Mr Scruff has been DJing and producing with his eclectic brand of music styles for decades. His Keep it Unreal nights feature house, jazz, hip hop, drum and bass, reggae and everything in between. All the while, line-drawn animations of anthropomorphic household objects play on screens around the club.
I went to one of his nights back in 2003 in what was Music Box, which is now just the Tesco on Oxford Rd. A uni mate had invited me down at the time; I recall the heat, the sweat, the anticipation of not knowing which genre was coming next. I remember people trying to get Mr Scruff to sign autographs and draw illustrations from the DJ booth. Meanwhile, said uni mate went to fill up water bottles in the gents’ to save us all money. I also recall the cups of tea being served in a chillout room on one side.
Then I never went again. Why not? I just went to other places with other people. The guy who invited me was insanely overworked on a difficult Product Design degree. I don’t think he went out again after that.
It dawned on me, 21 years later, that I’d planned to go back. Hence, I eventually got around to putting up a meetup on the Manchester Nightlife group. Mr Scruff still plays; Keep it Unreal still runs. The local gig venue Band on the Wall in Northern Quarter hosts the rave nights now, somewhere I’ve been meaning to try for years anyway.
This Saturday, meetup group Manchester Nightlife are headed there. Come join us! Starting in Rewind on Oldham St – formerly Blockbusters (there was seemingly an injunction from the defunct rental store of the same name) we’ll then head to BOTW. It’ll be my first visit to the music venue.
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