AMEN ROLLER

I’d been going to clubs since I arrived in London in 1991 but had never found a scene that I properly connected with or one that could accommodate my ridiculous double-time dance moves – a friend once pointed out that I looked like I was dancing on hot coals.

I bought my first pair of decks in 1993 and began buying the odd jungle tune like DJ Crystl’s Let It Roll from Camden’s Record & Tape Exchange. I’d play that at half-speed and mix it with trip-hop type stuff. Early releases on Roni Size’s V Recordings were gobbled up before LTJ Bukem’s seminal tune Music arrived and comprehensively turned my head.

As the scene exploded, darting around London picking up the newest 12”s for £5 (£5!!!) a pop became my favourite pastime any day of the week. Record shops like Black Market and Fat Cat, pirate radio, market stall mixtapes and clubs like Speed, United Nations, The End and most notably, the Blue Note fuelled my obsession. I barely listen to it these days but for a while, drum & bass was my whole world.

Tim Fishlock