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You can hear it at the top of Slater St, a low pulse bouncing off the once-grimy warehouses and garages, getting louder as you make your way down the road, until the pulse is no longer just that anymore; it's a thump. A sharp, incessant thump that stops for a second before it starts again. On. Off. On. Off. And at the heart of this noise is a shop, a shop selling space age disco sounds, feeding the habits of a generation of head nodders and disco dancers, some of whom are lined up at the counter, heads facing the racks of records, not speaking, listening, always listening... |
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By 1989, the acid house explosion had given birth to a market of record hungry kids. The shops of London and Manchester were weighed down with Chicago Trax, Italo House and New York's groovy garage. And in Liverpool? In Liverpool there was close to nothing, so when three students decided that an hour's journey along the M62 to Eastern Bloc wasn't as much fun as it used to be, 3-Beat Records was born and dance music in the city had a home. They moved into clubs too, bringing the likes of Weatherall, Harvey and Slam to G-Love a night they started with scouse legend, John Kelly. It was voted Best Club by Mixmag in 1991. |
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Sixteen years on, 3 Beat has just been given a £30,000 makeover (as they say on Richard & Judy), a homage to the impact dance music has had on this city. And there's always a buzz around the shop, people looking for that tune, for that remix, you can see how much they want it.. this is what music does to people. Then there's 3,000 others. They don't live in Liverpool, but the reputation of the shop is such that they buy their tunes by mail. And who shops here? How about Sasha, John Digweed, Danny Howells, John Kelly, Yousef, Paul Oakenfold, Graeme Park, Dave Seaman, Groove Armada's Andy Cato, Timo Maas ... the list goes on and on and on. At 3-Beat they must be doing something very right. |
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The key to any sorted record shop are the staff, they spot the trends, they feed the vinyl addictions. In 3-Beat everybody offers something; There's Pezz the manager, the man, a prog house godfather who has played everywhere from Hacienda to being part of legendary DIY Crew, Thomas who teases customers with the cooler house sounds and wicked eclectic vibes and DJ's at his own 'troubled souls' night, Steve Parry looks after all the big progressive house DJ's, and has DJ-ed himself at Cream, Bedrock, Renaissance and from Mexico to Russia and Taiwan, All that is Scouse house is served up by one of the newer boys Paul Colwell who runs four record labels pioneering 'scouse house', Jemmy who looks after mail order and dj's at aztec and playing at sankeys soon, Rob from mirabeau, hong kong trash and used to run the awesome glow recordings, and last but by no means least is Adam Helliwell from 'Dislodged' who likes prog, makes techie tunes and looks after breaks, techno and drum & bass in the shop, and still has time to DJ at place like San Fran and Jakarta and everywhere inbetween. |
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