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GrooveJunkie
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Joined: 09 Mar 2004
Posts: 2344
Location: London, UK
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 Posted: Tue, 19 Dec, 2006 9:07 Post subject: Brian Belle-Fortune’s ‘All Crews" - Interview |
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Knowledge and Vision Publishing are proud to present this new edition of Brian Belle-Fortune’s ‘All Crew Muss Big Up’. Long out of print but still much in demand, this journey through the growth of drum & bass and the author’s own life has become the stuff of legend. This latest edition features a whole new update charting the drum & bass scene up to the current day alongside many new photographs. The time seems right, therefore, to catch up with the man himself for a ‘question and answer’ session about what’s been going on since ‘All Crews’ first came about and why he decided the time was right for an update…
So, Brian, just who exactly are you?
“I’m Brian Belle-Fortune. When people ask me how old I am I usually make them guess. When they do find out, they usually tell me to **ck off and ask to see some ID.
I was born in Hackney in London and now live in Tottenham, part of Haringey, the most multicultural borough in Europe.”
How did you first come into contact with drum & bass?
“I came back to London after finishing at Sussex University in 1994. You could hear jungle all over Hackney and Haringey. My girlfriend Kate is ten years younger than me and I’d become a bit lazy about going out clubbing. I remember passing a poster in Tottenham and Kate saying, ‘I wanna go out raving and see people like Fabio, Grooverider and Jumpin’ Jack Frost’, but she reckons that I would have found my own way into Jungle anyway.”
Why did it strike such a chord?
“In the latest version of ‘All Crew’ I talk about, ‘The Thing with the Heart.’ When people talk about their attraction/addiction to drum & bass words sometimes fail them, they end up gesticulating and placing their hand on their heart. I’ve been addicted to it since I heard the first few beats; somewhere between ‘Sweet Love’ and ‘Helicopter’.”
What inspired you to write the original ‘All Crew Muss Big Up’ and what period does it cover?
“The music and the scene itself. I had to check it out and learn more about it. Two years after first hearing jungle and 18 months after conceiving and co-producing One in the Jungle I was working at MTV Europe. To cut a long story short, I had a massive row with an executive producer. He was insisting that jungle was a black male thing and wouldn’t hear otherwise. I left his office slamming the door - he didn’t have a clue. Overnight I wrote a long e-mail explaining what jungle was really about. I never sent it but the e-mail formed the basis of ‘All Crew’. The book covers the period from 1988 to 1999 and the update covers from 1999 to October 2004.”
What else was happening in your life at the time?
“I’d hate to spoil the beginning of the second part of ‘All Crew’, so I’ll leave you to read about that in the book, but I will say that it wasn’t a bed of roses.”
Did you re-read the first edition before starting the update and what did it feel like?
“When you’re involved in such a big project it’s difficult to step back. When I did read it again it felt like another person had written it. There were some bits I thought, ‘Wicked’, and others I thought, ‘Could do better.’ I have dyslexia but they didn’t know about that sort of thing when I was growing up. In junior school I was put in the remedial English class. It took three or four times for me to pass my English ‘O’ Level and f it wasn't for my parents I'd never have finished my education. If you’d have told me back then that I was going to write a book, I would have said, ‘**ck right off, stop taking the *****!’ So, when I finished reading ‘All Crew’, there was a part of me thinking, ‘Blimey’.”
Any regrets or things you wished you had talked about more?
“I love peoples’ stories and there’s always more that I could have covered. The designers had to say, ‘Stop writing’, which is fair enough as the printers were on their way!”
How did it feel to know the first edition had sold out but people were still keen to
get hold of a copy?
“I didn’t know if ‘All Crew’ was any good. Loads of my friends had read it as a draft and said it was good. I trusted their judgement but part of me still thought, ‘They think it was good because they’re my friends’, but MC Sage who I worked with on Rude Awakening told me a story. He had a copy of the manuscript and had taken it to some party. Sage left it on a bed then came back and found four people trying to read the same page.
“You may not know this but the new version of All Crew will be the third. Publishers wouldn’t touch the book - they didn’t think ravers read books. The first version of ‘All Crew’ was a photocopied job with a metal spiral bind. I thought, ‘I’ll print up a hundred and if they go we’ll move to the next level.’ I had given a copy to Storm. Goldie nicked Storm’s copy and started ringing up people from the scene and reading bits to them. I bumped into Kenny Ken and Goldie had called him about the book, so Kenny was asking for a copy. The same day Excessive Sounds in Enfield called me to say they had sold out.
“Nadine, the designer, and I treated the book like a record and took it round record shops, sale or return, in record bags. I’m still surprised it’s had such a good reaction.
Publishers still weren’t interested, so I took out a bank loan and got it printed up. There were difficult times writing ‘All Crews‘. Things weren’t going well and I wanted to chuck the whole thing in a skip, but it had reached the point where it wasn’t about me. I was dealing with all these stories - people’s stories, drum & bass stories and I had to see it through.”
Why did you decide to write the update?
“I kept getting requests from artists and punters alike asking for copies. To cut a long story short, Nicky Blackmarket was always asking me to get the book out again as was Miss Pink. I’d met Roni Size and Dillinja at Homelands in 2002 and they both said that I should write an update. I knew I might have to start writing again.”
What have you added both in terms of words and photos?
“In one way, it’s best to think of this update as a remix. The new edition covers developments in the scene from ’99 with an extra 55,000 words. We’ve gone in and combed out the errors too and added new stories. Nadine’s on board again doing a new design, there’s a new cover photo taken by Tristan O’Neil, and more photos from Tristan as well as Knowledge’s Cleveland Aaron and Andy Cotterill from Dazed & Confused.”
What period in drum & bass and your own life does the update cover?
“It covers from Christmas ‘99 to yesterday - the sad passing of John Peel.”
How does the drum & bass scene of then compare with now?
“The scene’s so much healthier than it was. People have become much more professional. The production quality of the music has improved.”
What’s changed for better and for worse?
“I understand that some people are always moaning about the scene but I haven’t seen much that’s worse.”
What are you hoping people, including younger drum & bass fans who missed the early days, will get out of ‘All Crews?
“I hope that anybody in the drum & bass scene will read ‘All Crew’ and find something valuable to take away. Perhaps readers will also understand that drum & bass isn’t about one flavour of music - it is and has always been about full flavours, and that things move in cycles.”
What are you doing now?
“I’ve gone back to my old job working as an intensive care nurse at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. It’s a wicked job - sometimes hardcore but I love it.
Without spoiling ‘All Crews’ I can say that I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in ’99. It’s placed some limitations on life but positive things have come from it.”
Do you think you will write another book on drum & bass or any other subject?
“I was in the middle of writing another book when ‘All Crew’ came back asking for more. I want to write a book for all the nurses and doctors I’ve been working with over the years. There are some mad stories in that world. You get to see some real heroes that save lives, never get a mention and are poorly paid.”
What’s the best thing been about writing this book?
“I love drum & bass. I love the scene. I love these journeys through jungle and drum & bass culture.”
Any advice to aspiring authors out there?
“Write what you feel like writing - but write. Like mixing, it only gets better if you practice. You don’t have to start at the top of a blank page. Start writing where ever you want and then fill in the gaps. If you find yourself sitting there staring for five, ten, fifteen minutes just start writing. Most of all believe in yourself.”
text: MATTHEW DUFFIELD
ORDER your copy of ALL CREW HERE, copies will be sent out next day if ordered by credit card on this site or by calling 0208 5339300.
You can also pay by sending a cheque payable to Vision Publishing to - 1 Trafalgar Mews, Off Eastway. London. E5 0NF. Cheques usually take 5 days max. to clear, before book can be sent out.
UK price is £10 inc P+P
Rest of the world - £20 incl P+P
To check the status of your order please email store@knowledgemag.co.uk or call 0208 533 9300. |
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