Fusion Promotions - past, present, future

1992-1995

Fusion was first born July 1992 at Southampton Guildhall, developing out of the growth of an event known as Ikon. Ikon was based on getting clubs midweek and grew in numbers up to 500. It had been running for over a year at a number of Southampton's nightclubs. Chris Grayston, then Ikon's promoter, knew then that it was time to move to the weekend at a bigger venue.

From Southampton Fusion moved to Portsmouth Guildhall where perhaps the start could have been the end. The first night coincided on the same weekend witht he biggest rave ever - "Vision" with 40,000 ravers. Not only that, it was only 35 minutes up the roat. Foolishly(?) Chris decided to still go with it. By January 1993 Fusion had sold its events for that month two weeks in advance (1,500 capacity). From then till the end of the Guildhall demand outstripped tickets. Over the next month or two Fusion then made a decision to only book hardcore DJs and let the ever growing dark jungle scene to progress on a different path.

By May 1993 the police had caught up with the success at the Guildhall and it was time to move on. By the end of the Summer of 1993 a night at Sterns nightlub near Worthing was arranged. This was the residency of the legendary "Interdance". Fusion's ever growing reputation carried along the South Coast with another sellout 1,200.

Unfortunately the police shut down Sterns two weeks after and it was yet again time to move on. This time the journey takes us London-bound to the Rhythm Station, Aldershot, where Fusion ran the club on and off till March of this year. Rhythm Station gave Fusion the platform to do one off's at Farnborough Recreation Centre. During the course of 1994, despite a 2 O'Clock finish, Fusion still managed to sell out the 3,000 capacity. New Years Eve saw the end of an era at Farnborough and another planned venue at Reading, both halted by the police. As fate decreed, the show must go on, third time lucky, and Ravedome, London was arranged with a 4,000 capacity. Out of the misfortune of the police cancelling two New Years Eve events Fusion had stepped up again to bigger size parties with events throughout 1995 held at the Ravedome.

Also in 1995 Fusion broke in Hastings Pier in the South-East of Engalnd and Bath Pavillion in the South West. Both catering for regular one offs with venue capacities of 1,000 regularly being filled

1996

At the start of 1996 Fusion embarked on a very big project at Wembley for 10,000. For this Fusion invited One Nation and Gism to host Arenas 2 and 3 and to promote for their respective Jungle and House crowds. This, as Chris explains, took six months of full on planning and preparation. Also it was quite evident that if we wanted to put on the show of 1996 then even if we sold the event out there wouldn't be much financial gain. Luckily One Nation and Gism shared my vision and decided that it was more important that everything was done to the best. On Thursday 23rd May it was a great relief as we sold out, the day before the event was to take place. Afterwoods, though very drained, it was a great moment to be proud of.

After a short break Fusion found a new club in Simpson's nightclub in Bracknell which is growing a nice little crowd and will shortly become weekly, in association with One Nation. The good thing about Simpsons is that it has two rooms and a 7 o'clock license.

1997

Fusion has also started its one off's again starting with the Sanctuary at Milton Keynes, 18th January 1997. Unlike many promoters, Fusion combined 100% hardcore in the main arena and old skool in the 2nd arena. For the 2nd arena Fusion had to go back to some DJs not booked for about three years. Getting the line-up for that was very interesting. In particulary Fabio and Grooverider didn't want to have any of it, but luckily others were really enthusiastic, like Slipmatt, who talked Lime into coming out of DJ retirement. Also Ratty and Jason Kyle (Top Buzz) were also really keen to get out the old classics. At the moment Chris stressed that he is finding it really important to slow down the music and having an old skool room is part of achieving this. Chris ellaborated that he believed the music had got so fast that only the younger ravers could keep up with it. Also ravers seem to be moving on to other scenes much quicker than they should. Chris thinks that ideally the music needs to come down to a more sensible 160bpm.

As well as Fusion being one of the biggest promoters in the UK, it also has four events planned in Australia for 5,000 each. The first of these is over Easter 28th March 1997 and is a start of the Ramos and Supreme album. This will be Fusion's third album after "The Ultimate Compilation" and the just-released Fusion "Best of British" Compilation.

The Labels

In 1993 Fusion also started Hectic Records, which has now developed into four labels:

Hectic - the breakbeat label
Hectech - the techno division (though Chris confesses its light techno)
Fusion - good material which isn't applicable to the other two
Hectic Rewinds - a new remix label

Hecttech records was started in 1995 as a result of the kick drum becoming more of an influence in the UK's hardcore rave scene. Wanting to keep Hectic Records as a breakbeat label, a natural split occured. Hecttech has had artists such as Midas, Sharkey & Dee, Go Mental, Unknown, Menace & USD, Supreme & UFO, Vinylgroover and Hixxy & Sharkey. The biggest selling tune on Hectech was 'Died in your Arms Tonight' which sold close to 4,000.

Fusion Records was also started in 1995 as a result of having material which didn't seem to fit either Hectic or Hecttech. Currently Fusion is bringing out more material than the other labels, with 1996 seeing 14 releases. Artists who have released tracks on Fusion are: Sunset Regime, Midas, Billy Bunter, Sy & Unknown, Ikon, Stompy, Supreme & UFO, Slam and Edy C.

Hectic Rewinds is a new label which will be catering for remixes of previous releases, hence the catchphrase "Remixing Class from the Past". With the first four releases including remixes from Vinylgroover, Unknown, Force & Styles, DNA and Dougal, its bound to see the label off with a bang. Further next year will see the remixes of the classics from Ramos, Supereme & Sunset Regime - Crowd Control, Sunshine, Gotta Believe and Journey. However Hectic Rewinds is not going to restrict itself to just hardcore remixes, but has plans for remixes by junglists Marvellous Cain (Suburban Base) and DJ SS (Formation Records) and house producers. It does still plan to keep its roots in Hardcore though.

All the labels have many guest artists, but artists signed to the label include DJ Stompy, Ramose, Supreme & UFO, Sy & Unknown, Vinylgroover, Slam and new artist Edy C.

The biggest selling record we have had was in 1994 when Hectic remixes by Ramos, Supreme and Sunset Regime sold 6,000. Other than records that have been picked up by majors this is by far the biggest selling release since it came out. I can also exclusively reveal that it is currently being remixed by Slipmatt and Force & Styles and will be a part of Ramos & Supremes new album, due out in Easter 1997.

Further Chris Grayston started up and is part of Future Vinyl, which he runs with Phil and Nigel. For those of you that don't know, their job is to get the records from the labels and the artists into the shops. Started in February of this year, we are already comfortably the biggest hardcore distributor in the UK. And if that wasn't enough Fusion also has a Merchandise deparment, a mail-order business and finally a shop in Basingstoke, which opened this summer.

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