Interview: Pete Jordan of Spectrum

How and when did Spectrum start out?
Spectrum kind of developed from a night called Solution that used to run weekly at Beetroot during 2000. I used to travel up from Coventry every week to DJ alongside the likes of London Elecktricity, The Runaways, Jerry Dammers (The Specials), Deadly Avenger etc.. Other residents included Dave Boultbee, DJ Spritzer (RIP), Mark Barlow aka Wilf (RIP), Lee Spicknell (Sound Alliance) and Alex Evans aka Fat Pimp. They were great times, I made a lot of friends at Solution, but to be fair the night was too forward thinking for the masses and eventually the promoters called it a day. 

I moved to Nottingham in November 2000 just as Solution was drawing to a close. Within a week I had agreed to start promoting a monthly night with Alex Evans, not having a clue what I had let myself in for. I had inherited myself a club night before even having somewhere permanent to live!

Spectrum was first held in February 2001 at the Beatroot, it was my intention to create a night where I could play all the music I liked (breakbeat, hip hop and funk), and develop a crowd that would appreciate it. We had Aston Harvey from the Freestylers play and cheekily billed it as The Freestylers. To our amazement over 500 people came, the night was an overwhelming success and people instantly started talking about Spectrum, the flyers, the posters etc. It felt as though the formula was right from the beginning and as I had not lived in Nottingham for long had plenty of new ideas on how to promote the night. We had a crazy 12 months at the Beatroot before moving to The Bomb for the next two years (where I took over the night on my own) and then Stealth since May 2004.

What were you doing before you started Spectrum?
I had moved up to Nottingham and was working for Big Daddy Magazine, which is still undeniably one of the best music magazines ever to have been published! I worked part time with them until the summer of 2003 before going full time with Spectrum.

What are your personal favourites of all the events you’ve put on?
Too many to mention really. There have been classic nights at every venue we’ve been at, and it always seems as though there have been very few dud nights. The two festivals meant a lot musically to me, but to be fair it would be unfair to single out one particular event.

I understand you had John Peel lined-up for a DJ set, before his sad death last year…
That is true; something that I was looking forward to immensely. It felt like losing a member of my own family when I heard of his passing, radio will never be the same again!

What was it like DJing at Glastonbury 2004?
Glastonbury was a lot of fun. Due to the poor weather, the construction of the Glade area was behind schedule so when I did play the running order had changed and I followed a dub DJ who used to tour with The Clash. About five minutes into my set and 80bpm quicker, the crowd picked up and we went from 4 or 5 hippies rolling on the floor with cans of special brew, to a few hundred people dancing. It was amazing how many people from Nottingham went to Glastonbury that year, it felt almost like a Spectrum night in a big tent in the middle of Somerset.

Spectrum has been at so many venues in Notts over the years. What are your favourites?
Each one has had its positive and negative points. The main Spectrum monthly night has resided at Beatroot (8 events), The Bomb (22), Rescue Rooms (3) and Stealth (17). In fact the July event with Adam Freeland was our 50th monthly; night not a bad effort for a small breakbeat night! 

Beatroot had a certain charm; a real party venue, even though the Soundsystem would cut out regularly along with the lights. The Bomb is where we made a name for ourselves on a National scale, and again we had some very special nights there, despite the cramped conditions and overheating issues. A short three month stint at the Rescue Rooms, filled the gap before moving to Stealth where to be honest we have fitted in well and the venue has allowed me to really take things into new directions. Despite the public’s mixed opinions of the venue, I personally have found working in such a professionally run venue superb, and I think as time has gone on the improvements made to the venue have made a real difference to the place. I know that as time goes on the place will get better and better!

Including the festivals, bar nights and other events we have ran during the past 4 and a half year, we have held over 150 nights/events in 14 venues including Dogma, Rock City, Moog, Stone BRB, The Social, both universities and we even had Quantic Soul Orchestra play at Obsessions!

You keep winning awards for being the best Breaks night in the world. Is Spectrum really that good?
Well it does come down to public voting to win the International Breakbeat Awards which we have now won for the last three years. It is very flattering to win any award (Spectrum has also won Best Breaks Night for the past two years in the industry voted Mixmag Dance Music Awards) and I honestly feel that the accolades are well deserved. Of course it has brought the green eyed monster out in a number of people, who like to discredit other people’s achievements. Perhaps the best way to justify the awards is by the number of DJs and live acts who have voted for us, and the list is pretty long and prestigious. For artists who play at nights all over the world to vote for us gives me a real indication that what we have in Nottingham is significant.

Whereas a number of nights such as Hum in London promote big breaks line ups in Room 1 like we do, I think we score well because we diversify the other rooms with different types of music. Fabric do this week in week out, but I feel that the personal (community based) approach that I try to bring to the night means we have a loyal following who all know each other! Furthermore, I have actively tried to promote the breaks scene in Nottingham and the Midlands and have worked closely with a number of producers, DJs and promoters to help them contribute to Breakbeat as a whole. This investment in the scene has seen a real strong community develop, and this is something that I think is unique to Nottingham and is something that we should be very proud of.

You seem to have some good fun with your flyers. Who comes up with the ideas for them?
I’ve been collecting flyers since 1990 and have ten of thousands in my collection. Sometimes I think clubbing is taken far too seriously and for that reason I find flyers a great outlet for a bit of satire and humour. The man behind the design is my old housemate Simon Dunn (Seismik Design). By combining our warped sense of humour and his design skill, we have come up with some good work. The response we have had with some of our flyers has been immense, and people often tell me about their favourite Spectrum flyer. I hope that in 15 years time, flyer collectors will remember the Spectrum flyers fondly, like I do with Eclipse and Dreamscape flyers.

If you could get any musical artist in the world at one of your nights who would it be?
If you asked me this four years ago, my answer would involved many of the artists who have performed at Spectrum – I have in many ways fulfilled much of my ambition on that front. (Thanks to Detonate I have also seen the likes of KRS-1, The Roots etc play in Nottingham) However, I’d love the likes of Bob Marley (RIP), Gorillaz, Gangstarr, De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Gil Scott Heron, The Pharcyde, The Bangles, The Beach Boys, James Brown to play at Spectrum, but the one thing that would top all of that off would be to have Jeff Wayne perform War of the Worlds live with the full London Philharmonic Orchestra and the original cast including Richard Burton and David Essex. That would be worth watching!

What are your other favourite nights in Nottingham?
I could give you the obvious back patting answer of Detonate etc.. but the honest truth is that I rarely go out clubbing anymore due to DJing most weekend nights in one form or another. On a respect level for people doing their own thing and not copying every other promoter in the city Bassment Boogaloo have been building up a great night and loyal following (shame it is on the first Friday of the month!), as have Kombination Funk and Pure Filth who also continue putting on decent nights during the Summer months for us perennial city dwellers. One thing that gets my goat is club nights that stop running during the student holidays, it seems like a raw deal for the people of Nottingham. Finally, I only have good things to say about the Leftlion presents nights at the Malt Cross on the fourth Friday of every month!! ;o)

If you hadn’t become a DJ/ Promoter what would you be doing now?
After finishing a Sport Science degree at Loughborough University, my intentions were to take a year out and then take up an offer of a research degree in Sport Psychology at the University of Florida. However, during the year off, the idea of DJing as a career wouldn’t go away and eventually I made the move to Nottingham to pursue “the dream”. I think a career in Sport Psychology and Motor Learning would have been the next step after America.

What’s the best thing about clubbing in Nottingham?
Clichéd as it may sound, but it really is the people. Lots of friendly people who actually want to enjoy themselves to the range of diverse music that thrives in the city. Trust me when I say that what Nottingham has is envied by many other cities around the UK, and we should not take that for granted. Support the people who are putting on these events otherwise they will stop happening and people will have to resort to travelling to get their music and clubbing fix.

What’s the worst thing about clubbing in Nottingham?
The wildly misinformed rumour mill and the amount of people who concern themselves over issues that don’t have anything to do with them. It’s a club night not a bloody general election, so why do people speculate on all these inter-club politics that don’t really seem to ever be as big as people make out. I think a lot of jealous people snoop about on message boards, slagging off people for doing things their way, but never having the guts to stand up and be counted or even putting on an event that suits their tastes.

You start having to really make sure everything you say and write is clear and concise otherwise people pick fault at it, and interpret in all kind of weird and wonderful ways, generally aimed at defaming you. I think Spectrum avoids it reasonably well but other club nights get a whole load of rubbish aimed at them for no reason.

Anything else you want to say to LeftLion readers?
Keep supporting LeftLion and this great city that we live in!