Kniteforce Revolution

The History of Kniteforce - Chapter 2

Nov 22, 05:45 PM

Chapter 2





Once the record was released, it really got crazy. It was on all the radio stations. The music media didn’t know what to make of it. Newer magazines that were “in touch” with the scene either praised it or scorned it, depending on mood. We were asked to do Top Of The Pops (a cheesy chart music program) as well as Hitman and Her, which was even cheesier. I was against doing these shows, but they meant extra sales, and I had neither the will nor the confidence to resist the pressure put on me or the others. We did an interview for MTV. We travelled all over the UK playing PAs at clubs. We didn’t know our heads from our butts!


Nevertheless, there we were, being asked by newspapers and TV people all sorts of questions we were completely unprepared to answer. For example, when you are asked about the inspiration for the track, you look like a twat if you reply “we thought it would be a laugh, anyway, we were bored”.
Unfortunately, if you try to make out that you had some deep and meaningful reason for blatantly stealing a children’s TV theme tune, you also look like a twat. Even with some media savvy, it would still be hard to make what we did look like something with any depth, simply because it didn’t have any – and that was exactly the point. The whole record was a joke, only it was one that backfired once it became mainstream.
In any case, we opted for the second option, but still we looked like stuttering confused morons. I remember being asked why we made the track, and one of us answering deadpan “For money of course”.


Another lesson here – The media doesn’t have a sense of humour, especially about money, and jokes like that confirm, without doubt, that you are morons. Also, have some sympathy for people who get thrown into the limelight without knowing any better. We did our best, but we were amateurs faced with professionals, completely out of depth.


Things got more stressful as the owners of the music we stole, Children’s Television Workshop, decided they were very unhappy with us stealing their music. They were even more mad that we used a picture of Oscar having a joint on the sleeve. I remember spending a very long night with the other Smart Es and many of the Sub Base crew at Danny Donelly’s house swapping sleeves on literally thousands of CDs, Tapes and Records.
The week before the record was released we were still hammering out a deal with the writers of the theme tune for permission to use the sample. In the end, they took 100% of our publishing money. Nowadays, that would never happen – publishing is divided between writers of a track. So they would be owed maybe 60%, but not all of it, as we wrote some of the track. But this happened when sampling was a new thing, and no rules or laws were in place to sort it out. There were no previous examples or guidelines to follow. Now, every major label has a section devoted entirely to sample clearance. Back then, you just did the best you could. It was a shitty deal, but better than not releasing the record at all, and we still got paid royalties on the physical sales.


Added to that, MC Duke tried to sue for using his beat, and some arrangement was made although I cant remember what happened there exactly. Our MC thought he should get a cut from our record, even though he didn’t feature in anything except our live show, and certainly had no claim on the record or the Smart Es as a group. After weeks of tension, we said “no, and if you don’t like it, you can leave and we can get another MC”. Which is what happened.


Then a US tour was proposed and organized. Danny worked out the details. He took our passports so tickets could be bought etc etc, but as the date to fly loomed closer, he pressured us to sign new contracts to Sub Base, and wouldn’t return our passports until we did. Nick guided us through this time, refusing to sign what he thought was a poor contract, or to consider anything like that until we had returned from the tour. It was with ill grace that Danny gave us our passports back the day we were due to fly. It was illegal to hold them of course, but we didn’t know that. Our already tense relationship with Sub Base really began to crumble, as this was a final straw in an increasing list of things we were unhappy about. And the antagonism between Nick and Danny only got worse from then on. To this day I have no idea who was in the right on many of the problems – I didn’t pay enough attention, being more concerned with childish things, I think. I wanted to skate, meet girls and spend money. Contracts and the future were a distraction to the important task of having a lot of fun. I just followed Nicks lead blindly. Thats not to say he lead us badly, only that both Tom and I let Nick make these decisions, when Nick was only a little more savvy than we were. I should have been more attentive, but just didn’t care enough.




Predictably, the tour was a disaster. Oh, the gigs were mostly sold out and went well…but the 150 thousand dollar tour we were promised somehow ended up with us getting no money at all. Who took it? The US Tour Manager? Danny? Kaiser Soze? Who knows. Its all past and irrelevant, and I have long since rested any grudges here…but I list all this stuff to give you a idea of the pressures and craziness of that time.


Back in the US, as we prepared Loo’s Control for the next Smart Es release, the underground scene quite rightly objected to the many silly rip-off tracks now all over the airwaves. The media thought this was what the rave scene was about, when it in no way represented a scene which on the whole was inventive and innovative. Even worse was that people who had nothing to do with the scene decided they could make that easily, and jumped on the bandwagon. The backlash against that sort of record meant the whole rave scene went dark, and this allowed various artists to come through with some truly outstanding tracks – Metalheads “Terminator” and pretty much everything on Moving Shadow, to name but a few.


By the time Loo’s Control came out, it fit nowhere. Hardcore didn’t sound like that so much, and it had divided into dark and light. It wasn’t commercial enough to sell to the commercial market, and not hardcore enough to fit in the underground. Smart Es was doomed. I was the first to realize it, as I was the most involved with the scene – Nick had always been an outsider and I think Tom was already more interested in other musics.


Loos Control Video:-



Disclaimer alert!

Before I move on to how KF started, I just want to set the record straight about the records of this time. We (Smart’es, and other toytown record makers, as that style ended up being named) were accused of damaging the rave scene. And its true, they did, I am the first to admit it.
However, it always annoyed me that The Prodigy were banded in with us, as their track “Charly” was not a blatant sample, but a humorous sample in a classic tune. I would also like to say that “Sesame’s Treat” was made as a joke, and took around 5 hours to complete. A lot of people bought it. That’s not something we could have changed, even if we had wanted to, which we didn’t. I don’t know why anyone who makes a successful record is made to feel guilty for selling a lot of it. It annoys me, because in almost any job, the more money you earn at it, the better. People accused us of selling out. My understanding of the phrase selling out is “to change your style for the sole purpose of earning more money”. We didn’t do this. Our first and second records were both based on famous samples, the only difference was one sold under one thousand copies, and the other sold over a million worldwide. If you want to talk about selling out, I ask you how many Happy Hardcore people are making Hard House? Drum and Bass Dj’s making Garage? Which of these people are doing it for genuine love of the music, and which for money? But most importantly – Does it matter? If the music is good, who cares? Not I……In the end, you can only see the motivation behind the music after time has gone by. If you measure my career from 1990 – 1992, you will see a commercial artist. I think the subsequent years sum me up better than that small period of time at the beginning of my career. As Seal said “The door you enter the industry through is not necessarily the house you live in”. Basically, give Jakazid a chance :o)


Lesson Three – What people think of your music only matters if you are earning a living from it, and the earn is more important than what you want to make. My advice? Don’t make any music just for money, but if you love what you are making, and you get well paid, be proud. There is no shame in a good pay packet unless its at the expense of others or your own morals.


During the Smart’es years, I was lucky to have the support of the KF crew, who came to as many PA’s as they could, appeared in the Smart’es video, drove me all over the country and generally made life much easier for me. People don’t realise how hard you work if you have a top ten hit. For example, we toured America. 29 PA’s in 32 days. Each day we flew to another state at about 5 in the morning, travelled by car to a hotel, slept for a while, ate a meal, went to a club, did a show and boarded another plane to start the whole cycle again. I feel truly sorry for many of the modern pop artists – They deserved every penny they earned, because it can cost you your friends (who you never see), strain family relations, and you can forget spending the money you earn, or having a relationship with someone, because you don’t have time.


My point is its a high paid job, but you really pay the cost. I was very lucky to be surrounded by people I could trust, and who would give an honest reply to a question and happily drop me down a peg or two if I was being a dick, which, frequently, I was :o).
Are you bored yet? You’ve read all this and still learnt almost nothing about Kniteforce, so your patience will be rewarded (I hope).

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