Terry Farley: Acid House Legend

Terry Farley: Acid House Legend

11 December, 2007 | 2.44PM

• Section: Music News
• Written by: jasonhayer

During a recent gig in New York City, I had a chance to meet and sit down with one of the most respected house legends in the UK scene, Terry Farley.

Known for being a key part of the early acid house scene, along with helping to create one of its seminal labels of that time, Junior Boys Own, Terry’s history is impressive with plenty of reasons to dig deep into conversation.

But first, a primer…

As an obsessive collector of early reggae 45s from Trojan and Studio One in his formative years, which later trailed into funk and Northern Soul territories in his 20s, Terry DJed his early efforts alongside other beginners, including Paul Oakenfold, at clubs like Shoom and Spectrum.

Terry recalled that while he played old soul upstairs, everyone was going mental to Oakenfold’s Chicago influenced sets in the room below.

After realizing he was missing out on something new, Terry began his lifelong passion for all things house.

Having an almost religious commitment to football, Terry, along with friends Steve Hall and Andrew Weatherall, set up a local fanzine, Boys Own, that delved into the nonsense of late 1980s footie, fashion and music of the 4/4.

Though the original publication’s name was based off of an old, monthly Christian journal that was created to gain the interest of post war British youth, Farley & Co. decided they’d copy its production style, as the original suited their slapped-up, cut & paste look best.

The success of the magazine, along with recent hits from remixes that Terry and Andrew did for Primal Scream, The Farm and The Happy Mondays, led to the crew setting up their own label.

With backing from London Records, Boys Own Productions was born in 1990 as the collaboration of Andrew, Terry and Pete Heller (a friend of Danny Rampling’s) under the guise of Bocca Juniors.

Boys Own launched its first release, ‘Raise’, that same year — and it instantly became a Balearic anthem.

Aside from releasing 1990s dance hits of its own using various incarnations (Junior Boys Own, Jus’ Trax and Junior included) throughout the years, the label is probably best known for discovering legendary dance acts such as Underworld, X-Press 2 and The Chemical Brothers.

“We were putting on the best one-off parties in the UK during the golden years of Acid House,” says Terry, in retrospect.

“Darren Emerson, a young jock who played with us at those early parties, introduced us to Rick and Karl [Underworld].

“Rocky, Diesel and Ashley [X-press2] and Tom and Ed [The Chemical Bros., then known as The Dust Bros.] were just kids who were coming along to dance under the stars at our outdoor raves.”

When asked about how the label was able to cultivate such memorable music from all the amazing talent that surrounded them at that time, Terry quipped, “To be honest, a lot of it was luck that the first tracks were just sooooo good!

“From the first time all these guys hit the studio, it was pure magic.”

Not foreign to the idea of releasing excellent tracks himself, Terry has been able to work with everyone from Kylie Minogue to Michael Jackson, as well as releasing memorable top ten hits along with his partner, Pete Heller.

Over the past few years, Terry brought himself back to the fanzine world by launching an online site called Faith with partners Stuart Patterson and Dave Jarvis.

“Stuart, Dave and I were all doing cool, small one-offs that emulated the spirit of the Body & Soul vibe that was so big during the late nineties,” Terry gives as his reason for the creation of the new fanzine, while referring to the legendary NYC parties.

“The parties attracted a great mix of old acid house heads and younger kids who were interested in the scene.”

“Seeing that we had something unique, we decided to start something new that could help push the culture which was dedicated solely to house music.”

The success of the site has prompted a large member following that regularly posts everything from DJ mixes to party listings, and has helped distinguish the site as a key hub for the scene in the UK and abroad.

With almost twenty years of being involved with quality house music, Terry is still keeping at it.

Whether helping to create new ‘zines or discovering legendary artists, he’s still keeping the excitement of the early acid house days alive.

With a rumor that Defected will restart Junior Boys Own once again, we can only wait to see what Terry and his band of merrymakers line up for us next.

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