Worthing's DJ and local hero Norman Murchie answers to four questions

When it comes to club culture in Worthing there is a shark called Norman Murchie. He's been pushing the town forward for the last two decades and definitely represents what the word knowledge is. I had the privilege to ask him four very important questions related to the Worthing's clubbing scene.

How's the clubbing scene in Worthing? Is there any support from the council/venue owners to make it grow?

The current scene in Worthing is pretty weak compared to other parts of the country but is a lot busier than it has been for a few years. There are a few venues that want to support the club scene but as always this is really dependent on the income you can generate for them as a promoter.

If you were to promote a night locally and it was a success then, no doubt, that venue would ask you back but if the night doesn't make the venue any enough revenue that is unlikely that you would get repeat dates.

This is unfortunately the way these things seem to operate round here. It is a shame as any new DJs/promoters really only get one chance at any venue to make an impression, it would be nice if venues were able to allow nights/scenes to grow organically over time but in the current financial situation it is less likely than ever. In respect of the council, there has not been that much support that I have seen, there is nowhere for posters to be put up locally without having to pay or be reported for fly-posting.

From what I know there is also no places for young people (under the legal drinking age) to go and experience music with their friends, when I was young there was a variety of youth clubs where you could throw parties but these seem to have vanished.

I know the council have some kind of focus group at the moment about live music in Worthing but there doesn't seem to be any initiative to support this area.

How would you describe the audience in Worthing? Are they willing to go out and experience electronic music?

The crowd locally is an odd mix, there are a lot of older folks (30+) who do go out regularly and do seem to support all club music, from the younger generation there are some pockets of people who will go out and support but, as per most people of this age, money is a factor and also if something "better" or well-known is going on in Brighton/London then you can lose out to this a lot.

Do you think social media has improved the way you reach people or do you think that promoting an event like the "underground days" used to have a better impact in terms of reaching an audience?

Initially social media was brilliant but since this has been monetized it is a lot harder to get any impact even when paying for advertisements, I personally feel that a mix of social media/posters, flyers and word of mouth works as good as anything these days.

Of these word of mouth is by far the most important, I really think that in order for any night to work, you need to build an audience that trusts you and due to financial pressure, venues do not allow time for such trust to be built.

With such a big institution like Sterns in Worthing, which was part of the whole rave history in the UK, why was there no continuation of the scene like other cities?

You need to really put this in context of the times in question, when Sterns and the In-Ter-Dance parties started the local police and authorities didn't have a clue about the whole acid house thing, sure there had been a number of illegal outdoor events in the area but these were few and far between and usually squashed before they got too big to shut down.

As such, it took the local council and police a while to understand what was happening up there. Once they had cottoned on, much like when any youth culture is exposed to an older, more conservative generation, they did all they could to stifle and eventually shut the venue down.

The promoters and owners also didn't really help themselves as it was more often than not very oversold and packed out to the point of it being dangerous, which was part of the excitement.

As I am sure you appreciate drugs were a big part of the whole thing and these were rampant locally with the usual gang fighting about money and territory and the police attention that comes with this.

I'm sure if Sterns has been somewhere more progressive in its thinking then it probably would have lasted longer/continued but following the drugs raids etc. it was really only a matter of time.

To say that the scene didn't continue is not correct, after the closure of Sterns and the negative publicity, parties still happened and continue to do so but it made sense to keep these parties low-key to avoid attention from the authorities.

After the closure of Sterns, Mensa the main promoter and visionary behind In-Ter-Dance died in a car accident, I’m sure if he hadn’t then the In-Ter-Dance brand could easily had grown as big as Ministry, Gatecrasher or Cream. It certainly still holds a place in many hearts to this day.

The venue did reopen briefly as the mansion house but it was never the same without Mensa’s input and as I understand the licence conditions were much stricter.

I’m not sure if you know about the car park raves but it also became pretty usual for someone to pitch up in Sterns car park with a rig and the party would continue there, this may have started after the Tonka crew did a night there but I can’t be certain (hazy memories but Tonka nights in Brighton were legendary and a huge influence on me at the time).

This obviously didn’t go down too well with the council, etc. as it wasn’t unusual to have a couple of hundred people dancing and grunting away up there until the next afternoon.

Other things to consider are the way that the “scene” fragmented around the same time, due to increased interest from the media lots of new sub-genres of rave/house/garage/jungle started evolving and without a multi room venue like Sterns this further diluted any major regular parties from becoming the norm round here.

I suppose in a larger place the effect of this wouldn’t be felt as much? There was also the curse of the “cheesy raver”. Not to be disparaging to anyone but I personally found all that gabber techno, glow sticks, white gloves, dummies and all that stuff to be pretty sad and not a reflection of the true origins of the scene.

Now that I’ve typed that, I realise that music/rave snobbery (of which I was clearly guilty) may also have been a factor...

Norman Murchie alongside Norman Jay MBE