Anyone who has taken E knows what the music does to you. The 90s hardcore smashed your brains. You could hear a tune at home then take a pill listen to it again and it's completely different! I've raved since 93 haven't had drugs since late 97 and still love it. Old skool jungle/hardcore hits the mark because its attached to memories. Toy Town at Dreamscape 20 outdoors under the stars amazing memory. Big up Hixxy and the R.O.A.R crew.
That's an interesting comment. I used to love Happy Hardcore on 1995 a couple of years before I started going raving. And yeah remember doing some Mitsubishi's to a Force and Styles set and it was one of the best nights of my life. But actually now despite not doing anything since about 2004 I still get such a buzz from it. Even more so having taking up DJing a few years ago. Brings it still to another level. And through Covid still finding out new tunes, or the track ID's of tunes I used to hear on tape packs or Stu Allen sets. Just keeps going.
First time I was introduced to Hixxy and never looked back, dreamscape 17 vs 18,that 1st piano track he dropped with sharkey on the mic, man goosebumps
Awesome interview again, such an interesting guy to listen to, I dare anyone who doesn’t know him to listen to this and not become a fan of the guy. Great stories, great personality and very passionate about music still.
A good interviewer has to play devil's advocate and the Latch is cheeky as fuck but alas I can't help thinking, hmmm, how are they gonna ravesplain their way out of this, so fair play mate, it makes for a compelling interview 🤣🤣🤣
Have to admit, I was never a Hixxy fan but he's spoke honestly and in depth regarding the scene and the way certain things were. Great first 2 interviews, looking forward to the rest.
100% agree with you there wouldn't go and see him if he was playing for free. But there is no getting away from the fact if someone mentions happy hardcore the first dj that spring to mind is hixxy a massive player in the scene Another great interview roll on next part 👏👏
I hate the term “drug music”! I was 13 back in 1993 and fell in love with the happy hardcore scene. For me ir was never about taking drugs it was just the amazing music I was interested in and it still is to this day.
The "in your face" remix of Toytown rocked everything everywhere for 95 , at the time not one person slated it, everyone loved it, 99% of people prefered the harder version, Toytown MADE hardcore bigger, it had nothing to do with it dying. If you wanna slate any track for its cheese ,it would be discoland. Too many people want to pigeon hole everything, and that is what doesn't help at all. Hixxy And Sharkey made gold in toytown, and I thank them both for it. I still listen to the in your face mix today and still love it.
True it was everywhere, not true it wasn’t slated mate. There were howls of derision all over the place. Agree it wasn’t the sole reason for hardcore dying, there was a whole pile of terrible cheese spilling out.
I love toy town tbh, but my fav version is the 96 vocal mix which is on bonkers 1, and I'm to young to know about the way it was precieved at the time, but it was a massive tune and I thought everybody loved it 🙄 hardcore ravers anyway lol and loads of my mates know toy town and they don't listen to hardcore and where from Ireland! So definitely a big tune
Mate I fucking love you hixxy. I met Ian at barristers in Preston back in the day. funki b used to book hixxy to dj at the fever night's before he was famous back in 94 95 in Preston. he always stayed to party after his sets and we always had a good old tear up panic AJAY kane rikkee impact funki b hixxy jagger. Lovely humble guy always had a lot of time for Ian. Big up hixxy. Love
Great episode, really interesting. Hixxy was always one of the first tapes I’d listen to as I loved his tune selection. I always wondered why Like a Dream was cut short on Bonkers 1... mystery solved!
Enjoyed all four of these documentaries. I'm always playing mid-90s happy hardcore and so do loads of my mates! Must say I was unaware of the DJ SY / MC Storm fall out in 2012. Googling it was a bit of an eye opener and yeah that did seem to be around the time that we started to hear less and less of the UK Hardcore movement. Although over in Australia it's still going strong with Cotts, Weaver and others still promoting it all. Looks like it might even come back here if what Hixxy is saying!
Just finished listening to this section. Brilliant interview as always. Can't wait for the next section covering the rebirth. Took me a while to get ma head around the newer sound. Started buying the new bonkers CDs and couldn't grip the new trancey sound at first. I was used to listening to bouncy techno and the 90s stuff so id just fall for the sharkey discs and even they took a bit of getting used to. Then I think one day id got back from work early and had a pipe while listening to robbie long on hardcore nation 3. Skinned up a bifta and just sat listening to that in a stoned haze. It just got me, and that was that. Started collecting alot of vinyl. Haha still shit at mixing though
Interesting interview. Personally wasn't into the happy stuff after about 96. The early essential platinum tunes were really good and stood out as different. Quite liked the 95,96 crossover between Scottish, Dutch and the English hhc djs.
Toytown is a track that makes me shiver when I havent heard it in a while. Edit: Toytown dragged me in after I heard DJ Bucky's remix. Then that lead to all the harder and harder stuff like Gordon Tenants work and Technotrance and Bassy G
I went to it and it was an utter disappointment and huge rip off... never sold enough tickets for both arenas so cancelled half the DJs and kept our £100 and offered free food.... at a rave!!! 😂 such a rip off where’s my refund dave and penny it was worth £20 no more
@@ROARUKPods I was there and agree it was a disaster. However, the Helter Skelter newsletter prior to Decadance announced they were calling it a day after the Millennium Jam.
Got into hardcore when I was 12. Partied "properly" for the first time at 18. The music was the main thing always. The dr*gs were just the icing on the cake
I would never have gotten into hardcore if it did not go the way Toytown took it. The breakbeats disinterested me massively early on. So yeah. Total bullshit about Toytown kiilling it. It took it an other direction yes. but it certainly didnt kill anything
@LeeUHF you must be the only person I've heard say they prepared 90s hardcore without the breakbeats, each to thier own of course. Your right in saying Toytown didn't kill off hardcore but it took it in a direction that in my opinion lost alot of fans. I actually didn't mind Toytown but that cheesy fairground sound that it seemed to spawn into wasn't for me..
@@ROARUKPods no way part 3 was already uploaded when I asked I was listening to part to and wanted to listen more but didn’t realise part 3 was out hahahah gutted because am busy now, will have to play part 3 tonight while am in bed,
I remember being at Helter Skelter around the time Toytown came out it got absolutely hammered by every Hardcore DJ! Must’ve heard it 7/8 times that night. I think this was a reason people got p*ssed off with it 😂 anyway big up Hixxy man, Hardcore legend, great tracks made & great sets as well 👊
Each to their own on what people like. I like all sorts if my ears agree with something my brain accepts it. I like jungle, drum & bass, house, trance etc. Love love love breakbeat Hardcore but my favourite always will be fast and bangin. Stompy cheese right through to brain hemorrhage gabber and everything in between. There is alot of cheese that I can't help but wince at and there is a lot of gabber that can give me recurring nightmares but, a hell of a lot of it for me personally, just blows my mind
Everyone always mentions "Toy Town" (Which I was never keen on), but they never mention Antisocial - Whistle that (for me) was the absolute nadir of happy hardcore :D I tend to prefer Hixxy's earlier pre-Toy Town tunes, afterwards there wasn't much that I was that keen on apart from the Antisocial stuff (excluding Whistle). He always comes across well in interviews though.
@@marcp3788 I take you weren’t one of those , What about the awful 80s rock songs that were converted,or children of the night disco land, Still a firm fave of many toy town was, and you back then will have loved it
Knew 02/05/98 Hardcord Heaven when MC Ruff said "so DJ Hixxy should be here right right now be he can't right cuz he mashed up his leg he's in hospital.." Then he introduced Force and Styles who played set of the night
Reading the comments, I feel so alone in liking the really happy, uplifting, and bouncy late 90s happy hardcore. Is everyone this grumpy about how music changed nearly two decades ago? Toytown was extremely my jam. :\
I play quite a bit of old skool 91 to 94, some UK Hardcore and some Hard House but there is nothing like the mid-late 90s Happy Hardcore for me. It's just on a different level. Played DJ Stompy Ready to Fly the other day and was jumping around like an Orangutan on Steroids
Yea but in 2023 the king Hixxy himself changed his sound.(Australian tours) Still my fav,breaks my heart though. One big reason why I came a dj myself.
Ecstasy obviously was a fundamental part of the early scene. I'd rather it still was today over cocaine, but I took my first pill in 1999 after six or seven years of listening to nothing but hardcore so how's it "drug music"?
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Like a dream was absolutely incredible man. What a tune
Saw hixxy in Leeds either last year or year before and his first tune that he played was toytown I couldn’t have been happier
Hixxy's mix on Bonkers 2 was and is about as close to perfection as you can get! It still sounds amazing now 👍
Anyone who has taken E knows what the music does to you. The 90s hardcore smashed your brains. You could hear a tune at home then take a pill listen to it again and it's completely different! I've raved since 93 haven't had drugs since late 97 and still love it. Old skool jungle/hardcore hits the mark because its attached to memories. Toy Town at Dreamscape 20 outdoors under the stars amazing memory. Big up Hixxy and the R.O.A.R crew.
That's an interesting comment. I used to love Happy Hardcore on 1995 a couple of years before I started going raving. And yeah remember doing some Mitsubishi's to a Force and Styles set and it was one of the best nights of my life. But actually now despite not doing anything since about 2004 I still get such a buzz from it. Even more so having taking up DJing a few years ago. Brings it still to another level. And through Covid still finding out new tunes, or the track ID's of tunes I used to hear on tape packs or Stu Allen sets. Just keeps going.
First time I was introduced to Hixxy and never looked back, dreamscape 17 vs 18,that 1st piano track he dropped with sharkey on the mic, man goosebumps
Same Stu - The 17vs18 set was superb - shame there was only 45 mins of the set on the tape itself :)
Ramos, Sunset Regime & Billy Bunter - Knight Raver (remix)
Awesome interview again, such an interesting guy to listen to, I dare anyone who doesn’t know him to listen to this and not become a fan of the guy. Great stories, great personality and very passionate about music still.
Big up DJ Hixxy. Loving these interviews there's so much depth to them. You're really doing a sterling job for the scene and the raving community.
Thanks matey.
A good interviewer has to play devil's advocate and the Latch is cheeky as fuck but alas I can't help thinking, hmmm, how are they gonna ravesplain their way out of this, so fair play mate, it makes for a compelling interview 🤣🤣🤣
Bonkers 9 was an absolute love of mine!😍
Have to admit, I was never a Hixxy fan but he's spoke honestly and in depth regarding the scene and the way certain things were. Great first 2 interviews, looking forward to the rest.
100% agree with you there wouldn't go and see him if he was playing for free. But there is no getting away from the fact if someone mentions happy hardcore the first dj that spring to mind is hixxy a massive player in the scene Another great interview roll on next part 👏👏
Another great part of the interview. Nice to know a bit more about Toy Town👍
43 years old and STILL a happy hardcore raver 😎
Just absolutely class hooked on it all love the hixxy
I hate the term “drug music”! I was 13 back in 1993 and fell in love with the happy hardcore scene. For me ir was never about taking drugs it was just the amazing music I was interested in and it still is to this day.
Your definitely not alone with that view.
Same here. If you need drugs to enjoy a certain type of music, you don't really like the music.
Really enjoying the Hixxy sessions!
1st tape pack I heard hixxy on was dreamscape 17 vs 18 hixxys tape made that pack for me, gutted I missed the event
Same here. Was 18 then and just going to house parties and clubs! Should have been there!
Love both interviews so far, really looking forward to the next ones ❤️👍
Mate another brilliant episode 👏
The "in your face" remix of Toytown rocked everything everywhere for 95 , at the time not one person slated it, everyone loved it, 99% of people prefered the harder version, Toytown MADE hardcore bigger, it had nothing to do with it dying. If you wanna slate any track for its cheese ,it would be discoland. Too many people want to pigeon hole everything, and that is what doesn't help at all. Hixxy And Sharkey made gold in toytown, and I thank them both for it. I still listen to the in your face mix today and still love it.
True it was everywhere, not true it wasn’t slated mate. There were howls of derision all over the place. Agree it wasn’t the sole reason for hardcore dying, there was a whole pile of terrible cheese spilling out.
I love toy town tbh, but my fav version is the 96 vocal mix which is on bonkers 1, and I'm to young to know about the way it was precieved at the time, but it was a massive tune and I thought everybody loved it 🙄 hardcore ravers anyway lol and loads of my mates know toy town and they don't listen to hardcore and where from Ireland! So definitely a big tune
That track got them signed to React 😍 so it just goes to show 👍
Mate I fucking love you hixxy. I met Ian at barristers in Preston back in the day. funki b used to book hixxy to dj at the fever night's before he was famous back in 94 95 in Preston. he always stayed to party after his sets and we always had a good old tear up panic AJAY kane rikkee impact funki b hixxy jagger. Lovely humble guy always had a lot of time for Ian. Big up hixxy. Love
Great episode, really interesting. Hixxy was always one of the first tapes I’d listen to as I loved his tune selection.
I always wondered why Like a Dream was cut short on Bonkers 1... mystery solved!
I have two tape copies of Bonkers 1 - one has the Madonna sample, one doesn’t... I always wondered how that came about!
Just great work Tom 👍
Cheers Paul.
Great chat keep it alive! :-)
Great interview, love the detail of the Toytown production. Sad my submitted question wasnt asked 😪😪
What was it mate?
@@ROARUKPods what tunes almost made it to bonkers 1-3 but didnt make the cut
@@matthewcordiner2734 Apologies, not sure we saw that. But TBH we had so much we may have struggled - have to select sometimes!
ive seen hixxy at uprising and he always plays a banging set
Enjoyed all four of these documentaries. I'm always playing mid-90s happy hardcore and so do loads of my mates! Must say I was unaware of the DJ SY / MC Storm fall out in 2012. Googling it was a bit of an eye opener and yeah that did seem to be around the time that we started to hear less and less of the UK Hardcore movement. Although over in Australia it's still going strong with Cotts, Weaver and others still promoting it all. Looks like it might even come back here if what Hixxy is saying!
Toytown was the first Hardcore track I was introduced to. Seduction played it at the beginning of a tape a friend had.
Probably Seduction @ Helter Skelter “Lost In Music” from March 1999.
Awesome Interview
Great channel Tom, I've pretty much watched every episode.. Any chance of getting on one of my personal favourite djs on for a chat.. Dr s gatchet???
We tried contacting him with no joy alas!
Just finished listening to this section. Brilliant interview as always. Can't wait for the next section covering the rebirth. Took me a while to get ma head around the newer sound. Started buying the new bonkers CDs and couldn't grip the new trancey sound at first. I was used to listening to bouncy techno and the 90s stuff so id just fall for the sharkey discs and even they took a bit of getting used to. Then I think one day id got back from work early and had a pipe while listening to robbie long on hardcore nation 3. Skinned up a bifta and just sat listening to that in a stoned haze. It just got me, and that was that. Started collecting alot of vinyl. Haha still shit at mixing though
Crikey! I have bonkers 1 with the, like a dream vocals on
Interesting interview. Personally wasn't into the happy stuff after about 96. The early essential platinum tunes were really good and stood out as different. Quite liked the 95,96 crossover between Scottish, Dutch and the English hhc djs.
Is the bow to Hixxy's arrow coming on soon? Hixxy! Sharkey! yes let's party! Just let that body free, just dance in electric dreams!
Toytown is a track that makes me shiver when I havent heard it in a while.
Edit: Toytown dragged me in after I heard DJ Bucky's remix. Then that lead to all the harder and harder stuff like Gordon Tenants work and Technotrance and Bassy G
Gordon Tenants Family Plan - what a rush.Go hyper to it whenever I hear it!
I’m one for not liking toy town. Never have. 🤣
Total respect for Hixxy and Sharkey though! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
Quality show , great interview guess a particular promoter thumbs down show,
In next couple do yous touch on where the sound is now etc?
A bit....
I went to Millennium Jam not a disaster at all, one of my top raves.
Was largely recognised as a disaster. There’s a reason they didn’t do any more events!
@@ROARUKPods Word was Dave wanted to knock it on the head him and Penny had a little girl to bring up.
I went to it and it was an utter disappointment and huge rip off... never sold enough tickets for both arenas so cancelled half the DJs and kept our £100 and offered free food.... at a rave!!! 😂 such a rip off where’s my refund dave and penny it was worth £20 no more
@@lemmingsbambi Yeah much better to go to the other events that night oh yeah hardly any of them happened. Nice one mate
@@ROARUKPods I was there and agree it was a disaster. However, the Helter Skelter newsletter prior to Decadance announced they were calling it a day after the Millennium Jam.
wanting to get high-raverbaby
great example of a rushy tune when on it
What's the track @ 38:40?
Pursuit - Get R.O.A.R. which was made especially for us.
@@ROARUKPods Thank you.
I've got a copy of Bonkers 1 somewhere, the original not the repress as well.....interesting...💰💷£🤔😂
Hixxy is one good hard core dj I say
Hixxy lookin like Alan partrige showing off his polo's
Got into hardcore when I was 12. Partied "properly" for the first time at 18. The music was the main thing always. The dr*gs were just the icing on the cake
Yessss !!!
It was viynl trixta that used to book the djs at slammin
Nice one
I would never have gotten into hardcore if it did not go the way Toytown took it. The breakbeats disinterested me massively early on. So yeah. Total bullshit about Toytown kiilling it. It took it an other direction yes. but it certainly didnt kill anything
It was cheesy as but have to admit when i heard that intro it brought a smile to my face
@LeeUHF you must be the only person I've heard say they prepared 90s hardcore without the breakbeats, each to thier own of course. Your right in saying Toytown didn't kill off hardcore but it took it in a direction that in my opinion lost alot of fans. I actually didn't mind Toytown but that cheesy fairground sound that it seemed to spawn into wasn't for me..
@@damiencrowe6098 Yup when I was young I didnt like the breakbeat stuff. Hated it. I hated it for years and didnt like D&B until my late 20s
Latch was the same initially TBF. Very different now!
Agree 100% at the time breakbeat and dnb bored me, not the same now mind
Where’s the next one.
What next one?
@@ROARUKPods sorry I meant when is the next one out ?
@@ukreallifeL8 It's all in the description pal. ;-)
@@ROARUKPods no way part 3 was already uploaded when I asked I was listening to part to and wanted to listen more but didn’t realise part 3 was out hahahah gutted because am busy now, will have to play part 3 tonight while am in bed,
Part 4 out Weds.
I remember being at Helter Skelter around the time Toytown came out it got absolutely hammered by every Hardcore DJ! Must’ve heard it 7/8 times that night. I think this was a reason people got p*ssed off with it 😂 anyway big up Hixxy man, Hardcore legend, great tracks made & great sets as well 👊
Each to their own on what people like. I like all sorts if my ears agree with something my brain accepts it. I like jungle, drum & bass, house, trance etc. Love love love breakbeat Hardcore but my favourite always will be fast and bangin. Stompy cheese right through to brain hemorrhage gabber and everything in between. There is alot of cheese that I can't help but wince at and there is a lot of gabber that can give me recurring nightmares but, a hell of a lot of it for me personally, just blows my mind
Everyone always mentions "Toy Town" (Which I was never keen on), but they never mention Antisocial - Whistle that (for me) was the absolute nadir of happy hardcore :D I tend to prefer Hixxy's earlier pre-Toy Town tunes, afterwards there wasn't much that I was that keen on apart from the Antisocial stuff (excluding Whistle).
He always comes across well in interviews though.
Have you heard Saturday Night?
Such a shame Tony De Vit didn't do that remix. And I've got Bonkers 1 with the Madonna vocal 👍
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Toytown was a absolute banger, i think Celtic football club use it as their anthem now
Come off it lol its known as the cheesiest rave tune of all time
@@marcp3788 I can think of many many more
They do chant it hahahah quality
@@gaving321 toy town was the cheesiest of them all tho. Ice cream van music for 12 year olds
@@marcp3788 I take you weren’t one of those ,
What about the awful 80s rock songs that were converted,or children of the night disco land,
Still a firm fave of many toy town was, and you back then will have loved it
So Hixxy broke his neck by crashing his motorbike and literally flying through a car...but the rumour was he was walking his dog and fell over?? 👍😂😂😂
Knew 02/05/98 Hardcord Heaven when MC Ruff said "so DJ Hixxy should be here right right now be he can't right cuz he mashed up his leg he's in hospital.."
Then he introduced Force and Styles who played set of the night
Reading the comments, I feel so alone in liking the really happy, uplifting, and bouncy late 90s happy hardcore. Is everyone this grumpy about how music changed nearly two decades ago? Toytown was extremely my jam. :\
I play quite a bit of old skool 91 to 94, some UK Hardcore and some Hard House but there is nothing like the mid-late 90s Happy Hardcore for me. It's just on a different level. Played DJ Stompy Ready to Fly the other day and was jumping around like an Orangutan on Steroids
It's what I grew up on so therefore I will always have time for it. To an outsider though I can see exactly why they would laugh lol
Thanks for asking my question. When I said killing the scene I mean to those poeple who believe it. We know it didn't :)
Yea but in 2023 the king Hixxy himself changed his sound.(Australian tours) Still my fav,breaks my heart though. One big reason why I came a dj myself.
That would explain some of the dodgy mixing on bonkers 4!! 😅😐😊
He did do Energy 98 though coz I remember him there clear as day. MCMC announced Hyper Ds death there.
MC Charlie b next?
Ecstasy obviously was a fundamental part of the early scene. I'd rather it still was today over cocaine, but I took my first pill in 1999 after six or seven years of listening to nothing but hardcore so how's it "drug music"?
It may surprise you but one person’s experience is not necessarily reflected across society.....
I think the events went downhill due to the fact ecstasy went on the decline to
Hixxy crap 🤣