An oral history of the singularly surreal Birmingham club night.
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Beyond the Main Room
Chris HOG
When we first started, we only had a tiny second room, and we had these guys called Peacekeeper Soundsystem run that for years. It had this stinking kitchen at the one end of it, so rather than a chill-out room we called it a grill-out room. They’d also play industrial stuff. They’d play Meat Beat Manifesto and Front 242, and bits like that.
Surgeon
Reggae, hip-hop, industrial and early drum & bass stuff. There was as much emphasis on that in the night. It wasn’t just a back room that was stuck away out of the way somewhere.
(Nik “DJ X” Wells
House of God resident DJ and booker for the second room)
Nik Wells
I would play in the back room for Peacekeeper. Then when jungle first came around, it was just a natural progression to start sorting out the second room for Chris. We had a good rotation of people. They would always get in their lot, Scampi and Bigfoot and others.
Sir Real
It was an important part of the whole thing and brought the whole audience.
Nik Wells
When we started having jungle and drum & bass in the second room, it was what a lot of people were after. It was a bit difficult for some people to go to the more dedicated jungle nights up here because they were quite moody. One of the things that people liked was the relaxed atmosphere at House of God, without having to look over their shoulders.
(Nick Sales
Former member of the Bliss Body art group)
Nick Sales
There was always interesting stuff going on in the side rooms. Crusty punk and metal bands playing live.
Chris HOG
We’ve got another room that’s run by Joe Robertson and Steve O. Every now and then I might say, “Can you put so and so in there?” Tony’s played house sets in there before.
Nick Sales
In another room there’d be sometimes the guys from Klub Katusi playing fucked-up easy listening.
Nik Wells
People used to come just for the easy listening room. If you weren’t into the breakbeat or the drum & bass, then you had this room that was set up like somebody’s gran’s living room, with cheesy painting on the wall and oil projectors, playing this nice easy listening ’60s vibe.