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 “It's kind of a long story and one I don't really want to glamorize.”
Former nastydirtysexmusic promoter turned ‘veryveryverywrongindeed’ mainmain Tim Sheridan is well known for being one of dance culture’s most outspoken characters though on one topic today he’s unusually restrained.
“Prison is exactly what it's supposed to be. Living non-stop punishment,” says Tim. “I do have some funny tales but they would belittle the other 99% of hideous nightmare. I don't think people are afraid enough of prison. They should be.” The topic’s arisen as a follow up question to his run-ins with Spanish police which happened when he launched his stunningly successful nastydirtysexmusic concept at free (illegal) beach parties in Ibiza 2 years ago. Hosting and DJing at the parties with his then partner Smokin Jo, his involvement meant he had to handle the unwelcome attentions of potentially heavy handed local Guardia Civile, a task his past experiences as a British army soldier, served him well. “In Ibiza I’ve had two arrests and no convictions, actually I get on really well with coppers of any nationality; I speak fluent copper,” he explains. “There is kind of an unwritten rule that coppers are nicer to services people. If you've worn a uniform it somehow never really comes off, it shows itself in a lack of fear of certain things. Cops are just people and I don't fear their power, I recognise it's an illusion. They are a bit like bees and dogs, they can smell your fear. My outspokenness is exactly where I hang my self-respect and also weirdly the bane of my life, in fact I've been hammered by auditors, strip searched and arrested as a direct result of my big gob.” Tim’s speaking to Skrufff via email (his favourite medium) to outline the vision behind his after-hours club veryveryverywrongindeed which takes place every Sunday morning at Turnmills and once a month at Ministry. Like nastydirtysexmusic it’s already successful, though as Tim’s the first to point out, success can be a loaded word. Skrufff (Jonty Skrufff): How much has veryveryverywrongindeed matched expectations? Tim Sheridan: “That depends entirely upon whose expectations you refer to. My personal expectations were very high as it's the way I work. I overshoot by miles and the shortfall is sometimes up to scratch. I find this approach works for many things. It failed to meet some expectations of others maybe in the other way. A lot of rival clubs thought we were coming over here to take their jobs and women and their expectations were of some Sunday superclub which would destroy all others. But all my ventures are pretty underground and non-profit so I was confused by those expectations. I think it might be because we have some fairly big DJs as residents I dunno. I thing the biggest expectation gap was the Trade thing. We've had a lot of flak from Trade fans and I’d just like to say- of course we aren't the new Trade! The sole comparison is we are in the same venue at the same time. Which could be said for many club nights.” Skrufff: Why do you think after-hours partying is now so popular? Tim Sheridan: “Is it? I think there is hype but it's not much more than about three or four thousand hardcore in a city of millions who do it regularly. The main reason I did it was Sundays are the only days I have free really. Most afterhours parties are basically affiliates of a big Saturday. So you get a venue closing and then reopening or people walking down a road to a venue nearby. We aren't like that, which may or may not be a good thing. The idea is to be a stand alone thing and one of my dreams seems to be coming true; I hoped people would get up on Sunday mornings just to come to us and they are. It's only a handful doing it so far but it's a start. I worry a bit about long-term party scars in younger people as I've been at it a very long time. I find it's the sleep deprivation that hurts as much as any drug. Waking up and ‘Having It’ immediately has me in bed by 8pm that same night and feeling OK next morning. Having said that I'm not getting to do that much. But I'm glad some are doing it.” “Maybe people are realising getting up on Saturday early and staying up for 48 hours every week might not be quite as smart as having a bit of a disco nap on Saturday night and going out later in the small hours. I learned a lot in Spain and they are very chilled, very smart people who you can all too easily underestimate because they live life at a different pace. That pace comes from centuries of practice and I learned the whole Sunday thing from them. It's popular all over Europe but the UK is odd and always has been. It's catching up. I put it to you there may be a fair chunk of old fashioned London snobbery too. Much of the more East End Sunday scene is mainly about exclusivity; some people are so obsessed with being set apart from everyone else they go out on Sunday almost entirely to be cool.” Skrufff: You said in a recent interview ‘veryveryverywrongindeed is a pious attempt to bring the madness of Ibiza to Sundays for a spell. God help us all”: how much do you see any genuine parallels between clubbing and religion? Tim Sheridan: “A couple of years ago I was very much of the opinion that clubbing was pretty worthless and I had big wrestles with myself. A wise old paratrooper was the chef at Home while I was the DJ: he won't like me saying that. Anyway, I was chatting with him and saying how we had such strange high hopes and disappointments about army life but it seemed well bigger and more real compared to clubbing which at the time seemed to me to be just pointless candyfloss. He got really angry with me and said I was dead wrong, saying many people live pretty shitty boring lives and clubbing was a precious release for them. Since then I've given the whole thing more thought. I used to poo poo (dismiss) the whole 'modern shaman' thing but there is definitely something to it. I see fundamentalist rallies and I think ‘they need to do that chanting, pointing and leaping at a festival’. I think there is a basic human need for communal congregation and stuff like religion, demonstrations, dancing and sport are all just as valid methods for satisfying it, just some are more destructive than others sadly. There is a new level of irony when dancing in a field for free is highly illegal but government sponsored murder is not.” Skrufff: Felix from Basement Jaxx recently branded cocaine ‘a wanker’s drug that destroys the soul’: how much would you agree? Tim Sheridan: “Excessive alcohol is far worse. I find coke tends to rein in boozers who would be so much worse behaved just pissed. And if you take coke on its own you can't speak after you've had too much and you are so paranoid you physically hide. So it's not that dangerous to others but it's certainly very self destructive in large amounts. I couldn't agree with Felix on one point as I have no time for words like soul. There is only here and now. Drugs act on each person in a way unique to their own character. They are amplifiers. If you have problems they will be bigger problems on drugs. If you are effervescence and jollity personified, you will be extra good company on drugs, extra out of character on comedowns. It's a lottery. To be fair a room full of people exclusively on E sometimes smacks of hypocrisy a little bit. I remember at some raves many moons ago being a bit of a wary canary of all the alleged love that seemed to evaporate when you bumped into people in the week. There are a lot of 'souless wankers' about and no amount of drugs will change that. Maybe Felix should have wondered if the drug was even part of the problem. I agree that regular and large amounts of any drug will be harmful overtime.”
Skrufff: What do you make of the rise of Puritanism: both from fundamental Christians and Muslims? (and the implications for club culture?)
Tim Sheridan: “It divided England cruelly once, didn't it? There is nothing more evil than using goodness as a weapon. There are no implications for me thankfully. I think this problem is as old as humanity. Much of our problems are eternal and possibly hard wired; we have developed technologically at a shocking rate but morally and emotionally we are apes. Religion is a device for society, a thing to keep our dangerous masses in check. It is 50% common sense and 50% insane fear. You take from it what you need. I think the people involved in clubs are mainly free of this sad baggage and that’s why we are hated. The implication is that if you are not fearful and a subscriber, you are throwing light on their own superstitions, so conform or die, freak! Though recent history has shown that it doesn't take religion to come down hard on us. Both the criminal 'justice' bill and the neo-conservatives in Ibiza have shown that. There is a main body of ordinary people who are very afraid of many things... and then there are the freaks like us. One will always fear the other. I know where I stand, I've been told to stand over here since I was a kid. Piss on Monday! Freaks are my people. It's funny, all the real baddies are cold heartless motherf++kers and are always well groomed, churchgoing and rich. Whereas the cartoon baddies they feed us, the images of drug dealers and street level criminals are quite a pathetic bunch. It is wise to know your enemy.” Skrufff: I know you’ve had a turbulent career in the music business, how much does this current successful period compare with other high points, does managing it get easier with experience? Tim Sheridan: “I think absolutely everything gets easier with experience. This period is temporary as were all the others and those yet to come. Everyone has had ups and downs apart from a handful of toffs. This period is good, I'm learning to smell more roses.” Skrufff: How much does your happiness coincide with your success? Tim Sheridan: “What is success? I think you mean in career terms. I'm not in possession of a career really, I live hand to mouth and move around constantly. Success for me is being loved in a way you can really feel and feeling OK most of the time. Happiness is orgasmic, brief. It wouldn't be called happiness if it was more sustained. Satisfaction is a better word perhaps? I was very successful when I was working with Smokin’ Jo but latterly became utterly miserable; as did she. I find the world and its news to be deadly and crushing but not as much as I used to. I kind of decided about 20 years ago that I would never take orders again and there is a lot to be said for it. I realised this means I might be poor forever but f++k it. No one except me tells me what to do; I've never cheated on a woman or intentionally hurt someone so I think I'm doing OK. I do think it's important to have a purpose. For most of my life I didn't have one. To be fair I was pretty OK with that too, being something of an amateur nihilist though recently I have accepted that I'm an entertainer of sorts and that's not worthless. It's not exactly worthy either but it's what I do.” Skrufff: You said in an interview in 2004 ‘I resisted House like I resisted Goth and lately Electro’ why are you instinctively opposed to new trends? Tim Sheridan: “It would be fairer to say why was I temporarily opposed to those three musical trends but to be truly fair you are probably right. I generally wait for all hyperbole to pass and be proven. Sometimes it's fair enough and some things can be precocious and extraordinary. Often they are just shit. I've been there in the rooms when they are thinking up daft new trends, for money. Once Muzik magazine tried to start a trend of 'Smash House'. Another time it was 'Drill 'n' Bass'. I'm merely cautious. As you say, it's instinct. There is a certain warmth in this cold life to latch onto whatever is new. Purchasable, wearable, disposable and very desirable; whatever it is it makes you feel you have succeeded above your peers in an uncertain game with no clear rules. This is a sad deception and why fashion victims are victims. It's particularly sad because they have the certainty of the truly religious; they truly believe that because they look like a walking eastern European council estate and got spat on by a performance artist in Shoreditch they are unassailable. They are special. They are not. They are chasing things with no value and wasting precious time. The point of coolness and fashion is it is transient. I am leaving myself wide open to criticism but I say this in my defence: I was wandering around London one day and thought to myself ‘if only just the weather wasn't so shit I'm sure I would be OK’. I spent all the time, money and energy I used to spend buying pointless toys for 40 year old single men from surly boutiques and redirected all of it towards moving to Ibiza. Everything got better. I wasted so much energy on things with no value. A reasonably good healthy life in the sun surrounded by REAL people has no peer in my book. Why do you think almost every successful person ever does it? Newsflash; you don't have to be rich or successful. It's a trick they play to keep you out.” Skrufff: What’s the closest you’ve come to giving up music entirely or the biggest blow you’ve had to overcome? Tim Sheridan: “Being told I would be a vegetable within a year by a neurologist at the Maudsley Hospital while experiencing seizures so violent I couldn't talk and had to be strapped into beds. That's a big one. Or when you are watching blood squirting out of a wound so hard it hits the ceiling and you pass out knowing you are beyond help. I think it's when you are utterly one hundred percent in possession of the knowledge you will truly die... everything changes forever in a way you don't have space for me to attempt a description of. I remember things getting very tough for nastydirtysexmusic in Ibiza and clearly thinking "tough? TOUGH! this is nothing man!" All I had to do was look out of the window to remind myself what I had. If only my colleagues could share that perspective we'd still be a happy family and still one of Europe's biggest nights-with-a-conscience. Or something! Or maybe not. You can probably tell I'm a bit of a preacher myself and something of a big bossy boots. I hope it's clear I'm happy to rant but I don't hold myself up as an example to anyone, the most I could hope for is to become a cautionary tale for medical students.” Skrufff: You’ve been a close colleague of characters such as Paul Oakenfold, who’s gone on to become a millionaire: how much do you hope to one day make a fortune (did you ever set out to?) Tim Sheridan: “I’ve never been interested in money luckily. Whenever I came close to having any it starts to require so much effort to maintain it evaporates quite quickly in a puff of apathy. This is what conservatism is all about. To preserve and keep what you have at all costs. Conservatism takes so much effort. It's exhausting I bet. Spinning all those plates. I feel life is more about upheaval and change so I welcome it now, even pursue it. My life is OK, I don't need any 'more', whatever it is. I have spent some time around a posho or two. Oakey's alright, he's not the best example, he's actually pretty normal. A lot of power is intoxicating but I suspect only for those around it, not so much for them as have it. I think it's the weird reaction people have to you when you have power that eventually alienates and destroys you. Luckily I think I may appear to be wealth resistant to 1000 meters! That might not be a bad thing. I think there is this unwritten rule that all our aspirations and dreams are similarly based on wealth and fame. I don't really share it, maybe it's not all it's cracked up to be and if you spent a bit more time looking at what you've actually got, you might be a bit better off. I include myself in that. I maybe come across as quite judgemental but I've been close enough to see it really does change people and I really don't think very many amongst us have the power to resist true temptation. It takes a lot of strength to stay on planet earth. I think enough money can corrupt almost anyone. I think it's better for your opinion of yourself to be based on other qualities rather than what you've got, otherwise you will learn far too slowly about conquering fear and loss. They will overcome you when you lose 'things' or you will be gripped by the fear of losing them. Neither are fruitful really. It's just 'stuff' you know? They are things and we are people.” Skrufff: Looking back (with the benefit of hindsight) is there anything you’d have done differently? What’s been the biggest mistake you’ve made in your career? Tim Sheridan: “Er... thinking I'm brilliant? I'm joking. It's a waste of time living in the past in my opinion. I do sometimes, and I wish I didn't. I think the past has one function only and that's to inform your present actions. If only we managed that I think we'd be OK. My entire 'career' is a catalogue of mistakes and a comedy of errors. It's ok to f++k up, you know. It's tied in to that thing about modern aspiration, to be perfect, to be a success, it's utter rotten batshit. I wouldn't do a thing differently about the past at all. But the ghost of a mistake might prevent a new one.” http://www.veryveryverywrongindeed.co.uk (Tim Sheridan's new night at
Turmills: every Sunday morning from 6am-2pm) Article by Jonty Skrufff (Skrufff.com) Subscribe to skrufff music newsletter at www.skrufff.com |
