Boat parties in the harbour were a common occurrence. Inspired by the acid house scene in the UK, DJ Scott Henry (along with Lovegrove and a few others) used a warehouse loft space to put on their pioneering event. Other local heroes include Lovegrove, who was involved with organising the city’s first 'rave', Warehouse Rave 1. Huge promoters like Lonnie Fisher’s Ultraworld once dominated the larger end of the rave spectrum with events including StarScape Festival. “The main difference between then and now is that we don’t have any venues,” Teddy explains. Today, Baltimore has lost all of its most influential clubs: Odells, Paradox, Sonar, infamous gay club The Hippo and many more. Teddy’s earliest appearances (as Teddy D) were at iconic Baltimore spot Odells, in 1984. That was ’91,” he adds, that contagious laugh popping up again. They were big fans of ours back in the day, so when the label asked who he wanted to remix the record, he said The Basement Boys. “I remixed his very first record, ‘Ride On The Rhythm’, for Atlantic when Masters At Work were just being formed. Every few minutes his phone receives another message about the Louie Vega party clearly, half of Baltimore wants to be there. He’s charismatic and disarming, with an infectious laugh. “Louie and I go way back,” Teddy explains when we meet the day before. Having one of Masters At Work in town brings out the grass-roots house-heads, and a queue snakes down the street before the doors have even opened. Their rework of Crystal Waters’ ‘Gypsy Woman’ was one of the first house videos to achieve commercial success, featuring on MTV back when the famous music channel launched. His crew The Basement Boys were a prolific production team, pushing out a slew of tracks and remixes while performing all over the city and further afield. With almost 90,000 students there’s a strong arts scene due to the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), responsible for lots of public art, paintings and sculptures across the city.Īs far back as the mid-80s Teddy Douglas was pioneering the house sound.
#POP UP GAY BAR BALTIMORE 2017 FULL#
As with many cities that have been through a downturn, Baltimore is full of empty warehouse space which is now being snapped up by property developers.
Just 80 years ago it was the sixth largest city in the US, but when the bottom fell out of the steel industry the population dwindled. Once, the steel and motor industries created thousands of jobs. Competition can be fierce yet friendly everyone knows each other. Nicknamed ‘Smalltimore’ by some, this blue-collar port city has a population of just over 600,000. They take over three floors at Montego, a Jamaican restaurant where they had to move the party last-minute after being oversubscribed with guest list requests just a week after it was announced.īaltimore was once one of America’s key rave destinations. It’s a Sunday afternoon and Louie Vega is headlining a pop-up party organised by local legend Teddy Douglas. Now back in the States, he’s proudly showing Mixmag around his home town. Born and raised in the city, he moved to Europe after college and became one of the first residents at DC-10 in the early 2000s. “These are typical Baltimore chants,” explains Andrew Grant, our guide and a well-known selector. We’re in Baltimore and the response to this minor incident is typically improvised, the chants known by all, the instruments a regular addition to the party.
The energy remains buoyant while an engineer attempts to bring the system back to life. One keen partygoer rings a cowbell, another shakes a tambourine and a man holds a laminated sign above his head: “ House Music Lives!”. “Burn the house down! Burn the house down!”, a crowd of 100-plus is chanting with good humour after the speakers in front of them have blown, leaving just the monitors.