Geddes Talks Halcyon Days and Warehouse Nights

Greatness doesn't always shout itself from the rooftops.

Stuart Geddes is an immovable part of the architecture of London clubbing. While the superclubs of the early 00s died a slow and protracted death, Geddes quietly kickstarted a warehouse revolution. His mulletover parties were proof that a thriving club scene will always be reliant on the people who work outside the norm, the promoters who look beyond the bouncing big rooms of the big clubs for inspiration, the enthusiasts enrusted with curating nights that throb with the power of potential, the DJs dedicated to educating, informing, entertaining.

With mulletover becoming a veritable east London istitution, and thus running the risk of becoming the very thing it was created in opposition to, Geddes sought a new challenge, eventually deciding to start again, rebuilding from the inside. The result was nofitstate, who've made their name with a string of legendary New Year's Day parties in the capital city.

Taking a quick break from putting together the final touches of next month's bash, which sees DJs Rolando and Qu join Geddes and party partner Simon Baker at Bloc's Autumn Street warehouse, Geddes had time to take us through the essentials of doing club promotion properly. Here's how to keep things underground courtesy of an unsung underground hero.

He's also provided us with a exclusive preview of his upcoming EP, Baby, which is released on nofitstate on the 2nd of February. Hear the incredible title track below:

THUMP: What was your entry point to dance music?
Stuart: When I was 11,12, my older sister, who's 11 years older than me was totally immersed in the acid house scene. So I'd hang out with her at the weekends when my parents were working, and that exposed me to things. I started partying when I was 13. As soon as I started secondary school I got into going out. The first scenes I involved myself in were hardcore and D&B. Eventually I got myself a fake ID and was going clubbing every month. I was into that till I was about 16 and then I discovered house music. I went to this club, whose name I've forgotten, in Leicester Square and that's where I got into house. I started going to the Leisure Lounge, to Peach. The kind of places that were playing proggier stuff back then, clubs where trance was taking hold. That's where I fell into club culture really.

THUMP: Does club culture still exist?
Stuart: It exists to the extent that there's clubs and there's parties happening. I think the 'culture' was a lot more prevalent in London, especially East London, about six or seven years ago. For a real cultural thing to be going on there's a few elements that need to be there. It needs to be underground. The area needs to be right. The people need to be right. That was happening in London then. I think as things get more and more popular, the culture I was part of doesn't really exist. Things have become more mainstream. It feels like the early 00s again with those megaraves at the O2.

THUMP: How impactful is the mainstream on the development and furthering of a real, genuine underground? Are kids who see MK at Lovebox turning up at nofitstate parties?
Stuart: I think that it'll be interesting to see how it develops. If someone gets into MK from seeing him at a big stage at a festival then yeah, hopefully they'll be turned on to other things. My version of that was hearing people like Dave Lambert and Graham Gold at Peach. At the time that was the more commerical side of things. But through that introduction I began to delve deeper and find out what it was I liked.

THUMP: You cut your teeth as a DJ. What do you look for in a track or a mix?
Stuart: I want to be taken on a journey from start to finish. It's a whole mixture of things. That's what I find interesting. It could be someone starting with dubbed out disco going into house going into techno and back again. I love it when people incorporate real music elements, not just sticking to kick drums and snare rolls and clap tracks. Someone like DJ Harvey can do that. Villalobos can do it, so can Craig Richards. DJs like Move D or Ryan Elliott can always do it.

THUMP: Let's talk about putting nights on…tell us about the genesis of Mulletover and how that became Nofitstate
Stuart: Mulletover began when I was in my early 20s. I was buying all these records, putting myself out there by DJing bars in Soho, and I wasn't really being able to play the records that I was buying. So I knew that starting my own night was the only way to make that happen. So that's where Mulletover stemmed from. And it got huge. About six years ago, it'd become a bit of a beast. At the time it was the biggest event in London for the sutff we were covering. Every event was huge. From my point of view as an artist and as a DJ I felt I was trapped playing big room stuff, which I'd lost a little love for. It wasn't what it was. So I started doing Nofitstate, which was a smaller, more creative affair.

When I started, no one else was doing NYD parties. The only other people doing stuff were Circo Loco. None of my mates wanted to go out on NYE any more so we thought, fuck it, let's do a New Year's Day thing. People don't stay up all night on the 31st and come out. People want an alternative. People will now miss NYE to make sure they can go out on NYD. We always want to make sure the essentials are in place, whatever day of the year a party might be on: there's got to be a great soundsystem, the crowd have to be right, and the location has to be wicked. We've got all three sorted.

You can see if he's right by purchasing tickets for the nofitstate NYD party with DJ Rolando, DJ Qu and Geddes himself here.

You can also follow Geddes on Twitter/Soundcloud/Facebook

Josh is on Twitter too: @bain3z