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Music

Phil Kieran Found Refuge From Ireland's Troubles in the Nightclubs of Belfast

"Once you were inside Conor Hall, you felt safe in a strange way."

My First Club takes us back to the beginning, transporting DJs and producers back into the depths of their memory, asking them to take us on a trip to those pivotal first nights in clubland. Following entries from the likes of Michael Mayer,_ Herve, MK, Slimzee,and Hudson Mohawke, we caught up with Belfast based house and techno DJ and producer Phil Kieran._

Before I'd ever stepped foot in a club, I'd absolutely rinsed Andrew Weatherall's Radio 1 Essential Mix, and I was dying to experience something like that out in the world. So me and a few mates I'd met at school or art college went to the Conor Hall, which was part of the art school in Belfast. It's been knocked down now.

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I remember it having a really decent sized dancefloor with a balcony along the lefthand side, and that the balcony lead to a big foyer where a lot of people spent their nights lying around in complete states. People were getting massages out there, having naps. The fire alarm used to go off in there all the time, and weirdly, everyone seemed to like it. It was a club that absolutely stunk of cigarette smoke, hash, and Vicks. There was steam everywhere, sweat dripping down the walls. It was complete and utter chaos. And even the bouncers seemed to join in.

My first experience of a proper techno night would have been David Holmes and Ian McCready's Sugar Sweet. They regularly booked international DJs, which was amazing for everyone involved. They shared duties with another night, called Choice, which was headed up by a pair of guys called Keith Connolly and Alan Ferris.

The crowd at those parties really was an incredibly broad, inclusive thing. Hippies mingled with ravers, gangsters with hairdressers, students with shop assistants. Those nights were the place to go if you wanted something specialist or underground, and that meant it felt like everybody there's little secret. You've got to remember that at the time, the Troubles were still ongoing in Belfast, which meant there were nights out where just a few hours before the club opened, a bomb had gone off, or there'd been a shooting somewhere in the city. That's why we lived for clubbing, for the weekend. Once you were inside you felt safe in a strange way because everyone around you seemed like-minded, everyone there wanted to go. Because of that, we all had the time of our lives.

Clubs here closed at 1AM, so just as things really got going we'd all find ourselves on the street. Which is pretty bizzare when you think about it. You'd hit the club at 9, leave at one, and pray for an afterparty. There was usually one knocking about!

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