“We’ve always been on the happier side of things, and when
the music split, we found ourselves not wanting to take
either direction, so we carried on what we were doing, by
playing out, but we took ourselves all over the world”.
Since the dawn of time, there are people, events, movements,
and occurrences that stamp their mark down in the history
books. If we look under the heading of dance music, Ratpack
will be there in all their full glory. Although Mark McKee
and Evenson Allen proved their worth in the late eighties
and early nineties, I somehow don’t think that the rave
scene was totally ready for them. Or was it that they are
destined for higher things? After twenty-five floors waiting
for a lift to hit the ground, Evenson Allen, the vocalist
and front man for the Ratpack greeted us in a way I hadn’t
expected. We had seen them on the latest Clubzone Video the
night previous, and although they appeared to want to say a
lot, the five or six minute interview didn’t really delve
deep enough. We all know Ratpack. We’ve all heard tapes with
Ratpack on. We all know how much they used to rock the
crowds at events such as Perception, Fantazia and The Pirate
Club. These are memories of mine, days long gone past, so
armed with a cheese and tomato pizza, and a healthy supply
of Rizla we settled down for a chat with the Pack.
We sat and listened to what the Ratpack have been up to over
the past two years. Talk continued swiftly onto their record
deal with BMG/Logic Records which first got under way some
three years ago. It may surprise you to know that in Europe,
the Ratpack are more popular than in their home of England.
They have toured the world which puts a stop to the
ridiculous rumours that they had lost it as reported in rave
magazines such as Blaze and Eternity. Evenson and Mark have
strong feelings about such suggestions, and as we looked
around the room gazing at press clippings, Gold and Platinum
Disc’s for sales achievements, chart listings with the
Ratpack at number one, the suggestion diminishes into
another rumour that got out of hand.
It was reported that The Ratpack were ‘booed off’ the stage
at Astoria. Have you ever seen a DJ booed off from anywhere?
Exactly. It doesn’t happen. The misinformed young journalist
who wrote this article was in fact at her second rave. She
has not heard of the Ratpack. She also assumed that the
crowd shouting ‘Booyakka’, a phrase commonly used a few
years ago was a derogatory one, when in reality it is a form
of compliment for the DJ playing. Evenson and Mark were
rightly upset at the time, and although they are too
professional a group to bear grudges:
“It’s all forgotten now. We can take criticism. We’re not so
stuck up that we can’t. But that crowd weren’t booing,
anyone who was there can tell you that. And as usual things
got blown out of proportion, chinese whispers started moving
and before you know it – everyone knows. So we signed out
deal with BMG and Logic and it meant that we were spending a
lot of time in the studio producing, touring in Germany,
Australia, France, Switzerland, Spain and USA. We’ve been
busy”.
The Ratpack disappeared off the UK scene, and promoters,
ravers, DJ’s and MC’s began to wonder what had happened to
them. Had they split up? Had they lost it? Not at all. The
Ratpack were fine tuning three years of music which they
have written for a forthcoming album to be released later on
in the year. Their video to compliment the first release,
‘Captain Of The Ship’ cost an astounding £500,000. This was
after the video was expected to cost around £120,000.
Ratpack have got some serious backing, financially but what
does this mean for the rave scene? Is this it? Will Ratpack
part company with the rave market all together?
“Ratpack are back and in full effect. We were putting
together this album for the past two years. We’ve been
touring, shooting videos, appearing on German television,
Viva TV, MTV and things like that. That’s why we went off
the scene for a while. We now have the album finished and
we’re taking bookings a lot more. It was sad for us because
it’s what we do best. But now we’re back and ready to give
back to the ravers what they’ve been waiting for”.
When Ratpack disappeared off the scene in 1994, they were
also concerned at the way the music was developing. Evenson
commented, “We’ve always been on the happier side of things,
and when the music split, we found ourselves not wanting to
take either direction, so we carried on what we were doing,
by playing out, but we took ourselves all over the world”.
We must remember that the Ratpack aren’t just a rave band,
they have been a team since the early days of acid, in the
late eighties. They were amongst the first people to set
foot in the infamous Music House cutting plant in North
London. They were one of the first DJ/MC partnerships in the
scene, setting the trend for others to follow. They were the
Ratpack. Everyone love them, and I can say that as an MC,
appearing alongside them watching them make the crowds move
like no others could. Don’t ever tell me they lost it…
Evenson Allen was musically influenced from an early age,
arranging bits to form a drum kit, but in his early teens he
developed into somewhat of a dancer and became an instructor
teaching dance. He became associated with a sound system,
called Locomotion, which brought the link together with
Mark, known as Lip Master Mark for his beatbox skills. Mark
would use his skills over the music that Evenson was playing
upon the decks, which at the time was mainly Hip-Hop, and
early Acid. The two of them decided to set up their own
sound system, so they gained a lot of knowledge in staging
warehouse parties and the fusion between the two increased
intensity. ‘Trip City’ (Mark and Evenson) were staging
events at Rosebury Avenue in London. In these days when
events were staged illegally, more often than not, they were
stopped by the authorities that be. However, Trip City,
carried on and didn’t have such problems from the Police.
The more Evenson used the mic, the less he would mix, so it
was left to Mark. Mark discovered that he could mix too, so
a back to back team formed, still with Evenson on the
microphone. Before very long this was to evolve into Evenson
on the mic with Mark on the decks solely. Enter Ratpack as
we know and love them.
Slowly the scene climbed out of the illegal banner, and
before you knew it the Ratpack were appearing at all major
rave organisations. Fantazia, Mythology, The Pirate Club,
Perception, Raindance, you name it, and the Ratpack were
there. Sadly for Evenson and Mark though, a car accident put
a temporary hold to their climb to the top. Evenson was
obviously upset to talk about it, but tragic as it was, it
showed their determination to fight back:
“We had just left Willesdon and on our way to Oxford. From
there we were going to Birmingham to model some clothes for
Komodo at the Clothes Show. We were travelling along the A40
and all of a sudden we hit this thick fog. I slowed right
down but some traffic van had broken down in the outside
lane and that was it. I lost the woman that I had spent most
of the years of my life with, Sue. Our manager at the time,
Leon, broke his neck. My girlfriends friend broke parts of
her neck. Mark broke his leg and severely injured his nose.
It took the Rescue Services four hours to cut me out of the
wreckage. In a split second my whole life was wiped out. It
was devastating”.
Evenson and Mark were both in hospital for some time. The
only thing that could get them over this terrible accident
would be to bury themselves in what they do best. “As soon
as I could walk I knew that I had to get back to the stage.
If you remember the Fantazia video, my arm was in plaster,
and I was limping slightly. That was not that long
afterwards”. Their love of the music was so great that they
felt they couldn’t let their fans down. Through grief and
injury they plugged away and fought back. “For the woman
that had spent all her life supporting me and willing me on
to what I am today, it’s very upsetting that she isn’t here
to see what I’ve achieved. For myself, my girlfriend and my
kids, me and Mark just got it back together and carried on”.
Professional as they are, just like true stars, they
continued their careers the best they could. The Fantazia
crowd warmed to them more than ever before and shortly
afterwards, ‘Searchin’ For My Rizla’ achieved the number one
spot in the charts. Ratpack were well on the way to becoming
bigger stars than they could ever have hoped. I think it’s
right for us to give praise to them for what they did,
overcoming grief, to jump back into the scene and hit the
stage again.
After the success of ‘Searchin’ For My Rizla’, they were
contacted by Logic Records, who were at the time heavily
into promotion with Snap, friends of the Ratpack. Logic
Records are also responsible for such artists like Haddaway,
Dr Alban, and Shut Up And Dance, so their list of top names
is nothing short of impressive in terms of commercial
success. After several meets, and lots of Lufthansa flights,
Mark and Evenson signed an album deal with Logic Records.
Logic have offices in Frankfurt, New York and London so it
was with great prospects that this deal was signed. It was
about this time they disappeared from the rave scene.
Let us get some things straight. Ratpack in 1997 is going to
be bigger than Ratpack at any other time. The return of the
Ratpack comes with a worldwide single release in March and
an album towards the end of the year. Such large stars as
they surely will be are bound to forget about the roots that
they helped grow in 1990? “Never. We will always be at the
centre of the rave scene. It’s what we love, it’s what we
do. Our music is still breakbeat at the core, and although
it doesn’t fit in the same bill as today’s Hardcore, it has
our own style”. After hearing some of the new material, it
is obvious that Evenson Allen’s vocals are a hell of a lot
better then you would hear live at an event. His voice is so
diverse we assumed that there was more than one vocalist on
the track. Picture a cross between Seal and PM Dawn,
somewhere in between, are Ratpack. Mark McKee is obviously
very talented, fluent on many musical instruments, and with
a superior engineering knowledge, the Ratpack have been
waiting quietly in the wings, ready for a return to the UK
scene. Here they are…
Some may have noticed the appearance of Ratpack on some
flyers, simply because they have been talking up bookings
after completing the album in late November. “You can expect
to see a lot more of us in the future, we’re going back on
the road, and we mean business for 1997”. Strong words
coming from two figures who have obviously still got so much
to offer the scene in general, then again maybe strength is
the key behind the success of Ratpack. An enormous amount of
strength was found after the accident, strength to still
produce the music that they want whilst others often find
themselves watering down the flavour to please the
commercial market, and strength, finally that they both have
in each others friendships. Ten years together and still
with the same enthusiasm and love of the music that they had
in their Locomotion days.
In a career that has spanned over eight years, best memories
are very hard to pinpoint. “There’s memories from all over
the world, you know? When you’re in a scene like this,
there’s something special happening every week. We have so
many, some you couldn’t print, like the Australian Mafia
booking us…”, they pause for a second, “No, we’d better not
to into that one”. After a brief half an hour break for
their beloved Eastenders, which is fairly handy as we’re all
lovers of the program here too, we continued the interview.
As we looked back on old times at Donnington Park, The
Roller Express, we also looked back at characters Dot
Cotton, Dirty Den and Angie. Eastenders at heat for sure.
Evenson and Mark still live on the borders of the East End
so they have never lost their roots, which could be a reason
for their hospitality and kindness and pure ‘down to earth’
attitude that we felt during our time there. We were fed,
supplied with alcohol and with a huge amount of “Fanta”
smoked (private joke, eh boys?) we realised that time had
flown by, and we hadn’t even touched on half the topics that
were planned. The hour long tape ran out, we stored some in
memory, but another chance for some questions was definitely
in order.
We resumed at the photographic studio in Clapham Junction,
where the two were busily being groomed for Dream’s new look
magazine. We mulled over some questions, realising that in
our drunken state we had actually covered quite a lot at
their East London home. Ratpack have done so much, been to
so many places that we could dedicate a whole issue to them
if we wanted. And as much as that would give them credit for
what they contributed to the scene, it wouldn’t be right.
The chat in a local pub moved onto the scene in general, the
music, but somehow it kept veering back to Eastenders. These
guys are just normal people, earning a crust and paying the
bills, and I’m so glad that after raving to them back in the
days of Astoria and Roller Express that I could finally meet
them and say thank you.
Everyone reminisces on the old days and how great it would
be to return to the same vibe, the same music… Ratpack are a
link with the past. Any venue in the country would rock to
the sounds of Evenson Allen’s voice, to the anthems that Lip
Master Mark would drop upon the Technics, the Ratpack
Supreme Dance Team who would hype up the crowd. That famous
“Oi Oi” shout will be ringing out all over the country again
soon and with the re-emergence of Old Skool on the scene,
the Ratpack return can only spell the good ol’ days for all
of us.
DJs
