Boombooom was a cooperative of various musicians, DJs, VJs performing artists and assorted contributors that ran mixed media events in the north west of England (and beyond) between 1994 and 1998.

History

Boombooom was originally the idea of Enrico Caporale and Andi Chapple, founding members of techno/trance group 'ripwrap'. It soon developed into a full scale mixed-media circus often involving themed events, large scale projections, and a full venue transformation via decor, lights, friendly smells and strange occurrences. Their innovative approach and the non-profit basis of the events introduced many changes to the underground music scene in Manchester and the northwest of England. Unsigned musicians and budding DJs were championed instead of regular well known artists; the co-operative and all the events were run on a consensus basis and membership was open to any person who wished to join. Training was provided for new members on all aspects of running a mixed media event, from sound and light engineering, video mixing, stage management, etc. This and the wide, continuously changing range of people, personalities and skills involved was probably the main reason for Boombooom's longevity and success. The non-profit policy meant that ticket prices could be a fraction of the going rate for entry in most other clubs and this in turn led to a drastic reduction to club entry prices in the post-Hacienda Manchester club scene. Boombooom introduced live net-radio broadcasting as early as 1998 which led to further collaborations with local short licence radio stations and eventually to the creation of blazznet radio.

After three years of self-funding, the Boombooom collective received a National Lottery's Arts for Everyone Express scheme through the Arts Council of England. "the grant allowed Boombooom, probably Manchester's friendliest paper-mache-driven club night, to develop technically and artistically and further develop its dream of integrating sound, light, video, performance and smells into a plot-driven, wired up, freaked out booombience that wore its art on its sleeve ..."

Though now disbanded, the Boombooom collective was instrumental in shaping, inspiring and influencing many of the trends that can still be seen in many of the clubs in the north west of england and further afield. one of their main achievements was probably setting up the manchester underground collective by bringing together many previously competing club organisers under one advisory and collaborating umbrella.

The Boombooom collective strived to promote local unsigned talent, though many artists, musicians DJ and VJ went on to achieve success in their chosen career.

Musicians

A non-exhaustive list of musicians that graced the Boombooom shores includes:

Ripwrap

Quercus Circus

S-kape

3over3 (whose members are currently working for PWL studios and have currently brought us production on artists such as Steps)

Pure Silver (of deconstruction records who eventually split and went to form the successful group mint royale)

Bubba's Chapel of Bliss

Big Block 454 (which have had a reasonable commercial success and appeared on the john peel radio show)

Disco Hospital

Frei Zinger

Legolab

Matt Wand (of Stock, Hausen and Walkman fame and recently pursuing his own solo career)

Particle Accelerator

The Mobeus

and many more...

DJs

DJs that played at boombooom include:

DJ Frico

DJ Nela

DJ DRVs

DJ Ed Moose

DJ 10-4

DJ Ambient Fish

DJ Beatle

DJ Epic

DJ Friendly

DJ Harvey Lane

DJ KTB

DJ Lee Schofield

DJ Richard Hill

DJ Tim Bailey

DJ Stan (of Dub Department Edinburgh fame)