Chew The Fat! Turns 10

Chew The Fat! Turns 10

28 September, 2007 | 1.10PM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Dom Steel

Paul Arnold of Chew The Fat! tells us how one of the most established club nights in London is now renowned on a global scale.

Having played host to the likes of Adam Freeland, Meat Katie and Tom Middleton, the club goes on to celebrate its tenth birthday on October 12th with a dazzling line up featuring The Rogue Element, Tayo and Alex Metric. 

Chew The Fat! went on to spawn Fat! Records in 2001 and has had releases from the likes of Unique 3, Merka and Dom Kane.

Beatportal managed to grab an interview with club promoter and Chew The Fat! resident main-man Paul ‘Trouble’ Arnold and managed to ask him how Chew The Fat! managed to become so successful and where he sees the club to be in the future.

Chew The Fat! has been running 10 years now, that’s very impressive. What’s the secret?

Good times!

What’s been your highlight and favourite moment?

DJing every Friday for 5 years at The Bug Bar in Brixton, the venue helped create the life and soul of the party.

I truly believe that if we hadn’t been lucky enough to play there every week, we wouldn’t have created the Fat! we know and love today.

It laid down some deep roots for the club and established Chew the Fat! as a wicked party with wicked people.

Obviously it was the beginning of something good and to live through that experience by DJing to a wicked crowd with new music week in week out was a real buzz.

How do you think London has accommodated and contributed towards the success of this night as compared to any other city?

‘The Underground Sound of the Brixton Breakbeat’ this was our tagline a few years into the party when Chew the Fat! had really embraced what was very much a new sound genre, so being in the basement of a bar in Brixton had a lot to do with it.

Mind you, at the time Brixton was a wicked place to be with Basement Jaxx’s nights, The Dog Star, Come Shake Your Whole parties, to name just a few.

There were literally loads of good parties each weekend, and a lot of people would come to Brixton without even knowing where they were going.

Some would end up at Chew the Fat! and that would be that.

Chew the Fat! now has a monthly residency at The End, one of the best clubs in the world, and I can’t ask for better than that. 

If you could get anyone – dead or alive – to play the next Fat! party, who would it be?

I need a week to think about that, but off the top of my head, it would consist of some of the people who have helped to shape my musical tastes — playing sets that they were playing 15 years ago. 

John Peel, Andy Weatherall, Carl Craig & LTJ Bukem.

Fat! Records has been going from strength to strength, shaping the mould of the electro/breaks scene. Where do you see this label going in the future?

In many directions.

We are now releasing a lot more albums so we can really diversify musically and put out pretty much what we want.

Next year will see our first Hip Hop album, I also hope to sign some crazy electronic shit and to build on what Merka, Baobinga, and Unique 3 have already done.

And finally – where’s Chew The Fat! going to be in the next ten years?

On the beach!

No, who knows, but here at Fat! Towers we are all passionate about the music, and I am sure we will stay true to that.

I hope we stay as young as we feel and keep blasting out what we love.

xx

Check out Fat! releases on the player below, and if you’re in London on October 12th, make sure you’re at Chew the Fat!.

• (0) Comments
• (589) Views
• Get Tickets for Chew The Fat!s Tenth Party