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A Night With DJ Fergie & Friends [Northern Ireland 2004]

Author: Jonty Skrufff
Sunday, February 15, 2004
"Do you fancy coming for a night out in Northern Ireland- We've got a big weekend lined up, I'm doing my last night at the Met, then another club and We'll sort everything out for you, flights and all that. I reckon it'll be a mad one."

Sitting in a cafe not far from Radio 1's Central London office just before Christmas, DJ Fergie was persuasive in his invitation to sample night out in Belfast and 2 months later, I'm in a black cab leaving Belfast City Airport for my first trip to the British province. Upfront in the cab, the driver's chatting to Fergie via my mobile, receiving detailed instructions of how to find the brand new state-of-the-art guest house one of Fergie's friends has just opened for visiting DJs.

8 years after first meeting legendary hard house/ techno pioneer Tony De Vit, Fergie is both Northern Ireland's biggest club star and at 24, the leading light of the new generation of DJs (Mixmag recently dubbed him 'the most exciting DJ in the world'). Making his name spinning the hard house style his mentor Tony helped popularise, he's gone from being an anonymous unqualified Northern Irish club kid (he left school at 13) to Dolce & Gabbana-wearing Radio 1 celebrity DJ (though nowadays he's replaced the hard house with techno, breaks and even electro). Generous to a fault (he's picking up this weekend's tab himself) he's also as friendly and down-to-earth as his reputation suggests.

The Met (February 2004, Armagh)
"I still like to do the clubs in Northern Ireland, places like The Met in Armagh. It's a great feeling coming back having three thousand people coming to see you play; you're thinking 'fucking hell'. I remember going there when I couldn't even afford a box of cigarettes." Fergie January 2004.

"It's Saturday night and it's the 'Weeeek-eeeeennnnndddddddd!"

Bellowing his catchphrase from the side of the stage, local promoter/ MC Mark Dobin scans the packed tiers of Armaghs' infamous club The Met, Ireland's best known superclub-style venue, where Fergie is something of a local hero. In its time the venue's hosted both Gatecrasher and Godskitchen events as well as being regularly graced by jocks like Judge Jules and Sonique though for Fergie, particularly during his hard house peak, it's been his home turf. Tonight, though, it's the last night for both Fergie and MC Mark Dobbins, closing a circle that began for them both, some 13 years ago.

"I opened the club in 1990 and I first took Fergie down when he was a young kid when he was 13," Mark recalls.

"I sneaked him in through the back door and he stood in the DJ box with me. That was Fergie's first adventure in the club scene."

Few of tonight's revellers appear to be 13 (and even fewer over 20) and most are dressed in the teenage uniforms du jour. For the girls that means miniskirts and skimpy tops while the lads favour the casual street uniform of white shirts, hoodies and sportswear. Entrance to the club comes via football style cages and turnstyles and the vibe inside is not unlike a football terrace of old, with packs of shaved-to-the-bone skinheads facing off, drinking and clearly getting ready for testerone driven ultra-violence should the chance come later. Faint-hearted types appear noticeably absent, so when an angry pack of delinquents begin taunting me over my bleached hair, a hasty retreat to the VIP Room is immediately called for.

Fergie's new long spiky hairdo is also visibly at odds with the cropped skulls of Armagh's ravers, as is his DJ set with its focus on funky techno and pumping energetic house as opposed to the ultra-fast hard house he first made his name with.

"I got really badly criticised for making the move and I still do, from hard house clubbers saying 'Fergie's a fucking traitor'," he admits.

"Because at the time Lisa (Lashes) and I were the biggest DJs playing that hard house circuit but I just felt it wasn't going anywhere, except getting faster and the music started sounding really s
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