Party Vibe

Paul Shurey: Master of the Universe

WHEN the Universe ’98 festival went tits up after a legal battle with former partners Mean Fiddler over the rights to use the Tribal Gathering name, legendary promoter Paul Shurey seemed to disappear off the face of the earth. Now he’s back, and promoting a new night at the Matrix in Reading. The two years in between? Well, it’s a tale of Mexican beach parties, ungrateful big name DJs, energy lines and an enchanted forest, as Ben Child found out.

PAUL Shurey is a figure from a different epoch in dance music history.

The man who launched Tribal Gathering onto an unsuspecting nation of pillheads, (cyber) punks and posers was heading up the scene at a time when the spirit of the early raves was still present despite the semi-commercialisation of the culture. Tribal Gathering had an edge, a sense of being right that modern day dance festivals will never have.

Homelands and Creamfields are highly-organised, money-making machines run by huge corporations. And you can bet their owners won’t be putting on a free party in an enchanted forest on the Dorset/Devon border as Paul Shurey is when I speak to him.

“We’ve got 10 teepees set up in 30 acres of Old English woodland. We’ve got loads of fresh water lobster which we’re going to be barbequeing all weekend long and the boys from Full Cycle are coming down to play.

“We’ve even set one of the ponds up as a swimming pool with a diving board and we’ve done a deal with the local gliding club so people will be able to go gliding.”

Interviewing Paul Shurey was always going to be interesting. I wanted to ask him so many questions. What happened to Universe after they lost Tribal Gathering and the Final Frontier night at the Complex? Why now to come back, and why Reading? And why the hell does it say dress code: effort required on the flyer for their new night Frontier Spirit at the Matrix on Friday, August 11?

“It says that? I’m absolutely horrified at that! Can I say now to anyone who wants to come to the night to have no concerns. It’s completely against the ethos of what we are doing. People can wear whatever they want.” Excellent. Got that one over with. Where the hell have you been, Paul?

“I’ve been in a place called Tulum in Mexico. It’s like an international crossroads with some really cool people from America and South America.
“It’s like an Ibiza starting to happen. I’ve got a stake in a beach hut resort over there, so we’ve been running some mad parties next to the sea. We’ve even done one in an ancient temple which is the only one on that coastline.”

It’s hardly surprising that Paul felt the need to get away from the UK to somewhere more chilled out. Universe had done a deal to run Tribal Gathering with Vince Power’s Mean Fiddler Organisation, the men behind the Reading Festival’s early nineties rejuvenation and the Phoenix Festival, and who now run Homelands.

The ’97 event went fine, but the two sides then fell out and a legal squabble began over the rights to the Tribal Gathering name. Universe put on the Universe ’98 event, while Mean Fiddler teamed up with a certain Liverpool superclub to run the first Creamfields.

No-one bought any tickets for the Universe event, and it had to be cancelled. Tribal Gathering was over, and probably for ever, and Universe also lost their long-running Final Frontier night at the Complex club in London – also owned by Power.

“The reason I decided to go was because after our big legal battle with the Mean Fiddler it totally disillu-sioned me with the whole dance scene. It was like rats leaving a sinking ship. There were people who we’d supported the careers of for years and they just left without any loyalty whatsoever. I just wanted to get away.”

So why has he come back now? “Everything is about timing and I’m a great believer in the 13 year time cycle. ’63 was the Beatles, ’76 was punk and the Sex Pistols and ’89 was acid house. I t feels like the right time to come back and prepare for 2002 when the next big thing will happen. “I just think the whole thing has lost what it was originally about. It’s just a load of old men who run everything and cream off the profits plus big name DJs charging extortionate amounts. It’s time for something different.

“We are not going to be a slave to the big DJs charging ridiculous amounts of money. What we plan to do with the club is what we used to do with Tribal Gathering. It’s going to be a completely different environment every month and we are going to have a famous TV personality talking on stage as our Cosmic MC.

“Every now and again the music will stop and a gurning face will come on the screen and say “stop raving.” It’s just to inject a bit of fun and energy into things. We want to fight the ethos which is around at the moment and get something good going again.”

Why choose Reading to return? “The reason for Reading was that we all used to do our parties along the M4 corridor, so geographically the place is excellent. A lot of our crowd also come from the Bristol and Bath area, so it’s not so far to come.

“When I first went to the Matrix I liked the spirit of the building. The fact that it is an old ballroom and people have been dancing there for decades is really cool. I’m also promised that for the second night the third room will be open, and I’ve always believed in giving people choice. We are going to do some really mad stuff in that third room.”

The line-up does look promising. Master of tech-funk Dave Angel will headline August’s gig alongside DJ Dagg, Mixmaster Morris, Simon Shurey and resident Aztech (Spiral Tribe), while Stevie Kerr (SubStance, Wax) plus Float residents will be also be helping out. And it’s only £8 compared to the Matrix’s usual tenner.

Could this be for real? Only one way to find out…