Making the most of your mates

After starting the club night Red Laser Disco and just plodding along as a weekly event in a bar where people didn’t give a shit about music, never mind synth orientated disco, I decided to give myself a kick up the arse and throw some energy into developing the good initial idea and take it to a suitable venue and advertise with bold strong artwork. And so in true ‘wing and a prayer’ style i approached a good friend to help me. It was DJ Bob Dazzle aka Eoin McManus who gave Red Laser it’s ‘Look’ when he designed a series of eye-catching / retina frazzling neon rizzo print posters to advertise the club night and he did it for nowt more than a home cooked scran and a couple of beers. Fukin bargain if you ask me. 

Even though extremely appreciative of the kind gesture I am certain I will be missing a pound of flesh at some point in the future. Anyway there are plenty of design business’ out there that have the fukin cheek to charge shit loads of money and produce absolute shite. The amount of uninspired  design that surrounds us day to day keeps me laughing out loud and can actually brighten up my travels around the city centre for all the wrong reasons.

I first met Eoin when he came to Fat City for a promotions job interview when he was 16. He still jokes at the fact I sometimes treat him like the 16 year old I met all them years ago to which I suggest he can DJ at Red Laser if he brings his ID. Because I instantly liked him when we met I tried to undersell the promotions position by attempting to convince him that club promoting was a shitty job that paid no money and offered little perks. He seemed undeterred. I offered the job to a Manchester Uni student a few years older called Louis.

Predictably that was not the last of Eoin. He set up his own promotions business and became established as an essential distributor for all the quality nights at that time including Fat City promotions and quickly became a good friend as he fitted effortlessly into Manchester’s bunch of underground idiots. And it wasn’t long before he had set up his own club night, the successful ‘Hot Milk’, where he was able to exercise his passion for DJing, Design and Reggae and Bashment records. His stylised poster and flyer designs saw him attract more and more commissioned work and now, 11 years later, he heads up marketing at Manchester fashion behemoth OiPolloi as well as flexing his design muscle for the cities club nights and record labels.

When the label idea came around and the wheels were set in motion for the first 3 EP’s Eoin was the obvious choice regarding the design. EP1 looks fukin ace and EP’s 2 and 3 are set to drain any budding designer’s spuds.

After then sending the above post to Eoin to see if I had been accurate with the above he had his own version of events and sent me back this edit

“After starting the club night Red Laser Disco and just plodding along as a weekly event in a bar, where people didn’t give a shit about music, never mind synth orientated disco, I decided to move to a monthly at Cord. The poster was toss. A good friend told me so. It was DJ Bob Dazzle aka Eoin McManus (I say good friend, but I still can’t spell his name despite having known him 13 or 14 years. I guess I could just look on Facebook but obviously I’m too lazy). I first met Eoin when he came to Fat City for a promotions job interview when he was 16. He still jokes at the fact I sometimes treat him like the 16 year old I met all them years ago to which I suggest he can DJ at Red Laser if he brings his ID. Anyway, shit jokes aside, because I instantly liked him I bigged myself up massively, playing the bigman promoter telling him how many girls he’d get once he was working for me. I offered him the job on the spot telling him I just had to inform my ‘mate’ Dave before it was legit. I then spent a week dodging him because my ‘BOSS’ Dave decided to give the job to a student called Louis. I had to tell Eoin I was full of shit. Undeterred, Eoin took a job working for Jonny K (Eyes Down), who he met in Fat City after being shown the door by us. It wasn’t long before Eoin was working for Fat City too… the morale of the story? None”

And after Eoin jogged my memory on that first meeting many years ago I am now able to bring the full truth

I first met Ouwin when he came to Fat City for a promotions job interview when he was so young he had not yet grown any pubes. He was also horribly dis-figured and was having a sexual relationship with his uncle. He still jokes at the fact I sometimes treat him like his uncle did, bumming him vigorously for design work whenever possible. Anyway, because I instantly liked him I enrolled him into my charity helping impoverished kids off the streets of Manchester and giving them a ‘life’. He met many girls but wasn’t interested as they didn’t have a cock. I went and spoke with Dave at Fat City who was my secret Son, the result of a fling I had years earlier with Samantha Fox, to see if Owwin could fit into a promotions roll he had vacant. He was immediately against the idea as he feared Ouwen would repel business due to his hideous looks and the fact that his tongue too big for his mouth causing a permanent river of saliva to cascade of his chin . I agreed with Dave and we offered the job to Newton Faulkner. Predictably that wasn’t the last I saw of Ouwin. He went on to set up his own successful promotion ‘Hot Dribble’ where he was to entertain old age pensioners with his passion for ‘Mall Jazz’ records (This information may not be the exact truth as my memories may be clouded due to years of recreational substance abuse however Newton Faulkner and my affair with Samantha Fox are true)

Il Bosco