mostly due to its convenient location. It was right next door so you couldn’t miss it on your way out. But it wouldn’t take long before other establishments started popping up with their own UKG Sunday events. Sunday Gass at The Gass Club, Sunday Mass at the Arches and My Mum’s Sunday Club at The Frog & Nightgown are just a few of the most notable Sunday parties of the time. As these Sunday parties gained more popularity it was still very much a “if you know, you know” type of scene. Soon enough the Sunday parties stopped just being after parties and became parties in their own right. As we will delve more into later, the early crowds of UKG and bassline were mostly working class people of colour. This fact is also what brought so much stigma towards the establishments that would host events aimed at these genres. But at their core, what really brought these crowds together, was their unstaggering desire to listen to good music on a crowded dance floor. These Sunday parties soon started overshadowing any Friday or Saturday events. Why? Simple – this was where UKG was played. As UKG developed, it moved further away from the more polished US sound. It became faster, heavier, grittier. It became British. By the mid-90s, UKG had become so well established that it was no longer wanted, it was expected. UKG was the new UK sound.
So what does UKG have to do with Bassline? The short answer is everything. The long answer is that we need to talk about something else first. We need to talk about speed garage. Speed garage acted as a crucial stepping stone in the evolution of Bassline. It took the essence of UKG but increased the tempo, making it choppier and more energetic. Producers would incorporate warping basslines and heavily syncopated drum patterns whilst keeping UKG elements such as female-led melodic vocals. The shift towards a heavier bass and more aggressive production style created a sonic bridge between UKG, speed garage and the emergence of Bassline that would soon appear in the North of England. Whilst speed garage thrived in London, small Northern cities and towns began developing their own take on the genre. The divide became clearer as more time passed on – speed garage made an appearance in London but Bassline dominated the North.
THE BIRTH
Around the millennium, UKG in London was polished and soulful. Simultaneously, Bassline in the North was raw and gritty. Bassline’s most prominent feature, which is what also gave the genre its name, is a pulsating wompy bass, 4x4 beat and although Bassline tracks do feature vocals they are more often than not instrumental-driven with the bass itself acting as the melody. Okay, so when, where and how did Bassline even come about?
Mick Baxendale with his daughter Traci, 1990
If the world ends tomorrow, two music lovers will argue about where a certain genre has its true origins until we’re all turned into dust. But for Bassline lovers, it is pretty much undisputed that Bassline originated in Sheffield. Even more specifically, it is undisputed that Bassline originated in Sheffield club “Niche”. In 1992 Niche opened its doors to people looking to dance to house and UKG. In its early days the club had already gained a reputation for hosting a rowdy crowd; the club most notably had a problem with shootings, stabbings and drugs. Mick Baxendale was Niche’s owner for most of the 90s. Towards the late 90s he was battling keeping Niche outside of the police’s radar and keeping the music relevant enough to attract new crowds. Mick was clearly picky when it came to who was allowed to play at Niche. Chris Bailey, a DJ who first started working at Niche as a sound engineer and would later work as club manager, once tried to fill in for an absent DJ. Mick allegedly told him that as long as he’s got a hole in his arse, Chris would never play at Niche. Niche was known for playing good music but its legendary status didn’t start to develop until the late 90s. In 1997, DJ Mark Carr played Dresti’s remix of “Somethin’ Goin’ On” by Todd Terry which, according to DJ Shaun Scott, planted the first seed of what would become the Bassline haven that Niche grew into. Niche had a heavier focus on UKG and speed garage and with time it was evident that the club was preparing for the perfect breeding ground that would one day produce Bassline. But Niche was still infamous for gang-related activity. On Sunday morning 11 October 1998, Mick and two bouncers were stabbed just outside of the club’s doors. Mick suffered serious injuries and tragically lost his life after the attack. The death of Mick Baxendale left two children without a father and 27 years later his murder remains unsolved. His passing marked the end of his reign on the club, leaving it to be managed by his brother Steve Baxendale for years to come.
By the late 90s, Niche’s resident DJs were the same DJs who would carry the torch and develop bassline into its own genre. Chris Bailey, Shaun Scott, Jamie Duggan and Mark Carr are only a few of the producers considered to be the pioneers of Bassline. In Bassline’s early days, Niche’s resident DJs would re-record commercial house tracks by incorporating heavier characteristics including a much faster tempo, a 4x4 beat and most notably a dominant dripping wet bass. According Chris Bailey, the tension between the residents at the time was felt by everyone; DJs competed with each other track by track and day by day. By the millennium, in-house production was a fact – re-recording and remixing obscure and rare finds meant that whatever you heard in Niche stayed in Niche. Steve Baxendale was also very protective over his resident DJs by making sure that they wouldn’t play anywhere else. This, along with the in-house production style meant that club goers weren’t able to find whatever was played in Niche anywhere else. When club goers would try to find a particular track that they had heard in Niche, they would find the mission impossible. Oftentimes they would show up in local record shops making the broad request to find “Niche tunes” or “Niche bassline” before leaving with empty hands.
MOVE INTO THE MAINSTREAM
In 2001, Niche invested in a new sound system which ensured that the bass would get a first class ticket to miles away. They also began selling recordings from each set but these were only possible to buy from inside the club. The records would then be bought and played in speakers across Yorkshire and the Midlands which made people wonder: what is this music? Soon enough the word spread that whatever this so-called Niche bassline is, if you wanted to hear it in a club, you’d have to actually go to Niche. And soon enough people were speeding up and down the motorway to get in on the hype.
By the early to mid 2000s, “Niche music” had been renamed to Bassline and was all over the North. Soon enough bassline clubs started popping up in Leeds, Birmingham, Leicester, Manchester and small towns all across Yorkshire and the Midlands. One of the most notable bassline clubs was Sheridan’s which was located in Dewsbury. Today, Dewsbury isn’t associated with much other than being situated in the outskirts of Leeds, just between Huddersfield and Wakefield. With a population of just over 60,000 Dewsbury’s canal was once an essential transportational point in the Industrial Revolution, producing mixed wool and serving as a transport of goods to bigger cities such as Manchester and Hull. But in the early 2000s, it was home to one of the biggest Bassline clubs of the time —Sheridan’s. Some of the most successful producers and DJs had their start at Sheridan’s and Niche. Producers such as DJ Q, Ts7, Burgaboy and Subzero all had their start at these clubs and they were instrumental in pushing the sound forward and ensuring that Bassline existed exclusively of its predecessors. But still the genre has most of its fame on the underground rave scene. Although it was now possible to buy Bassline records, they were still very much restricted to those who were in-the-know.
THE DEATH & resurrection
Chris Bailey outside Niche, 2005
Despite Bassline’s growing popularity in the late 2000s, the genre was facing mass scrutiny. Similarly to UKG, the genre began featuring MCs more frequently and soon the genre as a whole became associated with gangs, drugs and violence. On Saturday 26 November 2005, South Yorkshire Police employed over 300 officers for a police raid into Niche as part of the larger “Operation Repatriation” aiming to shut down the club as a result of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. Further the police issued a closure order by classifying the clubs as a Class A Drug Premises. It doesn’t go unnoticed that both UKG and Bassline have origins in working class Black British culture. Repatriation, defined as taking back something or someone to its place of origin, is therefore an interestingly bold name to a police raid on one of the most prominent working class Black British places of culture in Sheffield at the time. Chris Bailey thought that the police raid was a way to try to make Niche appear essentially as a crack den. The police’s aim was to prove that the club was supplying drugs to the crowds, but the raid only seized around 5 grams of cocaine and amphetamine in total along with around 0.3 ecstasy tablets per head. Not a single person was convicted as a result of the raid, costing tax payers over half a million pounds and the closure of Niche. Later, Steve Baxendale went on to open club Vibe in Sheffield, bringing his resident DJs with him. However, due to police speculations, they incorporated a strict ban on playing any Bassline music and more specifically 4x4 productions. Tightened restrictions made Vibe shut for good and Bassline was essentially kicked out of its hometown.
It would take years until Bassline would compete with more evolved genres. One defining moment for the genre came with the release of T2’s legendary Bassline track “Heartbroken”, released 12 November 2007. “Heartbroken” nearly instantly climbed on the UK Charts and held its no. 2 position for three weeks. “Heartbroken” wasn’t just played in the clubs, it was played everywhere: you would hear it on mainstream radio, as you passed a student house on a Friday night, pulsating from the corner shop speakers on your way to work – everywhere and all the time. “Heartbroken” stayed on the Top 100 UK Charts for nearly six months, being the first Bassline track to ever do so. “Heartbroken” changed the game for the entire genre whilst being the background track to the youth of a generation. Just a few months later, H “Two” O and Platnum released “What’s it Gonna Be?” and stayed on the Top 40 UK charts for 12 weeks, peaking at no. 2 on 1 March 2008 for three weeks. In the same month, Delinquent and Kcat released “My Destiny” through record label All Around The World. The track peaked on the UK charts at no. 19 on 8 March 2008. From nowhere, all it took was one productive quarter and Bassline had taken over the UK charts.
By the 2010s, Bassline clubs across the North had been forced into closure and the genre was finding it difficult to survive in the mainstream. However, over a decade later, the genre has lived vicariously through and by elements of other genres such as grime, house and dubstep. Producers such as Flava D, Neumonic, Hamdi and Zero are playing key roles in bridging the gap between old-school Bassline and contemporary UK dance music. Bassline’s legacy lives on and its influence can be heard across the country – the features of Bassline’s more classical qualities such as its 4x4 beat and wompy bass are incorporated with more prominent genres such as drum’n’bass and jungle. If you look for it, you can absolutely hear it everywhere. Bassline’s life story is vivid, a little bit like all of our life stories are marked by highs and lows. But its impact on the UK music scene is undeniable. As long as there is music, there is Bassline.
