Aces of bass Fabio + Grooverider

Liz Nicholls

Liz Nicholls chats to the godfathers of drum n bass Fabio + Grooverider who headline Stowaway Festival, 15^th to 17^th August & star at Mucky Weekender in Hampshire, 11^th to 13^th September

Q. Hello! What should I call you? “Fab & Groove is fine that’s what we call each other!”

Q. What’s your first memory of music? “F: “Well, I would have been just walking, so two or three, a toddler… My parents and their friends were having a party and somehow I’d got out of my bed all the way downstairs to join them. Everyone was dancing, to classic reggae on the stereo (Ken Boothe, Max Romeo, Bob Marley etc). I started doing a little dance and they all stopped; they were looking at me dancing, laughing and clapping! It’s one of my first memories of getting attention…. and I loved it! My mum was really pi$$ed off how I’d managed to get down there but still…”

Q. Can we talk about the heady days of the 1990s and the music scene? No internet! No phones! No sub genres, just a big melting pot…

“F: Yeah… and the 1980s, too, that came before. It really was different time. There was Thatcher in power, a lot of punk, a lot of protest. London was… more of a wasteland, more lawless. Big bits of London had empty spaces, warehouses, where there’s all sorts of office blocks and s*** now. It was all about areas too – if I went up the road to Streatham that was a big deal! You were supposed to stay in your own ends. The sound systems were mad. And gatherings were all sorted on the phone!” 

“GR: No one cared about labels or music genres, you just felt something new was on the way… The 1990s were just a continuation of this! And the birth of clubs. Heaven was the first superclub, really, first one we went to. About 1,000 people in a night, underground, the sound systems! What you have to remember is that, in the early days of electronic music, there was a backlash, for sure. There was fear, genuine worry that the soul would be lost from music. It was considered ‘robot music’! You get the same fears now with AI; that technology is doing the job of someone creative. And we do have some robot music today, to some extent, haha!”

Q. I’ve read that you saw Paul Oakenfold DJing at Spectrum and it changed your world…

“Well, it’s worth saying that there was quite a story of us even getting into Spectrum! The doormen were like ‘nah’. We just kind of stood outside for hours hoping somebody would notice us and say ‘oh we know them – they can come in with us’ cos we didn’t really have the money. But that didn’t happen unfortunately. In the end I think the door staff took pity on us and let us in for the last half hour.”

“G: I remember the lasers! The lights and the volume – and that smell! It was like a rubbery smell which we found out later was amyl nitrate, poppers. It completely blew our minds. You had DJs before but not like like he was. He was the one DJing in front of them all, performing and everyone was looking at him. I’d never seen people going mental to the music like that. We were used to club where people weren’t even that drunk, and this was another level.”

Q. Take us back to that Sliding Doors moment, the afters for Danny Rampling’s Shoom at Mendoza’s It was 2am and you were about to zip off home as Groove had work and you thought no one was coming…

“G: Yeah I kept falling asleep at work, haha – in fact they had to get rid of me in the end. We wanted to leave but we stayed on… and the rest is history!”  

Q. Can we take a moment to honour your friendship?! I feel that marriages are celebrated, anniversary parties & whatnot, but long friendships need to be celebrated too! Almost 34 years! Do you ever argue?

“Nah never. We’re from the same place, we’ve got similar world views. When we first started out we decided to put together a set of unwritten rules that we’d never break – sort of moral guidelines. So we have no reason to argue. To be honest it’s only when people have massively different views that you get trouble. We’re both from similar backgrounds, we respect each other and enjoy what we do! What would we argue about?! ”

Q. You’re at Mucky & Stowaway aren’t you? What’s your best festival memory, either as a punter or as a DJ?

“F: We’ve played so many festivals over the years that it’s sometimes hard to remember. To be honest we don’t go to many as a punter to be honest! I’ve been invited to a kind of classic soul/R&B event in a few weeks’ time – I really love that music. Knowing me I will most likely bail on the day though!”

Q. .Your shows with the Outlook Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall have been a hit! Did the young yous think this would happen?

“F&G: No. I never thought we’d even be allowed in, let alone to perform there! People like us, they weren’t ever feel they could be welcome there. That’s not a race thing, it’s more of a rich/ poor thing. But here we are, and it’s been incredible

Q. If you could make one wish for music, what would it be?

“I’d probably get the Nineties back, so young people today could experience a bit of it… But… I don’t want to sound like the old man in the room who’s down on everything new! After all, it was the same for us – our parents hated punk. Now sometimes I listen to the odd bit of new music and I think ‘arghhh it’s just a noise!’, haha! But that’s how electronic music and punk music sounded to our old mans! But anyway, I’ll say it: I feel like some of the fun has gone out of music. The kids now, it’s not as free as it used to be. But the good news is, raving is happening, somewhere, every weekend! Four or five years ago, we thought clubbing might not come back. It was social distancing, you can’t have people all together. I’m so pleased it’s recovered. Every weekend there’s a rave somewhere, and if you happen to be at that rave, it might change your life…”

Fabio & Grooverider and The Outlook Orchestra will headline Stowaway festival near Stowe on 15^th August, which will also star the Wailers, a Jungle DJ set & more; visit stowawayfestival.co.uk