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  • Ten years of Fabric

  • By Kate Hutchinson

    Posted: Thu Oct 15 2009

  • As the Clerkenwell dance music mecca celebrates its momentous tenth birthday this year, the innovative team behind the cutting-edge music give us the lowdown on some of the big names who have rocked the dancefloor over the years

    Ten years of Fabric

    © Seb Barros

  • Ten years after striking up in a former meatpacking factory in an east London no-mans-land, shifting the capital’s clubbing focus to Clerkenwell, it’s still a roadblock every weekend. Since it opened in 1999, the total equivalent of more than half the city’s population has come through its doors.

    Fabric’s reliable and forward thinking programming on Friday, Saturday and, more recently, Sunday nights underpins London’s vast and international dance music scene. No matter what your electronic affection is, you can brave the queues week on week and still find new cutting-edge music. It’s the sort of quality cloth from which all rising producers, DJs and promoters wish to be cut – hosting a room at Fabric, or making a mix for their esteemed compilation series, is a serious coup. Feature continues

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    Predictably, Fabric’s tenth birthday celebration this weekend is set to go down in history. Along with releasing their first line of T-shirts to mark the decade, they’re throwing a mammoth four-night (and one-day!) session. Bassline-driven genres are represented at a Thursday night edition of FabricLive; rock 'n' rave, electro and hip hop get a look-in on Friday; and Saturday and Sunday merge together to represent the sounds of Fabric’s underground house and techno Saturdays over the past decade, with an eye-popping 30 hours of non-stop sets.

    These days, Fabric has transcended its reputation as just a club – it has become the world’s number one. Founder Keith Reilly and his dedicated team are cultural curators, breaking and nurturing new talent on a wide and international scale. It’s a tough choice, but here the team recalls some of the sonic engineers they’re most proud of fostering.

    • Ricardo Villalobos

      Fabric debut 2002

      Judy Griffith, Fabric promotions manager: 'At first, Ricardo was just another house DJ that we liked at the time. It was after hearing him in other countries and his second date at Fabric, in early 2003, that really made me realise he had something different. He was very original, mixing all sorts of music together beautifully. He’s often playing a lot of the same records as everyone else, but his ability of putting his own personal mark on them takes them into another zone. I hadn’t seen that uniqueness since Derrick Carter. At the time, a lot of our programming was tech-house (as opposed to progressive house and trance) so to hear him mixing up tech-house with house, Latin, dub and minimal, well, you couldn’t fail to be moved. He was the first DJ at the club who, like Craig, was a bit of an anarchist and his broad taste really encompasses what Fabric is about.'

    • Filthy Dukes

      Fabric debut 2003

      Shaun Roberts, FabricLive promotions manager: ‘They are the hosts of Kill 'Em All at Fabric. Olly [Dixon, of Filthy Dukes] and I book the line ups together. They were the DJs who said, "There are these guys called Justice and these guys called Simian Mobile Disco. We want them to be the residents at our night,” before they blew up. They have a great ear for new talent and their [bi-monthly] nights give us a chance to experiment with live acts and more 4/4 sounds. Kill ’Em All has gone from one room to three rooms and they have developed hugely as DJs and as a live band. Chris Moyles played their single on his Radio One show the other day – that made me chuckle! – and we’re just released their mix, ‘FabricLive 48’.’

    • Caspa

      FabricLive debut 2007

      Tom McCarthy, promotions assistant: ‘The FabricLive mix he did with Rusko (pictured right) in 2007 was the first truly internationally distributed dubstep mix and it did a lot to bring the music to new audiences around the world. It captured one side of this new and emerging sound and presented an overview of UK underground music at the same time. His Dub Police residency in the club has quickly become a benchmark for dubstep and garage etc, and is eagerly awaited by all.’

    • Sinden

      FabricLive debut 2006

      Danna Hawley, head of press: ‘Sinden’s special because he has that same insatiable hunger for music that all of us have here at Fabric. He’s so clued up and amazingly diverse in his tastes, always schooling us on beats from all corners the globe [at his Get Familiar residency]. There’s Chicago’s juke and Detroit’s ghettotech one month, grime and dubstep the next, kuduro and kwaito the time after. But because he’s so genuinely hyped about the music he pushes, he’ll never follow trends, or even go near any bandwagons.’

    • Craig Richards & Terry Francis

      Fabric debut 1999

      Keith Reilly, director: ‘I selected Craig and Terry because I thought they were two of the finest DJs I’d heard. No one knew who they were, but they were like-minded sounds that wanted to play a style of music that other clubs didn’t want you to.’

      Judy Griffith: ‘Everything about the venue’s ethos is reflected in Craig’s musical approach. He was able to effortlessly adapt his music style to suit whoever was playing. In the end we programmed all the Fabric nights around him and his style: he is the centre point and just as important as the guest. It’s reached a comfortable point where the guest had to be able to play with Craig, rather than the other way round. He was the first person to do a Fabric mix, which was and still is one of the best mixes in the series, and it’s an ideal template for other DJs when crafting their own. He was also the first DJ in London to start playing experimental, dub or minimal music in the middle of his sets, sometimes at peak time, which was bold back then – other DJs wouldn’t dare.'

    • Matthew Dear

      Fabric debut 2004

      Judy Griffith: ‘He has really grown up with Fabric. [His music] was so genius, a completely different take on techno. His first performance was amazing: he was very shy, almost nerdy, but he gave this big and hugely professional performance. I was stunned by his maturity and approach. He reminded us of early Bowie and David Byrne. I’m so proud of what he has achieved and I know that he will continue to go far. I’ve already had the pleasure of hearing some of his new stuff for 2010 and it’s pure genius.’

    • Martyn

      FabricLive debut 2007

      The Dutch producer represents a new generation of electronic producers who are weaving sisterly bass-heavy genres together. His is a crossover between dubstep, techno, glitchy hip hop and drum ’n’ bass with his bass-heavy yet melodic and, at times, melancholic productions, which will feature throughout his forthcoming mix, ‘Fabric 50: Martyn’ in January.

    • Autonomic

      FabricLive debut 2009

      Autonomic’s D-Bridge and Alex Green and Damon Kirkhamduo (of Instra:mental) are making D&B unpredictable again, re-igniting and progressing the genre with deep, warm and intricate sonic architecture from dubstep to electronica. Their Club Autonomic podcasts are so popular that they’ve caused their server to break down, so it’s just as well that they’ve helmed a Fabric mix, ‘FabricLive 50: D-Bridge & Instra:mental Present Autonomic’, which is out next February.

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