First Decade: 10 Years Of DBE

Club founders pick out 10 essential tracks...

The past decade has seen the landscape of British club culture change completely.

A handful of clubs have weathered these changes, while some have positively thrived amid the chaos.

Loughborough promotion team DBE have put their town on the map, matching big name bookings to underground talent, continually working outside trends to find their own identity.

Turning 10 in just a few days, DBE will host an all-day and all-day bash, featuring some stellar talent.

Ahead of this, the DBE team looked back on a decade of promoting underground music, picking out keys tracks from their wide open, across the board music policy – think disco mixed into dubstep, drum 'n' bass, techno, and left field house. Truly, they embrace it all.

Founder Pasq comments:

The guests we've had over the 10 years has encompassed everything that's old/new/future in the world of dance music. I would like to get across that for our crowd it's very much an introduction to dance music as well as people that have followed certain styles for years.

That's why it's important to us to book across the board, but always relevant and quality in the industry. 

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Von D – ‘Show Me’ – (Skream Mix)

The first time we booked Skream he finished with a world exclusive of this track! I remember when the bass dropped it was outrageous! We went on to book Skream during every stage of his musical journey. From Dubstep, to when he was doing History sets. These encompassed him going through his musical upbringing. Then when he went straight up house and techno.

SBTRKT – Nervous (ft Jessie Ware)

This one got an early play when we booked SBTRKT. Looking back we remembered that SBTRKT was actually supporting Emalkay at this event. Safe to say he went on to do some pretty special things.

Rusko – 'Jahova'

A real special record for us this one. Rusko was the first guest DJ we ever booked. Rod Azlan on the mic. They both tore it apart. We knew when Rusko played this that we had something pretty special brewing.

Ramadanman – 'Work Them'

As the sound of the dubstep scene started to develop and fragment, it naturally affected what we were listening to and the artists we were booking. We were super proud to bring Ramandanman to Loughborough. Really leftfield for the town at this point. This tune always stuck out on the dancefloor.

Artwork – 'Let Go Of This Acid'

What can we say. Artwork has been with us a few times and when he dropped this… More recent for sure, but still a really important DJ in our story.

Doorly – '96'

Another guest of ours that has been with us numerous times. A true gent and a massive champion of DBE. This tune best describes the atmosphere in our four to floor room.

Benga – 'Emotions'

Early on, we used to end most events with this total belter from Benga. We are proud to have had him play a few times for us at DBE. Still sounds awesome now!

Adele – 'Hometown Glory (High Contrast)'

High Contrast was one of the first A list / Royalty DJs we brought to DBE from the world of drum 'n' bass. We picked him up from the train station in Loughborough on a Thursday night. He’d been in London working on the music for the opening of something called… The Olympics..? Think that’s what it’s called.

Dub Phizix & Strategy – 'Marka'

This track was reloaded more times than any other I can remember and epitomises the drum 'n' bass at DBE. It was absolutely huge with the DBE crowd. Rodigan dropped his dubplate version with Damian Marley on vocal when he visited DBE and Room 1 has never seen a reaction like it!

Jocelyn Brown – 'Somebody Else’s Guy'

We’ve always had our Disco/Throwback element to DBE. This one was a real special moment when it was played at our ‘DBE does DISCO’ party. We took over the Loughborough Town Hall (The police were really happy about this…) and we are very proud to have held a party in this important local venue.

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10 Years of DBE: Mini Fest. Day & Night takes place on October 20th – ticket LINK.

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