While 90s clubbers in Dublin were waving their arms in the air and moving to the beats in The Olympic Ballroom, Temple of Sound and The Asylum, Belfast had the legendary regular club night, Sugar Sweet. Hosted in the Conor Hall of the Art College on York Street and the brainchild of the prolific Belfast-born DJ, producer, composer, David Holmes and DJ Iain McCready, Sugar Sweet was ‘the’ night to be at in the small but perfectly formed Belfast club scene at the time.
Bringing acid house and rave culture to the city with a thumping reverberating bass, young people from both sides of the track, from all communities left their suspicion and fear at the door and entered a place where music was the shared religion.
Back in August 1990, the electronic music duo, Orbital played at Sugar Sweet and in homage to the city and the incredibly warm reception they received at the club, they named their seminal track, ‘Belfast’.
The 1990s were a period of cultural awakening and a turning point for social life in Belfast; at that time a city battered, paranoid but fiercely resilient. Dance music and the club culture played its part in bringing people together from both sides of the peace walls and inspired the future generations of musicians, producers and DJs, creating a vibrant electronic music scene in the city that thrives to this day.
Join Lucy Carroll as she broadcasts from Belfast each Sunday morning at 5am for ‘Early Bird’ – an eclectic mix of soul, funk, and dance music from the 90s and 00s.
‘Read the Freedom FM Flashback column each week in these newspapers….’
