It's 1991 and a bona fide B-boy by the name of Goldie
finds himself caught up in the heaving mass of London's Rage Club
at Heaven on a Thursday night.
DJ's Fabio and Grooverider take to the decks once again captivating
the crowd with their frenzied assault on the senses. A relative
newcomer to the scene Goldie pesters the duo for names of tracks
and becomes an immediate convert to the hardcore breakbeat aesthetic.
That many an outsider is choosing to pronounce the hardcore scene
dead seems slightly ironic - a breakbeat specialist of the highest
order has only just been born.
Today there are few more influential and charismatic figures on
the hardcore/jungle scene than Goldie/ Schooled like so many of
his peers on hip-hops B-boy ethos of the early 1980's/ Goldie's
influences on the breakbeat culture of hardcore can go with the
B-boy flavour. He explains "but you can go even further. Messing
around with sound real bad."
Goldie would initially make his mark as a graffiti writer in his
Midlands home town of Walsall. Spraying walls quickly got serious
as the commissions started to flood in. "I'd paint my estate because
I couldn't be a their". He recalls. "At night I'd go out to blues,
but in the morning. I'd come home in the morning and change straight
into painting clothes. Then it took off. I'd be doing paintings
for the community, for the council. I'd be asked to appear on TV
shows like Pebble Mill where I could say whatever I wanted."
Along side the likes of #D form Bristol's Wild Bunch Crew, Goldie
emerged as one of Britain's leading graffers. HE began moving back
and forth form New York, living the hip-hop lifestyle for real.
In 1986 he'd star alongside Afrika Bambaata in the seminal graffiti
art movie "bombing" -filmed partly in Bristol and most notably in
New York's South Bronx, where for a time Goldie would choose to
reside.
Early 1998 and Goldie returns to London from a spell in Miami. Jazzie
B asked him to help out on Soul II Soul's artwork. Still painting
and still getting commissions, Goldie finally gets tied down. For
couple of years he's a player on the West End club scene. But than
the inspiration dries up. "Hip-hop wasn't happening for me over
here anymore because I'd been away living it", recalls Goldie. "It
was like I just had to do something."
1991 and London's hardcore scene proves to be Goldie's salvation.
Initially, he just listens and learns form the sidelines, helping
out on the artwork for the hugely influential label Reinforced.
But slow and surely, the face of hardcore begins to change. Where
once the domineering sound had been termed "Happy" - a mix of Pinky
& Perky sounding vocal mad cap oscillator riffs - by late 1992 a
new darker age creeps in to the music. It was here that Goldie came
into his own. His first entrance into the world of recording artists
had been "Killermuffin: - a semi successful e.p for Reinforced that
contained an early sample of raga artist " Cutty Ranks" - later
to figure is predominantly on many a jungle release. But most significantly,
early 1993 under the pseudonym of "Metalheadz", Goldie would release
"Terminator" on the Synthetic label, a track that would have a dramatic
impact on every hardcore release that followed. With it's eerie
metallic breakbeats, "Terminator" pioneered the use of a process
known as time-stretching in hardcore. It was now possible to stretch
a vocal sample over any B.P.M range without altering the pitch.
Although classic"dark tunes" like Terminator and Terminator II had
pioneered the emergence of what became widely termed jungle. Goldie
is somewhat disparaging of his legacy.
"Dark to me was just a representation of the way people were feeling
at the time," he says, "there was recession, winter and the country
was in decline. Dark was like the blues music. "And as subsequent
release were to prove, Goldie was set to stay on e stop ahead of
the rash imitators who arrived to cash in on the growing popularity
of jungle. By late 1993 "angel", again released on the synthetic
label, fused Urban Cookie Collective Dianne Charlemagne's jazzy
vocal with eerie synth. Elsewhere on a series of remix projects
for Reinforced's Enforcers series - on the 4 track e.p "Eternal
Affairs" - "Fury" for the Moving Shadow label-and on a remix of
the massive Hellcopter Tune (to name but a few). Goldie showed just
how far he's mastered his art.
"Timeless", Goldie's (AKA Metalheadz) first release for London Records
no doubt shocked an surprised once more upon it's releaser on November
1994. Twenty Two minutes long, it plays on the very concept of time,
dealing with the inner-city struggle for survival. While also fooling
the listener into believing the track is much shorter than it's
actual running length. Again, the soaring vocal of Diane Charlemagne
captures the very essence. "Timeless" survivalist spirit, as the
haunting strings and fearsome breakbeats dig deep into the listeners
mind. I don't even know if I'd call what I recorded jungle anymore,"
reasons Goldie, fully aware that at its narrowest definition jungle
has become little more than a reggae sample overlaid on a breakbeat.
"I'd prefer to call this inner-city ghetto music, because I'm not
just going to come up with what most people would envisage to be
jungle. I make my music to have integrity and if you can still play
it at 6 o'clock in the morning in a club, than its bona fide."
With almost no national radio airplay at all the double album shot
straight into the national charts at no. 7, which reflected a huge
groundswell of record buyers that up until now were supposedly non-existent.
Demand for Goldie's drum & Bass was such that a live tour took his
eight piece band to Europe and the USA supporting Bjork. Upon returning
to the UK Goldie headlines his own sell out tour. Whenever time
allowed, Goldie would return to London to run his Metalheadz club
every Sunday at London's Blue Note. The UK leg of the tour was an
event never heard before. Peshay, Doc Scott, Kemistry & Storm, Fabio,
Grooverider, Randall and MC extraordinaire Cleveland Watkiss played
sets that testified a new consciousness on dance culture everywhere,
due no doubt to Goldie's efforts to hoist jungle from the underground
to the mainstream. His Efforts were rewarded throughout 96 & 97
when he won an array of awards for his debut album, his DJ'ing,
the Metalheadz label and his labels compilation album "Platinum
Breakz".
It's 1997 and Goldie spends his time running not only his Sunday
nights at the Blue Note but also the Metalheadz night at London's
Hanover Grand on the first Friday of every month, as well as working
on his follow up album to "Timeless" entitled " Saturnz Return".
His energy is almost limitless. " I sleep three hours a night, I
just have this abyss of energy" he explained to a journalist recently,
which partly explains the albums title " Saturnz Return" is taken
from the notation of seven year astrological cycle where the starts
are now in his favour. "I am a Virgo, the way my planets are lined
up to the time I was born, I'm set man".
Released on February 2nd 1998, the album has already spawned the
singles, Temper Temper, Digital and Believe. "Digital" an innovative
collaboration of hip-hop and drum & bass featuring New York's hip-hop
meister KRS One. Released on October 30th, 1998, Digital charted
at no. 13 just as Goldie was packing his bags in preparation for
a US tour supporting the re-formed Jane's Addiction.
"Saturnz Return" is another double album, the first CD running 75
minutes over ten tracks including vocals once again by Diane Charlemagne,
and for the first time vocals by Goldie and a collaboration with
Noel Gallagher on "Temper Temper", whose screaming, distorted guitar
work will be featured on the album and as the second single from
the album, released on January 5th, 1998.
The second CCD features just one track entitled, "Mother", reflecting
yet another side of Goldie's music. Running for over an hour and
obviously autobiographical, this ambitious project was conceived
by Goldie singing all the instrumental parts into a tape recorder
and employing someone to score the music-including a 30-piece string
section for him, and it works.
The music could even be described as contemporary classical in its
form where the modern technology of loops, beats and electronic
sounds meets spoken words, celestial voices and full orchestra.
One could guess that Goldie was exorcising the demons of his past
on "Mother"; Goldie insists the record was like his childhood, full
of pain but like all music it comes from the soul, one usually has
to experience pain to attain joy.
Over the last three years Goldie has had his fingers in many piles.
Not only has his infamous Metalheadz imprint continued to release
cutting edge music, but he has also carried that sound world-wide.
Recent tours have included Australia, South America, the United
States and Japan to name but a few. These dates have seen Goldie
performing alongside such artists as Beth Orton, Rage Against the
Machine, Bjork and many more.
He has also been busy on the remixing front, looking after cuts
for The Fugees, KRS one, Pat Methany, Black Grape, Slipknot, Garbage,
and Roni Size. Goldie has also re-touched a number of underground
anthems throughout the drum and bass circuit.
Recently Goldie has launched himself into the world of Television
and Movies. Starting with an hour long documentary on the like of
the Goldikus, filmed by Channel 4, this brilliant insight opened
up further roles and projects.
Goldie's first film role was in David Bowie's gritty northern gangland
flick "Everybody Loves The Sunshine". This led into a part in Guy
Ritchie's classic "Snatch", pen ultimately seeing Goldie appear
in "The World is Not enough", the latest film in the James Bond
saga. Over these three films Goldie worked alongside such actors
as Brad Pitt, Robert Carlyle, Robbie Coltrane, Denise Richards and
Vinnie Jones.
Recent TV appearances have seen Goldie featured on a huge number
of terrestrial and digital shows including: The Jo Whiley Show,
Shooting Stars, The Big Breakfast, Jumpers for Goalposts, Nevermind
the Buzzcocks and The Richard Blackwood Show.
Only last year saw the golden man grab the part of "Angel" by the
scruff of the neck and really shake up the resident" Eastenders".
Goldie will be appearing in "Eastenders" throughout this year, and
by the way his career is going, who knows where you'll see him next!!