The year is 2001. The Hard Dance scene is properly kicking off, with numerous large scale events packing them out every weekend in London as well as across the country. Hundreds of record labels shift thousands of copies of their vinyl releases (imagine that!), and trance music was still looming large. Billy “Daniel” Bunter had been producing Hard House since 1999, releasing it through his label Honeypot Records, following many years as a highly successful house and then hardcore DJ. After 2 years of firmly establishing himself as one of the scene’s leading producers and DJs, he decided to take things up a notch and start his own event, known to some as Tasty.
Around that time there were already many big promotions catering for the harder end of dance music in London. Frantic, Escape From Samsara, Logic, X-Static, Antiworld and Fevah were just a small selection of the parties that were ramming out London’s top venues week in, week out. At this period in time however, there was less trepidation involved in starting a new night. There seemed to be more clubbers to go round. Bunter’s motivation for putting on Tasty wasn’t really an ambition to become a serious party promoter however. “It [Tasty] was a total impulse thing to promote an album I released on Honey Pot Recordings. Whether it was a wise thing to do or not I have no idea! I got hooked straight away and 5 years later I’m still here going at it with the best of ‘em”. The first party took place at the legendary Crash in Vauxhall – still a weekly hard dance haven for Twist – and was an overwhelming success. “We rammed it out with 800 people. We put in extra sound, lazars and fans. We smashed the place to bits. We lost three grand, but got the buzz. It was a fuckin’ brilliant night.” Bunter and his merry crew strived to make the event stand out in people’s minds as a truly memorable night – giving away free fruit, CDs, vinyl and so on and programming the music to perfection to ensure a smooth progression. Steve Hill kicked things off with some funky tough beats, progressing through to Phil Reynold’s hard trance stylings via Jon Doe & Roosta (who remain residents to this day), Bunter and Ian M. Anthems of the era like Doe’s ‘Warehouse’ and BK & Andy Farley’s ‘Khemical Imbalance’ helped to take the roof off this sensational debut event.
From my memories of looking at Tasty flyers “back in the day”, I was always impressed with the interesting diverse nature of the line-ups that always took a little bit of every different style of hard music and threw them all together with the Tasty residents. As Bunter outlines, the idea once the party became a regular fixture was to make the party stand out from the crowd. “[The idea was to] throw a good fresh party. I have had many opportunities to step it up to places like Brixton Academy and seOne, but I’m too busy with my DJing to want to go that far in to it. I’m happy being like the black sheep of hard dance promoting. I like what I do, and I believe I have done it well. It’s great at the level it’s at. It’s easier for me to manage.” It was also notable later down the line for really mixing up the musical styles – with a Hard Dance room, a dedicated Trance/classics room and a hardcore room providing more variety than most parties in London (read: 2 rooms of Hard Dance). It should also be noted that Bunter was one of the people to pioneer the term “Hard Dance” – to encapsulate the wider spectrum of hard music and to give the endless pigeonholing debates a bash on the head (initially anyway – the term would eventually add more fuel to the fire for such debates!)
As Tasty grew to become one of London’s most talked about hard dance parties in a very short space of time, the need for a larger venue became apparent. Crash was also being overused as a Hard Dance venue. Tasty moved to Mass before encountering some problems. “We always loved it but it had management problems so we left and went back a few years later. The Fridge – we loved the atmosphere, but it wasn’t a challenge. It had a point where anyone was going in there and putting on parties. We lost our uniqueness there. It was 1500 odd people and great for business but I didn’t want to be part of the “in crowd”. The Rocket was a legendry venue, but a really bad omen for us. It was another impulse thing on my part, drove past it one afternoon, thought “let’s use The Rocket” (doh!), did 2 parties, went from 1500 people at the Fridge to 800 people at the Rocket, lost 8 grand and thought “fuck that”. Then we went to The Mass for 2 years and set the record straight.” Mass is seen by many as Tasty’s spiritual home, after a long series of roadblocked events at the venue. After a few parties at new contender The Renaissance Rooms, many have asked if Tasty will be going back “home”. “We will be back at The Mass for some thing very special next year. Renaissance Rooms is a wicked venue. It’s that challenge aspect I like combined with the big warehouse feel you get when the venue is going off. Unlike the over used venues, once you get venues like Mass and Renaissance Rooms right you create that something special that you don’t get else where.” As the Tasty juggernaut continued to hurtle through London’s club scene at breakneck speeds throughout these venue changes, Bunter’s label Honeypot eventually fell by the wayside somewhat. While it may seem that the label is defunct in terms of recent releases, it’s still alive and kicking to some degree. “We have just done a number of remixes and new tracks for my next Ministry album with Slipmatt. As the 5 years have gone on vinyl is slowly fading in to obscurity, so as a company we have other outlets for our music. Also over the 5 years Tasty has probably become bigger then Honey Pot in it’s own right so runs as it’s own entity.”
From the drawing board to the dancefloor, Billy has up to 100 people helping him out on organising, promoting and running the event in question. – ranging from DJs to designers to promoters to sound and lighting engineers. “The backbone of Tasty is my self and partner Sonya, and more recently we have brought in the help of Will Frantic and E99 to help with the promotion due to me being so hectic with my Ministry albums and DJing. There have also been a number of people over the 5 years who have soldiered on with us through thick and thin or helped us out when we have been up against it. I must thank (a few blasts from the past in here) …Flying Kev, Roosta & Mel, Terry Visual Reality, Die Hard Dave, Paul Jedi, Jane/Rob & Finn Mac, Helen, Grant Epidemik, Kevin Clubhed, Mad Ross, Phil & Jeckyl @ The Printers, Twista & Stuart the designers, Never Enough Maria, Mick @ The Mass (sorry to any one who I have missed)....” Bunter has always put time and effort into constructing his DJ/live act line-ups, and has pretty much snared all the DJs on his wishlist over the years. He is as glowing about his residents as he is about his various special guests that he has had down over the year, valuing his residents above all else. “The interesting thing over the 5 years is it is very rarely the headlining DJs who truly steal the show. One of the main DJs who has truly created the Tasty magic from start to now has been Roosta.” To allow himself even more room to experiment with line-ups, exclusive sets and fresh talent, he set up the regular Love Muzik events at Hidden “We wanted to capture a more intimate atmosphere and to push the music forward. We have used a lot of fresh faces for this event...Phil York, Digital Kid, Smyrky & Sereya, Double Trouble, Andy Mccall, MC Casper hosting the hardcore room all night...it’s been really fun, and it’s great to push new people forward.” He cites parties such as Raindance, HTID, Frantic and Epidemik as influences and favourites, and claims that Pam’s House is “the best hard dance event I have been to all year”.
The addition of Hardcore to Tasty’s events a few years back give their events a new lease of life – not that it really needed one though. Now it plays an integral part in their events – as important as Hard Dance even. For Tasty’s 5th Birthday, Bunter has constructed a rather unique line-up with no less than 4 Live PAs – from the likes of CLSM, Darren Styles, DJ Unknown and Paradise – all featuring live vocalists. “I’m looking forward to the whole night, and fingers crossed giving people what they want, and living up to the 5 years of still being here. The hardcore room is very fresh and very unique and the PA angle should give it the big stage feeling. The hard dance room is gonna be a real night of showmanship with the help of Contagious and all the various acts performing. It’s also really exciting getting so many promoters involved from what feels like almost every corner of the U.K. Ultimately though it all boils down to seeing the crowd going home happy!” As for the future, it looks like Tasty is here to stay and that Billy is going to keep at the promoting game for the foreseeable future. “I want to keep doing what we have been doing. Being truthful in the way we promote, and doing our own thing. Recent months have seen a number of really badly run hard dance and hardcore parties in London, and it really concerns me that promoters are not looking after the scene. As a DJ I have dedicated 18 years of my life to this music and 5 years as a promoter, and I hope clubbers and ravers don’t get put off of Tasty and the scene in general due to a number of unpassionate organisations, and the only way I can do this is to give the people who have supported us 110% of my time, effort and knowledge. I really feel for people who have been ripped off recently, and it goes against every thing I have worked for. It’s really sad to see. The next 12 months is dedicated to throwing good parties, pushing new DJs whilst supporting the legends who still give it 110%, making sure we do a reunion at Mass, keeping things fresh and putting a smile on people faces.” Just the kind of attitude we need in this day and age!
http://www.dontstayin.com/uk/london/the-renaissance-rooms/2006/dec/02/event-80520
